Bear in a Billion: EXPOSED (#1) (10 page)

Way to go, Ethan. Look how well that worked out.

The thing was, as soon as he met Haley, he knew he’d have to tell her who he truly was.

But not like it had happened. Not accidentally. Now she thought he was a liar, both for not telling her about his money and for not telling her he was the shifter.

Brilliant.

Ethan walked the shoreline back to his beach house, satisfied that Haley was safely home but convinced that she would never trust him again. How had everything that had been going so right, gone so wrong? And he hadn’t even considered the whole thing from Haley’s point of view yet. Would she tell the world who he was? She might. What was stopping her? Any trust between them was broken the moment she realized that he had been deceiving her all along. Ethan shook his head in frustration. The whole situation was such a mess. One thing was sure, if he ever wanted to even speak to her again, he’d have to pull out all the stops. It was the only way he’d even have the chance to offer Haley the apology she deserved. And it was the only way he’d be able to claim her as his mate.

Chapter Seven

A giant bouquet of fancy flowers arrived at the Surf Shack. Roses and peonies and lilacs.

“Where do you want ’em?” Wiley asked.

“Dump them with the others,” Haley said.

Bouquets had been arriving throughout the lunch hour, but Haley was too angry to notice how pretty they were. She just hoped Wiley wouldn’t get annoyed.

“Are you sure?” Wiley asked. “This one had Hershey’s kisses taped to the card.”

“Give them to the kitchen staff,” Haley said as she delivered three burger platters.

Haley dropped two of the plates onto the table a little more roughly than she had intended. A few French fries slipped off. Oh well, the surfers didn’t seem to mind. Haley felt numb. Numb all over. The events of the previous evening had mired her in a haze of disbelief. The shifter thing, that was one thing. She supposed she could accept he hadn’t wanted to share that with her yet. And the fact he was some kind of wealthy billionaire or something. No doubt, a billionaire who looked like Ethan would have all kinds of women fawning all over him. It would be impossible for him to separate the gold diggers from anybody else.

But even though Haley knew each of these omissions made sense in their own right, together they were somehow less acceptable to her. She was willing to learn about the shifter thing. She wasn’t close-minded. Afraid, yes. She’d admit that seeing him standing there naked after she’d seen the photo had completely freaked her out, but it didn’t make her close-minded. It made her human. If she had found out another way, if he had come clean to her of his own accord, she would have listened. Not that it wouldn’t have freaked her out a little, but she would have listened. But it wasn’t just the shifter thing. It was that he had presented himself as a low-key surfer, not the rich guy he was. Two omissions in a row. What other vital facts had he chosen not to tell her? Was he really the president of a small nation? Did he shift into bunnies when he got bored with bears? Or was he actually an alien just visiting their world who didn’t intend to spend much time here at all? The point was, who was the real Ethan? Why had he even bothered with that ruse about going to meet the shifter? In the end, it all came down to one thing.

Trust.

And Haley just didn’t think she could trust him anymore.

Haley delivered the third burger platter and went back to wiping down the tables. Ketchup filling would be next. The phone rang behind the bar.

“Haley, it’s for you,” Wiley said.

Who could it be? Nobody even knew she worked there yet. Nobody but her girlfriends and… Ethan.

“Hang up, Wiley.”

“Sorry…” Wiley covered the receiver. “They say they’re a newspaper.”

A newspaper?

Haley went and picked up the phone. “Yes, hello?”

“Haley Rose,” the voice on the other end of the line said. “I’m Dan Rawling from the
Chronicle
. I’ve been following your stories in the
Kirbyville Post
and thought you might be great for a position we have opening up here.”

Haley’s heart soared at the words. And came crashing back down when she realized what was happening. The timing. It was too perfect. “No thank you, Mr. Rawlings,” Haley said. “I can get a job on my own merit.” She hung up. Ethan. How dare he? Pulling strings to get her a job. Like she couldn’t get one on her own. She was so annoyed. So red hot with rage she dialed Ethan’s number without even considering what she was doing.

Ethan picked up. “Wiley?”

“It’s Haley. And I don’t need your influence to get me a job, thank you very much. Don’t interfere with my life. Not now. Not ever. I can get by without the likes of you. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes. Very.”

“Good.”

“Haley. Don’t hang up. Listen to me, please.” Haley held the receiver away from her ear as if the act would distance her from him. “I misrepresented myself.”

“You think?”

“What can I do to make it up to you?”

“Nothing,” Haley said.

“There must be something.”

“Tell you what, Ethan. Let’s just forget about everything. Pretend like I never happened.”

“I don’t want to do that. I can’t do that.”

Haley turned away from the diners. “And I just don’t feel like I can trust you anymore,” she said quietly.

“I know. But even if there is no more you and me, I don’t want it to end like this. Let me do something for you. Something to prove I’m not that bad a guy.”

Haley couldn’t believe him. She was done. He might not be a bad guy, but trust was a funny thing. Even if there was a perfectly good reason, once it was broken, you couldn’t just get it back. It didn’t work that way. Still, something occurred to her. Something that Ethan could do. Something that might not repair their relationship but would at least help set the record straight.

“An interview,” she said.

“A what?”

“A news interview. Me and you. That’s what you can do for me. That’s how you can be honest about who you are.”

There was silence on the other end of the line.

“Name the time and place,” Ethan finally said.

**********************

Ethan’s bear roared at the chance to at least see Haley again. But Ethan also knew that an interview of this sort was not to be taken lightly. There were a lot of considerations. He needed to alert people. To make preparations. Ethan was a member of a group of high-placed shifters that were preparing to alert the world to their presence. They had already begun negotiations with government entities. But there was a timeline and that timeline needed to be respected. For this reason, the rules that Ethan had set up were simple. Haley could interview him as she wished. But there were two conditions: she could not divulge his identity and she would wait until she got the go-ahead before releasing the tape.

