Courage in a Fur Coat
The Fur Coat Society, Book 5
By Sloane Meyers
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Similarities to actual people or events are entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Sloane Meyers. All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
More Books by Sloane Meyers
Thank You For Reading!
About the Author
Chapter One
Never in her life had Lily Young felt so much like the odd one out. Of the eight people in the room, she was the only one who wasn’t a shifter.
“This is no ordinary mission briefing,” said Wyatt, the tallest of the group. “It’s quite literally a mission to save the world. We cannot fail.”
Whoops of agreement rose from the group, but Lily was silent. How could she, a weak full human, contribute anything to this group? She looked around at the rest of the shifters and took a deep breath. The answer, of course, was obvious. The fact that she was full human was the exact reason that she could contribute something to this mission. She was the proof they needed that a cure for bear flu had indeed been found. A few months ago, a worldwide flu epidemic had taken root. As the human population rapidly dwindled, panic spread. Unless someone found a cure soon, there would be no humans left. Because the flu epidemic began so soon after a war on shifters started, the media dubbed the flu “bear flu” after the most prominent group of shifters in the world—the bear shifters. Lily had originally believed the news. She’d had no reason not to. But now, she knew the truth. The shifters hadn’t been responsible for the flu, but they did have an advantage over the humans: they were immune to the flu. It was that immunity that had spurred one spunky shifter, biologist Juno Harrington, to risk her own life in search of a cure.
Lily had been nearly dead from bear flu when she met Juno. Juno had tested a new potential medicine on Lily, and it worked. Lily was cured from the incurable. Juno had done the impossible. The only problem was that no one would believe Juno, a shifter. In order to save the world, the shifters needed to find a way to get people to trust them so that they could get the medicine to the world. And the best way to do that was to get the attention of the President, who supposedly was still alive and in quarantine to keep him safe from the bear flu. But since no one knew exactly where he was or how to reach him, and with shifter detecting scanners everywhere. it was unlikely that any of the shifters would be able to get within ten miles of wherever the President might be.
Enter Lily. Lily Young—ordinary, full human. once sick with bear flu but now cured thanks to a miracle medicine. As a full human, it was possible that the President might actually listen to her. So the crux of this mission was figuring out how to get to the President.
Lily had spent most of her life as a shy introverted girl. She’d been the one who never raised her hand in class, and preferred to read a book rather than go out to the mall shopping with her friends. She’d never been the center of attention before, and she wasn’t excited about being it now. But what choice did she have? She had to put aside her own fears and discomfort to save humanity. She just wished that there was at least one other human in this group. Although she had realized quickly that shifters were not the dangerous animals the news media had made them out to be, she couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable as she looked around the room and realized that any of them at any moment could shift into a beast that could quickly tear her to pieces.
“Lily?” Wyatt asked. “Are you listening?”
Lily snapped back to the present and looked over at Wyatt, who was looking at her expectantly.
“Sorry, I’m not quite sure I understood. Could you repeat that?” she said.
“Yeah, sure,” Wyatt said. “You okay?”
Lily nodded. “I’m great. It’s just a lot to take in, you know?”
“Okay, let us know if you need to take a break,” Wyatt said. “But I was just saying that one possibility would be to have you just walk up to the White House. There are bound to be guards there, and they might know how to get to someone who knows how to get to someone who knows the President, you know? You would walk up to them and explain why you’re there, and they might be able to help you.”
“Yeah, or they might think she’s crazy and kick her out,” Bash said. All eyes in the room turned to Bash, many of them with an expression of obvious annoyance. It hadn’t taken Lily long to realize that Sebastian Rowe, better known as “Bash,” was the troublemaker of the group. He was stubborn and loud, and he had torn to shreds every suggestion that had been made so far about how to get in touch with the President. Lily could tell the group was getting frustrated with him, but she had to admit that he had a point. There was no perfect plan here, and if they didn’t take time to discuss the potential problems with their plans, they would regret it later.
“You have a better suggestion, Bash?” Calum asked, crossing his arms.
