Page 149 of Her Rabid Beasts

Lyle enters the wardrobe with only a towel slung low on his hips. I instantly heat up at the view of his naked, golden torso, the divots of his pecs and abs a clear indication of how hard he no doubt works in the animus gym. He’s the only member of my mating group without any tattoos, and his body is a work of art all on its own. A work of art that thrust into me so possessively it took my breath away last night. I turn around quickly, trying hard not to feel his every movement as he takes off his towel and starts to get ready for the day.

It feels very domestic, all of a sudden, and my anima keens at how nice and normal this feels. But I swallow that rubbish backdown and focus, selecting a bra and a lavender maxi dress for myself. I put them all on quickly, careful to keep my abdominal bandages in place. I’ve been so careful to hide my wounds this entire time, but every time either my wolf or lion brush past my stomach, I can’t hide the cringe. I’m sure they put it down to self-consciousness. Although they don’t hurt anymore, they don’t look much better. The black tissue mars my skin in jagged lines, though there’s new skin growing underneath where I’ve been plying with my healing magic… whatever I can spare here and there. The phenomenal sex last night boosted my power, but I don’t know when we’ll get another opportunity to be together. I don’t want to waste my reserve on this dead tissue when I should be focusing on my shields.

I’m finishing putting a little mascara on when warm hands on my shoulders turn me around. Lyle is dressed in a navy-blue suit, complete with a matching vest and a white shirt. His hair is tied back neatly at his nape and his navy tie has a little golden pin with the head of a lion on it.

I did not exist before you.

Those heinous, beautiful words are stamped across the part of my heart allocated to this lion. Stamped, seared,brandedthere.

I swallow my misery, looking up at his face, trying not to breathe in the smell of soap and heady, musky male.

His voice is irritatingly even and calm. “Go to class as per normal, Aurelia.”

He cares that I’m leaving. I know he does. But he holds his damn feelings back and doesn’t show me anything of the truth. I want to say that his name for me is angel. I want to press my lips to his but I can’t bear the thought of a goodbye kiss. And I don’t trust myself not to cry if I know this touch, today will be the last. So instead, I let my stomach sink and nod stiffly. “I know… Mr Pardalia.”

His face tightens a little at that, but in a flash, his features smooth back out to their regular handsome perfection. He reaches for me?—

No, not me, but an item of clothing from the hanger behind me. “It’s cold this morning,” he says tightly, handing me a black jacket.

I take it silently. Those warm hands drop and he steps away. “Alright, then.”

He strides out of the closet like I’m no one, taking a piece of my heart with him.

But another piece of my heart bounds through the door, beaming at me, freshly showered in a black T-shirt, shorts, and sneakers. “Let’s go, regina,” Savage says excitedly, taking my hand and leading me out.

Chapter 60

Lyle

Agony. That is the only word I can use to describe what it feels like to leave Aurelia. Those shimmering blue eyes barely contained the fact that she was upset by it. Perhaps she thought she could hide it. But now that I’ve been deep inside of hertwice, she can’t hide her true emotions from me anymore.

It was difficult every day I had to leave her to attend to my school duties. Duties that once sustained me, gave me purpose.

I did not exist before you.

I said it. Snarled it out of my possessive, black-hearted, accursed maw.

It was the truth. A truth so forbidden that the man in me had held onto it for the past decade.

But beasts cannot lie. And when those chains rattle in my brain, I can barely contain my need for her.

I stride out of my apartment and head down to the school, hating every step. But I have to go out early to check on the prisoners first. I promised my staff I would take up supervising breakfast duty in the academy dining hall to observe my rabid students, all three of which are trouble-makers of the worst sort.

A small smile threatens my lips as I think of my regina, defiant, even bound in two casts. Defiant, even when admitting the truth.

I wish I’d never met you.

Imagine my surprise when a pain like no other had struck me down like a lightning bolt, destroying the bubble of peace and security I placed us in. I knew this would have to come to an end. I also knew that to give myself what I wanted meant to acknowledge that it would be temporary.

And all I wanted was Aurelia safe, happy and tucked into my bed, preferably under me.

But it was a dream. Because what she told us four days ago—that her father is coming for her, whether anyone likes it or not—is a very real threat. I discussed it with Scythe immediately, and I’d begun formulating a plan.

Scythe gave me that hard, cold stare of his and called it a fool’s plan. That if I thought I could defeat Mace Naga usinglegalmeans, I was an idiot.

I coolly asked him if he was going to launch an attack on the Serpent Court and if the Marine Court would back him. A regretful slip on my emotional leash.

When it comes to Aurelia, it feels as if we’re all slipping. Savage alone remains unbothered, declaring that he would, in fact, blow up any serpent coming to take her from him. While the wolf might be the most feral of us, it meant that he was in tune with his animus. In spending time with him these past three days, I’d come to realise that Savage and his wolf were one and the same every moment of the day.

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