Page 14 of Her Rabid Beasts

She’s magnificent. I drop to one knee before her, showing her that I submit.

“L-like I said,” Raquel hisses. “Lia can t-take c-care of herself.”

The animas clamber into the boat and the entire time Lia does not take her eyes off me, her threat so very clear.

Slowly, so she knows I mean no harm, I sit cross-legged on the cold floor. “My regina,” I whisper. “My beautiful regina. I never would have let them take you.”

She snarls in annoyance before slowly sitting back on her haunches, then her belly and assuming a sphinx pose. Henry lands on her shoulder.

It hurts a little that she is defending others against me. As if those animas are her pack and I am not. I press my lips together and swallow through a thick throat.

I sigh. “I have to be at classes or Lyle will probably sendmefor execution.”

She puts her head down on her paws and angles her head away from me.

Maybe that wasn’t funny. I try again. “So, I’ll be gone for a while, but I will come back as soon as I can. Scythe and Xander are off on a trip, so it’s just me and Leo the lion.”

She closes her eyes. As if now, finally, she gets to rest. Henry is still by her cheek and he closes his eyes, too.

I shift back into my wolf form and, after looking back at Lia one more time to make sure she’s sleeping, I pad over to the water. Every bone and muscle in my body tells me to stay and never leave her again. To make sure no one will hurt her or takeher away from me. There are people who want to steal her,breedher. I cast my eyes around the cavern and the water. She’ll be safe here for the moment. And there is that defence around her that makes my fur stand on end.

The quicker I leave, the quicker I can be back. And with food. She’ll need lots of food.

After breakfast, we have cooking class and I hunt down Minnie in the corridor as everyone is leaving the dining hall.

“Minnie!” I call. “Minnie, I need to talk to you!”

“Alright, alright.” Minnie makes a hushing gesture at me and I stop short and stare down at her audacity. Eyeing my face, she says hastily, “There’s no need to draw attention, Savage.”

“I need to talk to you.”

“I heard you the first time.”

“Alright, keep your hair on.” I eye her bubblegum pink mop to double check that it is not, in fact, a wig. But if it was, that first time she shifted into a tigress to jump at me, it would have fallen off in the shift. So it must be real. “I need your help to woo my regina.”

She puts her little fists on her hips. “And why should I help you? You tried to kidnap her.Anduse me as a hostage.”

I wave a dismissive hand. “You were not a hostage, Min. I didn’t hogtie you, drive into the outback in a black van, and take a video of you with a claw at your throat outlining my requests.”

She narrows her eyes. “That’s oddly specific.”

“I daydream about these things sometimes,” I say quickly. “But anyway, I need you to help me get my regina to forgive me. For her mental health’s sake. I didn’t mean to return the gifts and she would’ve been hurt really badly by that.” Minnie chewson her lip like she’s considering this. I know Aurelia has told her quite a bit, if not the whole truth. “I’m one of her mates. If anyone can get her out of this funk, I can.”

Her eyes almost explode out of their sockets. “This ‘funk’? Dude, she’s basicallyrabid.”

It’s my turn to quiet her with shushing palms. “Whatever it is. I can help her get out of it before Lyle has to resort to his therapies and other weird shit he does to the rabid students to get them to change back. You don’t want Lia to be therapised by Lyle, do you?”

“Therapised is not a word.”

“It is now.”

She sighs dramatically. “Alright, what were you thinking?”

I gesture to the kitchen door. “I’m going to make her food to say sorry. Mates bring their regina food and presents and other nice things to make them feel better, right?”

“Like the pink handbag.”

My stomach tightens at the memory of that bag. What happened after I laid it at her feet. How Aurelia ran from us in that forest and we chased after her, right into the hands of Lyle, who captured her and hauled her here. I was so angry that day. If Aurelia told Minnie about it… that must mean it had meant something to her. I clear my throat. “Food,” I press. “I can’t search for recipes.”

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