“Let me out,”my wolf yelled again, sounding just as aggravated as I felt, which only pissed me off even more.
“I don’t know how!”I yelled back at her ass. How the hell was she mad at me when we were supposed to be one and the same? Hell, if anything, I should have been pissed at her. She should have been able to explain to me what the hell she meant.
Seeing everyone fighting with all their might sent me back to the night when Alonzo fought for me. Once again, I was hiding helplessly, and I made a vow to myself to never be the helpless one again, but here I was once again doing nothing, even more so after Kenzo mindspoke to me, basically demanding I stay in this fucking tree like an invalid. I wasn’t weak. There had to be a way I could help. My heart dropped. Halo was holding her own against two big ugly-ass chameleon-looking things. She was easily tearing into the two chameleons.
“Halo! Behind you!”I screamed at the top of my lungs, but it was too late because a Snake shifter had grabbed her by her hair before sinking its fangs into her neck. I watched in horror as my friend's body went limp.
Immediately, Cree finished off the Snake shifter he was fighting. Darting over to Halo, he used his teeth to rip off the head of the snake that had bitten Halo. He let out a blaring agonizing howl. His wolf licked at Halo’s face. Out of nowhere, four of the Chameleon shifters all jumped on Cree’s back, knocking him away from Halo. He tussled with the chameleons and fought them to the best of his ability. Halo’s unconscious body was left out in the open. Tears pooled in my eyes upon seeing Halo not moving.Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Let me out,”my wolf calmly said.
“Tell me how. Please. I’ll let you out. Please!”I cried, begging for my wolf to explain to me what I needed to do.
Her silence broke my heart.Fuck this.If my wolf wasn’t going to help me, then so be it. As fast as I could, I climbed down from the tree I was in. If I died, it wasn’t going to be while hiding up in the tree. No, I was going to do my best to protectHalo. Looking on the ground, I found the biggest branch I could carry. I needed some kind of protection for us. From the tree, Halo didn’t look that far from me, but on the ground, she was actually a good distance away. I could make it to her fast enough; however, it was going to take longer than I thought.I’m coming Halo.
In the midst of the chaos, three more black wolves, all big but two of them extra big, lunged from the forest clearing, immediately attacking the shifters. One of the wolves helped Cree while the other two started helping Tiny take on the shifters still coming from the opening.
Focusing back on Halo, I started to run toward her at full speed. In the distance, I could see a big frilled-neck-looking Lizard shifter running toward Halo at full speed as well. Malice radiated from the shifter as he opened his mouth in a downward position as if he was preparing to bite into Halo. I wasn’t going to make it in time. The shifter was twice as fast as I was.
Help me!I didn’t know who I was talking to. All I knew was I needed to get to Halo before he did.
“Relax and allow me to take over. I am you; you are me. Trust me.”
I couldn’t explain it, but this time, when my wolf spoke, I fully understood what she meant. I had to relinquish control and trust her to take control.
Doing as she told me, I let go, trusting my wolf to do what we both wanted. The experience of feeling fur sprouting out from my skin, hands transforming into paws, my nose transforming into a snout, was unbelievable. I always thought the shifter experience would be more painful. However, it was a euphoric process.
Without needing to be told, my wolf rushed the lizard just as he was almost to Halo. We sank our canines into the lizard'sneck, ripping its head from its body. We stood in front of Halo’s body in a protective manner, daring anyone to try us.
“That hole is a portal. We need to close it, or they won’t stop coming out,” Tiny yelled while pointing to the hole where the giant monster Kenzo was fighting came from. “You see those crystals at the bottom? We need to destroy them.”
“Bellamy, where are you?!”Kenzo mindspoke to us. We could see him frantically searching the tree for us.
“We are behind you.” Quickly, Kenzo turned around, looking dead at us.
“You shifted?”Kenzo asked proudly. We imagined if he was in his human form, he would have had a huge smile on his face.
“We did.”
“Your wolf is breathtaking. More beautiful than we ever imagined.”
“Thank you,” we bashfully replied.
Kenzo’s bear nodded. “We have to destroy those crystals,”I told him, repeating what Tiny had told us.
“If we go at the same time, we can destroy both of them at the same time,” Kenzo suggested.
“No, I’m not leaving Halo,” we refused.
“Go with your mate. I will keep her safe,” Tiny said as she appeared beside us. We didn’t want to leave Halo, but we trusted Tiny to keep her safe.
We nodded at Tiny, and then we met Kenzo at the halfway point. His bear and my wolf eagerly sniffed each other. Clearly, our animals didn’t care that we were in the middle of a battle. Their happiness over seeing each other outweighed everything.
“You get the crystal on the left. I’ll get the one on the right,” Kenzo said.
We both took off in the direction of the portal. The closer we got, the stronger we could feel the power of the portal. From far away, we couldn’t see the portal. It was some type of camouflage.Up close, we could see the distorted tunnel the shifters were coming from. The crystals keeping the portal open looked like two black hearts beating. It was something from a scary movie. Kenzo started to run toward the crystal on the right. Once he got into position, we prepared to smash them. Then Meenie appeared in front of me in her vile, distorted form, eyes twisted with evil and malice.
“Don’t…” Her raspy voice sent chills up my spine. “I will give you everything you want. Your life will go back to normal. No more shifters, no magic, no Kenzo. All the things you miss, I will give back to you, even my mate. You can have him back, and this time, he will love you. Allow my minions to overthrow this land, and you can have your old life back.”
