Page 171 of Her Tortured Beasts

And then I feel her, like a ruthless summer monsoon. A young woman who’d burned down her family home because of what her father did to her mother. A young woman who’d healed a broken dragon.

She’d come for me.

My heart near shatters in my chest, and even as my vision blurs and the roar in my head turns into a scream, I turn and glance at my mother.

And meet her eye. She smiles at me, and it’s not sweet or gentle or motherly, but full of anger. Full of the endless rage of her bloodline. The rage we share.

She nods and I nod back, waving a hand and sending her shackles falling open onto the bed.

Chapter 96

Aurelia

We sit in silence for a while. Well, my pack and me. The Devi and Panthera packs chat amongst themselves, unsettled by the events of tonight. We’d gone in to save Raquel and did nothing for her. Instead, I’ve lost Xander to what Marduk thinks is a dragon-sized trap.

I stew in it. The look in his eyes, the gentleness of his voice. The way Lady Drakos fought against her bonds, that familiar look of berserker rage I’d seen in Xander so clear on her face.

Something ignites within me, and it blazes through my muscles and tendons. It flashes through my core and my power flares like wings.

There is only one path for me now.

I rise to my feet and meet the gaze of my mates, one at a time. Somewhere in the distance, perhaps in ancient memory, there comes the sound of war drums.

The hairs on the back of my neck rise. The regina in me snarls at her mates. “Do you stand with me?”

As one, they stand. Scythe’s teeth elongate. “You know we do, regina.”

I nod with approval. “Then we go to Drakos Estate. Xander does not die tonight. Not on my watch.”

“Your will is mine,” Lyle vows, his amber eyes wide and ferocious.

Savage crouches as if ready to spring. “My soul is yours, regina,” he growls.

I see it then, as Xander would have in the visions his dragon gave him. The way we might have won battles in other times and places. The way we would fight in a battle to come.

“Lia?” Minnie whispers, her eyes gleaming as she stands from Yeti’s lap. “But how will you get there? You have no dragon.”

“True enough. But dragons weren’t the only beasts who could carry incredible weight.” I swallow. “The thought came to me when I rescued Delilah Drakos from the clutches of a dragon. I’d carried her as an eagle, but she was too heavy for me then. It was just the wrong form.”

Stacey’s mouth forms an ‘o’ and she grabs Savage’s notebook and pen, scribbling something onto it. She shows her picture first to Minnie, Marduk and Yeti, then to me.

I smirk and nod.

“But your leg,” Minnie frowns.

“I have two legs,” I say simply.

“Can you take us as well?” Marduk asks excitedly.

Lyle’s brows shoot up. “Will you share with the rest of the class?”

That fire in my body makes me burn with urgency and I grab Lyle’s hand and pull him outside, calling for everyone else to follow.

I hobble down to the elevator that’s thankfully in the pack dorms, and before I know it, I’m rushing outside.

“Regina,” says Scythe in disapproval.

“Come, come!” I wave a hand at him as I exit onto the field at the back of the academy, looking up at the overcast sky.

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