Dominance

Chapter 27: The Questionable Gates

Sparkie thrashed wildly, but Twister's grip did not let up and his teeth remained fastened around his brother's throat.

The furious snarls escaping the maw of the beast gradually transitioned into choking heaves. His gait slowed and movements became desperate stumbles. Heavy paws pounding down over Twister's body caused him to wince in pain, but his grip continued determinedly strong.

At the restriction of air, Sparkie's body began to weaken and his legs failed him. As he landed on top of his brother in a gasping heap, Twister was quickly up and using the weakened state to his advantage.

To Sara's horror, Twister's jaws swiftly readjusted their grip, biting into a section of Sparkie's neck again, and he began to vigorously shake and pull his head like a dog with a tug toy. When Sparkie did not react and remained limp, Twister held his unconscious brother down with huge clawed feet and began to gnaw.

"Stop! Stop!" Sara screamed as she abandoned her attention on Mr Shale, who was taking his chance to escape, and she ran towards the brothers.

She launched herself straight at Twister's crunching teeth and tugged at his lips. The loud snarl that Twister emitted was terrifying, but it was a beeping sound that stopped Sara's actions. Stopping to stare down at Twister's clenched teeth, they were not biting on Sparkie's neck, but chewing at the collar which gave a final green blink before the wiring died and the stained beeps faded into silence.

The collar was well and truly chewed to bits, many sections of it cracked apart. But concealed within his mane, the tiny needle still griped into Sparkie's neck, holding the device in place.

Twister's teeth retracted back as Sara used a twisting motion with her fingers to uncoil the barbs. A strong-smelling pink liquid dripped from the pieces as she chucked them away. It was a tedious job, with Twister watching over the process anxiously, but she had nearly finished pulling all the pieces out when there was a loud crack and another large chunk of ceiling broke apart and fell down atop them.

🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻

Sara's body was heavy with fatigue by the time she made her way out of the basement hatch. All adrenaline had now gone and she had to use the alley wall as support to catch her breath.

Twister was not far behind her. He exited the half-caved-in below-ground structure with his brother slumped over his back. Like Sara, they were both covered in debris dust and were sporting multiple cuts and grazes from ceiling raining down on them. But the boys also had marks and bruising from their battle against each other.

They were sore, and all alive, but it had taken time to pull themselves out from the rubble. Especially Sparkie, who had transformed back underneath it and had needed some digging to free him. Both Ashton and Tyson had not returned to assist them, and the sun was now beginning to set into the horizon to make way for the night.

Sara carefully raked her hands through her hair to dislodge any small pieces of shrapnel and debris and then forced herself to keep going. But her steps halted and then withdrew as she heard voices. She weakly fell back into Twister who didn't stop in time. He stumbled for a moment to keep both Sara's weight up from the front and Sparkie's weight on his back.

Sara's face turned a shade of beetroot as she scrambled to pull herself up from against Twister's body.

"Don't lean against me when you're naked!" Sara snapped at him in a flustered whisper.

"You're leaning on me!" Twister snapped back, also in a hushed voice. "And I'm not naked. I'm wearing this ridiculous lab coat!"

Twister gestured to the oversized lab coat he had snagged from the underground facility to cover himself.