Page 21 of Her Rabid Beasts

The wolf extends an arm out.

A pungent scent fills my nose like acid.

On instinct, I lash out, jaws snapping then finding purchase on human flesh. Blood fills my mouth and my hatchling shrieks, making me go still in alarm.

The wolf skips back, staring first at his human arm mangled, blood dripping freely, before turning back to me.

But there is no tang of fear and pain in the air. Instead, on his face is an expression of simple human joy.

My playful wolf is not right in the head.

Confused, I bare my bloody teeth and hiss at him. My hatchling squeaks in disapproval. I nuzzle him in apology before monitoring my wolf once again.

He is different from my lion. They are both dangerous, virile males who wear power under their skin and inspire fear in my pack-sisters. But where my lion is like a solid wall of marble that grounds me, my wolf is like an ever-shifting ball of power. Always moving and always thinking.

He licks at the wound I made on his human arm and I watch his tongue move over the golden fur-less skin, the blood disappearing, leaving jagged lines of flesh. Even with an injury, his power does not falter.

With a huff, I rise from my nest and stalk towards him. He pauses his licking to stare at me, an unnatural glow in his eyes. Strange, crazy wolf. I allow a trickle of my power to reach towards him. It finds his wound and heals it, just enough to stop the bleeding. That is all I can spare. The edges seal together and I realise that he never stopped staring at me. With an annoyed growl, I lie next to him, a clear instruction for him to sit next to me.

His bare skin against my fur is soothing. It makes a jolt of energy move through me, making my mind less muffled.

He murmurs something that I am too tired to hear, but his voice is like the lick of a loving tongue to my tired heart.

Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.Those fangs are always there. Always waiting. Always hurting.

I stay close to the wolf and recede to where it is safe, burying deeper and deeper until those vile, venomous fangs give up for the day.

Chapter 10

Scythe

The moon kisses my bare skin as I emerge from the crashing waves and stride onto the sand of the beach. The night air is fresh and my senses pick up the change in the seasons. Xander is sitting on the shore, a joint in hand, gazing out over the breaking water, those white orbs like little torches through the dark. A lighthouse guiding me home.

Mace Naga’s blood contract has faded off my skin, but the echo of it had still slithered underneath. Dark and wretched. Like oil over water, it had stirred in my blood. The only way for me to process that residue had been to swim it off. Down in the deep womb of the ocean, everything heals in quiet darkness. It’s what I imagine an actual womb would feel like. Where thoughts are nothing but passing murmurs and nothing can harm you. It’s a relief. A reset.

Something I seem to be needing more and more these days.

There are no ghosts down below. Not for me, anyway. No lurking demons snarling at me, prowling around my mind, ready to take my sanity.

Except this time, emerging from the salt water feels different.

I ought to feel calm. Serene. My blood should be settled in my arteries, moving smoothly through the chambers of my heart.

But something is not quite right.

And I have a dark suspicion that nothing will ever be quite right ever again. I scratch at the right side of my neck and see Xander’s head swivel slightly in my direction, no doubt honing in on the movement.

I can hear his low growl over the crashing waves. Blowing out an exhale, I force my thoughts onto pressing matters.

Trying to attend to business locked up in a dragon manor away from the city is not easy. Luckily, we have plenty of beasts on the ground who are good at their jobs.

I hired every single one of them and they are all sworn by blood to me.

Two of those trusted beasts meet us at the top of the sand dunes, two black Jeeps parked behind them. One is an old friend. One is new.

Rufus is a jaguar I met when I’d first begun in this business. He came to me begging for help. His daughter made a near lethal mistake by swearing into a very rough pack. Once I marked them as prey, it was over. I retrieved his daughter and Rufus swore himself to me.

The second male is a new addition to the team. He openly drags his eyes down my naked body, then looks at me directly in the eyes, his aura rippling an orange that is shifting to red. At the forefront, there is a thick grey spot hovering around his head.

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