4. Lyle

Chapter 4

Lyle

I storm back into the anima dorms, taking the stairs three at a time. In my fucking school. An anima student had been taken in my fucking territory. Violence is a living thing inside my veins and doors slam closed as I pass the lower floors. My animus roars for retribution and vengeance so furiously that my vision winks in and out. But we work together now, my animus and I; he has no need to take over my human side.

On the fourth floor, Yeti watches over a huddle of Minnie, Raquel, Stacey, and Connor. The animas flinch and flatten themselves against the wall as I pass them. Yeti possessively takes Minnie's hand.

"Get ready to head back in your rooms." I command. "Lockdown in ten."

The Council might have removed me from my official capacity as deputy headmaster of this academy, but the beast in me still claims this territory as mine to protect.

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.