71. Aurelia

Chapter 71

Aurelia

I don't see any sign of dragon or shark until hours later. I stop to rest near a small traveller's petrol station off the freeway, panting, hidden behind a bush. I'm way out of the city, where there is only farmland that stretches on either side of the road. The day is overcast, and it rained for a little while, which ended up being refreshing and cathartic. It perfectly reflected my mood, and now my feathers feel fresh and clean.

I'm really thirsty and I have zero money or clothes. But that was my choice for dramatic effect, so now I have to deal with the consequences.

Loud engines catch my attention as I crouch in my hiding spot. Two shiny, expensive looking motorbikes roar into the petrol station, turning sharply, ridden by two big males.

Fuck. Them.

They look hot and un bothered. So hot that a mad thought wonders what it would be like to have both of them fuck me on the back of one of those bikes.

The dehydration must be making me loopy. Hunger must be making me horny.

Both roll to a stop at one of the pumps and take off their helmets. Scythe tosses his head back, his sheet of silver hair catching the sunlight and almost blinding me from this angle.

Gods, I want to hate him. But it's only a flare of desire and the need to be close to my mate spiking through my body.

Xander is dressed in biking leathers, his long hair is braided down his back, and how the hell does that make him ten times more attractive? I'm left panting, and not from exertion.

The way I see it, I have two options. Stay here and hide. Or…

In the end, I make an executive decision and choose to have the same audacity Scythe clearly has, and I shift into human form.

Completely starkers, I stalk out from the bushes, past the two beasts and the people filling their cars, who stare open-mouthed at my naked form. There'll probably be a complaint made to the nudity patrol. They're the people who find feral animalia and berate them for offending the humans with nudity or urine marking or sniffing asses. The very things they're training us out of at the academy. Maybe I'll get a fine in the mail.

Maybe it'll be a thank you note.

I pretend I don't see the humans, or feel Scythe's focused stare, and head right into the service station, smoothing my hair down so I don't look so bush-woman.

There's a guy paying for his petrol at the counter and I line up behind him like it's a regular day for me. The twenty-something behind the counter stares at me as he puts through a transaction for the other guy. When a forty-something male human customer turns around, he freezes like a kangaroo in headlights.

"Move along," I say with deep, supreme authority, turning to the side and sweeping out an arm.

Wide-eyed, he obeys.

Satisfied, I step up to the counter and the poor guy doesn't know where to look. He blinks rapidly in quick succession, eyes flicking down to my breasts, then my scars, and back up again. I probably look like I get into fights all the time. Maybe the scars have a benefit after all.

"Can I have some water, please?" I ask, smiling sweetly. "I lost my phone, so I can't pay."

"Um. What? Yeah. Yeah, okay. There's a cooler at the back. It's free." He hands me a paper cup and I take it with a smile. I go to turn around, but he stops me.

"What order are you?"

I consider the question before saying, "Everything."

He nervously adjusts his cap. "Cool, cool. Do you want some food as well?"

Cocking my head, I regard him. "Yeah, okay."

He proceeds to run around the counter and to the back of the shop and hands me two sausage rolls, tomato sauce, and a bag of chips. I also take an iced coffee for good measure, and he lets me without a word. He seems keen to help. Enthusiastic even.

I hope Xander is watching this.

Turns out that the tits out, buns out lifestyle isn't so bad after all.

With a grin on my face, I shovel the food in my mouth and down the coffee. Humans walk in and out to pay for their petrol, but I pretend this is perfectly normal and focus on my food. After I lick my fingers clean, I head out the back with a giant key and use the bathroom, because I'm not a complete feral and still need toilet paper. After I'm satisfied, I stalk back out.

Scythe and Xander lean against their bikes, arms resting casually in their laps, helmeted heads following my every movement. The humans stare at them nervously.

I feel like Jason Bourne.

Except that guy wasn't being tracked by a mate who'd been balls-deep in his aching pussy last night. And if he had been, I'd missed that part.

Grumbling under my breath as I reach the edge of the walkway, I violently explode into my eagle form and sweep my wings in powerful downward sweeps, taking to the air. Trying to ignore the roar of motorbikes now following me, I let the joy of the wind and height take me over. The familiar elation of stretching out my wings and eating up the distance brings me nothing but joy. Eventually, I manage to lose them with my superior speed, but I just know they're somewhere behind me.

The remainder of my flight is non-eventful other than the rotating thoughts on a carousel in my mind. I ruminate on everything that happened last night. The sensations of being so close to Scythe, and the new, uncomfortable valley now between us. Sex had brought me closer to my other mates, had changed our relationship for the better. But sex with Scythe had been completely misleading. I know he enjoyed it. I know he was being truthful about everything he'd said. That it all came from the heart. It had been raw and honest.

And yet it had done nothing but make him talk about replacing himself. With Beak, of all beasts! I don't know if I'll be able to look at the eagle again after this. Does he know? Had Scythe hinted at it, or was everyone unaware?

The sky helps me work through these thoughts, and by the time my freedom ends, I'm thoroughly exhausted and ready for bed.

I see Animus Academy on the horizon just before sunset. Lyle, Savage, Damien Agnis, and a couple of guards wait for me at the open school gates. A dramatic reception, if I ever saw one. I wonder if I'll get detention again.

Scythe and Xander are nowhere in sight. In fact, I can't sense Scythe here at all. They must not be back yet, and the fact that I beat the both of them on their fancy vehicles makes this return all the more sweet.

"A receiving party," I drawl to my mates. "Exactly what I need."

"You get what you get," Lyle growls back. "For scaring the shit out of us."

