Page 31 of Her Rabid Beasts

Only once I’m sure Savage has been coaxed away do I dry off, brush my teeth, and emerge back outside. Theresa and Minnie stand in the corridor, surveying me with worry.

“I’m alright,” I say softly. “Was that Savage causing a ruckus?”

Minnie gives me a wiggle of the eyebrows. “He’s been so possessive and super keen to win your good favour. I think you should talk to him.”

I exhale dramatically.

“You’re mates, aren’t you?” Theresa asks flatly.

I glance at Minnie. She nods seriously. “He’s openly calling you his regina now.”

Shit. That bastard outed me? I can’t believe it. But now that I know Theresa better, I do feel bad for lying to her that first day during the anima presentation when Savage literally threw himself at me.

“I’m sorry, Theresa, but I think you understand why I might have avoided that whole… situation.”

The cassowary shifter nods slowly and studies me, her grey eyes kind. “I do. But what I don’t understand is why Xander Drakos covered for you.”

Minnie makes a face that suggests that she also thinks the answer to Xander helping me lie is unfathomable.

“He hates me,” I shrug. “That’s all I really know about him.”

With that, Theresa directs me and Henry into my room where Sabrina, Raquel and Stacey wait with a whole bunch of food on my bed.

Gods, I love my friends.

The three feline animas shriek when they see me, jumping up and down.

“Thank fuck!” Sabrina shouts, holding her boobs with both hands as she jumps. “I really thought we were all in trouble at the end there!” My leopard-shifter friend is always immaculately dressed, with today being no exception. She wears a leopard print body-con dress and has her long black hair in a long ponytail.

Stacey, my Vietnamese lioness bestie in high pigtails and a purple romper shakes her head. “It was all shits and giggles until youpeedon the wall,Lia.”

“Shit, I don’t remember that at all.”

“It’s alright,” Connor says, kicking off his red stilettos and combing matching fingernails through his long black mane. “We still love you.”

I side-eye Theresa, who observes me closely. “The deputy headmaster will counsel you personally, Lia, as he does all the ex-rabid students. Your memories might come back in dribs and drabs, but only time will tell.”

That word sits in the air. Rabid. I descended in my anima so far that I actually turned rabid. And by the itch on my skin and the irritation crawling beneath it, I know it’s not out of mysystem. My body aches to shift back again and cover us in fur and fangs.

“From what Lyle told me, we’ve never seen this quick of a turnaround before,” Theresa says honestly. “Your transition may still be a little rocky. I don’t think it’s hit you just yet.”

“I think it was us,” Sabrina says, crossing her arms as if it’s a fact. “There was always someone with her. We stopped her from going under completely.” She looks at Raquel for confirmation and our wolf anim nods, pulling Eugene into their arms.

“We think that’s why the wolf communes stay firmly feral and not rabid,” Theresa agrees. Henry gives an indignant chirp from my shoulder and the other nimpins chime in. Theresa laughs, “And the nimpins are another factor we need to consider. I’ll bring it up with Lyle in case he hasn’t considered it for his research.”

Lyle.

Also known as: my new secret mate. By the time my sentencing came around, my friends had figured out that Scythe, Xander and Savage were somehow my mates, even if it was impossible for me to be regina of beasts with different orders. Now they knew the whole truth.

But about Lyle? Even Minnie doesn’t know about the fact that I’m regina to the deputy headmaster. I’d suspected it for a while, but at the time, it really made everything a million times worse, so I just… let it be and ignored the signals. Whenever I hide my own mating mark, I can’t see my mates marks either. And in our world? The way we find our destined pack mates is by looking for beasts who bear the same mating mark we do—a glowing symbol unique and secret to our pack that only members of the pack can see on each other.

For us, it’s a skull with five curling beams of light. Five beams for five mates.

Now I’ve seen Lyle’s mark with my own eyes, saw him on his knees that night of my sentencing, my anima won’t let me forget it. Perhaps that’s why I shifted into a lioness for my hibernation instead of staying in my favourite wedge-tailed eagle form.

Theresa leaves us be and I tuck Henry and myself into bed as the others pile food into my lap. Minnie sets a bowl of blueberries in front of Henry and he gratefully picks at them with his tiny beak.

Raquel places a massive burger on top of the pile of food and I stare at them with wide-eyed appreciation.

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