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Annoyed with myself, I snapped my teeth at him and forced myself to ignore Keet.

Him, we could reanimate.

Me?

Not so much.

I was hard to kill, all shifters were, but it wasn’t impossible.

Bast pivoted on the ball of one wide paw and charged me again.

There was no finesse, no style, just brute strength. With his strategy stuck on repeat, I didn’t bother altering mine either. Lazy of me, I know, but it had been a week. Mom would tan my hide if she watched this one. Bast was smaller than me but bulkier through the shoulders, and he was mean. His bites struck bone. I had no issue with him tiring himself out on wasted feints if it kept his teeth away from my throat.

Our fight developed a familiar rhythm.

Bast rushed in. I tore a chunk out of him. He retreated.

Rinse and repeat.

The next battering-ram-style attack shoved me back, and my hind feet slid across slippery metal.

Faster than I could regain my balance, Bast whipped around and hammered me again with his shoulder.

Clarity slapped me as my legs skated out from under me.

Bast had been herding me, and I was too slow on the uptake to recognize his ploy until it was too late.

Frigid saltwater stole my breath when I splashed into the tank.

“Eva.”

Corbin’s enraged bellow shocked me out of my stupor, and I blinked stinging eyes to find the sharks circling me, curious about their guest. A flurry of movement drew my attention away from my fellow predators, and I cringed when I spotted the milling crowd of visitors standing in the acrylic tunnel.

As they gasped and pointed, I could only pray they saw my scales and figured I was a new attraction.

Then the phones came out, flashes went off, and I accepted my parents were going to kill me.

If they didn’t die laughing first.

My paws hit the gritty bottom of the tank about the time my lungs began screaming for air. The sides of the enclosure were textured at eye level with rock and coral for the sake of the viewing window, but the upper sections were smooth and painted a cool blue.

Gwyllgi couldn’t swim, which, yeah. Ironic. You would think we could dog paddle at least, but sadly not. Our dense muscle mass and solid build meant we were heavier. Factor in our head size, and weight that tended to be disproportionate to our bodies, and we couldn’t hold our heads above water on four legs. Wherever we got our scales, it wasn’t from a long-lost aquatic ancestor. Gwyllgi sank like freaking rocks.

To shift, abandoning the agreed-upon weapon of teeth and claws, would award Bast the win.

I would rather drown in front of an audience than forfeit to that dickweasel.

A second disturbance scattered the sharks, and my stomach dropped when a yellow bullet shot straight for me.

Keet, in full-on penguin mode, nibbled the fur on my nose, yanking me toward the faux coral reef I’d noticed earlier. I let him guide me—it was that or die bald—and climbed them. There, painted the same eye-tricking blue as the upper tank, was a metal ladder bolted to the curved side.

Hallelujah.

Pulling myself up, paw over paw, was about as much fun as it sounds. The narrow rungs on the reinforced stainless-steel ladder weren’t meant for gwyllgi paw pads, and the lack of oxygen was fire in my lungs. Black dots twinkled in my vision before I hit what I estimated to be the halfway point.

Keet pecked and clawed at my vulnerable face to keep me motivated on the climb, drawing blood that perked the sharks’ interest.

As it turned out, that proved even better motivation than having a wannabe penguin attack out of love.

When my head broke the water, Matthieu yelled, “Bast, she made it out.”

Within seconds, Bast guarded the ledge, snarling and snapping at me. I couldn’t climb over or past him, and my limbs trembled from exertion. As much as I didn’t want another dunk, I didn’t see another way.

Slinking down a step, until the water almost closed over my head, I let Bast overextend to reach me for a finishing bite then sprang up and sank my teeth deep in his throat. He dug in his paws, his claws finding purchase in the grates. I was stuck, I didn’t have enough leverage, and I couldn’t stand here all day.

Lungs expanding with fresh oxygen, I let go of the ladder. My punishing grip, and weight, drew Bast in after me. He panicked as we sank and flailed several yards, but I was primed for when I touched down on the reef.

Within minutes, Keet had caught up to me, and I hustled to escape his encouragement.

This time, nothing obstructed my view of the platform, and I climbed out then flopped onto my belly. Panting and coughing up water, I blinked to clear my blurry vision in time to watch Corbin run to me.

“Now we wait.” Paula exhaled with relief. “Either he climbs out, or he doesn’t.”

Sides heaving, I lay there while Keet, who had caught a ride on my back out of the tank, cleaned my fur. I grunted when he wedged his sharp beak between my gleaming scales, but I lacked the energy to snap at him, even when his intense grooming hurt. A hazy part of my brain wondered if that wasn’t the point.

Passing out mid-challenge from repeated oxygen deprivation was probably not wise.

Smart little bird, that Keet, I’ll give him that.

“You okay?” Corbin sank to his knees near my head. “Am I allowed to touch you now, or…?”

Baring my teeth, I wanted to spit he wasn’t allowed to touch me ever, but all I could do was growl.

“Leave her,” Paula advised. “From what she told me about her pack, we don’t want to risk her win.”

Maybe I could edit out that last part before my folks watched this, and they would see it. After my swim, they would demand a copy to gauge how much damage was done and what reparations must be made.

With a nod, he broke into a smile. “You were amazing.”

Ears flat to my skull, I curled my upper lip to show him teeth.

“I was five seconds away from diving in after you,” he murmured, then grinned when I chomped the air an inch from his nose. “It would have been legal. I asked Paula. The reason you slipped was Bast, or one of his brothers, greased the grate.” He held up a vial. “It was clear, scentless. That’s why no one noticed. My money’s on treadmill lube. It reminds me of the spray I have for mine back home.”

That he had collected evidence to make my case before saving me was…weirdly sweet.

“Can you believe Keet?” He huffed out a laugh. “How did he not get eaten?”

Nostrils flaring, I scented the air, but I couldn’t detect him.

Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t felt or seen him since Corbin began his vigil either.

A whine left my raw throat as I shoved to my feet, my body working overtime to heal the damage, and I did what I always do when Keet escaped his cage at Woolworth House for unsanctioned hide-and-seek.

Where is the absolute worst place he could have gone?

Body trembling with exhaustion, I rose and wobbled over to the ladder.

Sure enough, a yellow dot swarmed Bast, guiding him onto the reef and up the hidden ladder.

The sharks were moving past agitation to aggression, and I couldn’t blame them. We had been splashing in their pool, bloody, for too long. I waited until Bast’s head broke the water then cleared a path for him to haul himself onto the grate, grateful that even without Corbin’s findings, Keet’s involvement couldn’t be held against me since he had elected to assist us both for his own mysterious birdy reasons.

As Bast choked and gasped, I pressed a paw down on his windpipe. He smacked a back leg against the metal in a tap out, but I didn’t trust him to honor it. I applied more pressure, until his eyes bulged, and his kicking became frantic. Only then did I hold the stares of each of his livid brothers and release him.