Bash shrugged. “Nope, not really. Just think it’s something you should think about. I think it’s worth a shot if the worst that will happen is that the guards will roll their eyes at Lily and tell her to go away.”
“But they might listen,” Mia said. “After all, they can’t exactly afford to be picky at this point. Most of the scientists who were working on a cure are dead, and the world’s population is dropping at an alarming rate. They’re grasping for straws here.”
The meeting went on like this for several hours, with everyone tossing out suggestions and Bash shooting them down. Lily’s eyes started to glaze over. A lot of the suggestions involved what sounded like pretty dangerous work for her. She wasn’t too thrilled about that, but at the same time she didn’t want to say no. After all, she was pretty much a dead woman walking right now. If it hadn’t been for Juno’s medicine, she would’ve been lost to bear flu just like everyone else. Who was she to refuse to help bring a cure to everyone else? Just when Lily thought she couldn’t take any more of the meeting, Grant spoke up.
“Alright, you guys. I think we’ve done as much as we can on this. We’ll take the suggestions and implement them in the order we decided until one of them works. It’s all we can do right now. I think we should break for dinner, because you all have a big day ahead of you tomorrow.”
Lily felt the lump in her throat grow two sizes when Grant mentioned tomorrow. Tomorrow was the day she and five of the shifters would climb into two hovercars and head for Washington D.C. They already had a hideout arranged thanks to their friend Drew, who apparently was the king of finding hideouts. D.C. was a dangerous place for shifters—there were still a lot of government agents around at this point. The place was like a military zone, and it wasn’t much comfort to Lily that she was a full human, either. Anyone caught hiding or aiding shifters was treated with about as much contempt as the shifters themselves.
“The rest of the shifters cheered as the meeting wrapped things up, apparently excited by the prospect of heading for DC the next morning. But Lily wasn’t feeling so exuberant. This all felt like a weird dream. It didn’t make things any less weird when she watched Wyatt shift into a dragon, then climbed onto his back with Juno so he could fly them up to his lair, w
here the group would be having dinner. Wyatt circled above the city of Chicago, which was now pretty much desolate. The abandoned buildings were inhabited only by rogue shifters and a couple thousand humans trying to escape bear flu. Thousands more had already succumbed to it.
Lily tried to remain upbeat during dinner, but she knew she was failing miserably at the task. Bash, whose favorite pastime seemed to be calling bullshit on people, cornered her after dinner.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “You’re looking a little green.”
“Thanks a lot,” Lily said, trying to laugh sarcastically but sounding like a nervous chipmunk instead. “I always thought green was a good color on me.”
To her surprise, Bash laughed heartily. “Look who’s got jokes,” he said. “I was beginning to wonder if you could say anything other than yes and no.”
“Hey,” Lily said, feeling a little hurt. “That’s not really fair. This is a lot for me to take in. You know that.”
Bash shrugged. “Yeah, I know. Sorry. I guess I forget. I kind of grew up with adventure in my bones, and I haven’t had enough of it lately. I’m pretty excited for all of this.”
Lily raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, adventure in your bones? How did you grow up?”
“In Alaska. In the wilderness. My dad was a bush pilot, as were his best friends. There were never too many dull moments out there. I came to Chicago thinking I wanted to get away from my life back home, but the farther away I get from it the more I miss it. I’ve been at the hideout in the Michigan wilderness for the last couple months now, but even though it’s nice to see the forest again, it’s boring as shit. We have to stay close to the cabin, and there’s nothing to do. I’m ready to shake things up a little bit.”
Lily laughed nervously again. “Well, I’m glad one of us is looking forward to it, at least,” she said. “I’ve never really been the adventurous type. I spend most of my life doing quiet things like reading, writing poetry, and baking.”
