Page 16 of Her Psycho Beasts

Those felines were left black, blue, and bloody in the corner of the rec room, and the avians had been forbidden to heal them.

By eight o’clock the sixth morning, there is a crowd waiting by the animus dorm entrance, buzzing and eager for the second the metal grate begins to slide upwards. Lyle had organised it so the students could release all our pent-up energy by stretching out their beast forms on the front and back lawns, even the birds. The guards are ready and waiting to police any fights that will inevitably break out.

The warning siren sounds at eight a.m. sharp, seven loud blasts that grate along my nerves. After the seventh, a pregnant silence descends on us all.

Something happens that no one expects. Instead of the metal sliding door barring the entrance groaning upwards, something sounds from the speakers outside. I hold my breath from where Lyle and I watch from the second-floor stairwell above.

The opening chords to a familiar song, struck along an electric guitar is followed by a gleeful, practised scream.

As Axl Rose belts outWelcome to the Jungleover the school speakers, the males below start to laugh, and it ripples through them in a heady wave. Even Xander, who’d returned last night, suppresses a smirk where he leans against the wall in the shadow of the staircase.

I whirl around to stare at Lyle, standing protectively at my back. He responds with a grin that transforms his face into a breathtaking work of art. “I had to go with the old favourite.”

The rising energy of the males below becomes a palpable thing, skittering along my skin and making me giddy with excitement.

The metal door creaks upwards, receding into the door jam, and then it’s a mad rush of half-naked male bodies.

Lyle strokes a finger down my cheek “Will you be taking flight, angel?”

I smile at him eagerly. “I would love to.”

My lion seems dazed for a moment as he stares down at me, and I prod him in the chest. “The last time I shifted into an eagle, you jumped out of a window to come after me.”

The memory is enough to raise goosebumps all over my skin. Word had gotten around that Lyle’s telekinesis was so powerful that he could lift himself up so high, and if they weren’t scared of him before, they sure are now.

“I won’t apologise for that,” he says sternly. “You were trying to run away from me.”

I smirk. “True. But never again.”

“Come here, Henry.” Lyle holds out his hand. “I’ll look after you while Lia takes flight.”

My blue ball of fluff dutifully levitates himself onto the offered palm.

Neither Scythe nor Xander are in sight as Lyle and I follow the crowd outside. Already, there are happy wolfish howls and the terrifying yet somehow playful snarling of the felines. Further away, a falcon lets out a shrill cry.

It sets my heart aching for the feeling of the wind rushing over my feathers. Excitedly, I jog out into the sun, tugging at my T-shirt.

Lyle grumbles, striding to shield my body from the other students on the field. None of them are even watching me, however, as I peel my gym shorts down my legs. Everyone is too excited to be running out to the Hunting Games field to care about naked human bodies.

With an excited laugh, I jump into the air, exploding into a mass of feathers within a breath. Stretching out my wings with an appreciative sigh, I beat down and gain height, rapidly leaving the green turf further and further beneath me. Various birds of prey soar in the sky beneath the dangerous, glittering dome that’ll fry us if we get too close.

I join them, keeping a respectful distance as I mentally cheer at the lightness and relief I feel. There’d been so much tension over the last few days, and this is exactly what we all need. Pride for my mate surges through me. He really does his job well.

Beak notices me right away. I’ve never seen his animus before, but with his white hood, I realise he’s a bald eagle. He lets out a cry of acknowledgement and I let out an answering call, before gaining some more height to get a better view.

I’d flown above the school last week, but didn’t have the chance to appreciate its beauty. The long driveway leading to the main road stretches out to my left and the memory of what happened there suddenly flashes through my mind. Down that long, empty road, they’d taken Savage. Down that long road, they’d hauled away Sabrina, the girl who kept lock picks inside her pocket at all times because she couldn’t bear the thought of being held captive ever again. I cringe before wheeling around and turning my back to the road.

I track the movements of my lion as he stalks through the mass of students below; my golden light within the mass of fur, pelt, and feather. Henry is a blue ball sitting at the top of his massive golden-bronze mane, looking this way and that with his wide, black eyes.

Wolves chase each other at the front of the school, kicking a soccer ball about, and I see Raquel amongst them. Minnie is easy to spot because Yeti’s white tiger’s pelt is a rare sight among the rest of the hues, same with a happy golden Stacey and Connor with his all-black lioness’s pelt. Hidden in the bushes, where only the birds can see them, are a group of unmated beasts in their human forms having a jubilant threesome.

It seems everyone is out this morning, though I can’t see hide nor tail of a black dragon out here. No doubt the school’s dome is too small for Xander to stretch his wings properly. I feel kind of sorry for him in that moment, because no doubt he’s smoking his feelings away in a corner somewhere.

And then I spothim.

The other celestial mating mark waiting on the land beneath.

Scythe is the only visible human, leaning against the black brick of the dining hall. A lone figure with his hands in his pockets, calmly watching the frivolity with cold assessment. I feel another ache then. It must be lonely for him, to have no pack to swim with when he shifts. To have no wide-open space he can simply be free in. The underground pool he uses sometimes is big, but it’s no ocean. Somehow, those sharp eyes find me in the mass of wings as I wheel just below the sizzling electric dome. A tug deep within forces me lower.

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