Page 57 of Shaped to Be Yours

“Shut up!” I screamed.

“Jason.” Ricky touched my arm. “You can’t take on all of them.”

“Let ‘em try me.”

“Jason.”

He tightened his grip, and when I looked down at his hand around my forearm, I could see the scales, the fur, the claws unleashing. I didn’t want to will it all away this time. I wanted to let the real me out and—

“Stop this right now!” The boom of this new voice was more resonant than my warning growl—but what really caught everyone’s attention was the sound of sirens.

When someone made to sprint down the sidewalk, the crowd parted to reveal Whitmore moving through them. He called after the runner, “The facility’s cameras have already caught all your faces! I suggest staying where you are until the police arrive!”

“Colt Jensen,” I singled him out to Whitmore, “right there, catfished Kai with the Monster Match app, then his father and some of these other assholes ambushed him, and when he tried to get away, they beat him to a pulp.”

“You can’t prove—” Jensen Senior began.

“Proof, Mr.… Jensen, was it?” Whitmore stared him down. “That’s for the courts. Best you understand, however, that assault motivated by bias, especially when premeditated, is considered a hate crime. The penalties for that are quite severe for everyone involved.”

“We did not premeditate—”

“But you did plan to get Mr. Q’ah-la-khan—” which Whitmore said perfectly, I might add, clicks and all— “somewhere aloneusing false information, so you are going to have to prove in court whether or not the assault was also premeditated.”

The police were finally pulling up—three squad cars’ worth.

“Good luck with that,” Whitmore finished. Then he hauled me and Ricky inside by hooking us by our elbows. He stopped at Kai and his family, while the guards gave us space.

“Listen,” I tried to say, “thank you for deescalating—”

“All I want to hear from you right now, Jason, is silence,” Whitmore commanded. “Or are you never going to take this seriously—”

“I am—”

“Areyou? Because it didn’t look like it from out there. You need to get better control.” He snatched up my wrist to show the monster features still visible up my arm.

“Or what?” I yanked free of him.

I didn’t know why I had to be such an idiot and ask that. I knew the consequences. If I fucked up, like, really fucked up and got into a fight with someone in my monster form, Whitmore couldn’t protect me.

They’d send me away.

“You know what,” he confirmed. “Helping the research team figure out what you are and how it connects to the portal in the woods is all you should be focused on. Stick to that and help—”

“I was helping—”

“And stop picking—or finishing—fights!” he snarled. “Next time, call me first.”

I felt like a little kid, being disciplined by a teacher in front of the whole class. The others were quiet, but I couldn’t stop looking at Kai’s beaten face. And it was like that forno good reason. “They hurt my friend.”

“I see that.” Whitmore met Kai’s downtrodden stare. I never doubted that his sympathies were genuine. I never doubted that he cared. Which was the only reason I started to shake awaymy fur and scales and claws. “I’m angry too. They deserve to be the ones looking like that,” he gestured at the people being questioned by the police, several of whom were being escorted into squad cars, “not you, Kai. But if we stoop to their level, we prove them right and none of this gets better. Next time, call me,” he said to me again. “If one of them throws the first punch, and I’m there to witness it, I can have the pleasure of retaliating. Then it’s on me, not you.”

“Okay.” I took a breath. This sucked, because I wanted to be the one throwing punches, but I knew he was right. “I meant that thanks.”

“M-me too,” Kai stammered. “Thank you, Mr…, um, I mean, Agent Whitmore.”

“Any time,” Whitmore said. “Maybe stay off that app for a while. I’m sure you can find someone worthy of your company without it. But report this. The app creators will want to know.”

Kai nodded.

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