Ethan had explained that he trusted her, but that he needed to be very strict about this for her sake as well as his own. He needed to wait until he and the others in the shifter group had been able to make preparations. In addition, he didn’t want anybody forcing Haley to reveal his identity. He made that very clear—the precautions were as much for her safety as his. He wanted her to stay safe. Haley hadn’t been happy with the conditions, but she had agreed to them without much complaint. Ethan couldn’t help but cringe at the irony. Here he was, forced to put his trust in Haley after her own trust in him had been destroyed.

Ethan set up the living room as it had been before. The only difference was that there was a second leather chair for Haley to sit in. They each wore a collar mic and the camera was on a tripod. Haley began by introducing herself. His bear loved the little bit of nervousness he saw as she sat down in the chair.

“Good afternoon, this is Haley Rose. I’m reporting from an undisclosed location in California where I’m bringing you an exclusive interview with the person the media has been referring to as the Shifter.”

Haley reached over and shook Ethan’s hand. Her skin was soft, but her handshake firm. He relished the contact, even if it was brief and for purely professional reasons.

“Hi,” Ethan said. They had already agreed she would obscure his face in post production. There was no need for a disguise.

“So, it’s great to meet you here in your home. Tell me, when did you first realize you were a shifter?”

“Well, obviously we know we’re different from the moment we’re born. Our parents explain that we’re a different a species.”

“So your parents are also shifters?”

“My father is a shifter, my mother is human. But to your original question, Haley, I didn’t really understand what it meant to be a shifter until adolescence. That’s when I first shifted into a grizzly bear. That’s when I first felt my bear, even though my father had told me what to expect.”

“So you trusted your father to explain what would happen?”

“Yes. I trusted them.”

“And you would have been upset if what he told you wasn’t true.”

“Yes, I would have. But I also would have tried to understand.”

Haley smiled. “I’m sure you would have. So, tell me about your bear. Does it hurt when you transform into it?”

“No. Not at all. What hurts is not getting the opportunity to shift as much as I want to. There aren’t a lot of wilderness areas left out there.”

“Perhaps we can discuss the lack of suitable shifting grounds later. Forgive me, but I think, firstly, people are going to want to get a handle on exactly what you are. In your bear form, can you think like a human or is it the same as being an animal?”

“Well, I suppose it’s like a combination of the two.”

“So are you familiar with human morality, good and bad, and the like?”

“Yes, I am. I’d say being in my animal form feels like an amalgamation of being both animal and human. I can think, I know about my human form, my duality, but everything feels more primal, more free. But I’m always in control, even as a bear.”

“So even your bear would be aware of things like morality, lies, and trust?”

“Yes,” Ethan said.

Man, he thought. She is really riding me hard. He knew he deserved it, though. He had pretended to be someone he wasn’t—at least not fully.

“So let me ask you a question,” Haley said. “Why now? Why are you telling the world about your existence now?”

“Because,” Ethan said. “Many of us are tired of living in the shadows.”

“So there are more of you?”

“Oh, yes. There are many more of us. And we want our two species to get along. Both humans and shifters have so much to learn from each other. Myself and others, we’re tired of holding progress back because it’s the way things have always been done. I’m an optimist. I think change is positive, and I think the world is ready to know about us, to embrace us.”

Ethan couldn’t get a bead on what Haley was thinking. She was so professional, so on her game it was impossible to know. Was this just an interview to her? Was she really done with him or did he have a chance?

“Are you not afraid people will feel that you’ve been lurking in the shadows, spying on them?” Haley asked.

“I have enough faith in the world to believe that what’s right is right and what’s meant to be will find a way.”

Ethan looked deep into Haley’s eyes as he said it. Those words were for her and not the viewers. Those words were direct from his bear to her heart. Haley looked away from him. He knew his words had hit home. He could tell that he’d gotten through to her, if only a little. But he also knew that he had to do more.

“So,” Haley said. “Tell me a little bit about the day-to-day life of being a shifter. Food, for instance. What do you like to eat?”

“I don’t know. I’m free after the interview. What do you like?”

Haley seemed to have recovered from earlier. Her stern look put the kibosh on his charm offensive.

“I like to eat pretty much everything a regular person does,” Ethan said. “I’m crazy about fish tacos. In my bear form, I like fresh fish. I mean,
really
fresh. Come to think of it, I like sushi a lot too. Maybe my bear and I are more alike than I thought.”

**********************

Haley continued to interview Ethan for about an hour more. Mostly, she thought she comported herself in a professional manner, but Ethan’s words about “what’s meant to be finding a way” got to her. He looked so sincere when he said them. So true. Was she being stupid? Was this whole thing just a big misunderstanding? Should she forgive the fact that he had misled her? No, she didn’t think she should. She had been down that road before.

Haley was resolved in her belief that trust, once broken, could not be mended. And if you were to try, you were a fool. She knew because she was a fool. After her ex had cheated on her, he had made up all kinds of stories saying he hadn’t done it. Then once it was clear, beyond a doubt, he had, he made all sorts of promises about how it wouldn’t happen again. But it did happen again. With one stick-thin blonde after another. At first, Haley had thought it was her fault, that she wasn’t good enough for him, smart enough for him, enough woman for him.

But then, after a while, she realized, it had nothing to do with her. He was just a liar and a cheat, period. And nothing he could say would ever make him any different. She figured the same was probably true of Ethan. Maybe he hadn’t cheated on her, but he sure had misled her. And even if he had good reason to do so, she didn’t like the way it felt. No, Ethan may have been good in bed, but she wouldn’t be able to trust him again. Even if she could accept the whole shifter thing, there was no way she could believe he wouldn’t mislead her once more.