Archaic Read online

They wanted to be there for Clarissa, but after seeing her reaction, I am glad it was just me. I need to shift back into my human form, but first, I have to find the bag I hid in the field, knowing I would be back there soon. I take in a deep breath of air, trying to pick up the scent. There it is, about fifteen feet away in an overgrown bush. I step forward, my furry clawed paws morphing and changing as I move toward the bush. My body begins to contort as I take that last step. I stand tall, the rain running over my naked human body.

  I open the bag and pull out my clothes, quickly putting them on and slipping my feet into my old brown boots with the leather peeling off the toe. I can see a light flashing in the factory, and I know it is the bear, trying to fit his giant ass through the doorway. I figure they have been there for a while, and Toshi is probably driving him through the roof. I walk through the tall grass and up to the door, opening it quickly and stalking through to where I can smell Toshi purring from the rafters. He swings down and lands nimbly beside Theo, who looks cramped in the room that is not that small.

  “Well look who it is,” Toshi says with a smirk. “The guy that can’t get the girl without getting her husband killed.”

  “Knock it off,” Theo says, his deep bear voice reverberating in my chest. “We know it wasn’t on purpose.”

  “Thanks.” I scoff.

  “What happened up there?” Theo asks. “Why did you not protect Kyle? Bitter or not, you know he was part of this team. He was key to Clarissa’s normal, out of the spotlight, human life.”

  “You think I did this on purpose?” I am angry, stepping forward into the light from the moon covering the old dusty floor. “You think I let him die when I could have saved him?”

  “Nooo,” Toshi says looking at his nails. “We’re just saying that its mighty suspicious that Kyle got the girl your doggy sense was hooked on and now she is single, though really not ready to mingle.”

  “Look cat,” I say with a growl. “You won’t be so smug when you join him. Maybe you should think about how this is partly your fault.”

  “My fault?” he says. “I thought you were over the whole betrayal thing. You know I love her. You know I want her to be happy. I would have protected Kyle, saved him.”

  “Hey!” Theo bellows stepping between us. “Enough is enough. I just want to know what happened.”

  “I made a mistake,” I reply, running my hands through my hair. “I thought the house was safe. I wasn’t going to stand right there and stare at them while they had sex. I thought that I checked everywhere in the house. I was wrong. It is my fault, okay?”

  I turn and walk over to the window, looking out at the moon. The truth is, it was my fault, but not because I didn’t check the house good enough. It was because I was jealous. I had connected with Clarissa. She was supposed to be my mate, and I couldn’t stand the sight of watching them get happily married. I know I should have been there. I knew the moment it happened that I fucked up, but I couldn’t tell them that.

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Theo says, walking over and putting his giant hand on my shoulder. “We all make mistakes. We live with those demons.”

  “Thanks,” I say, turning back toward Toshi. “So, who do you guys think is behind this? I mean, I thought we had it on lockdown at the hearing. I thought all loose ends were tied, that they wouldn’t be able to find out about her.”

  “I think it was someone in the council,” Toshi says. “Someone that somehow got a picture or a video or something from the lab.

  We didn’t think about cameras, but I know Issa and that fucker were paranoid for good reasons. Cats don’t even trust other cats.”

  “Why does that not surprise me?” I say under my breath.

  “Anyway,” Toshi says staring over at me. “I think I have some contacts we can go through to get more information.”

  “Okay,” I reply. “What are we waiting for?”

  “Someone has to stay here and look out for Clarissa,” Theo says carefully. “I’m too big to go unnoticed. We don’t trust the cat.

  And you and Toshi can’t be anywhere together for five minutes without fighting.”

  “So, you want me to stay and look out for her.” I sigh.

  “You don’t have to talk to her. Just watch out for her,” Theo replies. “She is tough, and hopefully those idiots don’t come back looking for her.”

  “Fine, but I need you to report to me what you find.” I look at Theo. “It’s important that I’m in the know so I can stay protected.”

  “I will,” Theo says. “Just keep her safe.”

