Page 157 of Her Tortured Beasts

“Eugene alerted us before you started shouting, actually,” Savage says proudly.

Chicken shifters can see the future five seconds ahead, but it comes randomly to them, usually when something unexpected is about to happen. I guessed he’d seen me come out of my vision.

“Thanks, Eugene,” I say. “It was just a bad dream.”

He clucks sleepily from Xander’s bed.

Savage strokes my leg, calming my beating heart.

“Sorry I woke you up,” I murmur.

“It’s sunrise anyway,” Lyle says, kissing my shin. “What can I do?”

I set the glass on my leg to avoid the way it trembles in my grip. I swallow, trying not to burst into tears because they’ll all ask why I’m upset. I take in a shaky breath. “I’ll be okay.”

“Regina,” Savage says slowly, having never taken his eyes off me. “Can we…go to the pool today?”

“Why?” Scythe asks, sitting closer to me and running his fingers gently through my hair.

Savage glances over his shoulder at Xander and speaks into my head.“I want to hold you as a starfish, please.”

I can’t help it then. The tears slip out, my throat thickens, and Scythe takes the glass from me so I can hide my face.

“Fucking hell Savage,” Xander snarls.

Savage ignores him, arms coming around me. “I’m sorry, regina, we don’t have to. I was being stupid.”

My memories of being a starfish are not good. My hands tremble as I remember the darkness at the time, the loneliness.

But I’ve never hated a form before, and I don’t want to start now. Xander’s presence in the room flutters along my skin. Perhaps it would be healing to have Savage hold me. I look at my wolf, his eyes slightly pink, his hair mussed from sleep. It would be healing for him too.

“No, you weren’t being stupid,”I whisper into his mind.“We should do it. We should play mermaids with Scythe.”

Savage takes my hand and nods seriously.

Half an hour later, we file into the underground pool area that Scythe rebuilt after Marduk broke it that one time. It was glass and steel then, but now it’s set into the ground like a proper pool.

Everyone except Xander strips off and gets into the water. Savage eagerly stands in front of me, but there’s an uncharacteristic nervousness in his eyes.

“I have no hearing in that form,” I warn him. “So don’t be bad-mouthing me while I can’t hear you.”

Savage grins wolfishly. “It’ll only be dirty things, regina.”

I smile. “Will you catch me?”

His face turns serious. “Always.”

The shift has the potential to be triggering, but with my mates around me, watching with so much love, I pat my right leg to remind myself that it’s still there and take a deep breath. Lowering myself into the shallow side of the pool, I suck in a breath at the cold until my thighs kiss the water. I tear off my dress and toss it at Lyle, who sets it carefully at the water’s edge.

Turning back to the water, and feeling Savage close behind me, I shift. My arms are forced outwards as I become smaller, my vision becoming blurry and my hearing going fuzzy until it disappears completely.

True to his word, as I flop onto the water’s surface, Savage scoops me up, holding me under the water while his big face peers at me. Three blurry giants hover above the water, their movements in the water fluttering around me.

For a moment I struggle to breathe. The memories come crashing back. The fear returning anew, that feeling of being lost, forgotten?—

“What a sweet princess you are,”Savage coos into my head.“What a pretty star you make.”

My thoughts still as I concentrate on his words, my tiny heart rate slowing.

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