Page 100 of Her Rabid Beasts

The look he’s giving me is making me shiver in a bad way. It makes the dominant regina in me want to wring his throat to teach him a lesson. Frowning, I turn away.

It’s normal for animalia to be in relationships with multiple people, given the fact that we’re fated into mating groups. It’s not surprising that Titus is fucking multiple animas. Whatissurprising is that there’s no condom being used. STDs are rampant here, and he’s putting them all at risk. I wonder if Minnie knows. Dejected, I cross my arms and make to leave. Did they break up, and I didn’t know about it?

I’m brought out of my reverie when a few animuses whoop and whistle in my direction. More emerge out of their dorms, half-clothed, trying to see what the fuss is about. The scent of male, soap, cologne and sex is heavy in the air as I quicken my pace.

But just as I reach the stairwell, a group of felines walk up from below, cutting off my path. They appraise me with dilated pupils and licking their lips.

I swear under my breath.

“Hello, little tweety,” comes a deep voice from behind me. I whirl around to find a group of eagles gathered on the landing, as if watching a very exciting movie. “Looks like you’re stuck with us instead of Titus.”

“Um, no,” I laugh nervously as one of them actually has the audacity to rub his hands together. “That’s not gonna happen.”

“Naw,” chirps one, stroking his chin. They’re flushed and jittery, no doubt feeling the arousal from the other animas fucking in this place. Stacey, Sabrina and Connor are no doubt around here somewhere as well. “Don’t be like that, baby. We haven’t had a new eagle anima in here in ages. We’ll show you a good time. We have food and everything.”

A part of me feels sorry for them. Their instinct tells them to look after a female, to bring her food… but also to fuck.

“Savage had you all to himself, but he’s still in the shu.” The first one leans forward to look me up and down.

I take a step back, only to bump into a hard, sweaty torso. I whirl around, only to find the felines crowding me in from behind. I bare my teeth but they only laugh.

Suddenly I’m back in a chair, tied with obsidian shackles with five serpents towering over me. Panic surges through my veins as my heart rate pounds in my head. The world seems to tilt.

Escape. Escape.I have to escape before they kill me. Before they flay my skin and cut off my mating mark. Primitive darkness opens up in a deep lake at my core. I whirl around again, trying to calculate how much damage I can do in a short space of time?—

Just as someone begins singing from down the stairwell, his voice echoing up in a rhythmic, sing-song chant.

Chapter 42

Aurelia

“Seven little birdies sitting on a fence. One falls off and breaks his neck. Now there’ssixlittle birdies sitting on the fence—” The birds of prey scatter back down the hall without so much as a backwards glance, while the felines hastily skirt past me, trying to escape without getting their scents on my skin and clothes.

Complete idiots.

I close my eyes as a sensation of pure, utter relief floods through my chest and booted feet pound up the stairs, getting closer and closer. I could’ve used my telekinesis, but I really shouldn’t be using my powers so openly.

“And then there’sonelittle birdy sitting on the fence!” Savage appears, leaping over the staircase railing and landing neatly in a crouch in front of me.

It’s almost in slow motion that I watch him. He rises to his considerable height, the muscles of his glorious naked abdominals rippling. Shirtless, with his hair tousled and his tattooed chest gleaming with sweat, he’s a sight for sore eyes. His voice is low and serious as he regards me. “Great acoustics in here, don’t you think, regina?”

The sob tears out of my throat as I fling myself at him, and he catches me in his strong arms, swinging me around in a circle like I’m a princess in a Disney movie. “I’m so glad to see you,” I murmur into his neck. Underneath the sweat, he smells like pine and far away forests and…mine.

“Now what was that?” Savage puts me down to look at me, his eyes fever-bright. “Say it again.”

I hide my smile by looking at my feet, but he tilts my chin up so I’m forced to look at him and those cunning, hazel eyes. They shimmer with heat and his voice drops into a dangerous command. “Say it again, regina.”

I swallow. “I’m glad to see you, Savage.”

He whoops and seizes me by my waist, hoisting me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing and slapping a hand on my ass to keep my dress from riding up. He begins chatting non-stop, clearly having been bursting at the seams to see me while in isolation. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again. I was ready to snap necks as soon as I got out and heard what happened, but Lyle stopped me. He had four urns in his hands and said it was already done and he was going to send their remains back to their parents. For some reason, I thought to myself, ‘is this what it’s going to be like when we’re a full pack?’ Because he fits right in, you know, regina. Lyle is as nuts as the rest of us. His animus might even be the worst of us. I don’t know, we’ll have to see. He sees this academy ashisterritory, possessive bastard, and so he’s taken it all very personally. He might have even been annoyed at Xander for taking care of it. Anyway, as soon as I got out, I hunted you all the way here, and now we’re going to go and make love so I can get their snakey scents off you.”

My head is swimming, mostly with the blood that’s rushing to my head by virtue of being upside down, but also from Savage being… Savage and telling the brutal truth. The fact that thosesnakes died because of my father’s orders. The fact that Lyle sees this land as his territory and he has a right to deal with insubordination in the way he pleases. According to the Old Laws, the archaic ways of beast kind, death or torture are the only fair solution to a transgression that big.

But I wonder if my father will care. If he’ll retaliate worse because of it. Because on the other hand, the school is supposed to have a truce. The young animalia of the community are supposed to be safe here.

Guilt swirls through my stomach and bile rises in my throat as I think about the consequences of my father’s actions because of me. I can’t help but feel the blame for all of this.

I bite back my tears because they won’t help me fix anything.

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