Bearly Christmas

by Becca Fanning

  She took out her phone. She tapped the screen to go to the video. “Before I show you this, know that I have made multiple copies and backups.”

  His eyes narrowed into a glare.

  She turned the phone so they could both see, and hit play. When the video ended, she looked at him and waited. His expression was unreadable. Something of shock and panic, she thought.

  “Well,” he finally said, softly, as he dropped his arms and hung his head. “Okay. So you know the truth. I can’t deny that. And you’re right. We do need to keep it a secret. Not just for our sake, but also for the sake of others. The world would go crazy if they knew shifters were real. We’d all be hunted, they’d do genetic testing, they’d try to recreate it, they’d try to make new shifters. It would be a disaster. It would destroy life as we know it. I don’t know what you intend to do with that video, but please. Don’t show anyone. Please delete all the copies and don’t tell our secret.”

  She looked at him for a moment, considering. “You lied to me.”

  “I know, but I had to. You want to know the truth? We do make moonshine, okay? We pay taxes, but maybe not all of them. We pay enough to avoid suspicion, though. We pay our employees, and everything on the honey side is totally legal. Moonshine isn’t illegal. It’s the taxes that get you.”

  “Yeah, I know how it works. And now you expect me to take some little moonshine story when I could have the story of the century? You know this would win me the Pulitzer Prize, right? You know I would be totally famous forever? Go down in history.”

  He nodded. “I’m sure you would. All I can do is ask you to please not do that. Not for me. If it were just me, I’d take the consequences of my actions and deal with it. But my friends were just trying to catch who did this. They don’t deserve to have their lives torn apart. Or any of the other shifters out there. There’s lots of us, you know.”

  “There are?”

  “There are. Thousands probably. And honestly, Kora. I’d be worried for your safety. If you exposed us all, they might come after you.”

  “Oh, I see.” She crossed her arms and cocked her head at him. “So, now you’re going to try to scare me into silence? Why don’t you just go ahead and threaten me yourself? What will you do if I tell? Will you hunt me down and maul me? Make it look like just a bear attack?”

  He shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t even threaten you, let alone harm you. Look, Kora, you’re going to do what you want. I get that. But know that this goes far beyond me and you or even my friends. There’s a whole world that would be affected by this. Just think about it.”

  “You’re unbelievable. You think you can just lie to me, then make veiled threats and then make it seem like I’m the bad guy? I’m not the one who changes into a bear, Amir!”

  He looked around quickly to make sure no one was nearby. “Keep your voice down. I know that, Kora. Like I said, I don’t want you to be hurt, but you should understand what you’re getting into. I would feel awful if I hadn’t at least warned you. If you’re going public, fine. I understand that fame is that important to you.” He shook his head and dropped his eyes. “It’s just a shame. I didn’t think you were like that, but I guess I was wrong. I really liked our coffee date the other day. I was even going to ask you out again. But now I see who you really are. Do whatever you need to do. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  He turned and walked away, leaving her standing there in the woods, alone.

  * * *

  * * *

  Kora took Amir’s words to heart that day as she considered what to do. She was pissed he’d lied to her. And that she hadn’t realized it. She should have known better. There should have been some sign or something. Great investigator she was. She walked into a den of shifters and hadn’t even noticed.

  But more than that, she considered what he’d said about the others. Not that they’d come after her. That didn’t concern her much. If she went public, she’d hire a bodyguard and she’d made sure to publicize any threat. That usually worked. If she was as much in the media as she planned to be, it wouldn’t be an issue. No one would want to touch her, and they’d be more afraid of getting caught than she’d be of getting killed. And honestly, there were worse things than going down in history as a famous reporter who was then killed for releasing her story. Not that she’d get to enjoy it, but her fame would be cemented.

  No, she did worry about what would happen. Would it really change the world so much? She thought it might. There was a TV show like that once, where vampires were made public and people knew about them. It caused chaos and fear and problem after problem. The vampires were controlled and uncontrollable. In the end, no one won, and they would have been better off staying hidden. Was this the same type of thing?

