Page 13 of Her Psycho Beasts

Wild and unleashed. Lyle is the perfect, lethal lion.

A lion worthy of the Boneweaver pack.

The room had been tense before, but as Lyle comes to a stop behind the tigers, that simmering buzz skyrockets.

Aurelia wears small black exercise shorts that show the long length of her olive-skinned legs, and a pink tank top with no bra, once again. Her cheeks are rosy with adrenaline, and her blue eyes are bright and alert, clearly enjoying Lyle’s close hold. Henry hides on her shoulder, tangling himself amongst her mane of dark, damp hair so I can only see his yellow beak peeking through.

“What do they have to say for themselves?” The deep baritone of his lion is at the forefront of Lyle’s voice, but his beast is not leading. If he were, these young men would all be dead. Everyone in this room is saved by the agreement Lyle’s rabid animus has with him. Now that he’s mated to his regina, he and his beast walk side by side.

By the gaping, ashen faces in the room, everyone sees this change as clear as day.

One of the tigers, the smallest of the three, a boy with ruddy brown hair and pleading, black eyes turns around, his flushed face scrunched up in distress.

“Please, sir,” he whimpers. “Please, we had no choice but to obey Titus. You have no idea how powerful the Clawsons?—”

Lyle’s head cocks ever so slightly to the left, and that’s the millisecond of warning everyone gets before he lunges for the tiger.

The boy screams as Lyle’s teeth enclose around his jugular, hard enough to allow a tiny trickle of crimson to trail down his neck. My mouth waters at the sight. Lyle growls loud and deep. An alpha giving warning. The boy wisely goes limp, allowing his arms to slump by his sides, completely submitting.

“You should have come to us,” I say, sitting in my armchair as I calmly regard them. “Aiding and abetting or withholding information about the kidnap of an anima is inexcusable.” They should have all known that by what happened to the entire serpentine student body when a group of them had held Aurelia captive.

The smell of urine hits my nose just as a wet patch appears on the crotch of the trembling male next to Lyle and his prey.

At the head of the crowd, Beak and a couple of our wolves laugh cruelly.

It’s lucky Xander made his way out. He would have torched the male out of offense.

“This one wasn’t active in the kidnap,”I say mildly into Lyle’s head.“None of them were. The three who assisted left with Sabrina.”

“I didn’t get my kill today,”Lyle growls back into my mind.

Nor had I.“No, but your regina did.”

It’s only this that enables Lyle to unclamp his powerful jaw and shove the student down to the carpet where he lies frozenand terrified. The other two go still as deer as the lion turns his attention to them.

“And these two?” he asks me out loud.

The tigers glance at me, uncertain.

“Go on,” I nod to them.

With slow, respectful movement, they both turn and slowly raise their hands to brush their long hair away from their necks, baring their skin in submission.

“You may speak,” Lyle growls.

“W-We just kept lookout,” one of them stutters. “Titus didn’t trust us to actually do anything. We’re not sworn to him.”

“Me neither,” says the other. “His sworn tigers left with him.”

Naturally, Titus wouldn’t leave them to deal with me.

Lyle stalks to the two who remain kneeling, getting close and leaning threateningly over them. “Not inmyfucking school. Noteveragain. If you have a problem, you come tome. Do you understand?”

They nod.

Lyle straightens and regards the entire room, holding their gazes in his grasp. A little thrill passes through me at the sight. My only competition in the academy.

He pulls Aurelia into his side, clutching her waist. She allows it, standing tall and trying to hide her nerves.

---