Archaic (Reverse Harem 2)

Petting me.

Calming me down.

“T OSHI! DOWN TO THE left!”

I pounce down the corridor, my legs carrying me as fast as I can fly. I can smell him. Merti and his pumping blood. I’d caught a whiff of it when I scratched his cheek, trying desperately to get him off Clarissa. It hadn’t taken us long to find him. A little

bit of poking around and dropping his name flushed him out because of his sheer curiosity. We had chased him through the streets of Egypt and tracked him to a maze of abandoned tombs and crypts underneath the entire city.

I feel myself cornering him.

Nowhere to run.

Nowhere to hide.

Before I launch myself at him, Sebastian is over my head. His fangs bared and the hairs on his back bristling. I stand beside my Wolfish friend, two pawns in the fight against whatever this clan of murderers has planned for our population. I take a step closer to the cat, my eyes connecting with his as Sebastian lunges for him.

“What do you know?” I ask.

I turn back into my human form and stand there, naked and daunting.

Merti’s hissing laugh turns into a human bellow as he morphs in front of our eyes.

“I know nothing,” he says.

“You know something,” Sebastian says as he morphs back. “You gave that ring to that boy’s father.”

“Nothing but a present.”

“I doubt that,” I say.

“He knows more than he’s saying. And nice ass, Rover.”

Penny comes running up to us, her clothes still intact as she stares up at Merti. I watch her eyes grow wide, sending Merti into some sort of trance. Sebastian looks down at her as a grin spreads across his face.

Does he know what’s going on?

“Please, Merti. What do you know about the ring?” Penny asks.

I watch the man squirm in Sebastian’s grasp as he tries to divert his gaze.

“Nothing,” the man says.

But he’s struggling.

Is Penny doing something to him?

“Please,” Penny says as she takes a step closer. “I’m begging you. I really want to know about that ring. It was so pretty and so shiny. And the design! Oh, I fell in love with it.”

Her eyes are growing bigger, and even I can feel myself falling into the trance. I know opossums are manipulative, but I never assumed it to be an actual power. A sense that can be exploited under the right circumstances.

Suddenly, I hear it. Clarissa’s cries. Heaving sobs dripping from her lips. Sebastian turns his head and loses his grasp on Merti, and he takes off. Pushing us down and knocking us off balance.

But he’s soon back. Pinned at the neck by Clarissa’s strong grasp.

And in her hand is a picture.

“Where did you get this?” Clarissa asks.