  Would exposing the shifters create some sort of mass hysteria? Would people launch an attack on them? Or try to gather them and register them? Try to control them? She didn’t want to be responsible for the repressing of an entire people group. That was the opposite of what people like her, who believed in the truth and the freedom to express that truth, wanted to get out of life. They wanted to make the world freer and better, not to create more opportunities for control and prejudice.

  This was not a decision she could make easily. She got in her car and drove. She found the highway and kept driving. For hours, she got lost in her thoughts and the road. She drove until she didn’t know where she was. She drove until her gas ran out and her bladder was full. Then she pulled into a gas station.

  As she pumped her gas, she noticed a man pumping beside her. Thick hair stuck out the top of his tank top and the hair on his arms was dark. Amir was kind of like that. A bit hairy, which had to be because he was a bear. But on Amir, with his dark skin and jet black hair, it was sexy. Not so much on this man. Then a small girl ran to the man and hugged his leg. He reached down and scooped the child up with one arm.

  What if this man was a shifter? These were the types of people she had to consider. People with families that might be drawn apart. People with real lives. Though, how many of these shifters hurt people when they changed? Were they like werewolves who were described as out of control and vicious? Did they mercilessly attack?

  No. The more she thought about it, what she had seen last night disproved that. They seemed in control. Especially the one who’d come back. They didn’t come off as mindless. If they’d attacked the girl who set fire to their building, well, even humans might do something like that. Couldn’t blame them.

  As she finished with her gas and looked one more time at the father and child, her heart gave a pang of longing. But it wasn’t because of what she might do to them if she exposed them. It was that she wanted a child of her own. And a man to love and build a life with.

  Amir had said he liked her. And she was having a harder and harder time denying that she liked him. She didn’t want to fall for a story, for someone she’d met doing an interview. That made for biased reporting. A real reporter never did that. But she couldn’t get him out of her thoughts. She couldn’t sleep without thinking of him or picturing him.

  She looked at her phone when it started buzzing. It was Amir calling her. She didn’t answer. When the voice mail icon dinged, she listened.

  “Hey, Kora, it’s Amir. Please give me a call. I feel bad about how things were left.”

  He felt bad. Why? Because he hadn’t convinced her to keep his secret? Or maybe because he still liked her a little. It probably didn’t matter now anyway. He wouldn’t like her anymore. She’d ruined it. He deserved someone who wouldn’t try to expose him and ruin his life.

  She scrolled to the video and watched it again, for the hundredth time. There was Amir, shirtless and sexy, the dark hair curled on his chest. Okay, well, she couldn’t really tell given how far away she’d been and the low light, but she imagined she could see curls on his chest. And she imagined running her fingers through them. Then, he burst into a bear. She paused the screen the moment he changed.

/>   He muscles were flexed, bulging in places and making him thick and strong. She tapped again and saw him now as a bear. He was beastly, in the best way. He stood tall, intimidating and so solid. Like nothing could harm him. Nothing could even knock him over. What would it be like to have strength like that? Or to feel that power in him?

  He took off running when she let the video play, bounding along fast and swift, after the person who’d wronged him. She watched it one more time without pausing. Then she listened to his voice mail. To his smooth voice and the concern in it.

  She had her answer. No matter what she told herself, or how much she pictured herself on radio and TV shows talking about her excellent story—story of the year, easily—she couldn’t bring herself to hurt him like that. She cared about him too much. She wanted him. And even if she’d ruined things so far, maybe there was a way she could fix it.

  * * *

  * * *

  Kora sat down at her computer after she got back home. She knew exactly what had happened and had no time to waste. She opened the video in her editing software. She scrolled through it, to the point where the men ran out and changed into bears, and she went back and trimmed the video until it stopped right at the moment before the men ran out.

  She watched it again and again to make sure nothing else showed. No hint of something suspicious. Then she saved the video, copied it to her phone, and removed all the old videos so that only this new one, the video of the arsonist setting fire to the building, existed. There was no evidence of any bears.

  She called Davis. “I think I have something.”

  “Yeah, what’s that?” he asked.

  “Well, the moonshine guys. That part of the story is dead. They’re all legal, even if they are distilling somewhere on the property. But, last night someone set fire to their honey processing plant. I just so happened to be on the property at the time and got the whole thing on video.”

