Her Psycho Beasts, page 3
part #3 of Her Vicious Beasts Series
Just the same way my soul craves the presence of my regina. She’s in Sabrina’s dorm room, frowning up at Scythe. The shark stares mildly back.
She senses me immediately and perfect baby blue eyes find my own. That inner violence settles, the pressure in my chest easing as I stalk up to her and pull her soft body against mine. She allows it, and satisfaction joins the warmth of her presence.
“Anything?” Scythe’s voice is clipped ice.
“Christine couldn’t recall anything.”
Silence. We both know what this means.
Aurelia opens her mouth, but we don’t have time for discussion. I need to protect her. My hand slides down to her hip, and she looks up at me in surprise.
“I’ve spoken to the guards outside. They’re rounding everyone up. I’m starting the monthly lockdown early. We need to go.”
Scythe nods in approval and strides out. I follow with Aurelia tucked into my side, the skin of her arm warm against my bare torso. A coldness strikes my chest when she leaves me to hug her friends and whisper reassurances in their ears.
Yeti, Minnie’s white tiger, and I stand protectively around the group, on high alert for signs of more danger. The nimpins on the animas’ shoulders all squeak with worry.
I found Cherry, Sabrina’s bright red nimpin, dead in the garden bed outside. One of my guards took her to the medical clinic for an autopsy, but it doesn’t take much blunt force trauma to kill something so small. They won’t find anything unusual. This is also something I’m hoping to keep quiet for the moment, it could very well tip the animas over.
“Let’s go,” I growl, using telekinesis to yank my regina out of Stacey’s trembling arms. “Raquel, stay in Stacey’s room. You too, Connor.”
The wolf anim, pale under a fresh buzz cut and many silver facial piercings, nods grimly. Connor, the black lioness of the group, puts his long arms around them, his eyes glistening.
“Bossy,” Aurelia mutters under her breath as we depart in the wake of Yeti all but carrying Minnie out in his haste to get back to the pack dorms on the other side of campus.
My animus, however, doesn’t want to go back to my own apartment. Instead, it moves us in the direction of the animus dorms. Instinct tells me to be with my pack-brothers now.
In the dark outside, guards are striding about with torches, shouting at students to hurry into their dorms from the dining hall. Harrison, Ruben’s second-in-command, strides up to me with my phone. I snatch it out of his hand with my power, impatient to get Aurelia back inside to safety, despite her constant squirming against my side.
I rattle off a few more instructions to Harrison while simultaneously messaging Celeste and the group chat with the academy’s faculty.
There’s going to be a reshuffling of staff, and it’s going to mean big changes for us all.
We’re almost at the animus dorm when I murmur to my squirming regina, “Stop fighting me.”
Aurelia huffs. “If we go into lockdown now, how are we supposed to get Sabrina back? I’ve watched plenty of crime documentaries. You’re not supposed to let them move you to a different location, and we really need to concentrate—”
I stop in my tracks and grab her by the shoulders. “Crime documentaries? Angel, these are not some petty human criminals we’re dealing with.”
Scythe’s voice spears into our minds. “I’m working on it, Aurelia. For now, you need to lie low. And you know why.”
Her face falls as she realises the last of the students streaming around us are staring. Word moves fast when a good chunk of your student body are telepathic wolves. Word that Aurelia is one of the mythical Boneweavers we all thought were long extinct. Word that their deputy headmaster is her mate.
I shake my head to clear my animus of his murderous instincts and move Aurelia in front of me to walk up the dorm stairs. I don’t feel any sadness about losing my position, or about the altercation with Mace Naga and the Council of Beasts.
Because now we are free.
Free, at least, from Fredrick Ulman. Free to be with my regina. Free from my self-imposed cage.
We’re met with shocked silence as we walk through the third-floor corridor. Male students watch us from their doorways, some with their mouths open. While the back of my mind is already constructing a mass email to all the students, the front of my mind is more concerned with my newly claimed regina, and my need to care for and mark her again and again. In my attunement to her every movement, I notice her glancing at one particular dorm room.