  “And check the closets this time,” Toshi says, turning and walking from the room.

  I growl, watching Theo turn and walk out too. I lean back against an old piece of machinery and think about what happened. I had been too selfish. I had let my instincts get the best of me. I knew something had happened. I sensed it, but by the time I got there, perched on the hill above the farm still as my wolf, all I could see were cop cars and Clarissa laying in a pile, surrounded by her family, still wearing that wedding dress. I knew I had to go back and protect her now, but my guilt was almost too much to bear.

  I WANT TO SCRATCH MY ears off with my own claws. Even standing up on the hill looking out on the farm I can hear her cries, her distraught tears, her soul ripping in half. My wolf vision is keen, and even in the darkness of the night I can see into her barely lit bedroom. She is laying there on her bed, her arms wrapped across her chest, her knees pulled up, sobbing into her hands. She is devastated, even more so than I expected, but then again, I had heard what it was like to lose your mate, and Kyle was hers. I want to help her, take the pain, be there for her, but she made it clear to stay away from her. This is as close as I can get, far enough to keep my scent away but close enough to help if she needed it.

  She stays in her room all the time, sometimes pacing, sometimes sleeping, and sometimes sitting at the window staring up at the moon. The vibrant life I love about her is draining from her eyes with every passing day. I love her. I will always love her and watching her like this is tearing me apart, especially since I am the reason she is in so much pain. Slowly, I sink down onto my butt, resting my arms on my legs and reaching for my pack. I pull out some jerky and tear at it, my eyes still closely surveying everything in the area.

  “Watching her won’t get her back,” a woman’s voice teases from behind me.

  I jump up and turn around, crouching and growling. I look back and forth into the night trying to figure out where she is.

  “Who’s there?” I growl.

  “Hee, hee.” She giggles as I watch something scurry across the ground and into the bushes.

  Slowly I start to walk toward the bush, my claws beginning to form on my hands. As I approach, the bush begins to shake wildly, hissing and squeaking sounds coming from it. I stop and look wildly at the bush as a woman begins to rise, completely naked, her bottom half still covered by the leaves. She is short and curvy with long brown hair, specks of dark grey throughout. Her nose still wiggles in her face, and her small sharp teeth slowly morph back into their human form. She steps out from the bush and leans down, pulling a bag out.

  “Who are you?” I say again. “What do you want?”

  “Calm down, wolfy,” she says, pulling on a black low-cut shirt and a pair of short spandex shorts. “I’m not your enemy. I’m a friend really. My name is Penny.”

  I sniff the air as she pulls on her boots, zipping up the side before running her fingers through her hair. Her eyes flash in the light from the moon, and I immediately began to tingle.

  “Opossum.” I snarl. “Never can be trusted.”

  “I guess you aren’t going to make this easy.” She sighs, flashing her sharp teeth and hissing.

  I howl and lunge forward, attempting to grab her and tie her up.

  She is quick, scurrying to the side on all fours, giggling as she goes. I turn and show my teeth, running straight for her, but she jumps, flipping over the top of me and laughing as she k
icks me square in the ass. I fall forward but catch myself, glancing back as she pays little attention to me, celebrating her small victory. I swipe my leg around and catch her in the ankles, watching her fall back, hitting her head hard on the ground and immediately going limp.

  I stand there for a moment, peering through the darkness at her body lying in the grass. There is no rise and fall of her chest, no movement of her eyes, and I am sure that she is dead. I walk over, shaking my hands back into human form and stand over the top of her. It is a shame, she was not that bad looking of a girl.

  “You stupid wolf. I’m an Opossum.” She laughs, jumping up and tackling me to the ground.

  She straddles me, pinning my legs to the ground, swiping her sharp claw across my face. I whimper and growl trying to get free. She twists her head around, getting rid of the fangs and looks down at me with a smirk.

  “Now, I know you dogs are like any other man, but I didn’t take you as a pervert staring at poor girls through their bedroom windows.” She laughs.

