Chapter 3 Continued

Warmth spreads through my body as I inhale her scent. After five years, I feel like a man in the desert who has just been handed a bottle of water.

But there’s no time.

The other shifter is also becoming a wolf.

He becomes a snow-white wolf, with bright green eyes. A star-shaped patch of fur on his chest is pitch-black.

Above us, the crow circles, cawing.

We growl at one another, and the low rumbling fills the air. Behind the other shifter, Ava has scrambled away and is hiding on the other side of her car.

Briefly, I take note of her. She’s beautiful, as always, with thick, curly hair and a deep olive skin tone. She’s a little curvier now, which I love, but my same Ava.

She’s wearing scrubs, I note as I circle the wolf. I wonder where she’s working now. And where is her prized blue Versa? Because the car between us isn’t it, and she swore she’d drive that thing until the wheels fall off.

I don’t have too long to ponder on it before he lunges.

Something cracks in the air around us. Maybe it’s only my imagination, or maybe it’s thunder, or maybe it’s because I haven’t been out in public in five years.

But everything sounds so much louder than it should be.

I dance backward as the wolf pounces. He snaps at me with razor-sharp teeth; teeth not unlike my own. I snap back, leaping forward and slashing at him with a claw. He yelps as I draw blood.

But the wolf shifter is strong. As strong as I am. He hardly flinches from the deep wound.

The crow lands on the ground a few feet away from us. It’s close to Ava and hops underneath the car toward her.

Fucking birds. Always a nuisance.

I lunge forward and he sidesteps me as if he knew it was coming. I swipe at him and he dances back as I sink onto my haunches to watch him.

He switches gears. The wolf starts stalking forward and then leaps into the air. I roll away, and somehow, he anticipates it. He pounces on me and closes his teeth around my claw.

I howl, angry and in pain, as the wolf pulls away. He closes his teeth around my throat then.

We are well-matched. He seems to have anticipated my every move. He has preempted almost everything I have done. As though he knows me.

I’m bleeding. I can feel the blood leaking from my throat. The wolf slashes at me again and again with his large claws. He snaps at me with his sharp teeth, scarring my face.

And then, in the quiet distance, I hear Ava. She’s sobbing and rocking back and forth.

I only just got out. I can’t lose her now. And I’m not going to die in front of her.

The wolf shifter seems to think his job is done. He gets off me, leaving me lying there. I watch, dazed, as he shifts back to his human form.

His back is to me, and I still cannot see his face.

Ava gets up, ready to run. I turn onto my front, and with my last dregs of strength, I leap.

I close my teeth around the back of the shifter’s neck and with one twist of my body, I break his neck and pull his throat out.

Salty, metallic blood fills my mouth. I spit out parts of his brainstem that came away in my mouth.

He stops walking. And for one bizarre second, the shifter remains upright. As though he hasn’t just died.

But then, his body starts collapsing, folding in on itself.

It’s like watching a puppet show, with an invisible puppet master manipulating the empty body of the shifter.

Everything becomes blissfully silent then. I can feel myself healing as I stare at the dead shifter.

He fell on his front. I still cannot see his face.

Why the fuck does that frustrate you this much? He’s just a shifter who saw the chance to move in on your territory.

I shift back then. My body unfurls itself as my muscles lengthen, stretching. My sharp teeth recede, becoming normal, human teeth. But my canines remain slightly longer than the average human’s. 

Pulling myself up, I tower over him at my full height of six foot, four inches. I should be thrilled that I have eliminated the pest and already turning to my mate. I need to go to Ava, I know, but I cannot get the wolf shifter out of my mind. 

The wolf shifter whose movements mirrored my own. Who also had a star-shaped patch of fur on his chest.

I’m no longer in control of my movements. I need to see him.

I kneel down beside the dead shifter. My heart drops into my stomach as I study his face.

He is me.

He has the same black hair that I do. He died with his eyes open– eyes that are a brilliant, liquid green. A strong, sharp jawline outlined by a thin scar, and another through his right eyebrow – uncharacteristically thick eyebrows.      

Just. Like. Me.

My breathing is erratic, shallow. My tongue is thick, and I can feel my throat closing. But there’s one last thing I have to know.

My eyes trail down to his chest. And there it is; a star-shaped birthmark just over his heart.

Ava is still crying somewhere close by. My instincts scream at me to go to her. A shifter should never leave his mate in distress. But I cannot take my eyes off the dead shifter. The man who could be my twin. 

What the hell is happening?