Page 6 of A Bear's Nemesis

“You know that they’re out of control perverts,” said her mother, casting Quinn a disapproving look.

Quinn pressed her lips together and said nothing, but felt uneasy.

On the one hand, she’d believed the same as her parents all her life: that shifters were more animal than human, and ought to be treated as such. After all, at twenty-five, she still lived at home and ran her parents’ website, ShifterSexManiacs.com, which did a decent business in anti-shifter t-shirts, coffee mugs, and beer cozies, as well as being a general hub of anti-shifter information.

On the other hand, the only person who’d been violent that day was a human.

“How are the people who were shot?” she asked, suddenly.

Vince shrugged. “They weren’t people,” he said. “They were shifters.”

Anger rose inside Quinn, and she opened her mouth to argue, but her father walked up to her again, an EMT right behind him.

“That lawyer sprained her wrist when he tackled her,” he declared, managing to sound weaselly and pompous all at once.

“Can I see your wrist, please?” the EMT said. She was tall, with long tawny hair and sharp cheekbones. For a moment, she locked eyes with Quinn, and Quinn’s heart beat a little faster in her chest.

The other woman’s eyes were light brown, nearly gold.

She’s a lion, Quinn thought, looking around at the other humans in her group.

They don’t know she’s a shifter, she thought. They haven’t been paying attention to anything besides themselves since they’ve been here.

Quinn held out her wrist and the other woman took it gently, poking and prodding.

“Does it hurt when you flex it?” she asked, softly.

“A little,” said Quinn.

“And when you bend it?”

“Kinda,” Quinn said.

The other woman nodded.

“You probably strained some of your tendons by landing on it wrong,” she said. “You can get it splinted if you want, but you’ll be fine in a few days.”

“Thanks,” said Quinn.

“No, it’s sprained,” interrupted her mother, bearing down on the EMT. “I used to be a nurse, I know what a sprained wrist looks like.”

The EMT raised her eyebrows, and Quinn saw her eyes flick around the crowd.

She probably has much better things to be doing, Quinn thought.

“You’re more than welcome to get a second opinion,” the EMT said.

Her mother’s scowl deepened, and Quinn wondered if she’d just realized that the EMT was a lion.

“We will,” she said. “That animal won’t get away with this.”

Quinn closed her eyes, wishing she could just disappear.

“Have a good day, ma’am,” the EMT said, picking up her kit. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, there are people with real problems.”

She shot Quinn a deadly look and then walked off.

“Come on, Quinn,” her mother barked, ushering her toward the van.

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