Page 11 of Her Psycho Beasts

Lyle spins me around and wraps his arms around my trembling bones. I bury my face in his naked chest, shoulder-wracking sobs attacking my body, my mind. It feels like an assault, the way the fear and overwhelm slam into me, pummelling my chest, my heart.

Through it all, Lyle holds me, murmuring gentle words into my hair that I can’t hear right now.

Images flash through my mind’s eye, Fredrick Ulman’s face as I launched myself at him, the barrel of his gun…the sensation of his skull inside my long, powerful jaw—Lyle’s burnt face, the smell of burning fur—blood in my mouth—the cut end of Sabrina’s tail.

My throat burns, my head pounds, and my insides twist until Lyle’s stroking hand slowly but surely sweeps the pain, not away, but aside, into a corner of my mind. It finally lets me breathe.

“We’re together.” His voice echoes off the black bathroom tiles. “You haveme,and we’re going to work together. Me and you.”

“And Scythe,” I whisper hoarsely. And even more quietly, I add, “And Savage.”

“Yes, angel, them too. You wouldn’t let us help before, but now you will. Right?”

I sigh in a long breath. “Right.” It’s the reassurance we both need. “I just know Sabrina is terrified and it’s all my fucking fault?—”

Lyle grips me firmly by the biceps. His near angelic face is wild with fury, those amber eyes flaring. But I know it’s not directed at me. “There’s only one person responsible for this, regina, and it’s not you.”

Regina.

That word coming out of his mouth is enough to make me close my eyes and forget the many pains in my heart. I’d never thought I’d hear him say it. I’d never thought Lyle Pardalia would claim me, rough and raw on the bitumen at the gate before the academy.

It healed a part of me. His bite is on my neck, and mine is on his. Here he is, pressing his body possessively against mine, saying that hecan’tleave me.

“Scythe said he’ll find her,” I say thickly. “And he didn’t look worried about Savage. Like…not at all.”

Lyle kisses the top of my head and huffs a laugh. “Savage will see the entire thing as an adventure. An adventure, that hasyouas its end goal.”

That’s enough to open my eyes, so I can look at my perfect lion in disbelief. Said perfect lion responds by gently tugging my T-shirt over my head. His eyes darken as he surveys the violent slashes of my father’s psychic attack before I hand him the plastic bandage.

I put my arms up in the air and twirl around and around as he rolls the waterproof material over my abdomen. The Lady Phoenix Headmistress of Animus Academy, Celeste Agnis, had given me her tears to heal the necrotic wounds, but had warned me it would take time for it to reach its full effect. My father sure knew how to make a lasting impression.

He’d also known exactly where to strike to hurt me emotionally by taking one of my friends. But Scythe was bloody right. We need to be careful. We need to be smart.

Warily, I strip off my pants, fully aware of Lyle watching me more closely than any eagle as he, too, removes his track pants. With both of us fully naked, he reaches for my hand, but I hesitate.

There are three shower heads on the wall of the massive black and gold tiled monstrosity that is the shower. And I don’t even look at the massive inset bathing pool that’s supposed to be for Scythe.

“Let me look after you,” Lyle says, tugging me into the shower. “Let me wash his blood off you. The only scent you’ll bear is mine.” A crease forms between his fair brows before he corrects himself. “Ours.”

Scythe’s cut on my finger suddenly stings as Lyle turns on the central shower head and tests the water. With his back turned to me, I raise the offending finger and stare at the incision Scythe had licked.

I’d been so shocked at the time that I’d just stared, my breath trapped in my lungs, that space between my legs throbbing as he’d tasted my finger. Whatever he’d sensed in my blood had made him shudder, and there was this momentary look on his face that I couldn’t decipher.

It had robbed me of all thought. To see that otherworldly beauty smoothed out like water over the softest sand. And then it was all over, and both lion and shark had read an understandingin each other’s eyes that I was not privy to. Annoyance flashes through my veins as Lyle, washcloth in hand, tugs me under the warm spray and begins to gently soap my chest. The body wash smells like peach and mango, and I know it’s Savage’s.

My annoyance turns into something awfully sad as the backs of my eyes burn and I grab a random shampoo from the lineup of products in the recess and begin hastily going at my hair before a further flood of tears is unleashed. Lyle quickly washes himself as I rinse my hair and then aggressively condition it. He’s helping me again by then, rinsing out the conditioner with large, soothing fingers.

My eyes catch on Lyle’s wet skin glistening under the golden lights, and I can’t help but place a hand on the stable surface of his smooth chest. He has a scattering of golden hair that I run my fingers over as he rubs the washcloth down my back and lower still. Something languid wanders through my lower belly as he replaces the washcloth with his hand. I sigh, resting my cheek on his chest as the warm water runs down my back and steam wafts in swirls around us.

Lightheaded from the warmth and the glowing embers of desire, I savour the feeling of safety and security I suddenly feel with him. Lyle has always felt like the sun. And now being with him is like lying on fresh green grass on a clear summer’s day, warm and relaxed. After tonight’s events, it’s not really until this moment that I feel at ease. That my muscles relax and my naked skin wants to melt into his. The impressive length of his cock stiffens between us, and I can’t help but smile and nuzzle into his chest.

“Angel,” comes a rough whisper against my neck. “Let me worship you. Because I’m going to spend the rest of my life on my knees, repenting for every fucking thing I did before we became one. Let me make it better, just for a moment.”

I shiver with delight as he presses an open-mouthed kiss to my shoulder, then my neck. Turning around, I press my back against his front and guide his big hand to the place I want it most.

Lyle growls in his chest as his fingers slide through my moist heat. His hand cups my centre possessively before he explores what’s there. I sigh, tilting my head back as his other hand slides up my wet body to my neck, the water pounding over the hot skin of my breasts and nipples.

“I need you in me,” I say, angling my head towards him.

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