Primals (Reverse Harem 1)

“Are you okay?” She stands over my bed, a look of concern on her face.

“Yeah.” I rub my temples. “Maybe I just drank a bit much.”

“Well, luckily, Toshi knows just the cure for a hangover,” she says. “Let me...”

I grab her arm and she gives me a look of surprise.

“I’m sorry.” I let her go, but hold up my hand, pleading with her to linger just a little longer. “I don’t want you to get them. Just please...stay. I want us to be alone together. Like old times.”

Old times? When did they get old?

She sits on the edge of the bed. “It’s strange, isn’t it? How our circle of friends grew so quickly.”

“I’m not exactly sure they’re my friends,” I tell her, placing my hand over my chest, mostly to keep myself from doing something stupid. Like reaching for her again. “Or yours.”

“What happened?” Her eyebrows crease. “I thought you were getting along well with them.”

I was? Maybe I was but that was until that time at the waterfall when I saw how all three of them looked at her, the same way I was, at the same places I was.

I shrug. “Maybe we’re just too different.”

Or too similar.

She reaches for my hand. “Look, I know you feel left out. I know you don’t want to stay here. But I really think it’s for the best.”

And that’s what hurts the most.

I swallow hard, trying to get around the sudden lump in my throat. “I understand. I’ll be here, waiting for you when you come back.”

“I will come back,” she promises, leaning over me so she can ruffle my hair. “So stop looking so sad, silly.”

As she does, the gap of her robe widens and her necklace falls out, hanging from her neck.

I touch her pendant. “Since when do you wear a necklace?”

“Oh, this pendant was actually something I started working on in Alaska,” she answers. “Theo finished it for me and put it on a strap.”

“How sweet.” Great, even from thousands of miles away the Bear is getting more play than I am. Must I seriously compete with all three of them, every moment of the frigging day?

“Yeah. He’s a sweet guy.” She smiles, having no clue how much those words sting.

I sit up, holding both of her hands in mine.

“What’s wrong, Kyle?”

“Clarissa, I want you to know that...” I take a deep breath. “That no matter what happens, no matter what you find out, it won’t change a thing. Or well, it might change a lot of things but there’s one thing it won’t.” I touch her cheek. “You’ll still be the most important person in the world to me.”

She nods. “I know. And you have no idea how much that means to me.”

I hear her tone. Understand it all too well. My smile fades a little.

“You’re my best friend, Kyle,” she goes on, driving that particular knife in further. “The best anyone could ever ask for.”

I frown, my hand falling away from her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s just that...” I take another deep breath. “Clarissa, I...”