by Lexy Timms
“Joel, look out!”
I slam my sword around and cut right through the air, slashing the legs off a Bat. Blood is dripping down onto the ground, and its squealing is monstrous. The children don’t need to bear witness to anything like this. I try to push back the Primal army as much as I can from the cave, dragging the fight away from the children.
But I can’t.
They keep coming.
My men are falling, and children are crying. Josie is grunting with every swipe of her sword, and more of the nurses are having to pull knives to protect the children. The number of my men still standing are barricading the entrance to the cave, trying to close off the ones we love and the ones we are trying to protect. Stacking rocks. Rocks encased in lead so they can’t dig at them to get to those we hold most dear to ourselves.
But I can feel myself growing weak. I can feel the sweat soaking the back of my armor. My arm is growing tired, and my fingers are losing their grip.
We need help.
And fast.
Suddenly, Clarissa comes charging through the crowd. Her teeth are gnashing about, digging into the jugulars of the other animals. Her claws are growing longer, and her eyes are more furious. I watch her physically grow as she stands on her haunches and howls. An ear-piercing cry that makes me physically sick, I grimace and turn my head away. I hear the crunching of bones and the tearing of flesh as deadly cries from unsuspecting animals pierce through the treetops. Scattering birds and startling worms and driving our animal food sources deeper into the woods.
We’ll be lucky to ever re-establish ourselves after this.
I look up into Clarissa’s eyes as her Wolfish form is gazing down at me. She cocks her head as her blood-coated fur clings to her massive body, and I see it. Her stomach hanging low with the child growing within her. I raise my hand to try and touch it, but she backs away, growling and snarling as her nostrils flare.
I raise my sword, ready to attack at a moment’s notice before Vlad jumps in front of me.
“Don’t you dare,” he growls.
Theo and Sebastian come and stand at her side. Clarissa and her men, and not one of them is me. It will always be her against us. Us against them. Humans and Primals will never be able to coexist, this much I know now. I drop my sword and take a breath, watching as Clarissa backs down.
And it isn’t until she backs down that the rest of them do as well.
“This isn’t finished,” Sebastian growls. “I can hear more coming from the woods.”
“What side?” I ask.
“West,” Vlad rumbles.
“Then we take the fight to them. If we’re lucky, the falling snow will camouflage the cave and make it harder for them to find our children,” I say.
“Then let’s go,” Theo says. “They have a lot of Bears this time. I can feel the pounding of their feet.”
“That isn’t what I’m concerned about,” Clarissa snarls.
“What is it?” I ask.
She turns her eyes to me, and I can see the first shred of worry fill them. Her nostrils flare, and I can swear I see tears in her eyes. I cock my head and sheath my sword, hoping that my backing down will aid her in her ability to talk.
Then, Sebastian sniffs the air.
“Toshi,” he growls.
“Toshi’s with them,” Clarissa rumbles.
“Is he hurt? Is that something you can tell?” I ask.
“We have to get going if we’re going to take the fight to them,” Theo bellows.
“We have to protect their children,” Vlad says. “I’ll stay here and fend off the cave.”
“If they see you here they’ll know it’s here,” I say.
I watch as Vlad buries himself into a snow embankment on the side. He immerses himself in the snow, wiggling around until he’s fully covered. Even with his dark fur and his beady eyes, I can’t even tell he’s there.
It’s like he’s completely disappeared.
“Come on,” Sebastian says. “Let’s go.”
“What will we do about Kyle?” I ask.
Clarissa whips her head over to me before her eyes drift to the cottage. I watch her turn her body toward it, and my brow furrows. I can see the same confusion clouding Theo and Sebastian’s vision. As I look behind me, I can see Vlad peeking out with unanswered questions running behind his angry eyes.
Clarissa takes a few steps toward the cottage before she takes off. But Sebastian leaps in front of her. He growls, baring his teeth, and Clarissa challenges him. The two of them grow until they can’t grow any larger, then Sebastian stands on his haunches and brings his paws down on Clarissa’s shoulders. He pins her to the ground, and she squirms around, whimpering and biting at his ankles.
I don’t know how, but I can tell the two of them are talking.
Even if I can’t hear anything.
“Telepathy,” Theo bellows.
“Huh?” I asked.
“Telepathy. It’s how they’re talking.”
“How did you—?”
“Humans are easy to read. You stay alive long enough, you learn in order to blend in,” he says.
I watch as Clarissa lays against the ground, her pregnant stomach resting against the cool snow. Steam is rising from her Primal form. Sebastian is making her cool off. Theo takes off to the West, bounding through the village to get to the army of Primals coming at us. Sebastian nods me off, pointing his head in the direction of Theo.
“Don’t be too long,” I say. “This is your mess to clean up.”
I run to the edge of the woods and get a quarter of a mile in before the battle rages on. But soon, I see Clarissa flying through the air. Diving directly into the middle of the troops pushing against us as Theo tosses them about. My men are slashing their swords and spilling blood to avenge the men that have fallen around our city. Avenging the ghosts that will now haunt our cottages and our gardens as their souls frantically fight a war they are destined to fight forever. That is the belief of our village. How someone dies is how they live in their afterlife.
