61. Aurelia

Chapter 61

Aurelia

T he next day, we meet my animas in the dining room. My mates get shoved aside as I arrive at the table, and Minnie, Stacey, Raquel, Connor and Sabrina crowd around me in a group hug. I cry again, but they hide me from the rest of the dining hall and fix my makeup afterwards so it's not a total disaster like the rest of my life. Minnie holds my hand as we eat and is a good sport about Savage's constant grumbling that he doesn't get to sit next to me. I think she might have even enjoyed annoying him.

Sabrina, still wearing the same black hoodie we brought her back in, nods absently while the others tell me about the goings on in the academy. Marduk's classes are a hit with the animuses, and he's become somewhat of a celebrity with his scary and bizarre stories. Apparently, there was even a story about how he'd killed someone with only a vegetable peeler. Minnie blushes any time his name comes up, and I'm glad she's warmed up to him—apparently more than warmed up to him if his scent on her skin is anything to go by. Damien had disappeared for two days and then returned in a happy mood, even agreeing for a group of student wolves to DJ at the upcoming ball.

The animas are working on organising their dresses for the ball since Damien had closed the village. It had made all the animas extremely irritable and more than one of the senior girls had detention scrubbing the communal toilets to make up for it.

"I'm making my own dress," Stacey says. "Sabrina is helping me with the embroidery. We're going for sunflowers."

Our leopard gives us a wan smile before silently returning to her dry toast. It was the fakest smile I've ever seen.

"How's she been?" I mentally ask Raquel.

"She's having counselling every day," Raquel replies, "with Theresa and Dolores, and is on at least two types of medication. But I don't know if any of it's been helping. Dolores won't let her into the MOTF program. We've been begging him, but he refused, saying that the council ordered her here for her crimes and she needs to serve out her sentence. It's fucking bullshit."

Mates of the Fallen is a mental health program for beasts who have lost their mates. There's a heavy emphasis on suicide prevention, which tells me just how worried Raquel is.

"We can't let her out of our sight," I say firmly.

"We've been taking it in shifts," Raquel confirms. "But it's hard, Lia. It's going to take her a long time to recover from this."

"You're talking about me, aren't you?" a soft voice startles me from looking at Raquel.

Sabrina is eyeing me from under her lashes. The thing about having telepathic conversations was that if you weren't careful, you still made the same facial expressions and body language of regular conversation.

"Can I help you in some way?" I ask, reaching over to grasp the back of her hand. "You'll tell me if there's anything I can do, right?"

"There's nothing anyone can do. Just like there's nothing anyone can do for your mum."

A dagger to a fresh wound. The back of my eyes prickle, but I don't let go of her hand.

"Sabrina!" Stacey gasps in dismay.

"She's hurting," I say softly. "We're all hurting. It's natural to lash out."

"Sorry," Sabrina whispers.

"Me too," I whisper back.

Connor sighs from my other side, putting his arm around my shoulders and stealing a strawberry from my plate. "We need to plan the demise of Dolores," he says. "It's really the only thing that'll make anyone feel better."

"I'll say," I groan. "He came creeping like a slug into my mind yesterday."

Savage growls over his bacon while everyone else gasps.

I recount the story and we spend the rest of the day trying to distract both me and Sabrina from our own minds.

It's but a few days later after classes that we do end up getting a bit of revenge on Dolores. Thankfully, there is no news of any retaliation from my father, nor did the Naga mansion fire make Animalia Today . Scythe isn't surprised, and I understand what he's thinking. As a crime lord, when you're attacked, the best thing to do is make out like nothing's wrong.

Even so, I channel energy into the shields that I have around the academy, and compared to the last few months, it doesn't drain my energy at all.

In fact, I find that I enjoy giving my power an escape. It helps fight the new fire in my blood and keeps me calm.

One afternoon, I'm with Savage at the back of the school for our ‘private time spelling classes' as he calls them, watching him toileting Toastie, the wombat joey, before we head inside.

"So if I get right twenty-six alphabets," Savage says, holding Toastie away from his body with his squat legs akimbo for a wee, "that means I get twenty-six kisses." He frowns. "But I need fifty a day to survive."

Toastie finishes his business and Savage coos at him before tucking him safely inside his bag.

Narrowing my eyes at the treetops, I consider Savage's words. "How about if you get the entire thing right, we skip the kisses and I give you a better reward?" I glance down at his crotch and bite my lip.

Savage's eyes widen, but he quickly schools his features, nodding seriously. "But I also need mouth kisses to live. What if I die just because you were too focused on my cock?"

He looks back at me, grinning. The setting sun strikes his face, suddenly lighting up his hazel eyes. He is really quite beautiful in a brutal way, and it's hard for me to deny him when he gets like this. And Goddess, I'd missed him so much when he was gone.

"Regina?" he asks softly.

I realise I've been staring at him wordlessly for the last minute. Heat fills my body. "Right, sorry. How about for every sentence you trace and sound out accurately, you choose where I kiss you?"

"Deal." A dark look crosses his face and he takes my hand. Silently, but with my heart absolutely pounding , I follow him inside and to one of the empty classrooms on the ground floor.

He removes Toastie's sling from around his neck and carefully hangs it from one of the coat hooks by the door. I hand him the pen and he sits down at the back of the classroom, opening his speciality literacy-for-canines exercise book. I perch on the desk next to him, watching like the good little tutor I am.

