Her Bear In Mind (4 page)

Sierra chased after her and caught her by the hand.

“My car is this way. I’ll get you out, I promise, but you have to listen to me.”

Brenda froze in her tracks. She looked up at the full moon and her body shuddered.

“Uh-oh.” Brenda said.

“What’s the matter?” Sierra asked her, tugging on her hand. “Come on! We have to go!”

Brenda shuddered again.  Tears sprung into her eyes.

“I thought I could do it, but I can’t.” she said.

“What are you talking about, sweetie?”

“You have to put me back!” Brenda said, pulling Sierra back towards the house. “You have to put me back in my cage right now! And then put the key back on top of the refrigerator so mommy and daddy won’t know I got out!”

“Brenda, calm down! You’re not going back in that cage. You’re safe now. I’m taking you to the police.”

“No!” Brenda protested, as she tried to tug free of Sierra’s grasp. “No you’re not safe! Let me go!
I can’t do it
!”

“Shhh! Keep your voice down!”

“HELP!” Brenda screamed at the top of her lungs. “Mommy, help!”

Frantic, Sierra tried to pull her away around the corner, praying everyone was too distracted by their blood sport to notice. Brenda dug her heels into the ground.

“I said
let me go
!” she shouted and raked her nails across Sierra’s forearm.

The scratch cut straight through her leather jacket and deep into her arm. The pain seared and bright red rivulets of blood poured out of her arm. Sierra let go of Brenda’s other hand in surprise. She clutched her arm to staunch the bleeding and stared in horror at the child in front of her.

Brenda was holding her hand, the one she had scratched Sierra with, out in front of her. Where there should have been fingernails there were now deep, shiny black hooked claws. Chocolate brown fur had sprouted on the back of her hand. As Sierra watched, the fur began to sprout on her face as well and push its way out the top of her head.

“I’m sorry.” Brenda said.

Her hands were rapidly changing shape, forming themselves into padded paws. Her arms and legs ballooned out and burst the seams of her froggie pajamas, leaving ribbons of fabric on the ground. The child dropped to all fours and opened her mouth to make room for the yellow fangs that were forming where her baby teeth used to be. Her face began to change, morphing into a long snout that better accommodated the teeth. Her ears became small and round and moved to the top of her head, settling in almost the exact place her pig tails had been before. Now completely covered in brown fur, the last thing to change was the eyes, which remained eerily human right until the end before shrinking and turning black.

Now standing where Brenda had been was a black bear cub.

The cub regarded her for a moment and cocked its head sideways. Sierra approached it cautiously.

“Brenda?”

The cub roared at her and charged. Sierra screamed and ran as fast as she could, not even looking where she was going. The cub chased her towards the crowd around the pit. The people backed away, clearing a path as she ran past them, steering clear of the angry cub. Panicking, Sierra kept running, knowing the cub was gaining on her. She tripped on a rock and fell face first on the ground. Quickly, she flipped on to her back and tried to scramble to her feet, shuffling backwards as the cub ran at her.

Then with an almighty roar, the huge black colored bear leaped out of the pit and positioned itself between the cub and Sierra. It stood its ground and roared into the cub’s face. The cub let out a meek squeaking noise and sat down, complacent.

The white bear, the one she had been sure had his throat ripped out, scrambled out of the pit. Using his teeth, he picked the cub up by the scruff of her neck and carried her away.

The crowd was pointing at her now, muttering. The black bear turned towards her. Sierra watched, fascinated and appalled as the change she had witnessed in Brenda happened in reverse. The bear shrank. Fur vanished in clumps as the paws stretched themselves into human fingers. He stood upright as his head took shape again, the ears moving back into place and the teeth shrinking into that familiar smile.

Sierra knew who it would be long before the shift finished. Joe was standing naked in front of her now as she pulled herself unsteadily to her feet.

CHAPTER 4

One of the people in the crowd handed Joe a pair of pants. He took his time pulling them on, clearly not ashamed of his nakedness (and he had nothing to be ashamed of).

“Joe,” Sierra asked shakily, “what the hell is going on?”

Joe didn’t answer. Instead, he walked up to her and rudely ripped off her jacket. He eyed the wound on her arm.

“Did she bite you or scratch you?”

“She scratched me.”

“She should have bit her!” someone yelled from the crowd.

Those were not friendly faces out there. They were all staring at her. They looked angry and scared.

Joe turned to address them. “Everyone this is Sierra. She’s a friend of mine.”

Eric trudged toward them, wearing only blue jeans like Joe was. His long white hair whipped out behind him.

“The reporter, Joe? Really?” he exclaimed.

At the word “reporter” a fresh burst of angry murmurs stirred though the crowd.

“Is Brenda alright?” Joe asked him.

“She’s fine. Sneaky brat’s tearing up her sleeping bag.”

Sierra was startled by the realization that Eric was the white bear. She looked uneasily at the crowd around her. Where all of them…what would you call them? Werewolves? Werebears?

“Tell me you’re going to bite her now.” Eric said.

“No.” Joe said.

“Fine. I’ll bite her.”

