by Lexy Timms
“Coward!”
His lips curl, teeth bare.
“What are you going to do?” I taunt him. “Tear me apart? Is fighting all you Wolves ever do?” I click my tongue. “That’s not going to impress Clarissa, you know, but then you Wolves don’t know anything about women. Or love.”
“How dare you,” he hisses. “Come down here.”
“Ooh. Now, he’s mad. You Wolves and your quick tempers.”
“Why don’t you come down here and face me, pussy?” he shouts. “Who’s the coward now?”
Oh, it is on.
I jump down, landing on all fours and brandishing my claws as I launch myself back up, no time to think. No time for anything but to act.
This is going to be fun.
Sebastian opens his mouth wide, his fangs appearing and a second later, we collide in the air.
Chapter Twenty
~ Clarissa
THEY’RE FIGHTING. I don’t understand why they’re fighting.
Leaning over the window, I clutch the sill as Toshi and Sebastian crash in the air, Toshi using his speed as he continually swipes his claws at Sebastian, drawing blood and Sebastian using his strength to try to grab Toshi and pin him down, eventually succeeding in locking his arms around his opponent and burying his fangs into Toshi’s shoulder before Toshi manages to slither free.
No.
As Toshi places a hand over his wounded shoulder, Sebastian spits the blood out on the ground.
“Still got something to say, Cat?” he hisses, his tail out and wagging.
Toshi grins. “Is that all you’ve got, mutt? Then I’ll have to say your bark is worse than your bite.”
“Oh, don’t whine.” Sebastian grinds his knuckles into his palm. “That was just a nip. And by the way, you taste like shit.”
He goes on all fours, knuckles against the ground.
Toshi scoffs, going on all fours as well, his fingers spread and his claws out. “Oh, I’ll let you know what shit tastes like.”
As Sebastian turns into a wolf and charges towards, Toshi turns into a cat and leaps into the air, landing on top of him. The two roll over, trading places, screeches and growls in the air.
The sickening sound of flesh tearing reaches my ears and my chest grows tight.
Are they going to fight to the death? Over me?
Stop.
I place a hand over my heart, closing my eyes as I can’t bear to watch any longer.
Please stop.
“Stop!” Another voice shouts down below.
Opening my eyes, I see Kyle in his pajamas emerge from the house, mop in hand.
“Stop it, both of you!” he shouts. “This isn’t what Clarissa wants! Didn’t you hear her telling you to stop?”
I blink. Wait. Kyle heard me?
The two, however, pay him no heed.
Shaking his head, Kyle lunges toward them. My heart stops, realizing the danger he’s putting himself into.
“Kyle, wait!”
I climb on the sill, about to jump down to save him but it’s too late. Sebastian grabs Toshi by the neck and flings him towards the house but since Kyle is there, he hits Kyle instead, the collision sending the mop flying out of Kyle’s hand before he rolls across the dirt.
“Kyle!”
My heart pounding, I jump down. In a moment I’m there at his side, turning Kyle over and pressing my ear to his chest.
Hearing his heartbeat, my own slows down. Feeling him breathing, a breath of relief escapes my lips.
He’s alive.
He’s far from alright, though. His cheeks and forehead are scraped, his lower lip bleeding, his left jaw starting to bruise. And that’s just the beginning. Rolling up his sleeves, I notice more scrapes and bruises on his arms, each mark making my heart clench all over again.
Kyle.
“Clarissa!” Toshi just about screams my name, hitting the high registers in his excitement.
“Is he alright?” Sebastian asks, from over my shoulder. I swear he actually sounds concerned.
I stand up, turning to face them, leveling them both with a glare. “Alright? Do you think he’s alright?”
“Clarissa, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...”
“Didn’t mean to throw Toshi at him or didn’t mean to ignore me and Kyle when we were telling you, begging you to stop? Just don’t tell me you didn’t mean to be a jerk because you’ve already said that before.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt him,” Sebastian tells me, eyes lowered, actually taking a step backward away from me.