One perfectly copied sentence later, Savage sounds out slowly, "Eating bin-chickens is illegal." He looks up at me and taps his bottom lip.

I check his work first. "Correct." And plant a kiss loudly on his lips.

The next sentence: "The mullet should never have made a comeback."

He gets it right and points to his mating mark. I can't help but grin and lean in, giving it a little lick. He shudders in happiness, so I give him another one for good measure.

Savage grabs my hips and inhales deeply, as if trying to control himself. "I want to change the deal. Every time I get something right, I get to kiss you somewhere."

I laugh. "But it's supposed to be your reward!"

"That would be my reward." He grins impishly.

We move onto the next sentence. "Hard drugs are not healthy."

He gets it right and I use his pen to give the sentence a big tick. A slow smile spreads across his face as he stands up and points to my lap.

"Are you sure?" I ask. "I'm mostly finished with my period, but there might be?—"

"You think I'm scared of a little blood, regina?" he asks as he sinks onto his knees before me and pushes apart my legs. "I told you, everyone's been waiting for this."

"Please don't say everyone ," I groan as he leans right in.

"Mmm, my pretty regina," he says against the apex of my thighs. "You know I would do anything for you, don't you?"

"Including blowing up the anima dorms," I huff. "I know, wolf-man."

His fingers slide up my thighs, pulling down my panties and leggings together. "I'm never going to live that down. Tell me if it hurts, baby." He sets my leggings and underwear on the table next to us and returns to press a sweet kiss against my sex.

"So perfect," he murmurs against my clit.

Power pulses in my veins, and further out in a wave around us. I pant as that primal force at my centre demands to join with my mate. Savage licks my pussy with relish, moaning at the taste. His tongue makes tiny circles in just the most perfect spot, but then he grabs my feet and sets them on the table and I'm spread wide open for his pleasure. When he groans into me, the vibrations of it and the delicious movement of his tongue make me see stars. He knows just how to taste me, just how to flick and flutter his tongue in a way that makes my eyes roll right back.

"Fuck, Savage," I pant, gripping the sides of the table so hard I cut off the circulation in both hands. "I need to have you."

"Wha—"

"Let me have you," I demand. It kind of feels like being in heat except my head is in control. My power feels fizzy in my body, like it needs release. Like it needs a pressure valve and there's none to be found.

"If you don't put your cock in me right now, I'll?—"

Savage leaps up, wraps his arms around my waist and sets me on the floor. He spins me around and shoves me down, bending me over so I'm flush with the tabletop.

"You'll what , regina?" he growls, pressing his delicious, bare crown against my wet entrance. I wiggle against his girth, urging him in. I need him closer. As close as possible. The entire room shudders.

"Uh-oh," I murmur. "Hurry up."

He sheaths himself in me in one stroke. Both of us cry out.

"Yes!" I shout, sweeping my arms up to grab the top of the table. I know I'm going to need to hold on to something for this.

"Is that you shaking the room, regina?" Savage pants.

"Shut up and fuck me." My power all but jerks out of my reach and searches for his wolf where we're joined.

Savage obliges, fucking me hard and fast while I hold on to the edge of the table for dear life. I scream as my power funnels down, down, down, reaching for Savage.

My wolf grunts as he slams into me and accepts it. I sigh as the fizzing in my veins reduces bit by bit as Savage allows my funnel to pass into him, his hips unforgiving, both exactly what I need.

"Regina," he gasps as I feel his own power expand. "Are you sure?—"

"Take it!" I cry. "Don't stop!"

The room around us settles down just as there's a sound at the door and I shut my mouth. Savage chuckles under his breath, but his hips never falter.

I raise my head and immediately see why.

Because having just opened the door, adjusting his glasses with a look of abject disgust, is Damien Agnis.

"Stop! Right now!" he demands, his entire face turning bright red.

"Do you hear something?" Savage says loudly, slamming into me hard.

It elicits a cry from my throat, and I continue to stare Damien down.

"Stop it!" the phoenix lord shouts again, his hands clenching. Something tugs at me and I immediately throw a shield around the two of us, highly offended he'd try and use phoenix telekinesis to separate us. I rest my cheek back on the table and pretend he's not there, moaning extra loudly as Savage's hips slam into me, the sound of flesh on flesh taking up the entire room.

"Detention!" Damien shrieks. "Detention!"

"Savage!" I moan loudly. "You feel so good, baby!"

"Regina!" Savage cries. "I fucking love your sweet pussy."

Damien stands there for a moment too long, probably taking notes or something, before I hear his expensive shoes stomping away.

Savage leans down and bites my shoulder, making me come instantly. I spasm around his thick girth, milking him until he empties every drop into me.

We collapse onto the table while he's still inside of me, both of us shaking in a fit of belly-aching laughter.

Somehow, word about this incident gets around the school really fast. Somehow , meaning that Savage and I tell everyone we know in excruciating detail.

After dinner, Lyle confronts us in our rooms. "Please tell me it's not true."

"What's this about?" I ask innocently.

Savage toys with my hair.

"That you two were found fucking in a classroom while Damien Agnis watched and you refused to stop."

"It's not my fault he's a voyeur," I say indignantly. "Maybe he's into cuckolding?"

Lyle swears under his breath before stalking up to me, sniffing my neck, hauling me over his shoulder and carrying me to the shower.