Joe had never been the confrontational type. He preferred to back off when Silver was angry, giving her time and space to cool down. Usually, this worked pretty well, because after a few hours of reflection, Silver usually realized that whatever she had been angry about wasn’t such a big deal, after all. But this time was different. Having her entire race of people threatened was not just a big deal, it was a life or death situation for her and for her closest family and friends. And as much as she wished that Joe’s claim that nothing ever came of his father’s rants was valid, Silver knew Joe’s father had been serious.
A chill ran up and down her spine again as she recalled the words she’d overheard in the library. She had to find a way to make Joe understand the urgency of the situation. But now, she was more scared than ever to tell him the truth about herself. What if she had been wrong about Joe all along, and there was more of his father in him than she thought? What if Joe didn’t accept her for the shifter that she was? Worse, what if he told his father? Silver couldn’t take that chance.
Could she?
She loved Joe, and she didn’t want to lose him. But the time had come for her to either tell him her whole story, or move on. And she honestly didn’t know what to do. She had really thought that somehow, in the year 2055, telling your boyfriend you happened to be a shifter wouldn’t be such a big deal. Oh, how naïve she had been. Her own father had been more right about hiding your shifter side than she cared to admit.
Silver stood up and hobbled to her kitchen. She knew she should try to keep a clear head and sort through all of this, but right now she just wanted to collapse into bed and drift away to a dreamland where the problems of today didn’t exist. Resisting the urge to grab herself a whiskey, she pushed the button on her refrigerator for milk instead. After a moment of whirring, the small service door on the front of the refrigerator slid open and a glass of milk stood in the service window.
“Enjoy your milk, Silver,” the same British voice chirped cheerily.
Silver took the milk and sipped it slowly, trying to calm her frazzled nerves with each sip. But when she had finished the glass, she felt no less anxious than before. With a sigh, she headed toward her bedroom to start getting ready for bed. She told herself that sleeping on the problem would help. She just needed time to process everything.
Things would look better in the morning.
Chapter Three
Things did not look better in the morning.
Not only did Silver’s anxiety over the situation with Joe and his family resurface the instant she awoke from sleep, but her body was filled with a stabbing pain radiating from her swollen knee. Letting out a string of curses, Silver sat up in bed and reached for her mobile phone.
“Call Dr. Hartman,” Silver ordered gruffly.
The phone’s computer, unaffected by Silver’s sour mood, cheerily replied, “Calling Dr. Hartman.” Silver started getting up and dressed while the line to Dr. Hartman’s office started ringing.
Several hours later, Silver hobbled out of Dr. Hartman’s office, feeling more depressed than she had in a long time. Dr. Hartman served as the staff physician for all of the dancers at the Joffrey ballet, and, while Silver loved the old man, she had spent much more time in his office than she would have liked over the last several years. Today’s visit was one that had gone especially poorly. Dr. Hartman took one look at her knee, and shook his head sadly.
“Looks like someone’s not going to be dancing today,” he’d said.
After a confusing explanation filled with medical terms, Silver was sent home with a prescription for pain medication and strict orders not to dance at all for the next two days. She had a follow-up appointment for the day after tomorrow, and Dr. Hartman would see at that time if things had healed up enough for her to finish out the remaining week on the current show.
Ordinarily, Silver would have called home immediately with news like this. Her mom, who wasn’t her biological mother but who had married her father after Silver’s biological mother had died, had spent years of her life dancing and understood the frustrations of a dance career. Over the years, Silver had only missed a handful of performances due to injuries. The show Silver was currently dancing was one of the biggest of her career, and her mom, as a veteran ballerina, would be one of the few who truly understood how devastating it was to miss out on even a few shows. Silver wrinkled her nose. At least her understudy was going to have a good day today.
But Silver couldn’t call home right now, and she knew it. Her mom would be able to tell that something was bothering her, something deeper than just the missed performances. And Silver didn’t want to talk to her parents about what she’d overheard last night. Silver’s father had never been a fan of Joe or his family, anyway. He’d warned Silver several times that a wealthy, powerful family with stifling social rules wasn’t going to make her happy. If Silver’s father found out that this family wanted shifters dead, well, he’d probably insist that she come home to Alaska immediately. And as much as Silver respected her father, that wasn’t going to happen. Her life was in Chicago now.
But Silver needed to talk to someone. She wasn’t sure how much to tell Joe, if anything. But she knew a few people who could help her sort this out. As soon as she was safely enclosed behind the glass windows of her hovercar and speeding toward home, Silver got out her mobile phone.
“Compose group message,” she ordered.
“Composing group message,” the computer acknowledged. “What would you like to say?
“Emergency meeting. My place. Tonight at seven p.m. I repeat, this is an emergency.”
“Message composed. Who would you like to send it to?” the computer asked.
Silver took in a deep breath. “The Fur Coats,” she said.
After a few more beeps, the computer confirmed that the message was sent, and Silver let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
The Fur Coats were busy, but they knew that no one in their group used the word “emergency” lightly. They would clear their schedule, and they would come.
