“I won’t…I won’t…”
“You will.” James’ eyes blazed with hatred.
“I sabotaged the first part of the course! I did it!” Jerrold screamed, face red with fury. “I didn’t shoot Austin, but I did sabotage the course!”
Jerrold’s own packmates looked at him in horror and disgust. He’d just disgraced their pack for life. They were all tarnished by what he’d done.
“Cheating in the trials? That’s a death-penalty offense,” Grant said calmly. “As you all know.”
Oswald nodded grimly.
Jerrold went mad, screaming and wailing and struggling as the Elders withdrew once again to confer among themselves. His packmates gathered together, murmuring and shooting hostile looks at him.
“Jerrold is sentenced to death,” Oswald said resignedly. “So say we all.”
Truman and Taurus glanced at Jerrold’s pack, who were now advancing on their Alpha with murder in their eyes.
“No! No!” Jerrold screamed as Truman and Taurus let go of him and ran for their lives. Jerrold’s pack shifted and swarmed over him in a wave of fur and fangs. Jerrold’s screams of agony went on for almost a minute before they changed to desperate gurgling, and then silence.
Grant raised his voice, shouting so that everyone gathered around them could hear. “My second act as Alpha is to declare that Cliff is Alpha.”
“You can’t be serious,” Phineas said, staring at him.
“I’m dead serious. Cliff was in first place.” Grant looked as if he wanted to spit nails. “I won’t take a pity win. I’ll be the one who’s leaving.”
“No! If Grant declines his position, Austin is Alpha!” Minnie argued.
Austin threw his head back and brayed with laughter. “Fuck that. I shot myself with the silver bullet so I could get out of the trials,” he said. “I don’t want to be Alpha. I don’t want to share oxygen with you people, much less lead you.”
There were exclamations of fury and disbelief from the Elders and the pack members who were thronging around them now.
“You dumb bastard!” Grant snapped at him. Then he sighed heavily.
“But since he didn’t disqualify himself in order to win, it’s not a death penalty.”
“He’s banished, then,” Minnie said.
“I wasn’t planning on coming back anyway.” Austin shrugged. “And frankly, if I want to see my niece and nephews, I will. You can’t stop me.” He turned and walked away, extending a middle finger and holding it up high as he did so. “Ciao, losers.” He yelled that last bit over his shoulder.
A car drove past him in the parking lot, pulling right up to the bleachers, and Anita and Taylor climbed out.
Taylor’s hair was ruffled, her lip was bleeding, and she looked furious.
“Can people be done with kidnapping me, just for one damn day, even?” she snapped as Cliff rushed to her side.
Epilogue
One year later…
Chester and Carol sat on the enormous front porch of Cliff and Taylor’s mansion. Taylor held her new son Brandon in her arms, swinging gently on the porch swing. Serafina and Dax and Roger were crowded around her. Cliff sat near them, smiling hugely. He reached out and stroked Brandon’s tiny little fist, and Brandon’s hand closed around Cliff’s finger.
Carol, who was never at a loss for words…was speechless. She reached over to Chantelle, who was sitting next to Rusty on a white-painted wooden rocker. Chantelle was due in three months. Her stomach was like a little beachball resting on her lap.
“Can I hold him again?” Serafina asked eagerly. “I’ll be really, really careful.” Taylor let Serafina take Brandon in her arms.
“I’m his godfather,” Dax bragged to Cliff.
“We’re both his godfather,” Roger corrected him. “Hey, you wanna see me turn again? I can do it really fast.”
