Page 167 of Her Rabid Beasts

“I’m getting you out.”

She smiles without humour. “Yeah? I fucking dare you to try.”

I stare at her and the dragon-trick door. Then out the dining-room window, where the glittering veil of the school’s protections form a dome against freedom. I’ve never been able to find a way to get out of this place, and it’s all I’ve wanted to do since the day I arrived.

And then it hits me.

There is only one person I know who can enter and exit the academy without being detected. I whip out my phone.

I need a favour

And what do I get in return, snakelet?

I could regina order you but I’m practising being nice

It’s cute you think that would work on me

Alright, you get a favour in return

A blank cheque. Consider my interest piqued

I’m playing with poison, but somehow, I don’t care. It’s also turning me on that he’s using fancy words. I add that to the list of things I know about Ghoul. He’s educated. I text back quick instructions and the only thing I get back is:

I foresee you regretting this, snakelet

Five minutes later, an apex monster enters the academy. I don’t know how he gets here so fast, no doubt a part of that monstrous power granted to him by fate. The walls quiver at the same time as my heart does. His body never manifests, but I feel his shadowy power as if he were breathing down my neck. A possessive, dominating caress tingles down my spine, before the room before me darkens.

I get to my feet from where I’m sitting cross-legged before the open door.

“Wait, what?” Natalia rasps and her eyes widen in surprise.

She stares at me in shock before the shadows wrap around her like a cloak. They both disappear and the only thing left is a whisper of a breeze and one last caress down my cheek.

With my heart pounding, I return to the TV room, where I wait for my mates to return.

Two hours later, when class ends and I feel Savage’s wild, hectic energy bounce into the building, I summon the energy to assume an arms-crossed position in front of the torture room door.

All three of them file up the stairs, with Savage in the lead, jogging towards me. But when he sees where I stand, the smile falls off his face and he stalks up to me.

A shiver passes through my body as I sense the change in his energy. Like the moment the forest trembles as a predator walks through it.

“Regina,” he says, stopping in front of me. His eyes flick over my head, and upon finding his prisoner missing, he meets my eye again. “What did you do?”

My eyes slide to Xander, then Scythe, both of whom stop just behind Savage. Their rage is like a living thing between us—hot, wild, and dark. But I weather it. I fucking grit my teeth and stand my ground as their combined rage dances a mad, malevolent circle around me.

To my surprise, it’s Savage who speaks first, his voice trembling with restraint. “You had no right, regina,” he whispers.

I turn my face towards his and meet him eye to eye. “I had the only right,” I hiss. “She wrongedme.”

“Once a snake, always a snake,” the dragon sneers.

Savage’s mouth twists into a wry smile as he leans down into my face to whisper, “When will you understand, regina? You aremine.Myregina.Myeverything. And an animus has every fucking right to destroy the beast who hurt their regina.”

“Yeah, and what excuse do the others have?”

Xander scoffs. “She doesn’t get it. Such a life of privilege to have never had to torture anyone.”

Scythe has been staring at me this whole time, the only indication of his rage, the pure maelstrom that turns in his cold blue eyes. But in a blink, it’s gone, and he turns away from me to sit down on his favourite black couch. “Come here, Aurelia.”

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