Bear in a Billion: EXPOSED (#1) (6 page)

She continued advancing through the interview. The shifter talked a little more. Then he turned into a bear. That part was the money shot. Not to mention completely insane. Haley was so intrigued by the shifter story on a professional level, she’d barely considered how she viewed it on a personal one. What would she do if she was actually able to find this shifter? Would it be safe to interview him herself? Would he maul her? Would she freak right out? She hoped that she wouldn’t, but you never knew how you would respond in a stressful situation until you were actually in it. The whole thing made Haley wonder what the shifter was trying to achieve by revealing himself. Didn’t he know that the world was unlikely to embrace him? Haley knew from personal experience that not everybody looked kindly upon those who were different from them. And the only thing that sometimes made Haley stand out were her curves.

He was a freaking bear.

The camera panned away and the screen went blank.

Wait.

What was that?

The camera operator’s hand flashed in front of the lens.

Haley slowed the video frame by frame.

And what she saw took her breath away. She didn’t say anything for a long moment.

“Katie, Laila,” Haley said quietly.

“What’s up, girl?” they both said, looking up from their laptops.

“Tell me what you see here.”

“A hand,” Katie said, staring across the room at the screen.

“It’s definitely a hand,” Laila said.

“And what’s on the hand?” Haley said, doing her best to keep it together.

“Well, nothing,” Laila said. “But on the wrist I see a star. A little blue star.”

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

Ethan waxed his surfboard. Haley. He couldn’t stop thinking abut her. His whole life had been rocked, and for today, he had a feeling surfing just wasn’t going to cut it. No, he’d have to break a rule. It was about the only way he was going to make it through the day. So Ethan took a stroll down the beach to where the creek flowed into the ocean. He turned up the trail, and once he was sure he was alone, he stripped down, placed his clothes behind a bush, and shifted into a full-size California grizzly.

Man, oh man, that felt good. Raw. Animalistic. Primal. The only feeling similar to it in the human world, Ethan thought, might be the rush of riding a wave. And even that wasn’t close. Being a bear was like being both hyper aware of your environment and at one with it at the same time. He could still think as his human self, but he could also, at his discretion, shut his brain pretty much off. The ability to do so, Ethan thought, was what made shifting feel so good. It offered a respite from the cares and concerns of everyday life. It felt, in a word, like freedom.

As soon as he was in his bear form, Ethan let out a roar and ran, splashing up the creek for destinations unknown. Wilderness shifting had come to be looked down upon in the California shifter community. The common wisdom was that grizzlies had been extinct in California for a long time and people would freak if they saw one. That’s why most shifters lived in places that still had active grizzly populations. Not that there were a lot of options in the lower forty-eight, but there were some.

Ethan didn’t care. Not today. His bear needed to run, and he didn’t mind who saw. He charged up the stream, toward the canyon. He supposed he might run into a hiker. Upon further consideration, he figured he’d better be careful. No sense completely freaking the world out.

The lack of a place for his bear to run was, of course, part of the reason Ethan was at the demonstration. The protest was two pronged. There was the business with the natural gas terminal. But there was also the fact that this coastal area was slated as one of the wildlife corridors marked for the reintroduction of the California grizzly into the wild. If the gas terminal went through, there was no way that would happen. Hence, Ethan was out there protesting and documenting the fight with his video camera. Not that it was much of a hardship. It gave him a chance to surf.
 

It also gave him a chance to think, and the truth was, even though Ethan was participating in the protest of late, he’d had his doubts. He wasn’t convinced that reintroducing the grizzly to California was the best of ideas. Not all bears were shifters, after all, and bear—human interactions didn’t always turn out well.

Ethan let the politics of it all leave his mind. He had more immediate concerns. Haley. His bear wanted her. He charged through the creek with no idea where he was going and every intention of getting there fast. His bear wanted her bad. The animal in him had always known what it wanted. It had just never come across it. Until now. He splashed through the creek with a roar. He would claim her, he smiled to himself. He would claim her and make her his. And then they would be one.

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

Haley served a table, a tray in either hand. The lunch rush wasn’t as busy as it had been the day before, but regardless, it was safe to say that Haley’s mind was not on work.

The tiny tattooed star.

Haley couldn’t believe what she had seen on the video. Sure, it was possible that it was a coincidence, but that little star in the exact same spot on the wrist? Was she being overly optimistic? It seemed impossible that of all the cameramen in California Ethan had taken the shifter video. But she supposed somebody had to have shot it. Haley finished serving her tables and then began cleaning up after the lunch rush. How would she broach what she had seen with him?

Haley liked Ethan. More than liked. The time they had spent together had exceeded her wildest expectations. But this was business now. And she was too stubborn not to pursue the story. She could see the protestors waving signs on the beach. Ethan was no doubt among them. Should she just come right out and ask if he was the cameraman who had shot the shifter video? What a way to put the guy on the spot. She wanted to see him again socially. She wanted to know if there was more between them than just the one night. But she also wanted to know if he was involved with the video. And she didn’t want to confuse the two things. Both for his sake and for hers. She thought about how to handle it, and every time she came to the same conclusion. Best to be upfront.

Of course, that was assuming she would see him again. Ethan didn’t come into the Shack that afternoon, which made her think that maybe she was putting the cart ahead of the horse. Maybe Laila was right. Ethan was a surfer and a cameraman, but at the heart of it, was he really a drifter? Had he already packed up his van and left town? By the time the end of her shift rolled around, that was exactly what Haley figured had happened. There had been no sign of him all day. No texts. No calls. Haley took off her apron and collected her tips. She was saddened, deeply saddened that Ethan hadn’t stopped by to say hello, but what could she do? It wasn’t like they had some kind of relationship or something. She barely knew the guy. Oh well, it had been fun while it lasted.

