Page 122 of Her Rabid Beasts

Well, I can hardly fault that, can I? Something loosens in my stomach and I trace a finger along the black ink that makes the edge of the wolf’s ear tattooed on his chest.

“It’s okay,” I say after a gulp. “I was five when she died, so I don’t have a whole heap of memories. I had a nanny who looked after me, Rosalina, but I would cook with mum. She was really great at baking and we’d make the most wonderful muffins and cakes. She’d let me lick the bowl and wouldn’t get upset if I made a mess or spilled something by accident. I always thought that was such a funny difference between my father and her. My mum didn’t care if things were a bit… wild, but my dad wanted everything spotless and in order.”

“Kind of like Lyle,” Savage says.

“Notlike Lyle,” I say firmly. “My dad could be… cruel when things didn’t go his way. I was always a little scared of him. It made learning my powers a not-so-pleasant process. I became really good at them, but I didn’t like the classes.”

Most animalia gain their powers when their beast appears at puberty, except neither me nor my mates are most animalia. Wolves can do telepathy as children but the other orders haveto wait. “I’ve always had my powers. Since I was a little kid. My mum started to teach me shields when I was, like, three. It must be a Boneweaver thing.”

Savage makes a pleased noise. “No wonder you’re so good at them. Those invisibility ones.”

I chuckle. “Yeah. The one time I used it to sneak around the house, my dad…” I trail off because thatone timeI used my invisibility shield to sneak around the house unseen, it was to steal a chocolate Easter bunny from the pantry. But I saw my mother crying. It upset me so much that I ran in to comfort her, not realising my dad was watching her from the shadows too, and saw me emerge from my shield. It was the first time in my life I remember feeling uneasy about him.

Savage’s voice is tight. “What did he do, regina?”

I take a deep breath to try and control myself. “I don’t want to talk about it, Savage.” I feel Henry fly over to me and he lands on Savage’s chest. I snuggle the nimpin close to my cheek and Henry clucks in that comforting way of his. I sniff back sudden, annoying tears.

To my surprise, Savage brushes a finger over Henry’s tiny head, before squeezing me tight. “You’ll always be safe with me, regina,” he whispers. “Always.”

I cry properly then, all over Savage’s bare chest, getting snot and tears all over his skin. But Savage doesn’t care one bit.

The next morning, when I meet Sabrina and the other animas for breakfast, my blood thrums with energy. I flex my fingers in wonder and marvel at how my stomach doesn’t hurt so much today. Having two of my mates at the same time felt like a dream, and I might’ve put it down to exactly that if it wasn’t forthe fact that I could still taste Lyle on my tongue. I feel so good that even this morning’s text(Unknown: Don’t do anything stupid, snakelet), couldn’t tear me down.

“You’re glowing this morning,” Stacey says accusingly, though there’s a wry smile on her face. Raquel hides a grin.

“I thought you were fretting aboutsomething,” Sabrina says, cutting into her stack of pancakes. “Did you finally seduce Xander? I heard dragons have tostay insidea female the entire night to claim their mate. Can you ask him if it’s true?”

Raquel, sitting next to me, sniffs discreetly in my direction and I hope I scrubbed myself thoroughly enough yet again this morning. Raquel would never say anything if they did sense my lion, but it would certainly complicate things for everyone if they all knew.

Meanwhile, I choke on my coffee. “No, I didn’t seduce the giant reptile. He hates me, and, well… I’m not so keen on him either.”

The others roll their eyes.

“When’s our opening?” Stacey hisses excitedly. “I’ve not fiddled with someone’s tech in a long time.”

“I can’t believe you’re excited,”Raquel scolds into our collective minds.“Connor warned us against this for a reason.”

Last night, we decided to make use of my being able to use telepathy. And with Raquel able to broadcast back to any one of us as well, we were able to communicate from a distance in case something happened. Because our other friends are felines, any conversation could only be one way.

“Relax.” Sabrina waves her fork at our wolf anim. “We’ve got Sneaky McSneak sitting next to you. We’ll be in and out with no problem.”

We haven’t told Connor or Minnie that we’ve activated plan B, but when we mentioned it as a possibility initially, both of them outright told us it would get us killed and that they’d stopus if we tried. Since Sabrina, Stacey and I thought it was a good plan, and we had no other ideas, we convinced Raquel not to tell them we were going ahead with it.

It feels pretty shitty of us to do so, but as far as I’m concerned, Minnie needs us to do this for her. She’s too sweet and kind to come up with something this cunning.

Once I’d revealed my extra Boneweaver powers of invisibility and telepathy, even Raquel seemed more content that we could pull this off.

“He comes down for lunch on Saturdays,” Sabrina continues. “Min will probably be with him.”

“You two need to act normally,” I say around my blueberry Danish, “so we don’t arouse suspicion.”

We spend our morning in our dorm, where Stacey and Sabrina help me practise my telekinetic skills. It’s actually really hard to be able to manipulate objects from afar, especially if they’re moving already, but I find that because of my massive boost in energy, I don’t tire from it. By the time lunch comes around, I’m able to bat away the bra that Sabrina throws at me with little bother. Raquel’s leather boot, however, hits me square in the face.

We leave before lunch begins so we can get a good table and watch Titus and Minnie arrive.

I’m sitting so that I’m facing the outside door, tearing into my second danish, when they come in. My hackles rise immediately. Titus prowls through first, his arm around the shoulders of his serpent girlfriend, who is in full goth regalia: black eyeshadow, lipstick and a black dress and boots.

Raquel lets out a low, unhappy growl next to me as Minnie shuffles in next. Her chin is raised in dignity, her makeup is perfectly done and her pink hair is pulled up into a cute ponytail, but the thing that makes me rage is that she walks alone and behind them.

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