* * *
Fifteen minutes before the clock hit seven, Silver was standing in her kitchen realizing she should not have waited until the last minute to make sure that she had food for tonight’s meeting. Every time she asked her refrigerator for the ingredients for a different dish, she got the same message: “Sorry, you’re all out of that.”
“When are they going to invent a replicator that can just instantly create the food you want?” Silver grumbled. “Actually going to the grocery store is so last century.”
Silver finally decided to call a local Thai restaurant and order a variety of dishes to be delivered. Then she started getting out drinks for everyone. Thankfully, her liquor cabinet was well-stocked, and she had plenty of wine and beer. Just as she popped the cork off on a bottle of Pinot Noir, she heard the doorbell ring. Glancing at the security screen, she saw an image of her brother, Bash, with his face scrunched up and his tongue sticking out in the direction of the camera. Rolling her eyes, she hit the button to open the front door. Moments later, Bash appeared in her kitchen, and grabbed a beer before even saying hello.
“You know, if you’re going to make yourself so at home that you start drinking my booze before you even greet me, you might as well just let yourself in. Your fingerprints are programmed into the security sensor. I don’t understand why you still bother to ring the doorbell.”
Bash took a long sip from his beer, then grinned as he wiped the foam from his face with the back of his arm. “I don’t want to talk to your British boyfriend,” he said. “Besides, I like making faces at you on the computer screen. You know you love it, too. You just won’t admit it.”
Silver rolled her eyes again and launched a punch in Bash’s direction, but he quickly jumped out of the way.
Bash, whose full name was Sebastian, was Silver’s younger brother, but he stood a good foot taller than her and liked to boss her around like he was older. They were
only half-siblings, since Silver’s biological mother had died giving birth to her. But they both got all of their features from their father, and still looked like twins. Silver often forgot that the woman she called “mom” wasn’t actually the one who gave birth to her, but she figured her biological mom would have been okay with that. Silver was happy and had a loving family, and that’s all that mattered.
Bash was the quintessential overprotective brother, and he didn’t like Joe or Joe’s family. Silver already knew that Bash was going to see red when he found out why Silver had called this meeting tonight. There was no possible way she could explain things that would not result in Bash demanding that she break up with Joe immediately. Silver hoped that the rest of the Fur Coats would be a little more understanding.
“Fur Coats” was the tongue-in-cheek name Silver and her best friend, Storm, had given to their little group of shifter friends that lived in Chicago. The name had come about when Silver and Storm were waiting outside the Joffrey ballet in the freezing cold one night after Bash forgot to pick them up. Both of them were shivering, wearing plain, inexpensive black coats. A lady dressed in a luxurious fur coat had whooshed past them, looking disdainfully in their direction. The woman had remarked, loud enough for Silver and Storm to hear, that she didn’t know why people without money bothered to come out to the ballet when they couldn’t even afford a proper coat while leaving. The woman obviously didn’t realize that Silver was the ballerina who had just put on the dazzling ballet performance that supposedly should be reserved for rich people.
“In my opinion,” the woman had said, fluffing her coat up ostentatiously, “If you can’t afford to be part of the fur coat society, you shouldn’t sully this beautiful place with your presence.”
Silver had started to run after the woman, to give her a piece of her mind. But Storm had held her back.
“Let her go,” Storm had said. “You’ll never be able to reason with someone that narrow-minded. Besides, we have nothing to prove. We have bear sides, which makes us part of the original ‘fur coat society.’”
Silver and Storm had laughed at their little inside joke, but the name had stuck. They started calling each other the fur coats, and soon the name spread to the rest of their little group in Chicago. Silver smiled now at the memory, and wished she could find that woman today and casually ask if she was allowed to attend the ballet now that she was dating one of Chicago’s wealthiest young bachelors.
“Welcome, Storm,” the computer at Silver’s front door called out, breaking into Silver’s thoughts. Silver smiled as a few moments later, her best friend appeared in the kitchen entryway.
“Hey, Sil!” Storm said, running in and throwing her arms around Silver. “I haven’t seen you in forever. I know you’re busy with your new show and rich, hot boyfriend, but you could spare a few minutes now and then for your old pal!”
Silver shrugged sheepishly. “Sorry. I’ll be better in the future I promise. Although I’m not sure I’m going to be dancing any more in this show. My knee is really torn up. I’m on some pretty good pain meds right now, so I can’t feel it. But Dr. Hartman says it’s pretty bad. I’m not even supposed to be standing on it more than necessary.”
Storm frowned. “Well then why the hell are you standing on it now? Go, sit. We can all serve ourselves drinks. No need for you to put weight on your knee.”
Silver thought about protesting, but decided not to. Storm was a few years younger than her, but, like Bash, she was incredibly bossy. She never took no for an answer, which wasn’t all that surprising since she was the daughter of an alpha. Storm did have a point, though. Silver didn’t really need to be playing the part of good hostess. This crew was used to making themselves at home.
Just as Silver settled in to the couch, her computer chirped again. “Welcome, Grant. Welcome, Jack. Welcome, Juno.” Moments later, the remaining three members of the Fur Coat Society walked into the living room.