  “ENOUGH!” I growl loudly and break my arm free, reaching up and grabbing her by the neck.

  I stand up, holding her in the air, anger blowing through me. She whimpers, putting up her hands, trying to back down.

  “Don’t be hasty,” she chokes out. “How are you going to talk to me about the symbol?”

  “What symbol?” I bark.

  “The one,” she chokes, pointing down. “The one on the floor where Kyle was killed.”

  Slowly the muscles in my face start to untwist, and I look at her for a moment, wondering if this is another sneaky Opossum trick.

  Slowly I lower her to her feet and loosen my grip on her neck.

  She breathes in heavily, shaking her head.

  “Sheesh,” she says. “Way to welcome a girl to the party. Nice muscles.”

  “What do you know about this?”

  “Just that there was a symbol. It marks the enemy and where they come from,” she says ogling my body.

  I let go and look at her angrily. “Fine, I’ll hear you out. But if you play one game, I’ll pop that Weasley head off your shoulders.”

  “I’m a marsupial,” she says snidely.

  Chapter 4

  ~ Clarissa

  The chair rocks back and forth, back and forth, the old wood of the porch creaking beneath me. The sky is clear, the sun rising above the horizon with sparks of yellow and red saturating the vista in front of me. It is the fourth consecutive day I am here, no sleep, barely any food, just me and the wide heavens in front of me. My heart isn’t healing, not even for a split second, and I wonder to myself whether it ever will again. Out on the hills,

  the cows are starting to roam, rising for another day of endless eating. The chickens squawk in the background, and I can barely keep myself from bursting into tears. I am on an emotional roller coaster from hell.

  I swallow hard as I hear footsteps in the house approaching the door. I look up as my mother opens the door and pokes her head out, smiling at me as if she is looking for me. I nod, turning my attention back to the rising sun. She grabs another chair and pulls it over to where I am, grabbing her knitting needle and current project from her back pocket. Slowly she began to knit, barely rocking the chair at all, looking up at the sun as it shines over the land, casting the shadow of night away once again. She puts her needles in her lap and waves at me, catching my attention.

  “When your mother died,” she says signing to me. “My heart broke.

  It broke like I had never experienced before. I loved her with all my heart. But then there was you, this dark-haired, wide-eyed, smiling baby, in need of someone to love you. We took you home, but it didn’t break the spell I was under. In fact, there were moments, those moments I saw her in your face, that it only made it worse. I thought I would grieve for the rest of my life.”

  “What brought you out of it?” I sign back, leaning my head against the back of the chair.

  “Life,” she signs. “The fact that no matter how sad I was, life kept moving forward. You kept getting bigger. You kept needing me. Now I know you don’t have a baby, but life is still moving forward. You can’t stay living in the past forever. You can’t just roll over and die. You have got to fight back, even if that means letting go of that hurt in your heart.”

  I stare at her, thinking about her words, thinking about the meaning behind them. Now, I know what she means. She is telling me to move on with my life, to get back to work, to breathe again, but that isn’t at all the way I am going to take it. The anger and angst inside of me are not letting go and they won’t, not until justice is served. Kyle didn’t die because of some freak accident. Kyle died because of me and whatever I am. He died to protect me, and the men that did it, they deserve a fate worse than death itself.

  Ma smiles and signs, “I love you” before picking up her needles, patting me on the shoulder and walking back into the house. I watch her until she closes the door. I turn my attention back to the sky, but the colors are gone. I start to rock again, this time harder, faster, my mind churning through the events of that night. Someone had been lurking up in the house, hiding in the shadows, waiting for me. Why didn’t they come after me after killing Kyle? Why didn’t they use him to get to me in some way?

  None of it makes any sense.

  If I was the target, then they missed by a mile, and what they did was turn the tide on themselves. I knew Kyle wouldn’t want me to scheme. He wouldn’t even want me to be angry, but I can’t help myself. He was the love of my life. The man I gave myself to. The one I chose, and he was gone, brutally murdered so I can’t even look upon him in death.

