Page 65 of Her Rabid Beasts

Whatever spell the two of them cast over the rest of the class is broken and Dion raises his hand again. “Sir, what about food? I always have this strong urge to bring food to my regina, butI never know how much. She doesn’t like waking up covered in potato chips.”

And like that entire thing didn’t just happen, the class continues. “The urge to feed is so primitive that it’s a hard one to control,” Lyle says. “It’s best to let your regina lead you on that one. Have you even asked her what she wants?”

Dion’s ears turn pink under his mane of blonde hair. “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t wait for her to tell me off afterwards, should I?”

“Again, I come back to consent,” Lyle says firmly. “When your animus has an urge, you must wait and ask your regina permission first. If I want to stress anything, that is your golden rule. When it comes to food, intimacy, sex, anything. You must ask her. Use your words. If you are a wolf, you have it easier than the rest of the orders, but the rest of us need to open our mouths and ask the question.”

“Sometimes it ruins the moment, sir,” a serpent whines.

The urge to extract his fangs and snap his neck almost makes me whirl around. But I take a leaf out of Lyle’s book and tell myself that this is a classroom and murder is not meant for classrooms.

Suddenly, Raquel throws a plastic water bottle at the snake, hitting him hard, right in the nose. His head snaps back with a satisfyingoof.

Everyone sniggers.

“I’ll let that one go because it was in good spirit,” Lyle says. “But no throwing, Raquel.” The wolf nods. Lyle points at the vermin. “Robert. A quiet, ‘may I?’ or ‘can I?’ works well and ruins nothing.”

“I mean, unless you have an agreement in placealready,” Sabrina drawls. “One thatsays ‘fuck me any time, any place, unless I say my safe word’ then it’s okay. I think everyone should have a safe word. An amber one and a red one.”

“Like a written legal contract?” Minnie asks, cocking her head like a puppy.

“Yeah,” Sabrina says enthusiastically. “And you can write on it all the things you like and all the things you don’t. So that”—she casts a disapproving look behind her as if indicating to the rest of us dirty bastards—“the animals don’t get confused. Animuses need clear instructions, don’t they, Mr Pardalia?”

The barest amusement shows on Lyle’s face as he nods seriously. “Indeed, Sabrina. There are even apps you can get these days, but paper works fine.”

Minnie violently scribbles her notes down as the animuses burst out into chatter at this fantastic revelation.

I turnToxicup louder.

But Aurelia. Aurelia is slowly sliding the end of her pen in and out of her mouth.

“Holy, Wild Mother,”Savage groans in my mind.

Her expression is thoughtful as she sucks on it, staring unblinkingly at Lyle, and I’dalmostbelieve she’s not aware of what she’s doing. Lyle’s attention slides to her, and he’s staring, transfixed. I watch while his eyes turn glazed.

“Regina,stopgiving that pen a blow job,” Savage barks out loud.

Everyone is shocked into silence as Aurelia’s pen drops out of her mouth, her hand poised mid-air as if she’s in just as much shock.

All at once, the animas burst into laughter. Sabrina tilts her head back and chortles. Minnie hoots into Aurelia’s shoulder, and even Raquel covers a smile.

“Settle down,” Lyle drones like he’s not got a semi hard-on that he’s now hiding behind his desk. “Felix, come and hand these worksheets out.” A small puma with orange hair hastily obeys as Lyle explains, “I want you to spend the remaining twenty minutes filling out these sheets about what you aren’tfamiliar with. It’ll give me an idea about what this group needs to work on the most.”

These animals sit in as much silence as they can manage as we all fill out our forms. I write in hard, slashing dot points about not wanting to know anything, then wait for the twenty minutes to be up.

At the end, Lyle instructs for someone from each table to bring the sheets up. Savage snorts because Lyle is still not getting up from his desk.

“I’ll take them.” Aurelia’s voice is laced with sickly sweet poison as she gathers up the papers from her table.

Every male behind her stares at her round ass as she gets up, the impressions of a thong are visible.

Are those diamantes I can see? Fucking hell.

Savage growls in pleasure until she reaches Lyle’s desk. The lion is determinedly not looking at her, typing something on his laptop instead.

She leans down, unnecessarily close, her breasts not a millimetre away from his shoulder, giving everyone a view of her cleavage. Henry holds on to her shoulder for dear life.

I clench the edge of my desk.

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