Page 6 of Her Rabid Beasts

“So we just leave her here?” my tigress asks.

The Lady Phoenix nods slowly. “I sense that she needs this, and I would prefer her to lie low after the events of this evening. That is for the best. Do not speak a word of this place to the other students. Is that clear?”

There are more murmurs and Lady Phoenix fishes a white human communicator device from her pocket. A soft blue light is reflected on her face as she reads something on it before looking back up at me and my pack-sisters. “Very well, ladies. If you’ll excuse me, I need a word with my deputy.”

Lady Phoenix gazes at me for a moment, her face beautiful in its maturity, and her expression is sincere. Then we watch her leave, gracefully stepping back into the second boat, which of its own accord, sails itself back through the tunnel.

Once more, we are left in the silence and darkness.

“Sorry, but how is that possible?” my leopard asks. “The sentence was passed by the Council. How can she just interfere with that?”

“The House of Phoenix has always held the power to intervene in cases like this,” my tigress whispers. “Their magic lets them see mating bonds, among other things. They’re given the right to have their collective say if their court sees fit.”

“And how did you know we even have a Headmistress?” My dark-lioness demands. “This whole time we thought it was a Headmaster!”

My care for their mouth-sounds wanes. I nestle in with my blue hatchling and close my eyes. There are only two things I know: there is peace here, and as long as I remain as I am, we will all be safe.

After some length of time, the sisters of my pack grunt and bones shift and re-form. I open my eyes long enough to see furry pelts of copper, black, orange stripes, golden spots, and a final pelt, a twin to mine, settle down around me.

They have assumed their true forms. Perfect.

Chapter 2

Lyle

My stride is controlled as my alleged bond brothers and I exit the elevator onto my floor, but the way my office door slams open tells everyone that I am, in fact,notin control at all.

Boneweaver. Aurelia is a fucking Boneweaver. Likely the only being in the world who can shift intoanybeast she chooses. Andallthe gifts that come with that? No wonder Mace Naga wants her back. No wonder he’d touted Aurelia as some manipulative narcissist, when all she’d been trying to do was survive.

I’ve fucked up. Badly.

Georgia, having returned here, no doubt to monitor the disaster in the receiving bay from the security cameras, jumps to her feet and hurries towards us. “Lyle, should I?—”

To my surprise, it’s Scythe who snaps, “That’sMisterPardalia.”

As I pass her, surprise makes my rage falter. Is it propriety or possessiveness that makes him correct her? I might never know. The thought that Scythe might get territorial over me is laughable at best, and disturbing at worst.

Georgia visibly flinches in terror at the shark’s skin-crawling rasp and all but runs back to her desk as fast as her Louboutinswill carry her. We all file into my office and, with a twitch of a finger, I slam the door closed.

Savage lies prone by the bookshelves lining the right side of my office, where I instructed Xander to dump him after darting him earlier today. Scythe and I didn’t want anything to interrupt Aurelia’s trial and eventual conviction.

To think I was worried about the delinquent wolf and not Aurelia Aquinas, ex-princess of the Serpent Court and current bane of my existence.

I stride past Savage to my desk, activating the office’s sound-proof mechanism as Scythe crouches down to brush his pale, tattooed fingers over his brother’s face.

The distant sound of chains rattling reaches my inner ear. A chill runs down my spine.

“We need to retrieve her,” I mutter. “Before everything turns to further shit.”

There is no way for Aurelia to run outside of the academy, as she well knows. The dark shadow of her wedge-tailed eagle’s body was headed for the anima dorms, no doubt feeling it was safest to be with her friends.

“She’s in the anima building,” Xander says irritably, thudding his tall frame into one of the chairs by the bay windows. “Well,underit, to be precise. Turns out there are more dragon-trick doors than I estimated.” The lights of my office cast shadows over his long black hair and face, transforming him from brooding to outright sinister. Dragons always have that power edged in mystery look about them. As if the mythical beast prowling within knows things the rest of us don’t. Or can’t.

Scythe rises from his inspection of Savage and shoots Xander a curious look—a mixture of interest and irritation—but I don’t have time to ponder it. I need to get this entire situation under control. I need to find Aurelia and question her. I have tofigure out what her father has been up to. What his plans are. Everything I know about her will have to be reassessed.

I don’t even realise I’m pacing the room until Scythe cuts my path off. Me and my thoughts come to an abrupt halt.

The shark’s sheet of silver, shoulder-length hair falls forward as he takes an old-fashioned metal cigarette case out of his pocket. Those iceberg eyes flick up to mine, then around my body. Whatever he sees in my aura makes his pupils constrict into tiny dots.

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