Page 43 of Her Rabid Beasts

Melting into his body, I take his face in my hands and open for him.

Savage groans with all the desperation of a beast who’s spent weeks waiting for me—months, really—and kisses me, deeply and passionately.

It’s not feverish like our first time together. It’s like he’s taking his time, his movements purposeful and languid. It sears me, his scorching lips, claiming my own with slow, sensual grace. I make a sound of contentment and my approval urges him on. His tongue slides into my mouth and his hands find my waist, pulling me forward and guiding me to straddle him. I can’t help but respond. I cling onto his face, stubble prickling my palms as I climb into his lap, my legs on either side of his, and we deepen our kiss. He savours my mouth, my lips, my tongue, as if he’s been waiting a lifetime to do it. He’s gentle with me, and yet under that, I can feel the encroaching heat at the edges of us, just waiting for permission to pounce.

And it doesn’t feel like enough when he pulls away, just a little, to speak.

“Aurelia,” he whispers against my lips, his voice deep and husky. “Needing you is something I can’t fight anymore.” He swallows. “Iwon’tfight it. It was the worst mistake of my life trying to keep away from you.”

My heart hammers against my ribs. I want to jump his bones. I want to tear his clothes off, grab his cock and fuck him within an inch of his life. But this is dangerous. Savage is… undoubtedly still as dangerous as he was all those months ago when I met him. And I have a feeling that once I fall into him, once I give myself completely to him, my heart and soul will be his forever.“W-We need to go slow,” I whisper. “I was never supposed to— I can’t?—”

“I know,” he says, kissing me gently. “I’ll do whatever you say. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy. To make you feel safe so that you don’t have to do… whatever that was down in the cavern, ever again.”

Warmth slides through me at his earnest, gentle cadence. I brush my fingers down the strong length of his jaw. I cherish his words. His soft way with me.

But he doesn’t know. He can’t know the danger we are all in while my father stands on the other side of that academy barrier, just waiting for me to show a thread of weakness.

Chapter 20

Aurelia

Iwake up to Minnie’s Tigger alarm clock and Savage’s heavy arm draped around me.

He murmurs into my neck, “Fucking tigers.”

Fucking tigers, indeed. I need to catch Minnie this morning, but Savage’s arm only tightens around my waist, keeping me pressed against his hard body. I can feel his erection against my ass, and in the night, my nightie has risen up, making my skin flush against his track pants and his considerable length.

Goddess,doI remember that mighty size of him in me. I resist the urge to wiggle against him.

“Savage,” I announce.

“Yes, regina?” he replies, lips brushing against the sensitive skin of my neck.

A fluttery feeling, soft as a butterfly’s wings, starts up in my lower belly. Shit. “I need to get up.”

He sighs dramatically and releases me. It’s only when I clamber out that I realise we don’t even fit on this bed. We somehow fell asleep with Savage’s huge body a hair’s breadth away from falling out.

The wolf in question rubs his eyes and regards me with great interest before smiling broadly.

Tousled, with hooded eyes, he’s irresistible in the morning. I have to be careful. We didn’t fuck last night, only cuddled as he promised.

I point at him. “Boundaries.”

He puts his hands behind his head, highlighting those beautiful biceps and forearms. “I’m a wolf, regina. I don’t know what that means.”

I rummage through the clothes in my wardrobe to see what I’m going to wear today. “It means that you eat atyourtable and that I eat atmytable.”

“But packs eat together.” The dismay in his voice makes me grimace, but I have to maintain a sense of normality right now. Connor and Stacey’s words yesterday ring in my head.

So, I raise my chin as I turn around with a dress in hand. “To make up for your transgressions, you’ll be at my beck and call. Whatever I want. Whenever I want.”

I’m almost shocked that I’m saying this, and even more shocked when he nods enthusiastically. “Sexual favours, any favours, I’m up for it.” As if he suddenly remembers something, he reaches towards the floor and picks something up that must’ve fallen out of his pocket last night. “Here.” It’s a brand new, sleek black phone with a purple case. “I got this for you.”

Something uncomfortable stirs in my chest at the fact that he knows my favourite colour, but I quickly snatch the thing up. Gods, I’ve missed my phone. That bastard Lyle never returned it to me when it slipped out of my beak in my original escape attempt from him.

Savage’s eyes follow my movements, and for a split second, hunger flashes across his face and I stop breathing.

His Adam’s apple moves up and down. “My number is in there. You just message me, alright, regina?”

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