“
No one
is biting her,” Joe said firmly.

“Joe, what’s happening?” Sierra asked.

She looked around wildly for a way out, but the angry crowd was closing ranks around her, their eyes glittering in the torchlight.

“Is she really a reporter?” someone called out.

“You better bite her or fucking eat her, Joe. We can’t just let her leave,” Eric said.

A few members of the crowd shouted out their approval.

“Everyone calm down!” Joe said loudly. Sierra immediately recognized it as the voice he used during speeches. Dominant, commanding, but also calming and reasonable.

“Now, I can assure you I did not tell Sierra about this place. She followed me here. But I can also assure you she has no intention of telling anyone else. You’re all perfectly safe. She’s sorry for the scene she caused, and didn’t mean to put anyone in danger. I’m going to take her home now.”

Joe grabbed her by the arm and started to march her away though the crowd.

“What if she does tell someone?” Eric asked and he stepped into their path.

“Then I will deal with her.”

“But that’s not good enough! How can you be sure-”

“Are you challenging me, Eric?” Joe asked, fury blazing in his eyes.

The crowd went
silent
. After a moment’s hesitation. Eric looked down at his feet.

“No sir.”

“Good.”

Eric moved aside and they walked back out of the town.

*

They walked in silence back to the truck. Joe climbed into the driver’s seat and held out his hand for the keys, which Sierra handed over mutely. Joe turned the truck around and tore down the dirt road like a bat out of hell.

Sierra had never seen him angry like this. If there was anything politicians were good at it was maintaining their composure. But Joe was
pissed.

A few miles down the highway, he eased off the gas and pulled on to the shoulder.

“Let me see your arm,” he said.

Using a first aid kit they found in the glove box, Joe expertly cleaned the wound and bandaged it.

“You’re going to need stitches.” he muttered. “The closest emergency room is a few miles from here. You can tell them it was a raccoon. They won’t ask too many questions. I can’t go in with you.”

“It’s okay,” she assured him.

“If someone recognized me-”

“It’s alright.” she said. “I understand.”

Joe suddenly punched the steering wheel.

“Why did you follow me?!” he shouted at her. “Do you have any idea the damage you’ve caused?!”

“I thought you were stealing from charity!” she shouted back at him. “And kidnapping children! And running illegal bear fights!”

He stared at her for a moment, then burst out laughing.

“Actually,” he said between bits of laughter, “I
am
running illegal bear fights. You got me there. But I promise you the participants are willing.”

He pulled the truck back on to the highway.

“So how did Brenda get out of her cage?” he asked her.

“She told me bad people kidnapped her.”

He chuckled.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do with that conniving little girl.”

“Do you have to keep her locked up?”

“Only during the full moon and a couple of days before and after.” he explained. “The shifting can be spread with a bite, but it’s also genetic, so all the kids get it. Most of them don’t shift for the first time until after puberty, but it starts sooner in some. The young ones can’t control when they shift, and they don’t have control of themselves in bear form. So they have to stay locked up to keep people safe. But you try telling a six-year-old she can’t go to the fight with all the other kids.”

“And you’re all…shifters? Everyone in that town.”

Joe nodded.

“We call it Sleuth. That’s the scientific term for a group of bears. We built it for the kids. People needed to be able to raise their children away from prying eyes. Social Services tends to question parents keeping their teenagers in a cage five days a month.”

Sierra struggled to process all of this.

“What about the charity money?” she asked.

“It was my money.” he replied. “I’ve got quite a bit more of it then the IRS is aware of. I funneled it into the charity, then hired one of the pack as the accountant for Camp Basnight. She takes a very big salary and uses the money to buy things for Sleuth. And then none of it links back to the Governor of Washington.”

Sierra laughed suddenly, remembering.

“A payroll advance for a camp employee with a sick kid.”

“I told you it was an honest answer,” he said with a sly smile. “You don’t give me enough credit.”

“Yeah well, there was an awful lot of omission in that
honest
answer.”

“What can I say? I’m a politician.”

They both laughed at that. Joe shot her a look of amazement.

“You’re being remarkably calm about this.”

“What can I say? I’m an investigative journalist. I ask questions first and ponder the implications later.”

They had reached the hospital.

“I’ll have a car sent to take you home. I can return the truck to Enterprise.”

“Okay.” Sierra reached for the door handle.

“Wait,” Joe reached for her hand. “You understand you can’t tell anyone about this. They’re good people in Sleuth…mostly. They’re just scared. And they don’t allow outsiders.”

Sierra paused before answering.

“Joe, am I in danger?”

“I’m their Alpha.” he assured her. “They wouldn’t do anything without my say so. And I told them to let you walk away.”

“Okay,” she said, not entirely reassured.

“Sierra,” he said, looking into her eyes, “I promise you, I won’t let anyone hurt you. I will keep you safe.”

He kissed her gently.

“You should go.” he said. “Get that stitched up. I’ll see you soon.”

Sierra kissed him again before climbing out of the truck and walking into the emergency room, hoping they wouldn’t ask her how she’d managed to get scratched by a raccoon.