by Lexy Timms
But I hear the cottage door rip open.
“Hey! Wait a second!”
“Come on. Move faster,” Sebastian says.
“You really think that’s going to help us when she’s stronger than all of us combined?” I ask.
“Stop! The three of you! Now!” Clarissa roars.
I whip around in the snow, and she runs for me before she cracks her hand against my cheek.
“Well,” I say as I rub my face. “Not quite the reaction I was expecting.”
“Don’t worry,” she growls. “They’re next.”
“What are you so angry about?” Theo asks.
“Those plans in there aren’t the ones you guys have been talking about,” Clarissa says.
“Yes, they are,” Sebastian says.
“No, they aren’t. Extra keen hearing, remember? And I can read your mind, genius. Those are fake plans. Nothing like the ones you guys have set up among yourselves.”
“Clarissa, you can’t fight in this war,” Theo says.
“The hell I can’t. What were you guys thinking, lying to me like this? I’m the reason this war is occurring!”
“Which is why you can’t fight in it,” Sebastian says.
“And what do you have to say for yourself, hmm?” Clarissa asks.
“I’m sorry. My jaw is still recuperating,” I say. “Unless of course, you’ll let me speak.”
“No, actually. I won’t. Toshi’s been taken, and I’m going after him. I can’t save Kyle—”
I see her fighting back tears as she rolls her shoulders back.
“I can’t save Kyle, but I can save Toshi. Him and I? We’re synced. Marked. If something happens to him, I would know it. I would feel it. Toshi’s still alive, and I’m going after him.”
“You can’t,” Sebastian growls.
“And why not?” she asks.
“Because you’re pregnant!” Theo bellows.
“And here we go,” I say.
Clarissa’s face falls, and her eyes shoot over to mine. I hold up my hands in mock surrender, but I can tell she’s getting ready to haul off and hit me again. I dodge her attempt and grab her wrist, then twist it behind her back. My lips fall to her ear and I shush her lowly, allowing a growl to rumble from my stomach against her back.
“Let me go,” she says.
She pulls away from me and whips herself around.
“In my defense, Theo was the one who pulled us aside to tell us,” I say.
“Thanks for that,” Theo says.
“You’re the one who threw it out there like a bellowing maniac,” I say.
“And who told you?” she asks.
All of us turn to look at Theo, and I shrug my shoulders.
“We’ve got a war coming, but now’s good I guess,” I say.
“Joel,” Theo says with a sigh.
Clarissa growls as she turns her head back to the cottage. Josie and Joel are standing on their porch, their weapons in hand and their eyes locking onto us. I have half a mind to reach out for Clarissa again just to make sure she doesn’t try to kill them both.
Because I can smell her anger permeating the air.
“You’re not keeping me out of this fight,” Clarissa says. “I have to protect my child.”
“By throwing yourself into the middle of a battle?” Sebastian asks.
“No, by making sure there isn’t another battle to wage. This world has to be safe for whatever’s growing inside of me. Because, and let’s face it, we don’t know what it will be. Human or Primal. And if it’s Primal, we don’t know what powers it will have. What my delivery will be like. Nothing. We know nothing. And so long as the threat of extinction or war looms over us because of this bullshit Council, we’ll never be safe. My child will never be safe.”
“Spoken like a true mother,” I say with a grin.
“I’m going to fight. I’m going to bring back Toshi. And then I’m going home,” Clarissa says.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Sebastian says growling.
“Watch me,” she says.
She runs past Sebastian at lightning speed and crashes him into the ground. Full force. Blinding speed. And it leaves me stunned. I take off after her, no longer caring about what Sebastian and Theo decide to do. Clarissa’s going to do what she wants, and someone has to be there to make sure she doesn’t get herself killed. If she wants to fight, then she’ll have me as backup.
And so help the man who tries to lay a finger on her.
My legs carry me as fast as I can go, and I feel my body beginning to morph. My claws protrude, and my toes elongate, sinking into the frozen forest floor beneath me. I’m thrusting myself forward as hair pushes through my skin. I sink down onto all fours and gallop through the woods, dodging trees and focusing on the woman in front of me.
