Page 14 of Her Tortured Beasts

Chapter 8

Scythe

As the morning sun rises over Animus Academy, Marduk and I stare at the bodies of the five dead guards, lying sprawled on the grass before us.

“It could’ve been worse,” Marduk says, exhaling a puff of smoke from his joint into the blood-stained air, before offering it to me.

I decline it with a shake of my head.

Even with the protections made from my regina’s tears that keep the hallucinations away, I might have been driven mad by the knowledge that my regina has stolen away from me. Of hercommandingmy brothers and me not to follow her.

I had no choice but to sink into my psychopathic shark.

Ice cold, calculating, and in no need for the calming effect of an alpha-grade joint.

“Marduk?” Minnie’s voice shrieks across the school grounds like a javelin. “Marduk!”

The Caspian tiger is already striding towards the little tigress, suddenly protective and alert. “Regina,” he says attentively.

I turn to watch a furious Minnie jogging towards us, in a purple tracksuit, pink curls wild from a sleepless night. Yeti strides behind her, his pale face tight and unhappy.

“Where is Lia?” Minnie demands, pointing angrily at us both, one at a time. “And where is Savage? Raquel is saying hekilledschool guards last night! Someone better tell me what the Goddess-damned plan is before I lose my shit completely!” Minnie’s aura pulses a faint red-tinged orange as she plants her tiny fists on her hips.

Marduk reaches for his regina, but Minnie slaps his hand away before looking to me. The tiger makes an affronted sound in his throat, but Minnie isn’t giving him the time of day. She tries not to look at the mangled bodies behind me, blinking sudden tears away as she does what many beasts cannot: stares me dead in the eye. “Scythe?” she swallows. “Where is she?”

“Minnie.” I say flatly. “Did my regina ever give you any indication of her plans?”

She blinks, the question unexpected. Her eyes search the air in thought, but then her face becomes stormy, and she raises a finger at me. “Youleft.”

Behind the cold, a faint pain threatens to pierce my heart. I deserve that. Deserve to feel the full brunt of that agony. But not now.

“I know,” I say. “But I have returned for her. And she surrendered to the enemy. She has been taken.”

Minnie appraises me and seems to understand that human Scythe has been put away.

She nods carefully before pinching her nose. “I had no bloody idea. She never let anything on. After you left, she, well…” She crosses her arms. “She was in a state. Understandably. But none of us could have guessed she’d give herself up.” For the first time, I hear Minnie growl in her throat. “And with Xander’s help, no less. Goddess, I want tokillthat dragon! He saw what it did to me when Titus—” Infinite pain flashes across her face. “He fucking saw!”

Yeti places a hand on her shoulder as tears stream down Minnie’s face and she angrily wipes them away with her sleeve.

All I can do is watch the three mates huddle together as that fresh wound within me burns like hellfire. My shark thrashes and I crack my neck to relieve the tension. Marduk turns from comforting his mate to glance at me warily.

What Marduk has with his regina is denied to me. I am unable to comfort Aurelia, unable to serve her and kiss her tears away. No doubt she is shaken from the severing. No doubt she is raging from the betrayal.

And I am forbidden to go to her.

Ice cold thoughts filter through my mind. Plans. Projections. Deaths that are needed. Blows that need to be made.

“And where is Savage?” Minnie sniffs. “She wouldn’t want him to be acting like this.” She jerks her chin to the bodies behind me.

“It’s time for a meeting.” Even to me, my voice sounds like death.

We hear Savage well before we enter the underground rocky cavern. It’s the same one Lyle had previously used to cage us, what seems like a lifetime ago now. My wolf brother rages within the central electrified cage, the sizzle of electricity and scent of burnt wolf’s flesh saturating the air.

Minnie rushes into the cavern after me, before a gasp stops her dead. “He’s half-shifted?”

Marduk and Yeti protectively flank their regina as she wanders forward in horrified awe.

I, too, survey my brother, except a sadistic smile twitches at my lips. It pleases me that his love for our regina is on full display in this maddened form.

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