Page 79 of Bears Behaving Badly
“Your friends didn’t do anything,” Annette guessed, because obviously, “They kept your secret.”
“Yeah. And probably because I was so young, I took that at face value. I didn’t question it and I quit worrying about it because I trusted my friends, but she never could, because she didn’t see Stables as people. She saw them as backward. Stuck. She was sure it was just a matter of time. I mean, she waspositivethat we were gonna be scooped up any day. She would have moved us, but she didn’t have the money and she couldn’t leave her job. Me, I thought we were just living our lives, but to her, we were trapped in a den we couldn’t leave.”
“I’m so sorry. That sounds unbearable.”
“More for her than me.”
“But hardly a picnic for you.”
“Well, like I said,Iwas never worried. But she never stopped listening for government agents or a pitchfork-waving mob. She was looking over her shoulder right up until the day she died. And that’s on me. And I knew it even then.”
Annette sat up in bed and had to stomp on the desire to cross the room and take him in her arms. “That’s not true. I think you acquitted yourself quite well under the circumstances. You were careless—what cub isn’t?—and then you were honest, and then you were vindicated over time. Living in fear… All respect to your mother, but that was her choice.”
She heard him sigh and shift around. “Maybe. But she was right about one thing. We’re all living on borrowed time. I don’t mean in terms of life and death, but…the world’s getting smaller every day, and everyone is walking around with supercomputers that double as recording studios that they occasionally use to make phone calls.”
“I literally can’t remember the last time I used my cell phone as a telephone,” she admitted. “Oh. Wait. It was yesterday.”
He laughed, then quickly sobered. “Discovery’s inevitable. Wewillget busted, and the worldwillsee us. We have to be ready, we have to assume that it’s a certainty. Because the shocking part is that it hasn’t happened yet.”
“I wonder about that, too,” she admitted. She and Nadia had discussed the issue more than once. Every Shifter must have. Because he was right: it was hanging over their heads all the time. Some days, she could almost hear the ticking of the countdown. “It seems like there’s always another YouTube video of someone caught shifting, which prompts another round of arguments, and more and more people seem open to the possibility.”
“Yeah. And eventually, something’s gonna happen that people can’t explain away. Wouldn’t you rather get in front of the narrative? Instead of always worrying about damage control? I think it’s smart to prevent the mess, instead of always running around cleaning it up after the fact.”
Annette was silent. The thought of national—no,worldwideexposure—was terrifying. But David had a point. Maybe itwasbetter to show themselves—all their selves—on their own terms. What’s the worst that could happen? Besides genocide?
But first things first.
“I’m going to abruptly change the subject now.”
“Yeah, I was wondering when you were gonna do that. You’re not subtle.”
“I’m the subtlest creature you’ve ever seen, so you can back right off. Now. We’ll go see the investigator—Brennan? That’s the name on the business card we got from Sharon. First thing tomorrow.”
“Yep. No point in making an appointment.” David yawned in the dark. “We don’t want to tip him, and if we’re in the building, we can find a way to get some face time with him, no matter what his receptionist says.”
“I don’t like being out of touch with Nadia.”
“It’s safer this way. The point was to keep her clear, right? If she’s running and hiding, too, she’s not much use.”
“Right.” Still, she fretted. Like Marge Simpson, it was her nature.
“Hell with this.” David sat up. “D’you want something to drink? Or a snack? I think I’ll be up for a while.”
“It’s the bar, isn’t it?”
“It’s the fucking bar,” he agreed. “Every single sofa-sleeper engineer designs the bar to press right up into the middle of the sleeper’s back all night long. Goddamned sadists.”
She laughed. “Come over here, then.”
“Really?” This in the tone of a man who couldn’t believe his luck.
“Just to sleep, understand? We both need to get some… Oh hell, and here you are already climbing in. Damn. I didn’t even hear you move.”
“Ahhhhhh, nooooo barrrrrrr,” he moaned, getting comfortable.
“Better?”
“Gobs.”