“Well, he’s hurt. And to think you’re the one who did it when you promised me that you would protect him.”
I turn to Toshi, who is moving closer to Kyle.
“Stay away from him!” I shout. “This is as much your fault as it is Sebastian’s. You were the one who started this.”
Toshi points a hand at his chest, eyebrows raised in disbelief. “I started it?”
I shake my head then turn around, picking Kyle up in my arms. It’s strange – me carrying him in my arms – and yet, I don’t have any qualms about picking him up. He weighs next to nothing, more bulky and awkward than anything.
“Clarissa, let me help,” Toshi says.
“You’ve done enough,” I tell him. “Now, fuck off. I never want to see you again.”
“But...”
I silence him with a glare then look over my shoulder to throw another one at Sebastian.
That goes for you, too.
I walk back towards the house.
You know we can’t leave you, I hear Sebastian’s voice in my head.
I pause, taking a deep breath.
Can’t or won’t? Ever since I met you, nothing but bad things have happened to me and I’m tired of it. If you care about me, maybe you’ll stay away so that something good finally can.
With that, I march inside the house with Kyle in my arms.
“WH-WHAT HAPPENED?” Kyle asks with a groan as he tries to sit up minutes after I’ve set him down in his bed and started treating his wounds.
“Shh.” I push him down gently. “You’re hurt. You need to rest so you can recover.”
He lifts an arm, wincing at the pain that comes from the effort. “Man, I feel like I got hit by a truck.”
“Well, you did get hit by something fast, hard and heavy,” I tell him, pressing a piece of cloth drenched in antiseptic to the gash near his elbow.
“Ouch.”
“Sorry.”
It’s an understatement. The way Toshi crashed into him, he looked like a pebble that had been hit by a boulder. Thank goodness he didn’t shatter to bits.
“Any broken bones?” Kyle asks, trying to smile but grimacing instead.
I shake my head. “Maybe you’re not as fragile as you think. For a human, that is..”
He grins. Clearing taking it as a compliment.
Men.
“Just rest.” I set the piece of cloth aside. “I’ll get some bandages.”
I leave his side, going into the kitchen to search the drawers for bandages. After a few minutes, I finally spot a tin can of Band-Aids with clover leaves and I rush back to Kyle with it, only to find him already asleep, his head turned towards the window.
That’s fine. He needs as much rest as he can.
Quietly, I approach the bed, sitting on the chair beside it, the can of bandages trapped between my thighs. As I place the first bandage on his cheek, I recall the first time I met him.
I was new to the Lab while he had been working there for two years already. One of the birds pecked me so I went to the clinic to get a Band-Aid. He was there, too and he gave me one. I mistook him for the doctor, actually, since he was also wearing a white coat, but as it turned out, he was just there because he wanted some ice for his stiff neck, which wasn’t even from overwork or hunching over his desk. He’s been playing a video game for hours.
Weeks later, I was sent to the field to collect some samples. To the Amazon, specifically. There was a joke that
all the new recruits were sent there as some sort of test. To my surprise, Kyle was there, too, and as we spent evenings trying to defend ourselves from swarms of mosquitoes and days playing hide and seek with the wildlife, getting chased by some monkeys and nearly getting attacked by a harpy eagle, we became friends.
Best friends.
Smiling at the memory – yes, it’s amusing now – I place another bandage on his arm, just below his shoulder, then another near his elbow. I move to his other arm, bandaging the same spot near the elbow and the back of his hand.
As I smoothen the edges of the bandage down, I notice the broken glass on his watch and I frown. I bought him that watch for his birthday since he kept complaining about his old one but wouldn’t dare replace it because it was his father’s, given to him at his high school graduation. I had a hard time finding that watch, too – a Limited Edition Pac-Man watch with a glow-in-the-dark Pac-Man and holographic ghosts – since I wanted a unique one that he would surely like, if not wear. He’s been wearing it ever since, even when he’s sleeping.