  I can feel that anger, that raging inferno starting to grow inside of me again. It is the first thing I have felt since the funeral, and though it isn’t at all what my Ma had in mind, I am hell bent on using it to motivate me off that porch and out of the darkness that I have become so comfortable with.

  I no longer care about the past, about the fact that I was made for the Primal. I no longer care about the fate in which those cats threw me into. The only thing I care about anymore is the sweet taste of revenge. I stand up from the rocking chair and walk down the steps, looking out at the hills. I know what I have to do. I have to find out who killed Kyle, and I have to avenge his death. I have to rip the face from his killer just as they did my husband.

  I can feel the adrenaline start to pump through my veins once again. This time though, it is no longer a search for the truth.

  It is a search for the enemy that lurks in the shadows. I won’t live in fear for the rest of my life, and I won’t rest until I know that my husband’s killers are buried deeper than I buried Kyle, only they won’t get the luxury of a casket if there is anything left of them by the time I am through.

  I step forward scanning the countryside. I know that Sebastian is still out there, he would never leave me unwatched. I close my eyes and take a deep breath in through my nose, searching for his scent. The air is still for a moment, but when it starts to blow, that dog’s perfume is right there, floating off the hills in front of the farm. I smile menacingly and take off running down the dirt path, tracking his whiff. My feet were moving faster than ever before, and for a moment I close my eyes, feeling the wind on my face.

  I hit the turn in the dirt trail and slide to the side, slowing down and walking carefully to the top of the hill. Immediately Sebastian senses me and turns around, his eyes big, a look of concern on his face. I look at Sebastian for a moment and then over at a short woman, long brown hair, distinct features, a strange smile on her lips. Her shirt is low cut, her breasts pressed together, showing more than enough cleavage.

  “Clarissa,” he says rushing forward. “What’s wrong? What is it?”

  “Nothing is wrong,” I say, glancing back at the girl again. “Um, who is she?”

  “No one,” he says gruffly.

  “Hey,” she whines, sticking out her bottom lip.

  “Sebastian,” I reply, smacking him in the ar
m. “Why are you being so rude? Is this your girlfriend?”

  “No,” he says shaking his head wildly. “Absolutely not.”

  “He can if he wants to be,” the girl sings in a high-pitched tone, laughing at herself.

  I smile and look over at Sebastian who is rubbing his forehead in frustration. I have to admit, when I raced up the hill this wasn’t the scene I was expecting, and to be honest, I felt a slight twinge of jealousy thinking that he might be with someone else. Of course, I had no right. I chose Kyle, and I didn’t regret that for a second.

  “Hi.” I smile. “I’m Clarissa.”

  “Hello.” She smiles back, sticking out her hand. “Penny.”

  “The Opossum.” Sebastian groans.

  “Ahem, rude,” she says giving him an evil look. “Penny Masters, and yes, I am a Primal Opossum.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I say. “I didn’t know there were Primal Opossums.”

  “Not a lot of us now that my sexual prowess is not being reproduced,” she replies shaking her hips. “But we are here.”

  Penny is interesting, a surprise in ways. From the outside, you would expect calm and collected, but as soon as she speaks, it is nothing but wild and wooly. I guess that’s kind of like an Opossum. They are often misrepresented but can be vicious as hell if backed into a corner. I know this well living on a farm, fighting them off of the trash on a regular basis.

  “ Maybe you can shoo her off now ,” Sebastian says in my head.

  “ Be nice ,” I reply, giving him the stink eye.

  “So, I am so sorry to hear about your hubby,” she says, putting her arm around my shoulders. “I have lost my mate, too.”

  “Oh, no,” I reply with sadness. “I’m sorry. How did he die?”

  “Well, it’s a long story.” She sighs. “Anyway, I think I might be some help in finding out who did this to Kyle.”

  “Really?” I smile.

  “NO!” Sebastian turns and marches up to me. “You are not jumping back in the fire on some suicide hell mission because you want revenge.”

  “Seriously, you need to stay out of my head,” I reply through gritted teeth.