Page 32 of Her Rabid Beasts

“I know th-that h-hunger,” they say quietly, silver piercings glinting. “Eat up… cub.”

They all look at me meaningfully. Oh right,thatlittle issue of them all knowing what I am. Of me not being a specific order at all.

“We’ve already spoken about it,” Minnie assures me.

“Yeah, we had four weeks to interrogate Min,” Stacey says. “Don’t worry, we got it all out of her. One of my friends is a—” she mouths,“Boneweaver,”and gives me the thumbs up.

“And our lips are sealed.” Sabrina mimes zipping her lips and throwing away the key. “The way I see it? It’s an advantage for all of us. The headmistress has dealt with your little execution issue and now we can go back to our usual craziness.”

Delayed, not dealt with, I want to say, but I don’t. It’s been a big enough day.

“Yes, but now we have to tell Lia all aboutournews.” Connor presses. “She has four weeks of academy gossip to catch up on!”

As I shovel food into my mouth, my pack of animas tells me the latest about the various dramas between the animas and animuses, including a lion who got chucked out of a second-story window for eating someone’s stash of Mars bars and a hyena who tried to escape the school before he was brought down by Ruben and his security team.

But the thing that interests me the most are the changes the school has made toitself.Apparently, the very moulding of the door above the school has been given a sort of sentience. Our anima dorm now has a gargoyle called Christine. She’s a chatty, annoying little bitch, so Sabrina says, and a cutesy creature, according to Minnie. The fact that these changes coincided with my hibernation has me suspicious, but I’ll have to find out more when I start moving about the school normally again.

Eventually, our friends leave us to find their own beds, and when Minnie and I are finally alone, I stare at the fancy scrollwork of the ceiling, my thoughts laboured and dark.

What happened with Minnie this afternoon canneverhappen again. I would rather a thousand wounds be placed on me than harm come to any one of my friends. But I know my father. He’s relentless, cruel, and infinitely clever. Worst of all, he gets what he wants. By hook or by crook, he will eventually make it impossible for me to ignore him.

It only means that I have to double down on my attempts. I need more strength. Which means food and… that other thing.

I’ve been denying my desire for my mates for so long, running away from the idea of them for so many years, that to think of going to one of them for any type ofhelpis alien and uncomfortable. It makes adrenaline flood my veins and a thread of fear course through me.

These men handed me over for execution. Helped, and were crucial even, to my father’s awful plans for me. Hell, more than one of them hates me and openly rejects me. Lyle, for his part, definitely follows Xander’s line of thought, and him being the deputy of the school complicates things.

Something dark crawls in my gut at the thought of what I may need to do.

When I fall asleep, it’s so deep that I don’t dream at all.

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

The next morning, I wake up to an empty dorm as planned, because I told Minnie I needed a sleep in. In reality, I need to get myself off again so I’ll have an energy boost for when I need to brave the academy dining hall for the first time since my mysterious disappearance. As a bonus, nothing makes me happier than defying an order from Lyle Pardalia. The fact that we now both know I’m his regina gives meextraright to do so. The anima in me agrees.Wegive the orders around here. Full stop.

I enjoy a leisurely morning in my bed thinking about Savage’s large hands and Scythe’s glowering eyes before my post-orgasm doze is interrupted.

A knock comes at my door and I raise my head to see that it’s not Theresa come to question me, but Stacey. Her hair is in her signature high pigtails, she has matte red lips and wears a slinky black maxi dress. She looks like a sexy cat and should have a smirk on her face, but doesn’t. Something is wrong. Her eyes are wide and she wrings her hands as she steps cautiously into my room.

“Bestie,” she greets, tentatively.

I’m immediately on high alert and off my bed in front of her, sniffing the air and straining my ears to hear for any signs of commotion. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Minnie.”

I grab her arms. “Is she bleeding? Is she hurt?” Please, not another breach in my defence. Not another attack. I was so careful through the night to make sure I kept the shields up?—

“What? No, no!”

I calm down a fraction and let her go. “Then what is it?”

“We have a situation. I know this was your rest day, but I think you need to come down with us to breakfast. For Minnie’s sake.”

I’m about to demand for her to spit it out when Sabrina comes stomping into my room on her stilettos, waving her hands in the air. “Bitches, it’s a disaster. Minnie’s lost it completely.” She points at me. “Lia, you need to go down there and beat some sense into that tigress! She’s sittingin his lap,for Goddess’ sake!”

“Whose lap?” I demand, trying to think if Minnie has ever mentioned fancying an animus around here. There was that one anima fling a while ago, but she never snuck off into the animus dorm like Sabrina, Raquel and Stacey often do.

Instead of answering, my feline friends throw a dress at me. I shove my hair into a messy bun and we hurry out to the dining hall with Eugene trailing behind us.

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