Page 20 of Her Vicious Beasts: The Beginning (Her Vicious Beasts)
Xander
I stand with the Slaughter Brothers Inc.
behind the smouldering ruin of Halfeather’s mansion, wiping the old beak’s blood off my face.
Tearing Halfeather’s skull in half had been both pleasurable and satisfying in every possible way.
Burning his mansion to cinders with my own flames was another type of dream come true.
I’d have to thank whoever had started the fire, but only dragon fire could turn a building like this to cinders.
We’d let the female staff go except one Scythe had tied up and thrown outside for the police with a message tied around her neck.
Of the males, only Beak escaped, who Savage had really wanted to get his claws on for flirting with the snake girl.
Before us stands her father, the Serpent King, looking down his nose at us with beady black eyes.
Eyeing him with my magical sight, Mace Naga is shrouded in heavy, oily power.
Scumbag serpent magic. The filthy, slithering creatures are known for it, and it’s one of many reasons everyone hates snakes and the purge had been done, and why a dragon would never lower himself to deal with one.
The fact that my mate had come from this evil bastard? I’ve done many shameful things in my twenty-three years, but I’ve never been so ashamed in my life.
But as a member of this mating group, I am bound to help these males who have become my brothers. We are just as soul-bound to each other as we are to the snake girl.
We fight like brothers do, and it is just as well that these beasts are some of the few males who can handle my angry blows—Scythe had laughed the last time I’d landed a lucky blow and shattered his nose. The one and only time I had seen him laugh, crazy bastard.
So it was with great annoyance that our escape was stopped by a bunch of snake shitheads and their slippery king.
Savage had dragged me along to speak with the father of the regina he was pussy-crazed for. Initially, I thought he’d wanted to kill the man, but something bigger is at play here.
“As loath as I am to admit it,” the Serpent King says in a dull voice that has me instantly suspicious, “Aurelia organised this fire to kill us all. I believe her mates were in mind when she started it in the dungeons.”
I narrow my gaze upon him, trying to detect any falsehood. But the truth is that I have been wondering why the fire started underground. The fact that he knows we are her mates is also surprising.
“She tried to kill us,” Savage repeats, not quite believing his hot piece of ass would try and kill him. I’ve known all along she was capable of something like that, though. She had to be powerful to be regina to the Slaughter Brothers and me.
And she’d been lying to us the entire time she’d been down there.
Scythe is seething. I can see the icy cold force fluttering around him like lethal shards. He’s livid about many things right now, but knowing that his regina is purposefully hiding herself is going to set him off on a rage, especially considering what had gone on between him and his own parents.
Hell, I was seconds away from shifting and launching myself into the sky.
Cracking my neck, I raise the volume on my device and change the song. It shuffles to one of the new songs the snake girl had given me. I rip the USB out of the player and throw it far into the grass.
Savage sees me, scowls, and runs to pick it up from the ground, cradling it to his chest as he returns to us.
He sniffs it as if he can chase her scent on it.
His nostrils flare as he tries to get a whiff of her and fails.
He’s been sniffing the foil chocolate wrapper every hour for the past two days, but hasn’t been able to get a read from it.
“She’s been hiding her scent from us.” Savage frowns. He holds the USB up to Scythe, who takes it from him and sniffs it, too. I know already there’s nothing to sniff on it, nor on the track pants she gave Scythe.
She’s forgotten one thing, though. She let her protections down that night we were all at her house, and even in his astral form Savage was able to scent her properly when he tasted her.
Whatever her stupidity, these gifts had been cunning ways to manipulate us.
“Yes, that is a complication of her peculiar powers,” the Serpent King says. “That is why I need you, as her mates, to track her down. She needs to be stopped. She needs to be executed.”
Fucking hell, he’s outing his own daughter. The whole family is off. I thought mine were bad, but this guy is worse. At least my family keeps their punishments within the court.
“You want us to do it?” Scythe’s rasp is raspier than ever from smoke inhalation, but there is no sign of pain as the Great White assesses the snake.
“She’ll be charged for murder and sent to the prison for ferals. It will be a kindness to execute her.”
Savage blows out a breath because he’s been to that prison and knows what its like.
I can see he’s upset about his regina being taken away from him, the sappy bastard.
But trying to kill us is a kind of blasphemy that beasts hardly ever see.
It’s a real sort of mad anima who tries to kill the other pieces of her soul group.
Fuck. I really do think she needs to die, and if she has no scent, Savage is the only one who can track her.
“We’ll do it,” I say, edging away from him.
Savage glances at me, then at Scythe. Our great leader doesn’t make any movement, but that’s normal for him. I glance his way and see a green aura of assent around his head.
“You must make a blood binding to the terms,” the snake says. “Or she may try to manipulate you. You will recover her. You can do whatever needs to be done to bring her back, but you will not mate with her. When you bring her back, I’ll deal with her the Old Way.”
I roll my eyes at Savage, who is so pussy-crazed that he’s foaming at the mouth to get back to her. I don’t know if he’ll agree, but this is personal now.
“Fine,” Savage bites out. “We’ll do it.”
Shrugging, I offer my hand first to get it over and done with. The serpent brings out a ceremonial serpent dagger and pricks my index finger, muttering the binding over the wound. My entire finger burns like it’s been stung by a bee.
The thought of mating with her makes me feel sick. She tried to manipulate us, then kill us, now she’s run away from us all. It’s not natural. It’s a heinous crime, and though it’s a shame I won’t have a regina, I won’t stand by such an insult.
“I agree not to mate with my regina,” I say. “And I’ll deliver her to you.” Light flares from the cut and it becomes a coiled black marking.
If I mate with the girl, the thing will curdle my blood and kill me from the inside out. When we return her, the binding will fade away.
Once he’s repeated the ritual on the Slaughter Brothers, he says, “There. Now you are bound. Go and find my daughter.”