Sighing, I run my hands over the cracked glass.
I guess I’ll have to get him a new one now.
Since I still have a few more bandages in the can, I lift the blanket. I took off his pajamas since they were too dirty but couldn’t find a new pair so he’s just in a shirt and his boxers, more bruises, scrapes and cuts dotting his legs.
I bandage the biggest scrape on his knee but as I do, my gaze is drawn somewhere higher up, a blush coating my cheeks as a result.
Quickly, I look away, putting the blanket back on and slapping my cheeks. What’s wrong with me? It’s not like I’ve never seen a guy in boxers before. In fact, in the past week, I’ve seen two with them, and less. I’ve never seen Kyle in boxers before, just in swimming trunks, which seems different entirely.
Really, Clarissa, are you acting around him like this now? With your best friend?
Suddenly, he stirs, mumbling as he turns towards the window. “Clarissa.”
“I’m here,” I answer softly, about to touch his shoulder.
I stop, though, my eyes wide as I see more gashes and bruises on his back.
Horrified, I kneel on the floor, my fists trembling on my lap.
How on earth had I let this happen?
I should have stopped Toshi and Sebastian from fighting. I know I could have if I only tried harder, if I wasn’t so drained and disoriented from trying to accept what I learned in Africa. But I didn’t so Kyle had to do it. And because of that, he’s battered and torn in places. True, none of his bones seem broken and I don’t sense any internal bleeding. But what if he was just lucky this time? What if he gets more seriously hurt next time?
The problem is that I can’t guarantee there is no next time, now that I know what I am. I’ll be hunted or surrounded by primals who are a hundred times stronger and tougher than Kyle, whose animalistic sides mean they cannot always keep their temper in check. And what about me? What if I end up losing my temper, too or find myself unable to control my strength? What if I end up hurting him?
I shake my head, my fists clenching in my lap.
As long as Kyle is with me, he’s in danger. As long as he’s with me, he could get hurt. Worse, he could die...because he can die. And easily.
And I wouldn’t be able to bear that.
Just the thought is enough to make me wrap my arms around myself, my shoulders shaking and my chest painfully tight.
I can’t let Kyle die, not when he means so much to me. Besides, if he dies, it’ll be on me. And I can’t live with that.
I can’t be the death of him.
Which is why I can’t have him by my side.
The realization brings tears to my eyes as I stand up on shaking knees, my arms hanging at my sides.
If I want to keep Kyle safe, I have to make him leave me, but I know he won’t do that. He’ll never leave me. He’d rather die than leave me. So I have to leave him. And stay away from him. Even if he is the one person who knows and understands me. Even if he’s my best friend.
It’s for that reason precisely that I have to leave him.
And now, while he can’t stop me.
I take a step back, blinking away tears as I blow him a goodbye kiss.
Goodbye, Kyle. I know you’d rather die than be parted from me. But I would rather be parted from you than have you die. Sorry.
Leaving the room without a sound, I dash out of the house and into the woods, the wind blowing in my hair and tears streaking down my cheeks.
I don’t really know where I’m going. I’m just running as fast as I can and I keep running until I’m out of breath, at which point I can no longer see the house. In fact, I can no longer recognize the scenery around me.
Tired, I lie down in the middle of the meadow, blurry eyes on the sky above me.
Oh, how I wish I could turn back time. I wish I could turn back to the time when Kyle and I were in the Amazon, looking up at these same stars. Or at least ones like them. Then I would never leave for Alaska and I would never run into Sebastian or Theo or Toshi and I would never know what I was and I could go on living a normal, happy life.
Who knew normal was so underrated?
It’s true, I think as I close my eyes, letting more tears fall to the ground. You never know what you’ve got until it’s gone.
I must have fallen asleep or maybe I was just too wrapped up in my own thoughts. Whatever the reason, I don’t hear paws on the grass until it’s too late. As I open my eyes, the prick of a needle on my neck forces them closed again, the stars and the rest of the world fading into what my world has become – the unknown.
