Page 88 of Her Feral Beasts

I decide I like playing with her now that I know I can get into her mind.“I know your secret,”I whisper to her, sounding creepy as fuck.

Xander hears the telepathic waves in the air and sighs, knowing it’s me. But my regina says nothing.“Also, it’s rude to stare.”She turns away, pink-cheeked, and I instantly miss her.

Lyle finishes his speech about how grateful he is about Scythe, completely pretending that he didn’t just have us locked in a cage for several days. My brother exhales through his nose and stalks back down the stairs to the lectern.

As one of things we have to do to make up for trying to kidnap Lia, Scythe agreed to give his talks to the different year levels of the school. Who would have thought that our boss lion would useeducationas a bargaining chip? Weird beast. I still don’t like him.

Scythe clears his throat, as he has everyone riveted just by breathing. My brother is a stunning creature with his silver hair, porcelain skin, sharp cheekbones and alien beauty. It’s not often land beasts get to see his kind, let alone permission to look at him for a good fifteen minutes. Scythe used tohategetting stared at and his looks had once been the absolute bane of his existence, but once we were free of our parents, he made sure that the only way anyone ever looked at him again was with fear, not desire. As a child, I felt lucky to have him as my brother and that feeling hasn’t changed.

His rasp is mesmerising as he speaks. A slideshow with ocean pictures runs of its own accord as he talks about land-sickness, what it’s like to swim in the deep parts of the ocean and breathe underwater, what he eats, and how his teeth randomly fall out only to be replaced by another within days. He also talks about land psychosis and how it’s really scary for marine beasts to have it, like your worst nightmares have become real and that we need better ways of keeping those beasts safe.

If we hear about a marine beast on land, Scythe tends to have them monitored in case they need to be saved. In which case, we scoop them up into a portable tank we had specially made years ago. It’s pretty rare, but when it happens, those beasts need help quickly.

At the end, Lyle has people ask questions, though everybody is too scared to ask him anything. To my surprise, Minnie Mouse raises her tiny hand. Scythe’s lip quirks in amusement as he nods to her.

She clears her throat. “How, uh… How come you’re not crazy?”

I’m surprised by her guts, but am more interested to see how Scythe will answer this one.

“Some would say Iammad.” The room is quiet, but he cracks an uncharacteristic smile and everyone gives tiny chuckles of relief. He runs a hand over his silver hair and a couple of the girls sigh as it catches the halogens in the room, sparkling like liquid light. “Honestly, I don’t know why I haven’t had the land psychosis. I think having a wolf for a father might have helped stabilise my genes. That pairing is unusual, so I think my dad might have just been dominant enough to override it. I guess we’ll never know.”

His eyes flick to me as he says this. I know the reason why Scythe stayed sane and it has more to do with our father than anyone will ever know.

The first question clearly gives the crowd courage because a she-wolf at the front of the room asks, “Is it true you can see spirits and ghosts? Could you see my mum if she was around?”

Scythe takes this question seriously because sprits don’t like fucking around with him. “I can. But if they’re the troublesome sort, they… leave when I come along.” Run, he means. Or float, whatever ghosts do. “If they are looking to send a message, they usually don’t choose me to do it, or I send them away. I don’t like them hanging around.”

Everyone goes quiet at this until a male taipan I’ve had my eye on has the nerve to ask, “Is it true that sharks always feel the ocean, wherever they are?”

Scythe nods. “Yes, we feel water wherever we go. I know exactly where and how far away the ocean is from wherever I am. Even in this room, I can feel the water in your bottles… even the blood inside your bodies. I can feel it and track it. Manipulate it if I wanted to.”

Xander and I smirk as the entire room goes still at this dark revelation and Xander laughs darkly under his breath.

Lyle strides forward and quickly says, “Everyone thank Scythe for his time today.”

Everyone rushes to clap.

Chapter39

Xander

We head to our next class, which is cooking skills in the student kitchen. Lining up at our steel benches, we watch the red-haired tiger chef show us how to make a Pad Thai.

Savage gives me a detailed description of what the snake girl is wearing and what she’s doing through our mating bond. I might not be able to see her outfit with my own eyes, but I can hear the movement of new material across her bare skin easily enough. That soft scrape also tells me that she’s wearing no underwear. But I don’t tell Savage because he’s driving me insane as it is. Having her submitting under him that day we tried to kidnap her has really driven him off the rails.

“It hugs her ass like a dream and that push-up bra is giving me a second life, I swear. I would kill a man just to pull that skirt down and be ears deep in that sweet pussy. I need to taste her properly, you know? It was great in astral form, but in real life it’ll be something else.”

Unfortunately for me, I have to turn my Tibetan throat singing down for now. When I’m without my magical sight and physically blind, it’s necessary because the sound waves bouncing off the objects in the room give me an echolocation sort of ‘sight’.

I’m definitely not attracted to the snake girl, even in her new outfit, but with the mental images Savage keeps sending me, I have to admit the other males don’t know what to do with themselves around her and the other animas.

Disgusted with this revelation, I write down the recipe of the dish we’re supposed to be making because Savage will have no idea with how little attention he’s been paying.

The chef starts barking orders and the Forklift Brothers have to separate two lions fencing with meat cleavers when I nudge aside Savage to get the wok out. They’ve put the rest of the ferals with the main group and there are, let’s just say, teething issues.

Savage discreetly adjusts himself as I set the wok on the stove. His eyes haven’t left the snake girl’s body or face the entire time, and it’s starting to piss me off.

Scythe shifts in warning as if he thinks our brother wolf is going to hump the snake girl at the first opportunity, as if he didn’t almost try to eat her himself not long ago.

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