She’s running faster than I can keep up.
And she’s still in her human form.
I howl after her to try and get her to slow down, but it only causes her to speed up. It takes all I have to keep her within eyesight, but she’s still so far away. I’m dodging trees and getting smacked with branches as I hear a growl emanate from behind me.
I look over to the side and see Sebastian catch up to me.
Even through the angry look in his eyes, I can see his shock. Even in her human form, Clarissa is faster than us. Which means we have to assume she’s also stronger than us. She might not need our protection, given what that pregnancy is doing to her body. And if she takes after a Wolf with her pregnancy, then she’s in for a wild ride.
Pregnant female Wolves are sexually insatiable, incredibly powerful, and have wombs as strong as iron.
I train my ears toward the horizon and can hear them coming. I hear the Council. The cries of battle and their menacing chants. They’re bonded right now underneath one flag, but I know they will soon split off. Try to take their own agendas into account for the outcome of this war. Their chants of death and destruction and natural paths and transformation make me shiver, but it’s the shrieking wail piercing through them that catches my ear.
Toshi.
They have Toshi.
“Sebastian,” I growl.
“What?”
“They have Toshi.”
He stops in his tracks, skidding across the snow before running straight into a tree. I stop and turn around, knowing we’ve just lost track of Clarissa. I curse myself and run over to Sebastian, helping him to his feet.
And for once, he doesn’t shrug me off.
“Train your ears,” I say. “Listen.”
He closes his eyes as his ears begin to dart around. Like satellite dishes attempting to pick up a feed. I see them perk, and I watch the hair on his back rise. His claws dig into the snow and saliva begins to drip from his lips. He’s bloodthirsty. Angry. Like a Wolf usually is when someone he cares for is being hurt.
Then his eyes open and I see them switch from brown to red.
“Come on. This ends tonight.”
I take off behind Sebastian as we move closer to the edge of the woods. I can feel the ground underneath us shaking every so often, and I know who’s coming up behind us. Theo, with his large feet and his heavy stance. He hasn’t changed yet. That much I know. You can always hear Bears coming, but they’re fast as fuck. But the pounding of the ground I feel is slow, and I wonder why he hasn’t changed yet.
And then it hits me.
Bears have terrible sight at times. Which means Theo’s probably looking out for traps.
Smart.
Air is puffing from my nose, and my legs are catapulting my body forward. I can see the edge of the woods. I can smell Clarissa’s garlicky floral scent. That will change multiple times over the coming months as she grows her child. Yet another trait of a pregnant female Wolf.
My eyes lock onto Sebastian as my thoughts begin to devolve.
What if Clarissa doesn’t take on unique traits of her own pregnancy? What if she takes on traits of the Primal species that has gotten her preg
nant? It makes sense. She possesses strengths and abilities that span all of the races. But her pregnancy has all of the evolving traits of a Wolf.
That would mean Sebastian is the father.
Sebastian’s howl pierces my train of thought. His howl is a battle cry to begin the war. I watch him leap into the air. His mouth comes down around General Tera, and I can see the bat already changing and trying to fly off like the coward he is. I pounce from the woods and aim my sights right at Doryu. The dragon who has morphed and has fire spewing from his lungs. He’s the main threat. He’s the only other Primal bigger and stronger than all of us. He must be taken out, otherwise, he’ll burn the entire forest down and take the village along with it.
So I lunge at his throat and sink my teeth in as he tosses me about.
Chapter 24
Clarissa
Irun as fast as I can past Sebastian and Theo and Vlad. There is no way they are keeping me from fighting. Keeping me from saving Toshi. Panic is rushing through my veins as my legs pump faster and faster, careening me toward the edge of the woods. Toshi can’t die. I’ve already lost one man I love to this Council, and I’m not losing another. He’s too important to me. Too good to me. He indulges the softer side of me. The side of me that longs for comfort and lazy days and slow kisses and dancing in the rain. The part of me that longs for adventures without a reason and the changing of leaves with the seasons and cotton candy on a hot summer day in the middle of a carnival.
