Page 44 of Shifter for Brains

"Boo." Chase booped me on the nose.

"I hate you."

God, he was annoying. Did the stupid fox inside want to wipe the smug smirk off his face as badly as me? Okay, I couldn’t see it yet still knew it was there. There was just no way to win if he made no sound… no way to win as a human…

Of course. The gamewasunwinnable. Using human senses. That was the point. The exercise showed that the fox and I weren’t two strangers on separate sides of a dividing line. We were supposed to be in this together. We won or lost as one. We’d beat Chase together or suffer through—

"Aghh, son of a bitch.” The ball bounced off the back of my head. “I’m going to murder you, Chase!"

"Gotta find me first."

I tensed, straining my ears, listening… nothing.

"Ah!"

Chase got me. Again and again. I kept trying to expand my senses, to work with my other side. Listening, listening, listening. Sensing, sensing, sensing, despite receiving no response—whoa, I stepped to the left andfelthim pass right by me.

How had I even known?

There, right there! It happened again. The softest sound, a footfall or something. I wasn’t even sure I really heard it but when I responded to it,it worked.I twisted and the ball hit the wall behind me.

A noise from the right. Where was he? A certain smell reached my nose, it made me think ‘mmmm.’ My hand shot out towards it and connected, smacking Chase in the chest. Holy shit!

"Got you,” I said, unable to hide my wide grin.

"It was only a matter of time."

Did he really mean that? What if I just got lucky? I hadn’t been so sure I’d ever—

"Ah!" I jolted as Chase clapped a hand on my shoulder.

It had hardly been the worst hit or the most surprising yet it weighed me down more than the rest. I still had no clue what I was doing.

The light surprised me and I raised my arm to shield my eyes as someone tugged the blindfold off me.

Once my eyes adjusted, Chase had never seemed more lupine. Not like a wolf though, a giant overgrown puppy full of big smiles and unceasing excitement. Ugh, what a poor sport. Did he have to be a smug winner?

“Dude, you did it!” Chase cheered.

“No—I—really? Well, only for a second.” There and gone in a flash.

"So what? You did it, that’s awesome.”

"Your senses are expanding and you accessed some of your potential,” Temple agreed with Chase’s positivity. “One second will lead to two seconds to a minute and so on. This is great progress.”

Well… At least I hadn’t been imagining it. But if I had any hope of repeating it, I needed to understand more or learn how the hell my ‘potential’ asserted itself. “Let’s keep going.”

"Give yourself a break." Temple spoke before I’d even finished the request.

I looked to Chase, aiming for a puppy dog expression of my own.

“Nah, it’s not my call.” He shook his head, nodding to Temple without even a moment’s hesitation. “He’s the boss.”

Leaning into and listening to this hidden stowaway in my body still seemed insane. Trusting it wasn’t something I felt comfortable with…

Of course, I hadn’t felt very comfortable trustingmyselfthese days. I should start remembering how. If I trusted myself again, maybe I’d start trusting the fox in me too.

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