“He’s not here,” I reassure her. “Titus. And a few tigers have left with him.”
The guards had told me that in the chaos of Fredrick Ulman’s death and subsequent escape of the serpent students, the Clawson tigers dragged a flaccid Titus into one of the departing trucks. His face had been streaming with blood. Apparently, both his upper and lower jaws had been broken, but no one was sure how. I need to question the guards.
“I really need a shower,” she says, plucking at her borrowed clothes with disgust as we reach the trick floor.
“Let’s do that,” I say, following her into the bedroom and appraising the beds as we pass them.
But she pauses on the threshold of the bathroom, staring at her fingernails and saying quietly, “I just need a little time alone.”
My heart plummets.
“I…” Around my claimed regina, I seem to struggle for words. Especially when she pierces my heart with that observant gaze. And it’s so quiet up here. Finally, a moment of peace. Just for us. I look at her beautiful face, the glistening of her lashes, the wild power that writhes within her even now. She killed for me. And not just killed, but destroyed something that had haunted me for ten long years. Even if she hadn’t been my regina, I would have claimed her anyway for that. I know I have to tell her the truth of things. “I…can’t.”
“Can’t what?” She blinks up at me in confusion.
I swallow. “Leave you. Now. Not ever.”
A smile twitches her lips, and it blinds me for a moment. “It’s just the next room, Lyle.”
My name on her lips sinks into my bones. I gently cup her cheek in one hand. It makes her face look so small. So vulnerable. “I know, angel.”
She softens into my touch then. Perhaps at the tone of my voice or the slightly wild look that is no doubt claiming my features.
“Alright then.”
Relief is a torrential downpour through my chest.
Chapter 5
Aurelia
My world is simultaneously growing bigger and smaller. While my insides churn with something new and expansive, I feel so small standing at the middle of the three sinks in my mates’ massive bathroom.
Lyle fills a bowl with soap and warm water for Henry to soak in while I riffle through my toiletries, pulling out the medical tape I’d been using to hold my bandages in place.
Everyone knows about my wounds, so there’s no point in hiding them anymore.
And now everyone knows about my biggest secret, too.
My hands tremble as I set the tape next to the waterproof bandaging and grip the edge of the black marbled counter before the floor falls from under me.
I’ve kept this secret my entire life. I’ve held onto it so tightly that it had slipped right out of my fingers.
No, it had fucking exploded like a pipe bomb. And my ears are still ringing from the aftershock. I can’t help but feel vulnerable. Torn open. As if I’d spilled my insides out for everyone in the world to poke and prod at.
Everything is going to be different now, and the dangerous world I’ve been living in has suddenly gotten a whole lot more lethal. Not only for me, but for those I love.
First Savage, then Sabrina.
Who will be next?
The bathroom walls press in on me.
“Hey, it’s alright.” Lyle’s voice is whisper soft as he presses himself against my back, a reminder that I have a wall of solid muscle protecting me. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, feeling his towering strength and letting it ground my flailing senses. It doesn’t stop the gigantic poisonous feeling trawling in my stomach, making tears burn through my eyes and stream down my cheeks. I’ve not done this right. Not at all. In the history of fuck-ups, this is right up there.
Lyle brushes his lips along the skin under my ear, and instantly, a warmth tries to push the poison away.
I let out a strangled sob as it all hits me.
Lyle spins me around and wraps his arms around my trembling bones. I bury my face in his naked chest, shoulder-wracking sobs attacking my body, my mind. It feels like an assault, the way the fear and overwhelm slam into me, pummelling my chest, my heart.
Through it all, Lyle holds me, murmuring gentle words into my hair that I can’t hear right now.
Images flash through my mind’s eye, Fredrick Ulman’s face as I launched myself at him, the barrel of his gun…the sensation of his skull inside my long, powerful jaw—Lyle’s burnt face, the smell of burning fur—blood in my mouth—the cut end of Sabrina’s tail.
My throat burns, my head pounds, and my insides twist until Lyle’s stroking hand slowly but surely sweeps the pain, not away, but aside, into a corner of my mind. It finally lets me breathe.