I can’t lose Toshi.
And I won’t lose this war.
I see them. Smell them. Hear their battle cries. A dragon’s head rises in the distance, and for a second, I falter. My speed slows down, and my heart begins to hammer in my chest, and then a small voice flutters in my head.
Do it.
I don’t recognize the voice. It’s soft. Airy. Nothing like the voices I’ve heard before. But it’s strong. And confident. And that’s when my stomach begins to roll. To move. I feel a pressure in my abdomen that gives way to another burst of physical strength, and then I hear it again.
That tiny little voice.
You can do it.
I close my eyes as I approach the edge of the woods, and I allow the anger to take over my body. The anger over losing Kyle. The anger over hope being ripped from me. The anger of them taking Toshi, and the anger of everyone spilling secrets of mine before I was ready. The men keeping things from me. My body finding Kyle’s scent to be repulsive. Joel always trying to convince me I’m something I’m not, and Josie always creeping around like she doesn’t trust us.
I feel myself morphing, but for the first time, I feel in control of it.
The rage floods my veins, and I feel my stomach hardening into steel. No, metal.
No, iron.
I feel my entire body hardening into iron.
Claws project from my fingers and toes and red and black hair protrudes from my skin. My fangs are longer than they’ve ever been and are dripping with saliva ready to be pumped into the veins of these fuckers. My eyes focus on a deer in the corner, holding a spear tipped with a green serum that seems vaguely familiar.
I know it isn’t good, and I know I must destroy it.
I no longer fear the monster within me. I no longer fear my Primal form. The anger in my veins fuels me, it doesn’t change me. I change myself. I leap toward the deer, and my jaws clamp down around its throat. The spear falls to the ground as I rip my head to the side, tossing the bloodied carcass across the battlefield.
Then I grab the spear in my teeth and sink the tip into the ground.
I see the green permeate the snow and kill everything in its path. The snow melts. The ground dries up. It cracks into brittle pieces that give way to the wind. The grass withers away and the bugs crawling on the ground crumble to nothing but dust.
Those spears aren’t meant to kill the humans.
They’re meant to kill us.
I hear two distinct growls come charging from the forest, and I whip around to see Sebastian sink his teeth into the Bat. General Tera. The coward that transforms and flies away. Vlad leaps into the air, heading for the dragon, and sinks his fangs into the scales that coat his throat. I run for the dragon, knowing Vlad is going to need help. I slide underneath the dragon’s small legs and run my claws along its underbelly.
The fire that erupts from that dragon’s throat is enough to take out the entire village if he reaches it.
I sink my claws into Doryu’s scales, peeling them away. I rake my claws across him as he tries to consume me with his fire. Vlad’s climbing up the length of his neck, and I’m not sure what he’s doing, but I know I need to expose some of Doryu’s skin. That’s the only way we’ll be able to take him out. The only way we will be able to wound him.
My claws dig through the kevlar sheets of scales that reflect the rays of the overcast sun. I hear Doryu crying out in pain and chance a look up to see what Vlad’s doing. His claws are raking out the dragon’s eyes, and a grin crosses my cheeks.
Take away a dragon’s eyes and you take away his aim.
Perfect.
I sink my teeth into the patch of skin I’ve exposed, and Doryu drops to his side. Vlad is tossed across the field by Doryu’s head, and I can hear him whimpering. I want to go after him. To make sure he’s okay. But I know I’m so close to taking out this dragon.
Which is the only real weapon they have against us.
“Watch out for their spears!” Theo bellows.
The ground is visibly shaking with each stride he takes.
My claws scratch at the scales, and I get in there with my teeth. I can see the place where the heart of the dragon is beating. I cling to him for dear life as he rises back onto his feet, and I can feel his fire burning the hairs on my back. I scrape and claw. I dig and bite. I finally peel enough of the scales back to expose the furious beating of the dragon’s heart, then I throw my head back and howl.
