But if I’m pregnant, it will attach me to one of them forever.
And I risk losing the rest of them.
Including my own husband.
I stare at the test and consider tossing it away. But as the nausea rolls up my throat again, I know I have to look at it. I grab the trash can next to me and place my face into it, my body shaking as my pants shiver around my ankles.
“Clarissa? You okay?” Josie asks. “Have you taken the test yet?”
“I have,” I choke out. “Just—hold on.”
I hear the door squeak open as I wipe my mouth off with my arm.
“Have you looked at it?” she asks.
“Not yet.”
“Allowing your life to flash before your eyes?”
“Something like that.”
“Do you want me to look at it?” she asks.
I have to be strong. If I’m the prophecy, then I need to accept that. And my fate along with it. Whatever the cost, if the prophecy is my future then I can’t deny it. I can’t run from it. It’s coming, whether I want it to or not.
And a sudden wave of strength surges through the marrow of my bones.
“Nope,” I say. “I’ve got it.”
Chapter 7
Vlad
As I patrol the border of the woods, I hear a few voices stumble upon me. I duck down beneath the snow, burrowing into it and allowing my eyes to peek out from beyond the mountain I’ve created. I recognize them. With their gear and their useless spears.
I still have no idea why the guards of the building carry them.
This is the fourth time in two days they have been out patrolling, but I’ve been ordered by Clarissa not to engage. This is simply to gather intel, and I need to bury my want to tear their throats out. I still don’t understand how Clarissa can command me. How she feels she can order me around. And worse, how my body yearns to listen to her. She’s strong. Stronger than any Primal female I’ve come across.
And it’s invigorating.
The guards approach me, and I swallow the animal inside. I’ve become very good at that. Controlling myself around Clarissa takes all the strength I have, but everything else she asks of me is easy because of it. There was a time in my life where I would’ve growled at a woman who tried to control me. A time where I would’ve pinned her down, ripped off her clothes, and fucked her until she moaned my name and begged for more. Aside from my father, I am the single strongest Alpha in my Russian village.
And I take pride in that.
But Clarissa isn’t weak to me. In fact, she frequently bucks up against me. And instead of it making me angry, it pulls me in further. Deeper into her web of uniqueness. There’s a part of me that can’t help but try to turn her head. I can tell by her interactions with the guys who she’s mated and who she hasn’t. The mere idea that she can take more than one mate is astounding. That is a trait usually saved for a male only. Women can accept more than one mate if they come to her, but she cannot prowl for more than one mate.
Clarissa, however, doesn’t seem to be held to the old laws. She’s new.
And it makes me salivate.
I know she’s mated with Theo. When she’s around him, she reeks of Bear. And I definitely know her and Sebastian have finally consummated whatever it is they have going on. It sprays from him whenever he’s around her. I know she might not ever look at me that way. I know the two of us might never get to indulge in whatever angry tryst flows between the two of us.
But it doesn’t stop me from wanting to try.
Clarissa doesn’t simply smell good. She isn’t simply a Primal mystery. She’s also a wonderful woman. She doesn't take “no” for an answer, and she expects the best of everyone at all times. She’s confident. Cocky, like me. She knows her worth, and she knows when she’s had enough, and she has no problems voicing it. Like whenever Sebastian and Toshi fight. She steps in and nips it in the bud, and they both back down every time.
I’ve never seen a woman command a room the way she does, and it makes my groin pulse.