“We’re together.” His voice echoes off the black bathroom tiles. “You have me, and we’re going to work together. Me and you.”
“And Scythe,” I whisper hoarsely. And even more quietly, I add, “And Savage.”
“Yes, angel, them too. You wouldn’t let us help before, but now you will. Right?”
I sigh in a long breath. “Right.” It’s the reassurance we both need. “I just know Sabrina is terrified and it’s all my fucking fault—”
Lyle grips me firmly by the biceps. His near angelic face is wild with fury, those amber eyes flaring. But I know it’s not directed at me. “There’s only one person responsible for this, regina, and it’s not you.”
Regina.
That word coming out of his mouth is enough to make me close my eyes and forget the many pains in my heart. I’d never thought I’d hear him say it. I’d never thought Lyle Pardalia would claim me, rough and raw on the bitumen at the gate before the academy.
It healed a part of me. His bite is on my neck, and mine is on his. Here he is, pressing his body possessively against mine, saying that he can’t leave me.
“Scythe said he’ll find her,” I say thickly. “And he didn’t look worried about Savage. Like…not at all.”
Lyle kisses the top of my head and huffs a laugh. “Savage will see the entire thing as an adventure. An adventure, that has you as its end goal.”
That’s enough to open my eyes, so I can look at my perfect lion in disbelief. Said perfect lion responds by gently tugging my T-shirt over my head. His eyes darken as he surveys the violent slashes of my father’s psychic attack before I hand him the plastic bandage.
I put my arms up in the air and twirl around and around as he rolls the waterproof material over my abdomen. The Lady Phoenix Headmistress of Animus Academy, Celeste Agnis, had given me her tears to heal the necrotic wounds, but had warned me it would take time for it to reach its full effect. My father sure knew how to make a lasting impression.
He’d also known exactly where to strike to hurt me emotionally by taking one of my friends. But Scythe was bloody right. We need to be careful. We need to be smart.
Warily, I strip off my pants, fully aware of Lyle watching me more closely than any eagle as he, too, removes his track pants. With both of us fully naked, he reaches for my hand, but I hesitate.
There are three shower heads on the wall of the massive black and gold tiled monstrosity that is the shower. And I don’t even look at the massive inset bathing pool that’s supposed to be for Scythe.
“Let me look after you,” Lyle says, tugging me into the shower. “Let me wash his blood off you. The only scent you’ll bear is mine.” A crease forms between his fair brows before he corrects himself. “Ours.”
Scythe’s cut on my finger suddenly stings as Lyle turns on the central shower head and tests the water. With his back turned to me, I raise the offending finger and stare at the incision Scythe had licked.
I’d been so shocked at the time that I’d just stared, my breath trapped in my lungs, that space between my legs throbbing as he’d tasted my finger. Whatever he’d sensed in my blood had made him shudder, and there was this momentary look on his face that I couldn’t decipher.
It had robbed me of all thought. To see that otherworldly beauty smoothed out like water over the softest sand. And then it was all over, and both lion and shark had read an understanding in each other’s eyes that I was not privy to. Annoyance flashes through my veins as Lyle, washcloth in hand, tugs me under the warm spray and begins to gently soap my chest. The body wash smells like peach and mango, and I know it’s Savage’s.
My annoyance turns into something awfully sad as the backs of my eyes burn and I grab a random shampoo from the lineup of products in the recess and begin hastily going at my hair before a further flood of tears is unleashed. Lyle quickly washes himself as I rinse my hair and then aggressively condition it. He’s helping me again by then, rinsing out the conditioner with large, soothing fingers.
My eyes catch on Lyle’s wet skin glistening under the golden lights, and I can’t help but place a hand on the stable surface of his smooth chest. He has a scattering of golden hair that I run my fingers over as he rubs the washcloth down my back and lower still. Something languid wanders through my lower belly as he replaces the washcloth with his hand. I sigh, resting my cheek on his chest as the warm water runs down my back and steam wafts in swirls around us.