Chapter Twenty-One
~ Theo
“I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN the two of you would try to rip each other’s throats out the first chance you got,” I scold Sebastian and Toshi as soon as I hear their report about what happened.
I already had a feeling something was wrong when I saw them so far from the house, Sebastian running in his wolf form and Toshi sulking up in a tree. But this?
“I wasn’t going for his throat,” Toshi corrects, still up in the tree. “I was going for his heart.”
Sebastian pauses in putting his shirt on to narrow his eyes at Toshi.
“And you’re still at it.” I sigh, slapping my forehead.
I swear they’re like annoying children. I don’t even understand why they hate each other so much. I know they’ve ended up taking opposite sides in battles throughout history, but how did it start? It beats me.
“How’s Kyle?” I ask.
“He’ll be fine,” Sebastian says.
“And Clarissa?”
“She doesn’t want to see us,” Toshi answers, definitely pouting.
“Of course not.” I put my hands on my hips. “You tried to kill her best friend.”
“What did you find out?” Sebastian changes the subject. “Anything useful at all?”
“About Project Eden? None.” I shake my head. “Maybe if I had asked the Chief, he could have told me something but then, he could have told the Council, too.”
“So, while we went to hell and back, you were just sleeping and having a family reunion?” Toshi asks.
I narrow my eyes at him. I guess I can’t blame Sebastian. This one’s annoying.
“I did learn something,” I answer, turning back to Sebastian. “A prophecy. About a human with all the primal gifts who could spell the destruction or the salvation of primals.”
“Well, that’s helpful,” Toshi mumbles.
“All the primal gifts?” Sebastian asks, eyebrows raised. “Or just primal gifts in general.”
“All the primal gifts,” I clarify.
“But Clarissa can’t take an animal form, right?” Toshi points out.
“I’m just saying what I was told,” I tell him before continuing. “The prophecy also said that this could depend on who the human chooses to love.”
“Let me guess.” Toshi jumps down from the tree, landing on his f
eet. “You think that you’re the best choice for Clarissa since you’re all about saving and protecting?”
I frown. “I’m not...”
“Oh, great,” Toshi interrupts with a roll of his eyes. “Another coward.”
My whole body tenses. “Excuse me?”
Sebastian stretches his arm in front of me. “This is how our fight started. He taunted me, calling me a coward because he told Clarissa how he felt and I didn’t want to.”
I turn back to Toshi, puzzled. “You told Clarissa how you felt?”
“Yes,” Toshi admits proudly. “I confessed.”
“Confessed what?”
“My love,” he answers. “I told her I want to be with her and I asked her if she felt the same.”
He did?
I have to say, that is gutsy, even if it feels like something out of that cheesy Japanese anime he’s always watching.
“She hasn’t given me an answer yet, of course,” Toshi continues, his tone smug. “But if the two of you don’t say anything to her, she might just choose me.”
Sebastian snorts.
Toshi frowns. “What? You think you’re the better choice? Well, tell you what – it doesn’t matter. Women don’t care who’s good for them. They want someone who loves them, who wants to make them happy...”
“You sound like you’ve been with a lot of women,” Sebastian remarks, arms crossed over his chest. “Too many.”
“And you haven’t been with any?” Toshi asks. “Oh, right. It’s because you’re a Wolf. Only the alphas get to have mates, right? But before that, they need to have packs and you don’t look like you have one, or you’d be surrounded by them right now.”
“Or you’d be dead right now,” Sebastian snarls and for a moment even I hold my breath. Not that I’m afraid of either of them, but this is about to blow and the last thing I want is to get involved in their childish rivalry.
“And you may look badass but you must be too honorable that you’ve never laid a hand on a human.”
“Enough,” I tell Toshi, and shake my head because someone has to defuse this and it looks like I’m elected to play peacemaker. “Leave it alone.”