Grant and Jack were both polar bear shifters. They were also from Alaska, but came from a clan much further north than Silver’s clan. Silver had seen them occasionally when she was growing up, since their clan’s alpha had been friends with her clan’s alpha. But it wasn’t until they had all moved to Chicago that she had become really close friends with them. Grant was also an alpha’s child, and Silver hadn’t wanted another bossy friend in her life. But, eventually, Grant’s sense of humor had won her over, and now he was one of her favorite people to hang out with. He worked as a lawyer at a big firm in downtown Chicago, which seemed to suit his assertive personality quite well. Jack was Grant’s complete opposite—quiet, reserved, and not very good at cracking jokes. But, somehow, Grant and Jack had become best friends. Jack was in his last year of residency at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was quickly becoming known as one of the best up and coming anesthesiologists. As for Storm, she worked as an intern in the Chicago mayor’s office. Silver thought her job sounded really boring, but Storm loved to rant and rave about the pros and cons of different legislation or programs that the mayor was considering supporting.
Then there was Juno. Juno was one of the few dozen panda shifters left in the world. Her whole species of shifters had nearly been wiped out by a virus specifically designed to kill off panda shifters, but her father, along with a few of his buddies, had managed to survive. The panda shifters were slowly rebuilding, but they were still small in number. Juno’s father hadn’t wanted to let her move so far away to Chicago, but Juno had a stubborn, independent streak. She had moved despite her family’s protests, and had quickly settled into life in the Windy City. Currently, she was putting the final touches on her thesis for her doctorate degree in biology. Everyone in the Fur Coat Society was smart, but Silver considered Juno the standout genius of the group. That girl had been blessed with brains.
Silver started to stand to give her friends welcoming hugs, but Storm came into the room at that moment and shook her finger at Silver. “Nope, nope, nope! Sit down, missy! I don’t want to see you standing up again tonight unless you’re about to pee your pants and need to hobble to the bathroom.”
Grant raised a questioning eyebrow in Silver’s direction, and Silver shrugged. “I hurt my knee, and made the mistake of telling Storm about it,” Silver explained.
That was all the explanation that was needed. Grant, Jack, and Juno all bent over the couch to give Silver a hug, then went to the kitchen to grab drinks. Bash and Storm had just sat down on the couch on either side of Silver when the buzzer for the main building entry rang. Silver glanced up at her computer screen to see the delivery guy with their Thai food standing outside.
“Computer, buzz him in,” Silver called out. The computer chirped an acknowledgement and buzzed the main building door open. Bash jumped up to go get the food, giving Silver a brief moment alone with Storm.
“Listen, I don’t have a lot of time, and I wish I had called you before this meeting started,” Silver said. “But can you please just be supportive of me and Joe tonight?”
Storm gave Silver a surprised look. “Is this emergency about Joe?”
“Well, sort of. More about his family. But I’m afraid everyone is going to judge him based on his family’s actions. Just be on my side, ok? I care a lot about Joe and I don’t want everyone to just hate him without reason.”
Before Storm could answer, Grant and Jack walked back into the room. Silver had to let the subject drop, but she couldn’t ignore the confused, questioning expression in Storm’s eyes. Silver knew this meeting was going to be difficult. While her friends tolerated Joe, none of them particularly liked him. And telling everyone that her boyfriend’s father wanted to kill off shifters wasn’t going to do much to improve their opinion of the relationship.
Bash showed up with the food, using his fingerprints to let himself in, for once. All around Silver, her friends were talking and laughing as they dished out food and started hungrily scarfing it down. But Silver pushed her noodles around on her plate and barely
managed to take a few sips of her wine. For perhaps the first time in her life, she truly wished that she was just a normal, full human. It wasn’t fair that she had to worry about whether her boyfriend was going to still like her or, worse, want to kill her off once he knew she was part bear.
Jack was the first one to notice that Silver wasn’t eating. When there was a lull in the conversation as the laughter from one of Grant’s jokes died down, Jack spoke up.
“Silver, I’ve never seen you hesitate to polish off a plate of Thai food. What’s wrong? Does this have something to do with the emergency you mentioned?”
The room fell completely silent as all eyes turned to Silver. Silver’s heart pounded in her chest as she forced herself to look up and meet the eyes of her friends gathered in the room around her.
“Guys, we have a problem.”
Chapter Four
Silver took a deep breath, and forced herself to say the words she had been dreading. She had planned out a carefully crafted speech, trying to word things in just the right way to minimize any connection Joe had to the horrible actions his father wanted to take. But, in the end, Silver’s words came tumbling out in a rambling mess, and she had to admit that there wasn’t a good way to make Joe look good next to the evil plans of his family.
“I went to a dinner party Joe’s parents threw last night. I overheard his dad talking to someone in the library about shifters, and wanting to get rid of them. I don’t know how, but his dad knows that shifters exist. Not only that, but he knows of someone that apparently is working on technology for new eye scanners that will instantly be able to recognize animal DNA. Joe’s father wants to convince the mayor, who is close friends with the president, to implement scanning stations or something like that. I don’t understand all the details, but, in a nutshell, it sounds like his dad knows of shifters, wants to get rid of them, and has a plan for doing so that might actually be plausible in the not-too-distant future.”
Trouble in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 1) Page 3
