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Bibi put her hand on her heart and batted her eyelashes at me after that answer. I wondered if she was trying to give me a sign, but chances were, she didn’t know which one was Lars, either.
“I won’t avoid the answer like Shifter Number Three.” Number Two chuckled. The crowd booed. Good. At least I could cross him off the list without any hesitation. “We’ll have a beautiful house in the valley that I’ll let you furnish and decorate. Hopefully we’ll have children, and we’ll be raising them together. Creating a legacy.”
“Shifter Number One?” Bibi asked.
“I want this to be the adventure of a lifetime. I want you to be just as excited to wake up beside me in five years as you are now,” he said.
“Wow, the three of you know how to woo a mate.” My voice was shaking. I needed three hundred more questions, but I had to play it cool. “I can’t believe this is my last question! This is all happening so fast. Tell me a secret about you. One that you don’t mind sharing with thousands of people, of course.”
“Shifter Number Two?” Bibi said.
“I might be the last of my kind,” he said.
Murmurs rippled over the crowd. Oh. Maybe I couldn’t rule him out so easily after all.
“Shifter Number Three?”
“I’m not used to being human, so you’ll have to give me your best pointers,” he said. Didn’t seem like something Lars would say.
“And last but certainly not least, Shifter Number One.”
“Not everything is as it seems in the mountains. I have many secrets that I can’t reveal to you now.”
“Well, that was an ominous note to end things on,” Bibi said. “Who here envies Hannah right now? I wouldn’t want to have to make this decision.”
The crowd was more comfortable now, shouting answers, but in the cacophony, I couldn’t make any of it out. I looked at Bibi, who gave me a warm smile but offered no clues.
When I was sitting at home watching this scenario unfold with a glass of rosé in one hand and my phone in the other, the other ladies made this look so easy. I’d already known they were badasses, but now I realized just how hard this was.
Everything happened so fast. And with the distortion of the speakers and the noise of the crowd, I wasn’t completely sure which contestant was Lars. They all had deep, rumbly voices, a cadence that wasn’t quite modern, just like Lars. The answers were all good. Thoughtful. In the past, they’d seated what we referred to as the foil, the guy who just wanted to get laid.
But these guys seemed serious. They wanted me.
And I wanted Lars.
But which one was he?
I was pretty sure I knew.
“I’m ready to choose.”
“First, it’s time to give one of our handsome shifters the bad news that you won’t be choosing him. Is there anyone that you’ve decided against?” Bibi asked.
I wished my girls were in the crowd instead of backstage. They’d let me know who was who.
I was literally flying blind. Which was exactly why the show was set up this way. I had to follow my heart.
Please don’t let me eliminate Lars…I prayed to whatever divinity might be overseeing this production. Wait. One of them said he could fly. Lars wouldn’t say that.
I couldn’t even picture Lars on an airplane. We’d have to change that.
“Shifter Number Two.” Immediately, my heart started pounding. What if I’d chosen wrong? Why couldn’t I just say, Lars, get that magnificent tail over here?If I did that, everyone would insist the show was fixed.
There were murmurs from the crowd. Oh no, did I just eliminate Lars?
“This is harder than I thought it would be,” I said. It was a cry for help.
“Why do you say that?” Bibi tipped her head and gave me a concerned look. I’d been playing it too cool. She had no idea I was in the weeds.