I want everyone in the Council to know who took down their dragon.
I sink my teeth into the pliable skin, and the dragon lets out a wild cry. Fire fills the air and smoke settles along the snowy battlefield the Council has chosen to die on tonight. Saliva is pumping from my glands and filling the puncture wounds I leave behind on Doryu’s skin. Robbing him of his ability to heal as I bite my way toward his heart. I tear at tissue and rake at veins. I dig through the fat and the gristle and the muscle until I find that pathetic little heart of his. The heart of the Primal who doesn’t care about who he hurts, so long as he can experiment and find a way for his race to live.
With his death, the dragons will be extinct.
“So long,” I growl.
I bite into the meat of his heart, and he goes crashing to the ground. I tear it from his body, then I stand on my own haunches and take another howl. Blood is dripping down my neck, and I haven’t felt stronger in my life. The child inside of me is rolling, and the strength in my bones is growing. The marrow in my body is growing more and more solid. Power, like I’ve never felt before, is rushing through the cells of my body. I crunch through the heart of Doryu before spitting it out onto the ground, and everyone watches in shock as the dragon morphs into his dead human form.
General Tera is wounded in the snow and Vlad comes striding to stand beside me. I look over at him. Our eyes connect, and I can see him studying me. His eyes fall to my stomach before taking in the sheer amount of blood my fur is covered in.
Then a grin trickles across his Wolfish face.
“Ready?” he growls.
I look back at the raging battle, and I see the Council standing there, wide-eyed. They’re shocked. Frozen in their places that I could single-handedly take down the only dragon in existence. The most powerful Primal race on the planet was no match for my strength, my claws, and my bite.
I can see the fear in their eyes.
They all know they’re in trouble.
My eyes land on Chief, and for a moment I feel conflicted. Chief is one of the reasons why we are safe. One
of the reasons why we have the intel we do. But he’s standing on the wrong side. He isn’t fighting with us. He’s fighting with them. Aligning himself with the Council instead of with us. His want to continue experimentation can’t be allowed. There’s no way to regulate it. No way to put it safely in the hands of someone we trust. I don’t believe in the annihilation of the human race, but I do agree with General Tera on one thing.
The experimentation can’t continue.
I leap into the air, over the heads of everyone else. My paws land onto Chief and knock him squarely into the ground. He morphs into the biggest bear I’ve ever witnessed. With claws six inches long and eyes beady and round with the want to fight. But I pin him to the ground so he’s unable to move. I can see the confusion in his eyes. I bare my teeth as saliva drips from my fangs, and from the distance I hear a piercing cry.
“Clarissa! No!”
I hear Theo’s voice, and it causes my gaze to rise up to the edge of the woods.
He’s standing there, with his shoulders rolled back and blood dripping down the front of his body. He’s fighting without morphing, and I’m not sure why. My eyes drop back down to Chief and I know I have to do right by Theo. I love him. And I know him watching me kill Chief will forever drive a wedge between the two of us.
“You have a choice,” I growl. “You can still stand with us.”
Chief’s eyes focus, and his claws come up and swipe my face.
“Chief! Stop!” Theo bellows.
“Kill her!” General Tera squeaks.
“Will someone get that bat?” I growl.
On it, Clarissa.
I look over and watch as Sebastian takes off after the flighty coward. Vlad’s already sunk his teeth into his next victim. A Council member I don’t recognize. My eyes turn back to Chief, and I can feel blood trickling down my face.
I lean in close and sniff his carotid before my jowls find his ear.
“I know you don’t want to die, but the experimentation can’t continue,” I say.
“What if it’s the natural evolution of things?” Chief bellows. “What if you and Kyle are the next wave of Primals? Who are we to stop that?”
I gnash my teeth at him and smack him across the face. Blood forms on his fur and Chief manages to flip me over. His claws dig into my stomach, and I can feel them crunching against the protective iron my skin has managed to create over my stomach.