Page 138 of Her Rabid Beasts

By the time I’m back outside and sitting on my hospital bed, I realise I’ve just been given a glimpse of what having a full pack feels like. Ghoul is missing, of course, but if I were a normal regina in hospital, it would be just like this, with my four mates fussing over me like they loved me, none of them wanting to leave the room.

Except, one of them is a dangerous mob boss, one is the deputy headmaster of this academy, one is a bad-tempered dragon, and one is an unhinged wolf.

“None of this is fucking normal,” Xander mutters from the corner as we all watch in fascination as Lyle runs a brush through my tangled hair.

“Tell me about it,” I mutter back. “Wait a minute!” I exclaim. “Are we agreeing on something for once, dragon-man?”

He sighs through his nose as if this irritates him.

Lyle gently detangles my hair and Savage watches him as if he’ll pounce the moment Lyle pulls too hard. But my lion’s hands are gentle and I find my muscles relaxing as he works. Eventually, he’s done, and he ties it all into an efficient bun on the top of my head.

“Beautiful,” Savage says, offering me a cup of water with a straw in it.

I raise my hand to reach for it, but a sharp pain under the cast stops me.

“Ow,” I mutter. “This is fucking useless.”

My power wants to surge forward to heal me, it wants to?—

It’s then that I realise it. I kick out my feet in horror and stare at the black obsidian cuffs that have been on me this whole time. “I need these off!” I shriek to Savage, my eyes pleading. “Rightnow, Savage, I need these off! I didn’t realise— It’s the drugs distracting me.” I turn to Scythe. “Scythe, I need these off. Right now. Right fucking now!”

“Calm down, Aurelia,” Lyle says, cupping my cheek.

I shake him off and try to get to my feet. To make them realise. To make them understand. Minnie. I have to make sure they’re all alright. My father might have already sensed?—

“Please!” I scream.

I can’t get enough air in, I can’t breathe, I can’t think, and my head is dizzy. The room swims and slides.

Keep them safe. Keep them safe. Keep them safe.

Someone shouts, but I don’t know who. It might be me.

Hands are on me. On my face, my feet, my legs.

But then my magic splutters to life within me, burning through my veins. I send it back out, putting all seven of my shields back into place, and that eighth one that keepseveryonesafe.

When everything is right in the world, I open my eyes to find that I’m cradled in someone’s lap. Someone else is pressing a kiss to my cheek. By their scents, the first one is Lyle and Savage is before me, his face concerned.

“Breathe, Aurelia,” Lyle says into my ear, making me shiver. “Just breathe, sweetheart.”

I obey, inhaling through my nose as Scythe rises to his feet before me. He’s the one who undid the shackles.

“Sorry,” I say, thoroughly embarrassed. “I don’t usually?—”

“You wanted your power back,” Scythe says, the black shackles dangling from his fingers. “Everyone in this room understands that.”

But it’s not for my own sake that I’m concerned.

“Someone needs to check on Minnie and my animas,” I say thickly. “Please, I need?—”

“Why are you always worried about them?” Lyle asks.

“Because,” I say, “my father will come for them if I don’t give myself up. That’s what they told me when they took me that day.”

The words sink into everyone’s ears like heavy stones in water. It makes me feel lighter to tell them, but it’s still an awful, ugly truth.

After a moment, Savage says, “Raquel says the animas are fine.”

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