“You’re hardly a man.”
“Is that a challenge I hear?”
Our eyes connect, and I watch as Clarissa backs off. She retreats back to the men. Her scent dies as the moment recedes. I breathe a silent sigh of relief. But then a goofy smile crosses Josie’s cheeks, and I know I’ve dug myself a hole. I’ve got no intentions of curbing my appetite enough to palette the stench of lying with a human female.
But she does feel good in the crook of my arm, and I suppose she would be a decent way to pass the time.
I look up and watch Clarissa snuggle underneath Sebastian’s arm. But her eyes are still glancing at me. I turn my back to her and focus solely on Josie, trying to listen as she rattles off her day. Training. Some nursing. Picking herbs and vegetables for dinner. I nod and smile, casting her the shining grin that seems to knock every woman off her feet. Her eyes grow more illuminated with every word that pours from her mouth, and my hand falls to her hip.
Cupping it and gently caressing it as she regales me with her boring ass day.
“What about you? How was your day?” Josie asks.
“A little bit of this and a little bit of that,” I say.
“Have you gone on a run at all?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know. A run. Shifted and gone out for a bit.”
“Not today, no,” I said.
“What’s it like?” she asks.
“Shifting?”
“Mhm. Does it hurt?”
“Not really. Though it does ruin a lot of good clothes.”
“Do you always carry a spare or something?”
“I try,” I say.
I also suppress the want to roll my eyes. This is why I don’t take up beds with humans. All they want to talk about is shifting. Does it hurt? What does it feel like? How much do you spend on clothes? Can I fuck a human in my Primal form?
I’m not a fetish.
“Could I see sometime?” Josie asks.
“If you’re a good girl,” I say with a wink.
I hear a snicker come from the other side of the room, but I brush it off.
“Well, I better get started on dinner. Sit next to me?”
“I’d love nothing else,” I say with a smile.
I watch as Josie makes her way into the kitchen. I catch Clarissa staring at me again, only this time she averts her gaze. Like I don’t know she’s looking at me. But watching her pressed against Sebastian with his possessive grip and his gnarled teeth, it makes me sick. She isn’t his. She isn’t anyone’s. She is only who she is, and if Sebastian keeps up this trend with trying to claim her, he’s going to lose her.
And I’ll be there to help with the fallout.
I’ll be there to dry her tears and explain to her how primitive Sebastian really can be.
I need away from this camp. The idea of a run sounds good. I open the front door and step out into the cold and allow it to cascade over my body. Humans always want to talk about shifting, but never the emotions behind it. The rage that flows through my veins. The memories it conjures. When a Primal shifts, it taps into a reserve of feelings we don’t allow to fly normally. It’s what gives us our power. It isn’t the out-of-control emotional state that allows the ability to shift. It’s the control of it that provides a strength over our own being.
I walk past all of the huts and hunker down behind a tree before I close my eyes.