Page 159 of Her Rabid Beasts

It is the only thing that makes me move away from that place of torture and grief. That urges me not to stay and die here withthe rest of my slaughtered family, but to move on and findher.To become a man worthy of her and not an animal worthy of execution.

I had been ready to die but now I know that I’m not alone.

She kept me alive. Even when I didn’t know her.

Chapter 67

Savage

Yeti and I are sitting on the floor outside Aurelia and Minnie’s dorm on the third day of Minnie’s ‘catatonia’, as Lyle calls it. The white Siberian tiger leans against one wall and I on the opposite as we pass a joint back and forth. It’s the usual kind. He doesn’t need the dragon-strength anymore.

In the first hour after the worst thing to happen in a beast’s life happened to him, Yeti was like a zombie, unable to talk or move or even blink. After about an hour, he fell into a deep, blind rage and it took me, Ruben, LyleandXander to wrestle him underground into a cage where he beat at the electric bars for hours. Eventually, with his skin melted through to the bone, he passed out. When he woke up, he did it again, demanding to see his regina. And demanding to see the demon who’d wounded her so badly.

He wouldn’t see sense until the next day, when, dehydrated and covered in burns, he was sane enough to listen to Lyle’s ultimatum.

Behave, and he could keep vigil outside his regina’s door. Even then, he had to be supervised by one of us at all times.

An animus raging to protect his regina is a mighty thing. And Yeti raged better than anyone I know. I’m proud of my friend.He’s also suffered as I have: not able to see his regina’s mating mark, but wanting her anyway.

“She was mine this entire time,” Yeti repeats for the millionth time as he stares holes at the closed wooden door, his voice so hoarse from roaring and screaming it’s almost like Scythe’s. It’s like he still doesn’t quite believe what he’s saying.

“It’s fucked up,” I agree as I take a drag and blow blue smoke up into the air.

Yeti levitates the joint from my hand and it soars straight between his lips. He raises a now scarred hand to smoke it. A bag of chips crinkles by his elbow. We’re surrounded by food Yeti brought up from the dining hall after threatening the boys who work there. There’s, biscuits, scones, bags of chips, and a whole heap of cupcakes littered all around us, and I’m not allowed to touch any of it.

It’s not for us, and it’s not even for him. Yeti won’t eat until he feeds his regina. That’s always the proper way when an animus meets his regina. But I don’t know how long Yeti will starve because Minnie hasn’t given him a gift and accepted him yet. She’s still asleep in there, recovering from the massive blow Titus gave her.

A tingle at the back of my neck tells me Xander has entered the anima dorm, and it takes a moment for us to see him stalking down the corridor. There’s two bottles of whiskey and three glasses in his hands. Xander has always liked Yeti because they both share a general serious, grumpy attitude.

“Come to join the fun?” I ask.

Xander sits his big body opposite me, stretching his legs out and keeping a respectful distance from the volatile male and his horde of food.

“Something like that,” he says through the joint between his own mouth as he pours each of us a measure of alcohol.“Someone has to keep you two in line with all these reginas roaming about.”

Yeti grunts his thanks as he accepts a glass. I down mine with relish and savour the sultry burn of animalia strength alcohol.

“Maybe we should check on her,” Yeti says, still staring down the wood like he can see through the door. “Can you see through the door, Xan?”

“You know I don’t do that.”

“They could be changing clothes!” I say, affronted. “Or on the toilet. It’s every beast’s right to take a shit in peace by himself. Or herself.” I slap my thigh for emphasis.

“Indeed.” Xander clinks his glass to mine. “But no one is in the bathroom. I sense them still on Minnie’s bed.”

I can sense Aurelia isn’t in the bathroom too, but I didn’t want to hurt Yeti’s feelings because he probably can’t sense Minnie so well yet. I’m so excited for him though, now we can share ideas on regina things. Scythe and Xander won’t talk to me about that stuff, and Lyle is always occupied with academy things.

Yeti growls low and deep. He wants to be in Minnie’s bed. I know that because I want to be in Aurelia’s bed, with my nose buried in her hair and our legs tangled together. I want her vanilla cupcake scent in my brain, on my cock, and her warmth nestled in my arms.

“Who would have thought our reginas would be best friends?” I say to try and lighten the mood. “But if you’re one of the most powerful tigers we know, then that means Minnie is…”

There’s another prickle on my skin.

“Very powerful, yes,” Yeti says. “I could always smell it on her, it’s just she looks so… sweet that I didn’t pay it too much attention.”

“Why do you think I put her in there?” Lyle’s growling voice cuts through our conversation. I roll my eyes as we turn to seeboth the lion and Scythe stalking down the corridor like a pair of males who mean business. There’s probably never been so many bossy animuses in this dorm.

Yeti leaps to his feet. “I want to go in there.”

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