Page 48 of Her Rabid Beasts

“It’s always been your style to state the obvious,” she retorts. “But would it have changed anything?” Aurelia rubs her eyes, then pinches the bridge of her nose. I’m so aware of her breath and movement that I forget to do either myself. When she looks back at me, her eyes are glimmering. They look like mythical tidepools. Tired tidepools, haloed by dark shadows.

Tired is an understatement. Aurelia is exhausted. I want to order her to sit down, to drink water, to eat properly, to cover her in warm clothes and rub heat into her skin.

I take another step towards her, but it’s completely involuntary. There’s anger in her eyes, enough that it could even be hate.Would it have changed anything?

“There’s no point wondering about the past,” I say, waving a dismissive hand. “But, Miss Aquinas, what do you remember?”

She walks over to the two opposing armchairs before my bay windows and trails a finger over the back of one. “Miss Aquinas,” she mutters darkly. “So that’s how it is.”

Sit down.I want to fucking say it.Just sit down before you fall over.

“What do you remember?” I grit out.

She drops her hand to pin me with that simmering gaze. “Not all that much. I remember you came down. I remember you sat there for a bit. It comes in flashes.”

“That’s normal,” I say calmly, although my heart is racing. “Some of it might come back,” I smile, perhaps selfishly so. “Some of it might not.”

That her anima and I had a private moment undoubtedly gives me the upper hand.

She casts me a suspicious glance like she knows this, too. “You are, irrefutably, the worst.”

“Your anima didn’t seem to think so.” It’s out of my mouth on instinct and I curse myself for it.

“Apparently, my anima does not recogniselogic,” she snaps. “Doesn’t recognise that you tried to have mekilleda few short weeks ago.”

The sharp pain in my chest and her attempt at dominance forces my hand. I’m in front of her in a flash, leaning down into her face. “I didnottry to have you killed, Aurelia. My hands were tied.” She flinches and I master myself, straightening with a long breath. I did for Aurelia what I’ve done for countless other students. Gone with them to court, advocated for them using my reports. Within the confines of the law, I could have done no more for her. So then, why did I have the distinct feeling that I was grasping at air? “But you thought that your father did not want you dead,” I point out.

This close, I can see every long, dark eyelash framing her eyes and I find I can’t look away. Suddenly she’s panting, clearly furious. “Notthat you believed me at any point.”

I might not have believed her, but I remembered all of what she said. Every moment of our discussions was burned into my memory. But doesshe?Does she remember any of it like I’m cursed to?

I stare at her. And she stares back.

Aurelia is still breathing hard and her pupils are dilated. And then she does the most heinous thing she could have done in my presence.

She licks her lips.

Aurelia is aroused by me. My closeness affects her.

That realisation draws me into her like gravity. And as I sway towards her, my entire world tilts on its axis. Wetness glistens on her bottom lip, caught by the morning sunlight. I’m suddenly caught in the shape of her lips. The pale pink colour, the way they are equally plump. Ripe, even. Sweet.

Holy Mother. Not now. Not ever.

The amount of willpower it’s going to take to step away from her is unthinkable. Because I don’t want to. Because I must.

“Easy, Lyle.”A familiar rasp swims into my head on a current of pure lethal awareness.“Think of something unpleasant.”

“Think of worms squirming in meat.”A voice like the inside of a volcano tunnels into my mind.“Think of eating them. Works every time for me.”

What the hell?

“Is Lyle in the group chat now?” Savage grumbles.“Fucking hell, now there’ll be no fun at all.”

“You’re wrong,”Xander chuckles.“Shit just got a whole lot more interesting.”

This can’t be happening.

“Well, get used to it,”Savage says reluctantly,“brother.”A mental image of one of the school classrooms comes into my mind’s eye, followed by Savage’s hand in his lap, giving me the finger.“Yeah, we can do that too.”

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