And these disgusting, rabid Primals have sent many of my men off to fight in their afterlife.
I don’t see Sebastian, which means Primals have already shot by us. I have no idea how many kinds of species there are, and I don’t care. So long as we can keep that cave locked down and our children safe, I don’t care what Primals become extinct by our swords.
The more, the better.
I focus on one at a time, trusting my men to fall back when they need to. I tear through the crowd before turning around and make a beeline back through the crowd. My sword is out, cutting through the Primal army like a butcher’s knife through a bone. My vision tunnels and my veins throb, and soon nothing but anger consumes me.
Anger for the men I’ve lost.
Anger for our blindness in protecting those Primals in our cottage.
Anger for the secrets that could be spilled if we don’t succeed.
But as I watch Clarissa slay four Primals to my one each and every time, the burden on my heart becomes a little lighter.
Maybe we’ll get out of this after all.
Maybe we’ll still be able to continue after this war.
Maybe then, the eradication of the Primals can continue.
Like they wanted to eradicate us.
Chapter 27
Sebastian
Ifall back into the village to chase the few Primals that have gotten loose. Fuck. These Cats are fast. I watch as Vlad catapults from the snowbank, sinking his teeth into the furry creature before ripping its throat out. This war is harder than I ever thought possible, and the sheer number of Primals ready to go against us is astounding. But we are winning.
More than that, though, is Clarissa and her strength.
It’s shocking.
Her garlicky odor is more pungent than ever, but it’s like I’m the only one that smells it. The only one affected by it. And I don’t understand. I fight alongside Vlad and keep the straggling Primals away from the
cave, but my ears keep trained on Clarissa. Almost like it’s automatic. I try to focus on the carnage in front of me and the fight at our doorstep, but it’s like my body keeps reaching out to her.
Fuck.
This isn’t good.
Clarissa’s strength is outstanding. And this time, I can tell she is in complete control. It took me dominating her to get her mind off Kyle and retrained toward the war, but I know she’s still worried. The mere fact that she can approach the cottage means he isn’t there, which means we don’t know where he is.
But when the Council randomly starts to retreat, I think I know where he’s gone.
Vlad looks over at me, a quizzical look in his eye. But I tear for the cottage. I rise up and claw at the door, kicking it in and tearing it off its hinges. I walk through the corridors and sniff around, picking up Kyle’s new scent.
It leads me to a back door, and it’s hanging wide open.
“Anything?” Vlad growls.
“Kyle isn’t here.”
“Obviously. But do we have any idea where he is?”
I move aside and let Vlad see the back door hanging wide open.
“You think the Council has him?”
A very familiar smell hits my nostrils.
I bound out the back door and chase the smell around the woods. I wrap around trees and dig in the snow, disorienting myself to try and get to it. My claws are digging into the frozen tundra, moving my body as fast as it can go.
Then I hear it.
That familiar hissing.
“Toshi,” Vlad growls.
I raise my head into the air and howl so greatly the treetops shake with snow. It comes crashing down to the earth, coating our fur and sending a stumbling Toshi out into the open. He’s still in his Primal form, all black with green eyes, and he’s wounded. Hurt. Stumbling around with wet fur and hissing as more frozen water hits his back.
I rush for him, and he bears his claws until he realizes who I am.
“Sebastian?” Toshi purrs.
“You’re injured,” I growl.
“I’m soaked.”
“We need to get you help.”
“Is Clarissa okay?”
“Don’t worry about her.”
“Is. She. Okay?”
His purring turns to a hissing before he stumbles and falls to the snow. I hear the bounding of footsteps behind me and the ground rumbling underneath my feet. Clarissa skids to a stop beside Toshi, and her tongue dips down to him without a second thought. She licks him so hard it rolls him onto his back, and the two of them snuggle close as Clarissa licks his wounds clean.
Licks his wounds closed.
“I didn’t know Cats could do that,” Vlad says.
“They can’t. But Cats who have synced can,” Theo says.
“Have they retreated?” I say growling.
“All of them, yes. But we don’t know why. There were still plenty to fight,” Theo says.
“I know why,” I say.
My eyes raise to Clarissa’s, and her licking stops. Toshi stands onto his four legs, then fluffs his fur out. He’s walking straighter. Standing taller. Looking better than before. But my eyes are still connected with Clarissa’s.
With the hurt and anger flashing through them.
“They took Kyle?” she growls.
“That’s my theory, yes.”
“Why would they do that? They have me they’re chasing. Why go after him?”
“You’ve slaughtered droves of them,” Vlad says. “They’re probably frightened of trying to take you. Hell, they probably realize they can’t any longer.”
“We have to go after them,” Clarissa says.
“You can’t,” Toshi says.
Our heads turn to look at him as his eyes connect with hers.
“Why?” she asks.
“They released me when they had Kyle. That was always their plan,” Toshi says.
“So they never wanted to take me?” she asks.
“I watched, actually.”
“You what?” she asks. “Why didn't you do something!?”
“I couldn't. I was chained in lead, Clarissa. Trust me, if I could’ve done something, I would’ve.”