  “You have video of the arsonist setting fire to the building?”

  “I do,” she said proudly.

  “And why are you just telling me this now? I’ve already sent the fire story to print.”

  “Well, this would go on the web site and the news channels anyway, not in the print paper.”

  He sighed. “No, but I would have mentioned it at least.”

  “It’s early. You can add it in when the paper hits proofing.”

  “Right. They’ll love me for that.”

  “Okay, well, how do you want this video?”

  “Email it. You call the cops?”

  “You think I would notify the authorities before I called you?”

  “That’s my girl.” He ended the call.

  She sent him the video. At least she was getting some attention for this. A spot on the evening news was a far cry from Pulitzer coverage, but hey. It was more than she’d had yesterday and maybe, just maybe, she could still have Amir because of it.

  She drove to the police station and asked to see her favorite detective, Foster.

  He came to the front desk smiling at her. “Always a good day when you show your face around here. What can I do for you, Kora?”

  “I’m here to do something for you, actually. I have some evidence you might want to take a look at.”

  “Oh yeah? Come on back to my office.”

  She followed him back and took the seat across from his desk.

  “The fire last night,” she said. “Up in the mountains? The Bear Natural Honey place?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I have video of the arsonist.”

  He sat forward, resting his arms on his desk. “That so?”

  She took out her phone and played the video for him.

  “Well, it’s not the clearest footage, but it proves arson for one. Two, I think we can have the boys make this clearer. Might actually get a positive ID out of it.”

  “Good. I want her caught.”

  He set down the phone and looked at her. “And just how did you get this video?”

  “Oh come on now, Foster. You know a good reporter can never reveal her sources.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  She sighed. “It was sent anonymously. Sorry. Couldn’t give you a name if I wanted to. And I’m sure the person would want recognition for this, don’t you think?”

  “Unless they were an accomplice or trespassing.”

  “If that were the case, why send the video at all?”

  “Maybe. Well, anyhow. I’ll see what we can do. Thanks for bringing this to me. Send it to my email or something, okay?”

  She picked up the phone, sent the email and said, “Done!”

  He glanced over at his computer screen, clicked a bit, and then played the video. “Perfect. We have your permission to run this, right?”

  “So long as you understand it’ll be all over the news tonight.”

  “Wouldn’t expect anything less.”

  She stood to leave.

  “Kora?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You will make sure they say the police are already investigating, right? Don’t make me look like an idiot over this.”

  “Would I ever do that to you?”

  He raised an eyebrow at her. “You haven’t yet, but you never know with you reporter types.”

  She laughed. “I’ll give you full credit, Foster. Get ready for the interviews. I’m sure a crew will be out to talk to you later.”

  “Perfect.”

  He turned his attention back to the screen as she walked out.

  * * *

  * * *

  Two days later, Kora knocked on Amir’s door. She hadn’t talked to him since their conversation in the woods. She hadn’t known what to say. How to apologize. How to get him to forgive her. She hoped things would blow over. But she couldn’t wait any longer.

  He answered the door, shirtless, and looked surprised to see her.

  “Oh, sorry.” He ran his hand over his stomach. “I wasn’t expecting you. Hi, though. How are you?”

  “Good. I just, I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

  “Well, come in. Don’t just stand there.”

  She followed him into the living room and they sat. “I was out of line and I wasn’t thinking. I was shocked, still, I think, and I was being selfish, and I’m sorry.”

  “I’m glad you’re here. I tried to call several times. I didn’t think you’d ever talk to me again.”

  “I didn’t know what to say.”

  “Well, I want to thank you. The video you sent… it really helped. The police caught the woman who did it.”

  “Did they? I hadn’t heard. I’m glad. Did they find out what her motive was?”

  He nodded. “Yes, and I’m not surprised. There’s another, umm, clan, nearby. They’ve been getting in our way for a while now. They also sell honey and make moonshine and they’ve been trying to run us out of business. So, they decided to take things a little more extreme this time and burn down our processing building.”

  “A rival clan?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “What do you mean ‘this time’?”

  “Well, they tried to outsell us at Mason’s, not too long ago they poisoned an entire hive of bees, and now this.”