Page 98 of Her Feral Beasts

Not a question, but my name on his heavy rasp makes me tingle all over. I squeeze my thighs together and to my horror, Scythe notices, his ice-blue eyes flicking down and back up to my eyes.

His eyebrow twitches and I sit there horrified, as my mind goes to the time he cornered me against the wall, with his hand around my throat and his—

A low warning growl coming from his chest makes me startle as I realise the entire room is staring at us now.

I push my hair over my shoulder. “I’m not going anywhere with you alone. You tried to abduct me, remember?” Then I silently scream, “You made a blood covenant with my father, remember?”

Scythe flinches, and I frown at his response.

I watch the muscle in his jaw tic before he gestures at my body and says, “This is not appropriate clothing.”

Is he serious?

I’m extremely offended. Also, Icuratedthis outfit with careful thought, creativity and planning, to be inappropriate. Mission accomplished, really. “What business is it of yours?” I say viciously. “And you sound like Lyle. No animus will tell me what to wear.”

“Lyle?” he repeats. “You mean yourdeputy headmaster?” His voice is dark as he states Lyle’s title, and I hear the warning in it loud and clear.

“The boss lion, yes.” I turn my head in dismissal. “I’m not speaking to you or your brothers anymore.”

Traitors. Betrayers.

His second growl is soft but laden with anger. Every girl in the vicinity goes still at the latent threat in that sound and the six nimpins tremble where they sit. But I know scary men. My father is a scary man, and while he may have no qualms hurting me in public, I somehow get the feeling that Scythe would have qualms aplenty. Sure enough, after a moment of being a looming menace, he turns on his heel and leaves.

“Oh shit, that was scary,” Sabrina says breathlessly.

“Was it?” I say mildly, examining my cuticles even as my heart thunders like a rhino. “I wasn’t scared at all.” I hope he hears that.

Raquel swears under their breath. “Fuck, L-Lia. You’ve g-got b-balls as big as the s-sun.”

I deflate like a balloon as Scythe smoothly sits down next to Xander. The only men in this school with the powers of fire and water, just casually sitting there. “That’s me,” I mutter darkly. “Big balls bunny.”

* * *

The next day, Minnie, Stacey, Raquel and I are in the library, with a massive stack of legal books Theresa has us reading, when I feel a sharp gaze like a pickaxe on me. I turn around to see Scythe sitting in one of the armchairs, a leather-bound book in his tattooed hands.

Of course he’s chosen a chair where he has a good view of me, even if itismy back. But I can’t sit here now that I know he’s here. I glance at Ephram, the librarian, but he’s tucking one of his thick twists into his beanie as he reads a text on advanced telekinesis.

“Why is he here?” I hiss at Minnie.

She sighs, rubbing at her tired eyes. We’ve been at it for hours and haven’t found anything of much use. She looks at me pointedly. “You know why, Lee-Lee.”

His shark is no doubt trying to get close to me, just like Savage’s wolf. They can’t help it. And who can forget that day he was prowling towards me in the lecture hall withthat gleamin his eye? It was a supernatural focus the likes of which made me both enamoured and terrified.

But this just turns my irritation into outright anger.

“What’s he reading?” Stacey whispers, squinting over my shoulder. “He doesn’t seem like the reading type.”

“It says,” Raquel enunciates slowly. “M-myths of the Boneweaver.”

Raquel frowns. “W-What’s a B-Boneweaver?”

“Oh it’s a mythical animalia that can turn into all types of beasts,” Stacey says. “They used to exist hundreds of years ago but they died out. All they had to do was touch an animal and they could turn into themanduse that order’s powers. Pretty insane, huh?”

“Strange,” Raquel says.

I stand up so fast, my chair crashes to the carpet. I whirl around and stomp right up to Scythe.

As I approach, he snaps his book shut and drags his eyes up my bare legs, my short black skirt of the day, and my pink corset top. I have a jacket on top against the air conditioning, but it doesn’t leave all that much to the imagination.

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