Page 68 of Her Rabid Beasts

I gasp, pushing away from Savage, who lets himself go tumbling dramatically to the floor. “What do you mean he never goes down on you?”

Sabrina was right, after all.

“Um, well…” Minnie adjusts the purple scarf on her neck as we both ignore Savage’s grumbling. “He’s great in bed, but he says… I mean, like, I don’tneedto be eaten out.”

“He says that you don’t need it?” I ask suspiciously.

“Red flag,” Savage chokes from behind me.

“Out!” I shout at him, pointing to the door.

He gives me a hot look and licks his lips before leaving. The picture of his naked ass sauntering away will never get old.

Minnie’s too busy lighting incense at her altar of the Wild Goddess to notice. “It’s alright, Aurelia,” she says softly. “I really love him, and he’s sopassionateabout things. I know he’ll tell me he loves me back any day now. Oh!” she laughs, finally turning to look at me. “Aurelia, put some panties on!”

I hastily comply and make my bed while Minnie fusses with her scarf and then her laundry bag. Frowning, I straighten from my bed.

“Min?” I inquire.

She turns around with infinite slowness and something like dread winds its way through my heart.

“Don’t freak out,” she says, not meeting my eye.

I hurry over to her. “Goddess, Min, what is it?”

Her brown eyes look up to me, almost pleading. She touches the thin purple material wound around her neck. “Can you please heal me before class? I’ve just got a little hickey.” She unwinds the material and finally shows me what’s on her neck.

My stomach hollows out. My breath comes out in a gasp.

“You have to leave him,” I whisper. Because a chunk of my best friend’s neck is missing. A clear bite mark slants across her delicate brown skin. There are impressions of sharp teeth and pink, shiny skin oozes blood where her skin has been torn clean off.

“Aurelia, please do this for me?” Minnie’s voice wavers a little but her stance is firm.

“Min,” I repeat. “You have to leave him.” Even as I say it my magic powers toward her, as if my anima can’t look at the awful bite. My own stomach burns in solidarity as my power soaks through the wound and cuts off the bleeding and encourages new tissue to grow. “The Academy won’t stand for this.”

“No I don’t,” Minnie says evenly. Closing her eyes as she feels the skin growing anew.

“You do!” I say. “This isn’t right. Your flesh ismissing.”

The furniture in the room trembles. Gertie squeaks in urgency from Minnie’s other shoulder. My tigress takes a deep breath and the furniture goes still again. “When you were with Savage, I never tried to tell you?—”

“This is different!” I exclaim.

“No, it’s not.” She says firmly, turning around and grabbing her makeup case. “I don’t want to hear another word, Lia.”

It’s the tone in her voice that gives me pause. A firm, unyielding sort of cadence that I’ve never heard from Minnie. It’s a tone that brooks no argument.

“Thank you for healing me,” she says quietly, before hurrying into the bathroom.

I sink onto my bed as she takes her turn in the shower. Worrying about Minnie is a new thing for our friendship. She’s always had such a positive way about her, but I’m worried that Titus is taking advantage of that. Scrap that. I’m worried that Titus is a monster that will harm her further.

Inspiration strikes me and I snatch up my phone from where I’ve hidden it in my underwear drawer.

At first, Savage tries to knock on my mental shields for telepathic conversation, but I can’t let him. His replies are a little slow due to his use of text-to-voice to listen and then voice-to-text to reply.

I want a phone for Minnie as well.

And what do I get in return?

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