Primals (Reverse Harem 1)

“And you?” Toshi looks at me. “What’s your story?”

I hesitate, the story not one I feel like telling, but I decide I might as well, even if it’s just to reduce the tension in the air.

“I had a mate once, but she died,” I explain briefly. Letting them know that this is as much detail as I’m giving them.

Toshi shakes his head, his expression somber. “Sorry to hear it.” He seems genuinely sympathetic and I feel myself relax a little.

“Me, too,” Sebastian adds, his eyes widening a little as though this shocks him. I’m not sure if I should be insulted that it never occurred to him I could have someone, or amused. “I didn’t know.”

“When was this?” Toshi asks.

“It’s been over seventy years,” I answer. “Though sometimes, it feels like yesterday.”

“Which means you’re not yet over her,” Toshi states.

I don’t answer. I don’t really know the answer. Once, I thought she’d be the only female I’d ever love, the only mate I’d ever have. But after meeting Clarissa, I have to admit I’ve started to wonder...

“I think he can say what he means,” Sebastian says.

Toshi hisses.

“The Chief wants me to take a new mate,” I inform them both.

“Oh,” Toshi mutters, rubbing his chin. “So, you do want Clarissa as your mate?”

Do I? Well, I wouldn’t mind it. That’s for sure. But do I have the courage to ask her? No. Not after all the prophecies I’ve heard, especially this recent one, the last part of which I haven’t told them yet.

Frankly, I’m not sure I want to. Maybe I won’t.

“Okay. I’ll take that creepy silence as a yes,” Toshi says before turning to Sebastian. “Your turn.”

Sebastian keeps his lips pursed.

“Okay.” Toshi shrugs. “I’ll take that silence as a yes, too.”

“So, how is Clarissa?” I change the subject. “If she got angry at you guys, at least, it means she’s feeling a bit better, right?”

“Go on, rub it in.” Toshi frowns as he leans on the tree. “Take some pleasure in our misfortune.”

“She does seem a bit more of her old self,” Sebastian agrees.

“I’ll go check on her and on Kyle,” I offer, walking off.

“I’ll go with you,” Sebastian says.

I glance at him over my shoulder, eyebrows raised. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve cooled off and I’m sure Clarissa has, too,” he says, stepping forward. “Maybe now, we can have a conversation, not an argument.”

“Well, women do say things they don’t mean when they’re upset,” Toshi agrees, stretching his arms over his head, arching his back until it pops. “I’m sure now that this has boiled over, Clarissa is waiting for us back at the house.”

BUT CLARISSA ISN’T at the house.

After finding only a sleeping Kyle in his room, his wounds both worse and better than I thought they’d be, Toshi, Sebastian and I search the rest of the house frantically only to arrive at the same conclusion.

“Clarissa’s gone,” I say it out loud in the middle of the living room, fists clenched and raring to punch a wall.

Or maybe one of these two. I can’t believe they’d gotten so caught up in their own drama that Clarissa could just plain...disappear.