Lightheaded from the warmth and the glowing embers of desire, I savour the feeling of safety and security I suddenly feel with him. Lyle has always felt like the sun. And now being with him is like lying on fresh green grass on a clear summer’s day, warm and relaxed. After tonight’s events, it’s not really until this moment that I feel at ease. That my muscles relax and my naked skin wants to melt into his. The impressive length of his cock stiffens between us, and I can’t help but smile and nuzzle into his chest.
“Angel,” comes a rough whisper against my neck. “Let me worship you. Because I’m going to spend the rest of my life on my knees, repenting for every fucking thing I did before we became one. Let me make it better, just for a moment.”
I shiver with delight as he presses an open-mouthed kiss to my shoulder, then my neck. Turning around, I press my back against his front and guide his big hand to the place I want it most.
Lyle growls in his chest as his fingers slide through my moist heat. His hand cups my centre possessively before he explores what’s there. I sigh, tilting my head back as his other hand slides up my wet body to my neck, the water pounding over the hot skin of my breasts and nipples.
“I need you in me,” I say, angling my head towards him.
His newly integrated animus makes a guttural sound of lusty desperation before he simultaneously plunges a finger into my wet core and captures my needy lips with his. I clutch at both his hands, giving into him and his rabid animus completely.
We’d only claimed each other a few hours ago, the sting of his bite still warm on my neck, but it’s only made me want him more. He growls into my mouth, wanting me to know that he craves me too, while his villainous finger tortures my pussy with sweet, golden bliss. His thumb finds my clit, and one of my hands winds itself into his wet hair as I grind against him, taking what I need. I need touch; I need warmth; I need my mates more than anything in the world, and I tell Lyle that with my moving hips and my searching tongue.
Lyle’s kiss gets rougher with my silent, wanton language, and he breaks off only for a moment to spin me around and pick me up by the waist. My legs wrap around his hips and he shoves me up against the wall.
I hiss at the cold tile on my back but am quickly distracted as he possessively captures my mouth again, his fist wrapped around his cock to get in position.
My groan is deep in my throat as I allow him in, letting the sweet burn of his girth stretch my entrance. He’s always been overwhelming in his size, and I break off our kiss to breathe him in. He makes a sound of masculine pleasure as he thrusts a gentle entry, clearly showing great restraint from the way he bites my shoulder.
“My angel,” he groans, sinking deeper. “My Aurelia.”
I cry out his name as he thrusts into me so deeply that he’s finally fully sheathed. The sense of fullness consumes my body and mind, and his heady power tumbling through me fills my very soul. And it’s my anima who whispers to me, made to be together. Made to be one.
“Yes, angel,” he says, blowing out a measured breath as he thrusts slowly. “Tell me how good it feels. Tell me how much you need this too.”
“Oh Goddess. Lyle, you feel so fucking good,” I gasp, completely out of breath, overwhelmed by him.
He presses his forehead to mine. “Tell me if it hurts, sweetheart.” His kindness to me, despite his clear, near-trembling control on his own leash, almost makes me come.
“No, I love it,” I whisper against his mouth. “Please give me more.”
That unleashes him. He snarls as he draws out and his hips slam into me over and over again.
I do nothing but scream and savour him as he takes me, claiming me in the way I’ve always wanted, the way we’ve both always wanted.
Lyle’s animus grunts and growls against my neck, rutting into me with that possessive force. The steam curls around us, the water drums against his back, muffling my cries of pleasure. I spiral upward, higher and higher until my body explodes into multicoloured shards, eyes rolling to the back of my head as I spasm around Lyle’s cock. My lion comes with a roar, wrapping his arms around my waist and pumping a violent stream of warm cum into me.
Being filled by him is nothing short of all-consuming heaven.
When we walk out of the bathroom, we arrive to a pleasant surprise. Where before three bed stood in the bedroom, the Academy has seen fit to replace Savage’s middle bed with a carpet and add an adjoining room. Henry excitedly zips over the explore the new room and we follow to find a giant pack bed occupying the space. It’s complete with a plush red carpet a sideboard on the left, and a tub chair on the right.
