Page 1 of Her Vicious Beasts: The Beginning
Chapter 1
Aurelia
My vibrator is broken.
Pressing the on/off button aggressively over and over again does nothing. Neither does changing the batteries. I swear under my breath, tossing the cheap pink silicon towards the end of my bed where it bounces off my faded purple coverlet and onto the floor with athunk, almost knocking over my huge stack of thrift store romance novels.
That tiny saviour of a device had been the cheapest I could find on my limited budget, and I can’t afford to get a replacement. A heavy blow, to be sure.
Morning beams of sunlight stream through my tattered curtains and I fling an arm over my eyes for a single moment of mourning before I have to get up for the day.
An orgasm—fuelled by Draco and Hermione fan fiction—is the best way to recharge my powers, and the one highlight of my miserable days. I’ll now have to settle for being a little lethargic and irritable until I can get back home tonight for a proper self-care session. My anima prowls under my skin, annoyed and demanding release, but the poor beast inside of me will just have to make do. She’s been particularly jumpy lately, but I’m sure it’s all to do with me leaving town soon.
Reaching for the phone on my bedside table, I open up myAnimalia Todaynews app and check the latest:
A rabid wolf serial killer has finally been caught, many thanks to the Lioness Mums United Retrieval Team. His head is on display at the front of their headquarters for all to see.
Relations between the human population and Animalia are “better than ever” according to the Council’s latest reports.
There’s a missing dragon, heir to the Drakos line, who appears to have gotten caught up in some underground crime ring.
The Deputy Headmaster of Animus Academy is being praised for his feral youth rehab program.
Political nonsense,yada yada. Council of Beasts ass kissing,yada yada.
Nothing new.
I only have two weeks of summer holidays left before I leave for college. An actualhumancollege. For the first time in seven years, I’m actually excited about something. After I finished high school, I did an online course on advancing my healing skills where I did super well, so that got me a scholarship at an interstate college. My bags are already packed. I’m making a life for myself,bymyself and I couldn’t be prouder.
When I turned twenty earlier this year, I was officially an animalia adult meaning that freedom from my father is on the horizon. After moving states, I’ll join the local branch of the Court of Wings and get to live my life away from him forever.
I only have to survive fourteen more days in my aunt’s shop.
When I turned thirteen, my dad made an agreement—well, let’s be real—hadorderedmy aunt that I was to work in her store every day after my schoolwork was done. Now that I no longer needed a guardian, I’m to work there until I leave for college. In exchange, I get a tiny allowance to cover food and am allowed to stay in this one-bedroom rustic affair, one huff and puff away from falling apart. The paint is peeling in every one of the three rooms and the living room ceiling leaks during even the lightest of rain, but it is mine to do with as I please.
Which is just as well because I’m not allowed to leave it for anything other than work.
It’s a way for my father to keep me in my place. To show me where I belonged after I hit puberty and it was revealed that I’d taken my mother’s genes and my anima wasnota serpent like everyone had hoped. Father moved me out of home, I got kicked out of the Serpent Court, removed as serpent heir and put here, out of sight but still under his thumb.
I’m forbidden from speaking about my mother and the genes I inherited from her. In fact, I’m forbidden to speak to any animalia at all unless it involves one of the occasional jobs I do for my father.
But nothing can stop me now, and I grin at the thought of finally making some friends at college as I haul myself out of bed and into the bathroom. I just manage to shower and get my work clothes on before a tingle of warning shoots through me.
Someone is walking through the shield I’ve set at the perimeter of the house. I stand to attention, heart pounding, simply listening to the dreaded panging of my heart.
There is only one person in the entire world who could get past one of my house shields and simply walk onto this property.
Just one.
Chapter 2
Aurelia
Panicking, I dart from my bathroom into my tiny living room just in time to see the front door slam open and two of my father’s lackeys skulk in. I stiffen, frozen to the spot as the two women, wiry and hunched, dressed in black overcoats and black jeans, check my house for threats, looking anywhere but me. They both wear black lipstick and heavy black eyeliner—the snakes of my father’s court prefer a grunge style of fashion. In general, animalia always like to dress to the style of their order, so there are always telltale signs of what beast they are:
Lions always wear their hair long, often braided; males and females both.
Eagles and other birds choose spiky hair styles, mohawks and so on.
