Page 9 of Her Vicious Beasts: The Beginning (Her Vicious Beasts)

Aurelia

“ P rincess, get away from my brother.” Savage’s deep voice cuts through the spell the shark has on me and I shake myself before moving away to the steel door my patient lies behind.

Savage pushes his head through the bars of his cell.

He’s sitting down already, but there are bags under his eyes that make him look even more dangerous.

He gives me a sort of deranged smile that makes my stomach flop.

“What happened to the hyena?” I ask quietly.

A low, dark laugh, like a rumbling volcano, comes from the dragon in the cell behind me. “It got what was coming to it.”

I turn to look at the dragon, feeling Savage watch my every move. I can’t see much of the male except to note that he, too, is chained, but not to a chair like the shark. Instead, both his arms are stretched out, chains binding him to the walls on either side. Barbaric; his arms must hurt so much.

I can’t make out his face, where the light doesn’t reach, but I can see he has black jeans on the bottom half of a typical dragon male’s body.

Cut from stone, lean, shredded muscle that’s puckered with scars, old and new.

He has a piercing on one nipple and, in typical dragon style, long black hair cascading down his defined pecs.

But the thing most interesting about him is the pair of white headphone cords leading up to his ears.

A device is hooked into the waistband of his jeans.

“Checking me out, hatchling?” the dragon rumbles. His voice is cold and monotone.

I jump, pulling myself out of a thirsty haze and hope my face isn’t sheepish. “Sorry. Don’t your arms hurt?”

I get the impression he’s glaring at me through the bars, but Savage snorts from behind me. “My brother is a little bloodthirsty shark. He took care of the hyena, princess. You don’t have to worry about him talking shit to you anymore.”

My heart leaps into my throat as I whirl back around. “What?” I exclaim. “How did he— When— What?!”

Savage smirks, looking me up and down, and I heat up immediately. Even slumped against the bars of his cell, he looks capable of jumping up at a minute’s notice and tearing somebody’s throat out. But the shark in the other cell couldn’t have gotten to the hyena in the cell opposite him, surely.

I don’t know what is more confusing. The fact that he’d managed it, or the fact that he’d done it out of some chivalry.

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it,” Savage says.

I scowl at the condescension in his voice and then stop short of a retort. “Wait, did you say brother ?” I frown at Savage.

He doesn’t take his eyes off me. “Mmm.”

“But he’s a?—”

“Our father was the rex of two females. One wolf, one shark.”

While it isn’t uncommon to have a mating group with different orders, a marine in a soul-bond with land animalia is incredibly rare and unfortunate since they could never all be truly together for their whole lives.

But this is also the very reason I can’t reveal my mating group to anyone— all five of my mates are males of different animus orders.

It’s more than strange—it should be impossible.

I promptly decide that’s enough interacting with the prisoners for today and sit down in my usual spot in front of the steel door. Before I start, I glance behind me at the dragon.

“Why does he have headphones in?” I ask Savage quietly.

“Do you know where the term ‘berserk’ comes from, princess?” he asks, looking at his fingernails.

I shake my head, wondering where this is going.

“It comes from the people known as the Berserkers of old Northern Europe. They were like Vikings, a fighting and pillaging sort of lifestyle. But these people would run into battle and go into a trance-like state where they’d kill anything and anyone in their path.

Including each other. So, Xander is kinda like that.

Without his music, he goes nuts and tries to kill everyone. ”

I raise my brows and glance over my shoulder again, where I’m sure the dragon, Xander, is listening. But he remains silent in his cell.

That explains why they’d allowed the music, but the thought of a beast needing such a thing to control himself speaks volumes about the kind of life he’s had. Dragons are brutal beasts, but usually their youth are extremely well cared for.

Savage smiles at me as if he hasn’t just told me two completely murderous things in the last five minutes. I’ve never been on the receiving end of a smile like this before. Not since I was child. It’s genuine, doting, almost honest, and it makes my heart do funny, unwelcome things.

I can’t help but return it. His eyes flick down to my lips, and I take a deep breath to calm my raging anima.

“Oh.” I remember, looking down at my hand. “Do you want some chocolate, Savage?”

“Mmm, say my name one more time.”

I glance back up at him in surprise, but he’s got his eyes closed. I take the opportunity to stare at his perfect, rugged face. The apex of my thighs is throbbing.

Clearing my throat, I say, “It’s um… a Hershey’s Kiss.”

His eyes fly open, his hazel eyes no more than blown out, dilated pupils. “Yes, Lia, I’ll take a kiss from you.”

I sincerely hope there really isn’t any surveillance in this dungeon like Xander told me that first day because I lean forward, going on my knees, and pass him the small, foil-wrapped chocolate. I’m careful to give it to him without our fingers touching.

“Do they feed you?” I ask, glancing at Xander behind me.

“Sometimes.” With his big fingers, Savage unwraps the foil delicately, corner by corner, as if he’s trying to stretch out the pleasure of opening it. I stare at him for a moment before I look back at the dragon.

I’m nervous to ask but, hell, you only live once, right? And these males seem like they could use a bit of kindness. “I can put this in your mouth if you like, um… Xander?”

The dragon is silent for a moment, before he says as if it’s a challenge, “Go on then, hatchling, how good is your aim?”

Blushing at the term of endearment used for winged children, I don’t tell him that my aim is not good at all. I get to my feet, unwrap the second chocolate from its foil and re-wrap it in one of my speciality shields.

I’m powerful at my secondary power, healing, but I’m even better at shields.

I make a show of tossing the chocolate towards Xander’s mouth, but in reality, I just levitate it really fast towards him. He shifts a little to catch it, but it finds its mark. Once the chocolate is in his mouth, he goes still. Apex predator still.

And I know he’s sensed the bubble shield I had around the chocolate.

He thinks I’m an eagle because of my healing powers. This is the narrative we’ve been weaving my whole life. I shouldn’t have this extra magic like I do. It’s not a known power to any animalia order.

It was a stupid, stupid risk, but he is a prisoner. Who’s he going to tell? And who would believe him?

Hastily, I shuffle away, and to my relief, he doesn’t say anything. The third chocolate is in my hand and I glance back at Savage. The wolf is concentrating deeply on his chocolate and I see that he’s only taken teeny bites from the corners.

My heart pangs in sadness a little.

“Will your brother take one, do you think?”

“Who, Scythe?” he says, eyes darting down the dungeon. “Nah, he only eats raw fish these days.”

“Ah, right.”

So the shark is a little more than feral. I sit down to start my work, goosebumps puckering my skin as I remember those ice-blue eyes sitting just feet from me.

When I leave with Beak and Scuff after my healing session, I’m surprised by the heaviness I feel at leaving the prisoners behind me. I vaguely wonder if this is how people feel when they part with their friends.