50. Savage

Chapter 50

Savage

M y regina speeds onwards like a woman possessed. I leap to my feet and bound after her and Eugene.

"Don't disturb her," Scythe warns me as I reach out a hand. "She's caught the bond."

I gasp, dropping my hand and realising that my chompy princess is taken by a scent so strongly that she's not blinking, barely breathing as she determinedly follows something I can't see.

If my regina is on a hunt, then it is my sole job to make sure she does it uninterrupted.

I hunch into a prowl, sniffing out the path ahead for signs of the enemy. Scythe flanks Aurelia's other side with Lyle taking the rear again.

I'm so proud of her for sending our boogeyman running back there. He's a giant asshole, and if I have any say about it, will pay for what he's done.

"She sort of looks like you when you're focused on something," I muse to my blood-brother.

Scythe glances at me but says nothing, his eyes returning to roam the back of our regina's body.

Whether he wants to admit out loud or not, I can tell he's falling for her. It's the way his eyes are like a net, gathering her in, wanting to keep her close.

"Stop smiling," Scythe says without looking at me. "Focus."

"I am focused." I can focus while smiling.

My regina's tiny feet make quick work of the stone corridors, not even hesitating at the corners and intersections. Eugene is settled in her arms, though I want to rip him away from her and eat him for being that close. But it seems she wants him there.

"Beasts ahead, " I tell the group chat.

"We can't use the shield," Scythe says. "It'll likely stop her from seeing the bond."

But Aurelia isn't in such a deep trance because she says, "I'll deal with it."

My brows shoot up in happiness and I cast a grin at Scythe, then over my shoulder at Lyle, who's also staring at her hungrily. Our regina. The leader of our pack. The love of my life.

I feel all giddy and bubbly inside as the stone floor suddenly becomes the modern plastic stuff they have in the medical wing at the academy. The light changes from warm-yellow to cold bluish-white, and there are machines beeping and people talking in the far distance. Aurelia raises a hand, not to stop us, but to tell us the invisibility shield is going back up. Just in time for us to turn the corner and enter what looks like a hospital ward.

There's a desk that says ‘reception' and pictures of pregnant women and their pups. There are lots of doors leading to rooms, but they are all empty. The entire place is dead, and my nose tells me it's been that way for a long time.

"An old maternity ward, " Lyle says with interest. "I'm guessing Mace didn't want his court's hatchlings out in the open."

That makes sense. He's paranoid as fuck. But now it's empty, cleared for its VIP patient. She's been all alone down here, and that makes me so sad I want to whine.

Aurelia doesn't seem to be fazed by this because she's dropped our shield again and is concentrating on her mark. She weaves us through the hallways until the beeping gets louder and louder.

We come to a set of double doors that are shut. Aurelia steps aside and Lyle is sweating by the time there's a crack and they fall outwards. He gentles their fall but not before two eagle animas, dressed in blue scrubs, stop dead in their tracks, their eyes going wide as they catch sight of our unexpected presence.

Aurelia's hand lashes out, shooting telepathy to hold them in place. Their fear perfumes the air as our pack stalks forward as a unit.

"You have my mother here," my regina hisses at them with a terrible fury that makes me shudder.

Excitement floods my veins as she sets Eugene on the ground.