Archaic (Reverse Harem 2)

The Chief shoots me a look before condemning me with his eyes.

“You can lie to them, and you can lie to me. But you can never lie to yourself, Theo. That is the most dangerous of all,” Chief says.

“Will someone speak the fuck up?” Sebastian growls.

“There’s a prophecy. Spoken by one of the most revered of the Bear clan members. It speaks of a woman who has been brought to save the entire Primal race, but at a cost,” Chief says.

“You mean Clarissa?” Toshi asks.

“The prophecy doesn’t specify, but what it does specify is war.

Factions of Primals and their different species coming out of the woodwork and fighting both for and against this woman. To protect her. To preserve her. But not just her.”

Chief looks at me, and I beg him not to say anything. Not with Clarissa and my history. Not with Sebastian in the type of protection mode he’s in.

I’ll be fighting for my life if he does.

“What?” Sebastian asks. “Say it!”

“The prophecy boasts of protecting a child as well,” Chief says.

I feel Toshi and Sebastian both turn their gazes to me.

“I’m here to give you a running start,” Chief says. “You have to leave. You have to get out of here. If you wish to protect Clarissa and whatever comes from this prophecy. But know this.

Death, destruction, and war stand in your way. In some interpretations, the child is even more important than the mother herself.”

Toshi’s eyes are glaring at me, and Sebastian is slowly making his way for me. Sniffing the air and clocking the veins in my neck as my eyes hold Chief. Watching him stand against his cane as his eyes bore into me.

Speaking to me, despite anyone else in the room.

“Do not lie to yourselves, and do not keep her here. I can wield as much power in the Council as I have, but then there is nothing more I can do.”

“Thank you, Chief. For everything,” I say.

“What about Kyle?”

Clarissa’s voice pierces through the heat of the conversation, and we all turn toward her. She’s staring into the fire, her back hunching over and her knees drawing into her chest. I can hear the sadness in her voice. The defeat. The unanswered questions of who really killed Kyle, and the retribution she wished to get for him.

“May I offer you a word of advice?” Chief asks.

Clarissa turns her teary eyes to him, and I can see the force of her emotion slap him across the face. I can see instantaneous regret pour over his features. Sebastian’s nostrils are flaring, and Toshi is physically startled by the change of the emotion in the room.

“How will I figure out who killed my husband?” Clarissa asks.

“Child, the loss of a mate is devastating. But Igo was simply a pawn in a much grander scheme the Council has been afraid of for centuries. Rebellion is coming. Mutiny is lurking in the shadows.

I don’t know how your Kyle plays into all of this but know this.

If you still hurt this badly, and you still yearn for him this much, then he loved you as a mate should. And if you decide to take another, use that power and that dedication as your deciding compass. But this cannot sink you,” Chief says.

“I think it already has.”

“That’s not what I witnessed moments ago,” he says. “I witnessed a power stronger than anything that has ever sat on that Council.

Now more than ever, I believe you are the woman in the prophecy.

Now more than ever, I believe you are worth protecting. But if you allow the loss of your mate to swallow you whole, you doom not only us, but yourself.”