Page 165 of Her Rabid Beasts

He could be Poseidon himself. Or a warrior-god worshipping the night in humble silence. In another time, someone would have written a song about Scythe. He’s worthy of an epic ballad or a poem.

I gulp as he turns away from me to drape himself prone upon his bed, his movement liquid and sensual.

In the dark of night, while I pretend to be asleep, I have one earth-shattering revelation.

Scythe sleeps naked.

I stare. And stare. And stare.

A moonbeam cuts through the window, highlighting the supreme curve of his naked, muscular ass and thighs, letting me see that both of which are covered in sprawling ink. Not an inch of his skin is left unmarked. And it feels like this is quite purposeful.

A shudder wracks my body right down to my toes. By the Wild Goddess, how thehellam I going to survive spending every night in this bedroom?

Chapter 70

Scythe

Aurelia’s heartbeat is like a doe’s rapid tenor in the presence of three predators. And the fourth who is forever watching.

It’s fluttery and soft. Almost featherlight. I wonder how it would feel against my cheek. I don’t really sleep. Above the sea, I never really do.

But tonight, for the first time in decades, I sigh a long sigh and listen to that fluttery song as it gradually turns slower and more even. I let it lull me as gentle ocean waves lull a boat.

I know the exact moment sleep takes her and only then do I turn my head to look. At this woman who is destined for me and my brothers. She’s swathed in the shadows of the room, but her mating mark glows for me, as I commanded her. I watch her breathing. I watch the glow of her soft skin through the night. I watch the way she twitches alongside Savage, who has also always twitched in his sleep since he was a baby. I watch the way my brother huddles into her and the way she relaxes into him, her body softening, almost melting into him, like she’s received some silent, primitive communication of safety.

“I would never be safe with you.”

Those words uttered by her mouth, torn out by anger and fear, still sit within my bones. I thought about them every night since she said it many full moons ago.

And here she is now, in a place her anima is telling her it’s safe to sleep.

“Do it,”she’d commanded my brothers. To break her arms in my courtroom. To make apoint. She ignored my mercy and defied my order.

The sound of her bones cracking echoes through me. The way her heart quaked in that moment.

Dangerous, she might be. But I’ve lived my life alongside danger. Alongside death. And I walk hand in hand with madness as if it’s a lifelong friend.

I can see the beauty in her danger. In her.

It’s as if fate knew the exact type of woman who could look me in my mad eyes and bring me crashing to my knees.

I stare at her long into the night.

Chapter 71

Aurelia

Scythe and Xander are gone when I wake up in the morning. And I’m thankful for it.

And so begins a week of nightmares.

In which, every day, I sit on my phone, stare at old photos of Frank Ulman and try to find a way out of my father’s plans.

In which I get to watch Scythe sleep every night. In which I get to be cuddled by Savage.

In which, despite my worries, I get the best sleep of my life.

I can’t stomach going to class and Savage says I don’t have to. Raquel asks me to come back to attend classes like normal, but I make some pathetic excuse about feeling sick. Stacey sends me texts with memes and emojis, also demanding I come have dinner with them at the very least, but I decline her too. I have all the food I want with Savage bringing me whatever I ask for, including the fairy bread, which he makes himself. I have that multiple times because he told me it was Minnie’s idea in the first place. He’s getting pretty good at it too, and even cuts off the crusts in neat slices so I don’t ‘hurt my gums’.

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