Archaic (Reverse Harem 2)

I’m not coming back to this hotel room without Clarissa.

I bound down the stairs and shove myself out into the cold Russian air. I hunch my back and tune my ears, and I can hear her giggling. Way off in the distance I can hear that beautiful sound falling from Clarissa’s lips.

And Toshi.

I can smell his putrid scent.

I take off across the road, my nose shoved into the air. I’m on all fours, pumping as fast as my body will allow me to go. Down the road and out of town, until there’s nothing around me but fields blanketed with snow. I’m puffing and heaving for air as my claws dig into the ground, sending me faster down the side of the road with each stride I take.

I stop in my tracks and rear up, allowing the wind to whip around my head. And the moment the smell hits my nose, my blood boils.

I can smell Clarissa.

And she reeks of Cat.

I turn my head and look across a meadow as the sun sets below the horizon. The blackness of night is forcing the stars into the sky, and I see two people emerge from the woods. Tangled up in one another and dancing. I train my ears, and Clarissa’s giggle is louder. Sloppier. Filled with bad decisions and regret.

She’s drunk.

Toshi went and got Clarissa drunk.

“I’m gonna kill you, you fucking Cat.”

I see Clarissa’s head whip over toward me as I go running through the meadow. I can hear her screaming at me, but it doesn’t matter. Toshi knew what he was doing. He knew he was taking advantage of her. I run through the snow and leap into the air, watching as Clarissa steps in front of Toshi.

Protecting him and reeking of his scent.

I push her off to the side and sink my claws into his back. I toss Toshi over me and turn blindingly on my heels. I pounce on

him, and he transforms. A massive black Cat stands from the snow, and the Wolf in me grins.

Oh, this is going to be good.

“Stop it! Right now!”

I look over at Clarissa as Toshi pounces. His teeth go straight for my neck, but I’m quicker. I roll him over in the snow as Clarissa shouts at us. I pin him to the ground and swipe my claws over his face, tearing open his skin and spilling his blood onto the snow.

It’s a beautiful scent, and I bask in it as victory floods my veins.

“What is wrong with you two? Stop!”

“You got her drunk,” I say.

“At her request,” Toshi says with a hiss.

“It doesn’t matter. You knew you were taking advantage of her.”

“I was simply giving her what she asked.”

“That doesn’t mean you weren’t taking advantage of her!”

I leap into the air and crash down onto the Cat, burying him in the snow. I dodge the swiping of his paws as he rolls me over and I kick him off me. He goes crashing into the snow, and I stand up from the ground, my teeth bared and my throat growling.

“He’s telling the truth,” Clarissa says. “I asked him to take me away. To make me forget. To help me be happy again.”

“That doesn't mean what he did was right,” I say.

“I asked him for it!”