“Don’t be upset with him.”
She whips her head over to me, and my eyes bore into hers. I know she’s angry and confused. We all are. But Toshi has also suffered a tremendous fate at the hands of the Council, and we’re all wartorn and exhausted.
And I have a feeling we will no longer be welcome within the village.
“What happened?” Clarissa asks.
Toshi looks at me with uncertainty before Clarissa walks in front of me.
“Tell me, Toshi. Please.”
“He put up a tremendous fight,” Toshi says. “But once they put those lead chains around him, he faltered. Was unsure of himself at that point. I think he saw me.”
“What do you mean?” Clarissa asks.
“When they were putting him in chains, I think he saw me. At least, that’s what I tell myself. They were taking him as they were releasing me, and I think he saw that. He saw the trade-off that was being made.”
“You think he let it happen,” Vlad growls.
“I think Kyle’s very compassionate, and no serum can take that from him. I think—”
Clarissa’s hanging on Toshi’s every word, and it breaks my heart.
“I think he did, yes,” Toshi says. “I think he saw the trade for what it was and willingly went to let me go free.”
“We have to go find him,” Clarissa says.
“We can’t,” Theo says. “We’re sorely outnumbered.”
“You guys made me a promise!” Clarissa howls.
“And Kyle found us. But then, Kyle made a choice. You know his story,” I say. “He ripped the bars away from a lead cage. He could have easily gotten out of those chains. But he didn’t. He went so we could have Toshi back. Going after him and putting ourselves in harm’s way would be like spitting in the face of his sacrifice.”
“Why does Kyle have to be the one to be sacrificed?” Clarissa whines. “Why is it always him?”
She falls into the snow, and I can see tears running down her cheeks. She slowly morphs back into her human form, and I can see her cradling her pregnant stomach. She cries into the cold snow, and I walk over to her, nestling beside her and warming her with my fur. I hear her sniffling. Feel her shivering. Theo blankets himself over her to get her to feel safe. Comforted. Covered in her nakedness.
I look up at him and nod my thanks as Toshi and Vlad settle around her exposed skin. Nothing but her head is sticking out from all of our fur, and I can feel it. The fetus moving around inside her stomach. The small child she’s growing within her body. I feel drawn to it. I feel my body magnetized. Entranced. I lay my head across her stomach and close my eyes, listening as Clarissa cries the rest of her emotions onto the ground.
Then, a small voice echoes off the corners of my mind.
“Hello.”
My eyes snap open, and I look over at Clarissa’s face. Red with anger and stained with tears, but it doesn’t appear to me that she heard the voice. My eyes turn down to her stomach, and I nuzzle my nose across it, feeling the movement underneath her skin.
Can it be?
Is it possible?
“Hey!”
Joel’s voice causes us to turn toward him as he approaches with his sword sheathed.
Good.
That murderous device shouldn’t see the light of day.
“She okay?” he asks.
“Does she look okay?” I growl.
“What Sebastian means is, she will be,” Theo says.
“We need help getting the rocks away from the cave,” Joel says.
“They’re lined with lead,” Vlad snarls.
“Which is why you don’t help us in your Primal form,” Joel mocks.
“You don’t get to take that tone with us,” I snarl. “We helped you with this.”
“And now, you ca
n either prove your worth to us, or you can leave. But either way, you caused this. You brought this war to us. And now, you get to help us dig our children out from behind the only wall that kept them safe.”
Then Joel turns on his heels and leaves.
Fuck.
I want to take that human’s damn head off.
“Toshi,” I growl.
“Yep?”
“Take Clarissa back to the cottage. She needs to rest. Eat. Possibly bathe.”
“I’m not leaving,” she says weakly.
I turn my gaze down to her before I get up onto my feet. I morph back into my human form before her eyes and watch as she sits up. Theo morphs, and so does Vlad, then Toshi follows suit. All of us naked. All of us surrounding her.
All of us gazing at her protruding stomach.
“You’ve done enough. You did what you wanted to do. You fought, and you fought well. With strength your child will be proud of. Now, for the love of fuck, go with Toshi and get some rest. Some food. Anything the child you’re carrying might need,” I say.
She turns her eyes to Toshi before she slips her hand into his. And though I should’ve felt a surge of jealousy, I didn’t. If Clarissa wants all of us—if she is supposed to be shared between the four of us—then I’m not standing in her way. I love her. I fear for her. I will always protect her, no matter what. I will guard her body, her mind, and her heart.
Which means I will always give her what she needs to be the happiest she can be.
“Ready?” Theo asks.
I look up toward the cottage Kyle had been in before I start for it.
“Let’s get some clothes first. Then, we can go help the humans,” I say.
“Where do we go from here?” Vlad asks.
I stop on the steps and look out over the two of them. It’s been a long time since I’ve stared at anything remotely close to resembling a pack. I’ve been alone for so long it almost seems foreign, the concept. But as I look out toward Toshi ushering Clarissa back to the cottage and see Vlad and Theo looking up at me for answers, I draw in a deep breath and accept the position I’ve been thrust into.
However briefly it might be.
“We get some clothes, we dig out their children, and we go home,” I say.