Page 123 of Her Tortured Beasts

“But I want to tell her that I love her.” Then I realise that I actually missed that part and turn back to her.“I love you.”

“She has both her legs,” Scythe says, angling her up so Lyle and I can see two powerful eagle claws. I bend down, inspecting her body.

“That one looks different,” Lyle says, adoringly brushing her right leg with the back of his knuckle. “It’s lighter in colour. The skin is softer.”

She pulls it away from him, tucking it under her like a lame wolf.

“It hurts her!” I exclaim. “Baby, what did they do?”

“Let’s get her out of here,” says Scythe, pushing between the two of us and heading back through the forest. “We need to get to safety. The hunting wolves won’t be far behind the falcons.”

“Right,” I say as Lyle goes flying past us to take the lead. When we see the coast is clear, he throws himself into the car and guns the engine.

Scythe gets into the back seat and I run around to get into the other side. We take off with screeching tyres back the way we came. I scoot over to the middle seat so I can be close to my regina. My little chompy. Scythe holds her like his life depends on it, one of his thumbs caressing her wing.

I lean in and run my finger down her face, then lightly kiss the top of her beak.“Baby, I need you to respond to me,”I whisper into her mind.“I need to know you are okay.”

“I’m sorry,”the reply comes, small and frightened.

My face scrunches up of its own accord and I wipe a tear from my eye before pressing my forehead against hers. “I love you. You know that, right? You know you could take out my heart and eat it and I would still be madly in love with you. Everything will be okay now.”

“Regina,” Scythe’s rough-as-cut-class-voice-says, “you will be okay.”

Her body relaxes into him then.“You came back,”she whispers.

His silver brows crease a little.“For you, I would do anything. For you, I gladly curse the world with my presence.”

“You’re not a curse,”she says, her voice tight like she wants to cry.“I think I am.”

Three angry growls fill the car.

“None of that, regina,” Lyle admonishes. “None of us hate you for leaving us.”

“In fact, it gave us something to do,” I say, settling back into my chair and nodding at her even though her eyes are still closed. “Didn’t it, Scythe?”

“We had a great time,” Scythe says flatly. “Very productive.”

“We did lots,” I snort. “And now I’m full of joy again!” Unable to help it, I lean over and nuzzle her neck with my nose. Her mating mark shines bright and I kiss her there three times. Once for love, once for luck, and once because I’m horny.

Lyle glances at me, fully jealous because he can’t kiss her from all the way over there. “One kiss for Lyle,” I announce, kissing the top of her head because it’s something our lion would do. “When will you turn human again?”

Scythe cuts me a sharp look, to which I sit back, like an admonished pup.

“Take your time, Aurelia,” he says, stroking her wing. “You are safe now.”

He’s so possessive, I’m sure I’m not going to get a turn holding her in the car, so I make do with giving her kisses on different spots once every while.

Once we get to one of our city hotels, it’s night time and Lyle parks in the staff car park so we head in from the back. We’d fed Aurelia cheesy nuggets and fries in the car, but Lyle isn’t happy with that nutrition, and so once we’ve snuck into our hotel room, he goes down to the kitchens to supervise the cooking of Aurelia’s meal. Scythe has to send the hotel manager after him so he doesn’t scare the kitchen staff into pissing their pants. I take a quick shower to wash off the dirt and blood, and then we both put Aurelia in the bath.

It’s there we discover that she can’t, or won’t fully stand on her right leg, so I get to hold her under the shower while Scythe washes her up a bit. She still won’t open her eyes and I have to wipe my own eyes a few times because I can tell that her leg hurts.

“She’s not injured anywhere else, is she?” I ask as Scythe wipes her beak with the washcloth.

“There is some marking under the feathers around her”—he exhales in anger—“neck.”

The thought makes me hold her tighter and I press my lips together to stop from saying something that might upset my regina.

“It’s okay,” I coo after a minute, kissing her crown again. “It’s okay now.”

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