Page 42 of Her Rabid Beasts

Now, his human arms encircle me, holding me tight as if he’s needed to do this for a long time. Now his human skin sits against mine and there’s no layers of fur between us. Just… skin through my thin nightie. My anima is telling me this beast is safe. The human side of me is terrified that it’s all a lie.

But he wasn’t the one who presented me like a Christmas ham to my father. He wasn’t there that evening. Ihaveto know what that means.

“Where were you?” I whisper. “That day. Where did you go?”

I hear him swallow through that powerful throat. He knows exactly what I’m talking about as his arms tighten even more around me.

“The day of your trial, Xander darted me and kept me locked up in Lyle’s office so I couldn’t get to you. I woke up thereafter all that shit happened outside the medical wing. If I’d been there…” He blows out a puff of air. “I wouldn’t have handed you over, Aurelia.”

They knew he would try to get to me. Out of all of them, he was the one who would have let his instincts get in the way. But even so…

“You made the blood vow,” I whisper into his chest. “With my father.”

“You didn’t want me,” he says, the hurt making his voice catch. “All I wanted was you, and then when you found me, you”—he swallows again—“didn’t want me.”

I want to sob and scream. I want to vomit at the mess my life has become. Instead, I pull myself out of his arms and wipe my face to look at the wolf properly. He sits cross-legged on my bed, that wolfish face grim, his jaw clenched against the pain of the memory. My heart squeezes in my chest.

“I couldn’t…” I blink away more tears. “I couldn’t be with you, Savage. Even if I’d wanted.”

He takes one of my hands in two of his large ones. His eyes search mine. “Did you want to?” he breathes. “You came to me the night before. When I cut off my finger for you. Youwantedme then, didn’t you?”

I nod. It changed me. That one moment in his bed, with him inside me. Nothing could remove that from my being. That sheer, absolute, devastating feeling of him entwined with me.

But there were still answers I needed.

“And what about Halfeather’s prison?” I whisper. “You never told me why you were all in there in the first place.”

Savage licks his lips. “Everything we do has a reason.”

“Are you telling me you got caught on purpose?”

“Sometimes it’s better to let your enemy show their hand. Sometimes it’s necessary to walk into danger to get what you want.”

I frown at my hands, trying to understand what he’s saying. I had always wondered how and why they’d ended up in chains. Men like Scythe, Xander and Savage don’t simply getcaughtlike that.

“My regina,” Savage whispers. “My mate.” He places a finger under my chin and tilts it up to look at him. “I want you more than anything in this world. Let me show you. Let me make it up to you. Let mehaveyou.”

“Savage, I?—”

“Even when you say my name, it completes something in me, you know that?”

Iwantto say yes. I really do.

I remove his hand from my face and frown down at the stub of his index finger. The healer in me assesses the way I healed it in that moment of pure lust.

“Does it hurt?” I ask faintly, lightly touching the new, healed skin.

Savage shivers. “I would do more than cut off a finger to be with you.”

He keeps saying things like that. I drop his hand. “You don’t even know me.”

“I do.”

Heartbreak gives way to irritation, especially when he starts grinning again. “I know you like ham and cheese croissants and that you used to have hot chocolate for supper every night. I know you love Minnie and Raquel and—unfortunately—Henry, Sabrina, Connor and Stacey. I know you draw funny pictures in class but somehow you still listen. I know you use peach and mango body wash. I know you like to read romance novels about witches and vampires. And!” he says dramatically. “I know you like me.” He places a hand on his chest for emphasis. “I know I can make you come, Aurelia. With just my fingers.”

A little shocked, I bite my lip.

With a growl, he surges forward, catching my bottom lip with both of his. I let out a squeak of surprise. But his lips on mine have been all I wanted, and that squeak turns into a languid sigh.

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