Page 125 of Her Tortured Beasts

Chapter 76

Aurelia

Idon’t know where Savage went, but about fifteen minutes later, he returns, his eyes red. He’s quite calm as he comes to lie on the bed next to Scythe and me, Lyle being draped across the end of the bed, lightly snoring.

Savage looks so sad with his face pressed between Scythe’s arm and the bed that I wish I hadn’t told him about the tank. I’d just felt like I had to tell himsomething,and it was the first thing I could think of. My aching, tired mind hadn’t seen it was the worst possible thing and had likely hurt him.

Fear fills my heart, but I have to comfort my mate. He is more important to me than my own fear, and so finally, I shift.

I stretch my legs out, letting them elongate, letting the feathers and wings disappear and gritting my teeth against the ache as my femur bone from my right leg lengthens along with my shin. Savage watches me, his mouth slightly open, and when he sees me in my human form, his face crumples.

“Aurelia,” he whispers.

I climb onto him, leading with my left leg, my skin hungering, so desperate for his that when I lay my naked skin upon his bare chest, I whimper with need. Burying my nose into the crook of his neck, I inhale him into my lungs and savour thefeeling of his arms snaking around me, holding me with equal desperation. He whispers my name again, his hands tracing down, then up my back as if remembering the curve of my spine, the shape of my hip, the span of my shoulders. His breath is heavy as I cry into him and he sweeps my long length of hair away, laying kisses on my shoulder. Only when he whispers my name for a third time, pained and insistent, do I raise my head and look at him, and find Scythe looking at me too. There is nothing but tenderness in both of their eyes and it shakes me to my core.

I let out a sob.

“No,” Scythe whispers, as my tears run down my face. “No, Aurelia.” With a deftness that I shouldn’t be surprised by, Scythe whips up and crushes his lips to mine. Another sob leaves me as I open up to him and he opens too. Our tongues twine, seeking each other, admonishing each other.

I sob, easing back. “You left me.”

He growls in annoyance, grabbing the back of my neck and seizing my mouth again. But he had come back. For me. As I’d hoped and planned in my wild, insane head.

“Youbothleftme!” Savage cries, pushing between us and grabbing my face in both hands. My wolf’s mouth is rough and hard against mine before he remembers to be gentle. He pursues my tongue and lips like prey, first licking and sucking with mad hunger, before slowing down to savour me properly. I hold his face, feel the stubble of his chin, the stud on his left earlobe. I’m desperate to remember him, to reacquaint myself with his body and soul.

Hands slide up my calves, gently exploring, feeling, checking. I reach a hand out, finding Scythe’s thigh before my fingers find themselves buried in Lyle’s thick mane.

“Angel,” he says, voice thick with emotion.

I tear away from Savage long enough to twist and find my lion, but my right thigh burns with pain.

I hiss, my hand instinctively rubbing at the shooting pain in my healed leg. Three heads, one silver, one blond, one almost black, immediately fall upon my leg, showering it with light kisses and gentle touches. I run my hands through Savage and Lyle’s hair. “I re-grew it myself,” I say, half with pride, half with shame. Xander helped, but I won’t bring that up here.

Three heads snap up. “You…re-grewit?” Lyle says, as if he cannot fully compute the meaning of my words.

They all look down at my limb in wonder.

“It looks perfect,” Savage says, stroking my knee before laying a gentle kiss. “So perfect.”

It’s Scythe who runs his finger along the faint demarcation line that runs around the middle of my thigh, seeming to understand. His finger trembles, but I watch my incredible shark put his rage away for the moment. For me.

“My incredible regina,” he says, placing a palm on the side of my face and pressing his cheek against mine. “I am so sorry for what you went through. So very sorry.”

There are more kisses down both my legs as I reach up to Scythe’s face. He pulls away to look at me, searching my eyes. It’s my turn to take his face between my palms, those ice-blue eyes thawed with emotion. “Thank you for coming back.”

He caresses my cheek with his thumb, taking a deep breath as if taking his fill of the sight of me. “I love you too much to ever truly leave you, and your power saved me.”

My tears flow again and he kisses me, sneakily licking up my tears while he’s at it. Somehow, Savage and Lyle manage to nudge my legs open and they both silently fight over who gets to lick my pussy first. There is much growling and shoving until I feel Lyle’s greedy mouth on my core, lapping up the evidence ofmy desire. I sigh under his care, as Savage kisses along the old scars of my stomach.

Lyle finds my clit, his tongue weaving fine magic that makes me tremble. I cry out into Scythe’s mouth, grinding against my lion’s face. He grabs my left thigh, moaning his approval.

There’s a wild desperation that’s worked up in me now, a feral need that demands my mates in the most primal way. It’s been far too long and too many nights away from them.

I tear away from Scythe’s mouth long enough to make a breathless demand. “Cocks. I need you all to fill me up.” I turn to Scythe first. “Please?”

His smirk is unabashedly all male and all-satisfied as he takes off his shirt and slacks. Then he gently picks me up around the waist and settles himself under me. We are careful with my right leg and I bend it a little more than usual as I straddle Scythe’s hips.

Scythe grabs his cock in one hand and cups my cheek in the other, pinning me with his shark’s gaze. “I claim you,” he says, easing himself into me. The first rounded stud of his piercing slides against the inside of me and I press my forehead against his. “Aurelia Boneweaver, my regina, my queen.” I moan as he becomes fully sheathed, stretching me out after what feels like millennia. After so much torment and pain, this sweet burn, this fullness, feels so right. For the first time, I feel Scythe’s power twine through me, icy cold and hungry for union. I gasp at the sensation and he kisses me with a tenderness that makes my insides melt as he gently slides in and out of my wet heat. “Aurelia,” Scythe says, and I ease back to look at him as sheathes himself into me again. His eyes bore into mine and hold my gaze. “I’m never leaving you,” he says. “Ever. You have me for all of my life and more if I can give it.”

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