Page 75 of Her Rabid Beasts

Chapter 31

Aurelia

On Sunday night, I’m in the student village with Minnie and Stacey, getting hot chocolates at a cutesy little cafe run by a pair of artsy wolf sisters. It’s almost closing time and we’re the last ones left to leave the cafe.

“So how many beasts can you turn into?” Stacey whispers excitedly.

I finish the last of my hot chocolate. “I have to touch them to be able to turn into them.” I say quietly. “But in primary school we had a petting zoo and I got to touch an alpaca, some mice, chickens, sheep?—“

“Oh come on!” Minnie whispers. “Farm animals, Lia?”

I grin at them. “Well one time I got to touch this saltwater?—“

Stacey makes googly eyes and I shut my mouth just in time to see a guard swaggering down the cobblestoned laneway. He stops before our little outside table and silently presents me with a black appointment envelope.

I take it from him, frowning up at his incredible height.

A tingle runs down my spine.

He wears a black gaiter and sunnies, covering his face and identity, like all the other guards, but I can’t help but feel that there is something different about him. He’s pretty tall, the sameheight as Savage, and the black combat uniform hugs a clearly muscled figure.

“Are you new?” Stacey purrs, ogling him.

The fairylights strung above us glint along his dark sunglasses as he says nothing and just gestures to me with a gloved hand to open the envelope.

“You look new,” Minnie agrees, sniffing delicately.

I clear my throat and open the notice.

This time, it’s not written in Lyle’s hand like I expect, but a very feminine, confident cursive.

“Oh shit,” I whisper.

I show the girls.

“The headmistress?” Minnie whispers. “She wants to see you?”

“It’s about time,” Stacey says.

“I think she was giving you time to settle back in.” Minnie nods. “And maybe coming up with a plan for the council.”

Goosebumps erupt all over me. “I hope so. I don’t know how long a phoenix injunction lasts for.”

We asked Theresa a few times and she didn’t know; even looked up cases in the library, but couldn’t find anything in recent history. But, to my chagrin, itwasall over the news. The first thing I did when Savage gave me my phone was download theAnimalia Todaynews app. It was now relegated to the middle of the hot news lists, but it was still very much present.

“It’s curfew, let’s go,” Stacey says. “And you’re dropping me off at the animus dorm.”

But as I look up, I realise that the guard still towers over us, listening carefully.

What a snoop.

He gestures for us to go ahead of him, as if he means to escort us out. We look the guy up and down again, casting looks over our shoulders before sauntering forward. As much as I wishedmy friends found their mates so we could complain about it together, at least they know how to distract themselves in the meantime. More than one anima tussled with a guard, we all knew that collective secret, but there were so many animuses in the dorm to choose from it usually wasn’t an issue.

Just one of those distractions prowled out of one of the men’s clothing stores, black shopping bag in hand.

“Ladies.” Yeti, the white-haired Siberian tiger, nods at us, though his blue-eyed gaze is hot on Minnie alone. He wasthemenacing tiger of the school before Titus came along and is loyal to Scythe. He is one of the biggest males around here, and when not with Scythe’s group is always alone. I imagine his pelt is the exact same colour as his hair: bone white.

“Hi, criminal,” Minnie drones like he’s an irritation. “Off to beat someone up again?”

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