Page 142 of Her Rabid Beasts

Whatever I imagined staying in Lyle’s apartment would be like, this is not it. Savage and Lyle never leave my side. One of them is always nearby, whether it’s to feed me, bathe me, or doze next to me. Scythe and Xander seem to want to be near as well, though I think in Xander’s case, he wants to keep a suspicious eye on me. The thing about all of it is that I bask in their attention. I’ve never had anyone pay such close attention to me before, and the fact that it’sthesedominant, powerful men is pretty crazy. I’m careful to keep my stomach covered and the first time I snapped at Savage for touching the bandages was the last time he went near them. I send healing energy to them to keep infection away whenever I can and the painkillers Lyle feeds me really helps to keep the pain away.

I suddenly get an insight into how they live their day-to-day lives. Scythe and Lyle arebusy. Lyle is always on his laptop, sitting in an armchair by the bed, working on school-related things. He goes down to the school for meetings or a couple of classes and to check on his rabid students. But as soon as he’s done, he races back to bathe me and brush a gentle hand over mycheek. He clearly can’t help doing any of these things, and it’s a wonder to watch him fuss over me.

When Lyle is gone, Scythe sits at the new, temporary dining table on a laptop. He often talks to people on his phone as well, and I can’t help but listen to the rough cadence of his voice, talking in an even, measured tone. Even when something is clearly wrong, he never loses his temper, or raises his voice. It’s always a low, icy depth that tells me he’s not happy with someone.

I know that Xander is around, but he’ll often come in when he thinks I’m asleep and he and Scythe will talk quietly amongst themselves.

Savage insists on stealing a kiss after every bite he feeds me, and I find myself craving his lips no matter how many times he peppers me with them.

I spend most of my time watching movies on a laptop Lyle loans me. Minnie and Stacey text me daily from their illegal phones. It’s annoying that I can’t send voice memos back without help, but at least I’m amused by the pictures they send me; usually funny candid photos of the nimpins or a scandalous outfit here and there. Savage won’t letanyonein to see me, even Eugene, and Lyle seems to approve of this. They have a wild, possessive sort of energy right now and watch my every breath carefully.

By the time the third day comes around, I’ve managed to heal both broken bones entirely. I mention it to Lyle straight away after his return that night, and he smiles at me.

I feel like I’ve seen the sun for the first time in days when I see the happiness on his face and it makes me warm right to my very bones. That fades a little when he returns, not with the little cutting device they use to remove casts, but a stiff-backed, glowing eyed dragon.

“He’ll probably burn my whole arm off,” I say darkly.

“He won’t,” Savage says with a snarl, prowling in behind them. “Or I’ll rip out his fucking kidneys and wear them as earrings.”

“Fashionable,” Xander deadpans. “I’ve come on the condition that you’ll tell me what you’ve been doing with my dragon.”

It angers him that I’ve spoken to his dragon, and I can see it in the red flashes that flicker across the white glow of his eyes. But then Scythe enters the room and they’re all standing before me like a group of smouldering beasts, mating marks lighting up the room like a constellation of stars in the night sky. It makes me heat up and I shift on the bed.

“Regina,” Savage chides, but he’s grinning. “Concentrate.”

Shit, they can smell my arousal. I forwent my scent shield in favour of healing myself. Heat floods my face and I clear my throat. “Well, I didn’t actually do it on purpose, you know,” I say, tilting my chin upwards. “He came to me the day of my trial.”

Xander narrows his eyes, making the glowing orbs become suspicious, glowing slits.

“Actually, I sort of thought you knew about it.”

He remains silent, which tells me he hadn’t known at all.

“You gave me some jewellery, and I asked you if you could open a dragon-trick door like the one you guys have and you…hesaid yes.” He said some other pretty unbelievable, toe-curling things to me, but I’m not going to repeat that right now while the temperature in the room is literally sky rocketing. A plume of steam comes out of Xander’s nostrils. “That was all.”

Xander points his finger at me.

I stiffen as something sizzles and tears. Startled, I look down to see a perfectly straight line cut down one cast, and then the other. There’s the faint smell of burning and a sour sort of smell from my skin being covered for three days.

Without another word, Xander turns on his heel and storms out of the room, leaving a smoky haze in his wake.

“I knew it wasn’t him,” I say softly to Savage, Scythe and Lyle. “I knew it wasn’t him straight away.”

Even though my arms are healed, Lyle bosses me into letting him wash my hair over the sink, with me in a chair leaning back. My intuition tells me he needs this control… over me and over the situation. I sense he’s teetering on the edge of something here.

I get to stare up at him as he works shampoo, then conditioner into my locks with the same bold, intense concentration he seems to do everything. His hands on my scalp are soothing and his fingers are heaven as they massage me. I haven’t been to a hairdresser to cut my hair since I left my father’s house, so it’s grown a considerable length with me just trimming the ends every so often.

“Are you staring at me, Aurelia?” he asks, a bemused smile on that sensual mouth.

Heat floods my cheeks because I’m remembering how that mouth felt on me on the first day he’d unleashed his mouth upon me like the best sort of weapon. I’ve had no action since, only small kisses here and there from my wolf. Both have kept a little sexual distance, as if they didn’t want to push me while I healed. But in Lyle’s case, I think he’s pointedly keeping away. So naturally, I change the subject.

“I’m excited to see Henry and my friends,” I say quickly.

But it also means that my time here is over. I’ll have to go back to staying in my room without my mates. Withoutthe privacy of this apartment or their scents in it. Without the privacy to be close to Lyle.

I realise Lyle is studying me carefully as he wrings my hair out. “You don’t look that excited,” he murmurs.

I wonder how much to say. How much I want to reveal to him. The truth is something petal soft in my chest, but it’s also a scary,dangerousthing. I don’t want to put Lyle in danger of being pulled up by the council. The regina in me wants to protect him from the trouble I would bring.

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