Page 149 of Her Tortured Beasts

“Good.” I climb up our hidden stairs and put my regina down, taking her wee little face in my paws. “Are you happy that old turkey is dead?”

She closes her eyes briefly, putting her hands over my own. “Yes.”

I remove my hands and wrap my arms around her, pulling her close so she can feel how my heart beats for her.

Lyle, Scythe and unfortunately Xander, now with clothes on, make their way up the stairs as we part. Lyle is holding Xander’s golden chain and I give them both a dirty look.“She needs to recover from that fucking soppy sop speech,”I tell them.“Get the blind lizard out of here.”

“We all need to recover from that soppy sop speech,”Lyle replies.“But Xander wanted to say something to Lia in private.”

My regina is not paying attention to us, giving Henry kisses and petting him by the dining table. I suddenly get the urge to eat the furball again.

“Aurelia,” Scythe says, going over to them. He pets Henry with a finger.

She looks up at him with admiration. “You did this, didn’t you?”

Scythe puts a possessive arm around her and kisses her lips.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Lia turns to Xander then, her eyes flicking down to his collar and the chain still in Lyle’s hand. Our lion offers it to her.

She places Henry on her shoulder and strays towards Xander, eyeing him. “Take off your shirt.”

“Excuse me!” I cry.

She casts me a look and I sigh. “Now,” she commands.

Xander fiddles with the shirt. I don’t understand why there’s so many buttons on those things, but eventually, the black shirt opens and he drops it to the floor.

I roll my eyes and throw my hands up in the air in annoyance.

Xander looks like he has chicken pox except with bullets. They’re all lodged across his torso, shoulders, and even a couple in his arms. I hope there’s a few in his ass too.

“Unless there’s one in his dick, I don’t get what the problem is,” I say, irritated because my regina,myregina is stepping forward. I want to pull her back to safety, but she only steps closer to the betrayer.

“Why don’t you heal yourself?” she asks in a softy voice.

I narrow my eyes at the dragon. He says nothing, his chest heaving, all shiny with sweat. I’m glad he’s hurting.

My regina raises her palm, but it’s as if she doesn’t want to. Like she’s fighting herself, she rests her palm on his pec. Her power ripples through the air like the downdraft of one of her wing beats. It goes into him and I scowl as, one by the one, the bullets pop out and fall to the carpet.

“That’s for Henry,” she says.

“Of course,” Xander says tightly.

“Shut up,” I drawl, stepping forward myself to sniff suspiciously at the both of them. I inspect Xander’s skin. Skin that once bled for me. Skin I once bled for. Skin that covers the creature that ripped my heart out of my body and ate it whole. His right arm is covered with his family’s tribal tattoo. The one he got after his mating mark came in and he became a man in the eyes of his ancestors. I snarl, “I should skin that family tattoo off your fucking body.”

Xander’s head snaps to me from where he was rudely staring at my regina. “Would you?”

“What?” I snap.

“Will you flay it off me, Savage? The tattoo.”

I meet his eye, letting him see the hate I have, the distrust. Letting him see the place my soul used to be and the damage he did. How I wish I could murder him with my teeth. I growl, dark and intent. “You fucking know I would.”

He smiles, but there is no happiness, no humour there. “Do you have time now?”

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