“California.”

Haley looked up. Was that? Yes. She was unable to suppress the smile on her face. “Ethan.”

“I didn’t want to disturb you at work.”

Next time disturb me, Haley thought. Please disturb me.
 

“Well, the good news is I’m off now,” Haley said.

“Then let me walk you.”

“Where to?”

“I was thinking we could grab some dinner.”

“I’ve got a better idea,” Haley said. All she wanted to do was be swept up into his arms, but there was the little matter of the video. Better to get the professional stuff out of the way than to let it linger.

“What?” Ethan asked.

“Show me your wrist.”

“Why?”

“Just show me. Please.”

Ethan raised his right wrist with a smile. There was nothing on it.

“The other one.”

Ethan raised his wrist and she saw the tiny blue star. Oh, boy. Part of her had been wishing that their relationship could stay purely personal. That the star wouldn’t be there. That she had remembered it incorrectly. But the star was there, exactly as it had appeared in the video.

“We need to talk,” Haley said quietly.

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

Haley’s pulse raced as she walked down the street with Ethan, their hands close but not touching. Haley kept it that way because she couldn’t believe the turn of events. She considered the facts as she understood them. She knew that the shifter interview had taken place in coastal California. She had seen Ethan’s camera equipment. She had seen Ethan shooting the protest. Both the shifter’s cameraman and Ethan had the star on their wrist. It pretty much added up. It wasn’t a hundred percent, but there was a decent chance that Ethan had shot that interview. That he was the shifter’s cameraman.

“I know you shot the video,” Haley said, more confidently than she felt.

“I shoot lots of video.”

“I know you shot the shifter video. The one everybody is talking about.”

Ethan looked away from her. It looked as if he was having an internal debate. His chest heaved as if he was unsure what to say. Finally, he spoke. “If you were anyone else…” he said quietly.

“If I was anyone else, what?”

“If you were anyone else, I would deny it. But I won’t. Not to you. You’re special to me.”

Haley blushed. What he had just said had made her heart leap. It had made her happy, so happy, and yet at the same time she felt ashamed. Ashamed that he was thinking about her and she was thinking about her career. Had her deepest hopes been realized? Had what they’d shared been more than one night? More than just sex? “We barely know each other, Ethan.”

He took her hand. “But sometimes you just know.”

Haley’s heart sped up just a little as Ethan interlaced his fingers with her own. She didn’t want to mix business with pleasure. She didn’t want to drag him into it, especially after what he’d just said. But the reporter in her just wouldn’t let go. She had herself to think about, too. Her future.

“So you did shoot the shifter video.”

“Yes,” Ethan said.

“I want to meet him.”

“Meet who?”

“The shifter.”

“I don’t think so, Haley.”

“Why not?”

“I did that job with the agreement I wouldn’t say anything. Not about him. Not about any of it.”

“It would mean everything to me,” Haley said. “Could you just call him and ask?”

Haley hated herself for asking. Ethan had saved her life. Told her she was special. She didn’t doubt his sincerity. In fact, she was starting to believe that she’d found someone special in him too. That they could be something. Together. But the possibility of an interview with the shifter was a tempting prize. It could be big for her. Really big. Who was to say she couldn’t have Ethan and the interview? They continued to walk on silently, past the protest. The demonstration was bigger than it had been the day before, and Haley saw a bunch of new people. Some wore black bandanas covering their faces. The protestors were louder and there was more shouting, like there was a new energy in the air.

“Okay,” Ethan finally said.

“Okay what?”

“Okay, I’ll call him. I can’t promise you anymore than that.”

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

Ethan didn’t want to go down that path. Truthfully, his heart was torn. He wanted to help Haley out, he really did. But he didn’t want to invite her into that part of his life. He didn’t want to confuse a good thing. And mostly, he didn’t want to bring her anywhere near the shifter world before she was ready. Shifters could be frightening to humans, even terrifying. He knew firsthand what could happen if a human wasn’t properly prepared for the news. He had seen it with a woman from his own past. He had been dating her and thought there might be something between them. But she had caught sight of him shifting. The result had been a disaster. She had practically lost her mind, unable to even believe what she had seen.

They had broken up soon after, but Ethan had learned his lesson. Humans needed to be properly introduced to the world of shifters. Even though he wasn’t sure how he was going to prepare Haley, he did know that he would have to treat the situation with the utmost care. He wanted her to be absolutely ready before she met his bear. Otherwise, she could panic, run away, or worse. And Ethan wasn’t prepared to let something like that happen. Not with his mate. It would crush his bear’s heart.

Haley was persistent, however, and Ethan saw little way out of the situation. The meeting with the shifter was set for nine o’clock. Ethan picked Point Ambergris, both because it was a beautiful place and it was out of the way. He stopped at a little place he knew and picked up some takeout and a bottle of wine before they headed up there. Haley may have been on a reporting mission, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t have a good time.

Plus, the wine and good food might loosen her up a bit. When the shifter didn’t show, which, given the circumstance, he was positive he wouldn’t, at least they could have a nice date out of the evening. Ethan loaded up a couple of longboards and they drove up there, his VW van creaking and gasping as they headed up the narrow, rutted road to the point.

“Why did he want to meet up here?” Haley asked.

“Look around.”

“It’s beautiful,” Haley said.