I watch them from above, reluctant to start my descent. As soon as I get close to the protective dome, I wheel back around.

"Get down here, regina," Savage demands.

But I want to savour my freedom for a bit longer because suddenly, the walls of Animus Academy look so small. It's a big complex, but looks tiny from up here, and that powerful, electric dome that fried my brains out not that long ago looks miniscule compared to the open sky.

Minuscule and suffocating.

Although I want my mates, I don't want to go back to the academy.

"Regina." Lyle's animus is so impatient. I bet he's going to tell me all about it in bed tonight.

"Fine." I tuck my wings and angle my beak down.

And plummet right at them.

Damien shouts as I spear towards the group, faster and faster. Picking up speed until I'm nothing but a missile made of feathers and hollow bones.

Just before the ground slams into me, I slam into it, shifting into my human form and landing in a crouch, cushioned just enough by my telekinesis so I don't break my legs.

The ground shudders. A dust cloud billows in the air.

"Wow!" Savage cries.

My anima preens under his admiration.

I rise, toss my head to get my hair off my face, and stalk through the open academy gates, leaving the males gaping in my wake.

Scythe and Xander arrive half an hour later, their bikes loud enough for me to hear them all the way up in the shower of our suite, where Lyle and Savage are telling me exactly how unhappy they are with me.

The floor trembles as a wave of my power rolls around the room.

"Bastards," I groan around Lyle's cock. He'd shoved it into my mouth after I'd demanded he do so.

Savage growls from where I'm sitting on his face. I lift my ass so he can speak. "Are those my bikes?"

I make a sound of assent as Lyle's fingers possessively stroke my neck and I sit back down on Savage's face. I pop Lyle's cock out of my mouth and lick the large, glistening head.

"I need you to take my power," I say to my wolf. "Can you do it with your mouth?

Savage makes a sound that I take to mean, "I don't know, but I'll try."

So I grind against his face as he works his tongue into a delicious rhythm.

"Is it a problem, angel?" Lyle pants as I trace one of his thick veins with my tongue, savouring his heady taste.

"If glass breaking all over Scythe is an issue, yes."

"She's come back sassy," Savage says into our minds. "I like it."

Running my tongue along the thick underside of my lion's shaft, I feel Scythe and Xander walking into the suite. When the bathroom door opens, Scythe stands there with windswept silver hair, deliciously sweaty, bringing the temperature of the room down.

He narrows his eyes at me and I narrow my eyes back. Then he proceeds to stalk into the bathroom and lean against the sink, crossing his arms and watching us.

I turn my head and lick up the other side of Lyle's cock, not taking my eyes off Scythe. If he wants to leave me and be replaced by fucking Beak, then he can see what he's going to be missing.

"Why don't you send Beak in?" I say viciously. "See if everyone likes it?" Before sliding my lips around Lyle's head again and sucking hard.

Scythe's nostrils flare.

"What?" Lyle pants.

"Lie down," I demand, pointing to the tile floor.

Lyle obeys, casting Scythe a frown. "What have you been discussing?"

"I'll let Scythe do the honours," I say, climbing on top of Lyle and leaning forward so that the wretched shark, now behind me, can see every inch of my pussy sinking onto Lyle's hard, erect cock. "Savage?"

My wolf scrambles to his feet and positions himself to my left, presenting me with his pretty, hard cock. I turn to give it a little kiss, grabbing it in one hand. Savage pulls my loose hair back with one of his.

Scythe remains silent.

"Apparently," I groan as I accept Lyle's significant girth. "He's going to replace himself with Beak."

Lyle and Savage freeze, both their grips around me tightening. Lyle's animus speaks. "Is this true, shark?"

Scythe does not reply, only clenches his jaw and stares at me with something close to anger.

It satisfies me to finally get a reaction out of him.

I moan as Lyle thrusts into me, his hips greedily wanting to fill me.

Being in the nude in public has suddenly made me more confident, and Scythe's wanton disregard for me has given me an audacity I never knew I had.

So I stare at Scythe over my shoulder as I take Savage's cock in my mouth, noisily sucking as I savour his wolfish taste.

My mates match my energy, understanding that I don't want gentle right now. Lyle grabs fistfuls of my ass, squeezing and massaging as I grind my clit against him.

Scythe's eyes are cold and hot at the same time, threatening to give my retinas an ice burn. I stare at him furiously back, challenging him.

"‘Send me the bill', you said," he hisses into my mind.

I let Savage's cock pop out of my mouth and suck hard on the end, milking out his pre-cum. I moan as I audibly swallow, closing my eyes briefly.

Scythe's eyes flare in jealousy.

I drag my hand down Savage's abs, loving the hard feel of him. Savage grins down at me, his cheeks pink, because he loves it when I ‘pet' him, as he calls it.

"Did I say something wrong?" I hiss back in Scythe's mind. "Did I tell you to take another mate?"

His jaw clenches again.

"Because I would never ," I say. "I hope you never find a mate or a girlfriend in the ocean because I will swim out there and kill them."

Savage and Lyle hear our conversation and it drives them mad. Savage grabs the sides of my face and begins fucking my mouth. I groan loudly in pleasure, taking him deeper and deeper until he hits the back of my throat. Lyle grabs my hips and begins thrusting into me hard and fast.

We fuck furiously from then. It's sweaty and loud, bruising and rough, as if we can channel our discontent into vicious, pleasurable movements. I fire my power into the both of them and they accept it, groaning loudly as they empty their cum into me at the same time.

It's a delicious give and take, push and pull of desire and fury, and all the while, Scythe watches, his breath hard, his eyes aglow.

It only serves to make me angrier.