Damien and Garrett start howling to the tune ofJingle Bells, as they dash for the box.
I lean in to Tess. “I don’t see the purpose of the box.”
“You will.”
Damien reaches the box first, withdraws a paintball gun and starts shooting Garrett. Garrett ignores the paint pellets hitting him and keeps on howling while digging in the box. He emerges with a string of flashing Christmas lights. He attempts to tackle Damien, but the alpha’s too fast.
“Shift, Damien!” Hayden orders.
In those few seconds it takes him to shift, Garrett begins wrapping him in the lights. Damien’s wolf, still howling to keep from being disqualified, fights against the tangle of light. When he can’t escape them, he does the next best thing. He tackles Garrett.
For a moment, the stage is silent, both males forgetting their place.
“I better hear those howls from both of you,” Hayden calls out.
The howling resumes and Damien’s wolf pins Garrett. Somehow, Garrett throws Damien, and dives for the box.
“Both of you shift!”
The roles now reverse, Damien’s back in human form, more tangled than ever, and twice as mad, given the intensity of his howls. He upends the bin of props, spilling stuff everywhere, and cages Garrett’s wolf with the bin.
The audience is howling, though not in synch with the maleson stage. The kids are shouting at each shifter, telling them what to do next. I can’t help myself, I’m laughing at the antics. And I’m smiling because Garret’s smiling, or he was before shifting and getting caged inside that bin.
Whoops… claws slice down the sides of the bin… and he’s out… leaping on Damien just as he was untangling himself.
“Damien, shift!” Hayden orders. Now we have wolf on wolf, with no end to the howling, though in wolf form neither carries the tune. The wolves circle each other, Christmas lights hanging from Damien, and paint dripping from Garrett.
“Remember, if you spill blood, you lose.”
“I’ll be right back. Gotta pee,” Tess says.
“I’ll fill you in.”
She leaves just as Damien and Garrett clamp their jaws down on each other’s neck. They’re looking equally matched.
“Shift!”
Both males return to human form, Damien a tad faster than Garrett. He dives for a bag on the stage, rips it opens and dumps a handful of tinsel over Garrett’s head which is sticking to the paint. My Garrett is drowning in tinsel, but he doesn’t stop howling toJingle Bells.
“Go, Garrett, go!” I cheer on.
“I hear that’s what you said to him in the woods,” a male’s voice whispers behind me. “Convinced him to leave all those shifters behind. Get you far away from the humans despite the cost.”
I freeze up. Despite all the training Garrett’s been giving me, I can’t even make myself turn around to see who it is. But I know that voice.
“You weren’t there, Tiberius.”
“If I had been, he wouldn’t have sacrificed those shifters. I would’ve pulled him from whatever siren’s spell you cast on him.”
“You’re talking nonsense. I’m shifter, the same as you.”
“Not the same. I don’t lure others to their death.”
My entire body goes cold. The sounds around me fade, leaving only Tiberius’s haunting voice. It’s like I’m back in my cage, with Schneider looking down on me.
“You warped his mind, kept him from rescuing the others. What makes you so important? You’re nothing. A poor substitute for Marla, but Garrett’s too grief stricken to see it. If he gets hurt or killed on this next op, it’s because of you.”
“He’ll be fine. He’s smart.”