Bash let out another one of his laughs, and Lily couldn’t tell if he meant it in a mean-spirited way or not. She was a little annoyed with him, but at the same time she loved it when he laughed. The sound was musical, and the way his eyes crinkled up when he smiled was adorable. He was one of the most handsome men she’d ever seen. His eyes were bright, his jaw was chiseled, and the dark stubble on his chin matched the dark color of his shortly cropped hair. He was tall and muscular, and Lily wondered for a moment whether he had a girlfriend. Then she found herself shocked that the thought had even crossed her mind. He was a shifter. Do they even date humans? And what would her parents think?
This last thought hit her like a punch in the gut. She remembered that her parents were dead, victims of the bear flu. She’d lost her whole family, and she had nothing left. Nothing except this mission to get to DC and save the world. Bash seemed to suddenly realize that Lily wasn’t laughing with him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “You’ve gone from green to completely pale.”
“I just remembered my family,” she said.
Bash’s eyes filled with understanding. “Shit. I’m really sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Lily said reflexively, even though it wasn’t.
“It’s not okay,” Bash said. “But remember them when this mission gets tough. I know they’re up there somewhere watching over you. Draw on their strength when you need it, and make them proud. It’s too late to save them, but there are still a lot of people it’s not too late for. Your parents would want you to fight for them.”
“How do you know that?” Lily asked. “You don’t even know my parents.”
Bash smiled, his whole face lighting up again. “I know you,” he said. “And anyone who raised a girl as amazing as you couldn’t have been too bad themselves.”
With that, he winked at her and walked off, leaving Lily in a jumble of emotions. Her heart was filled with fear, anxiety, and just a little bit of excitement. And she had to admit that maybe, just maybe, a teeny-tiny part of that excitement came from the knowledge that she was going to get to spend the next several weeks around Bash.
Chapter Two
Bash watched the lights on the hovercar’s dashboard come to life, and he couldn’t keep a silly grin off his face. It had been over half a year since he’d been in a hovercar, and he’d never been in one as fancy as this. Perhaps the one upside to Chicago being almost completely abandoned was the fact that there were a heck of a lot of hovercars left behind with no one to care if you “borrowed” one. Bash had gone along with Grant to what used to be one of the richest neighborhoods in Chicago, and they’d had their pick of Ferrari hovercars, Lamborghini hovercars, Porsche hovercars…basically the top of the top-of-the-line. Grant had used his hacking skills to try to disable the computer codes. The only problem was he wasn’t sure how long the override would last. But anything was better than nothing. One of the reasons they hadn’t used hovercars in a while was that hovercars sent out an electric signal, and gas powered vehicles didn’t. While Bash and his clan were hiding out in Michigan, Drew had forbidden the use of anything electronic, especially hovercars. Making sure they weren’t traceable was top priority. But on a mission like this, when they wouldn’t be able to easily find gasoline—which was considered contraband—solar powered hovercars were a better choice.
Bash checked all of the systems to make sure everything was running properly, then he left the hovercar running on the street and headed back into the lab. Normally, leaving a Ferrari hover open and running in the middle of downtown Chicago would have been like asking for it to be stolen. But there weren’t too many people around right now to even notice or care.
“We’re good to go,” Bash said, stepping back into the lab. The excitement in the room was palpable. Juno, Wyatt, Calum, Mia, and Lily were all dressed fully in black, and each held a small backpack full of supplies. Grant and Jack were there, too, but they would be staying behind to guard Hook Labs. It wasn’t likely that anyone would attack the place looking for the medicine, since nobody knew it existed yet, but they couldn’t take any chances. Grant and Jack would hold down the fort while the rest of the group headed for DC. The rest of the clan was back in Michigan, standing by to send additional assistance if needed. They had wanted to limit the group headed to DC to five shifters plus Lily. They wanted to keep it small enough that they could stay as inconspicuous as possible, but big enough that they had a chance if they had to fight.
“I double-checked both hovers,” Bash said. “Both of them are running well, and the override codes to scramble their computer signals seem to be holding so far.”
“Good,” Grant said, “I tried something new, so it’s unproven. But I think it’s gonna work. Hopefully you guys won’t have any trouble with the codes reverting back.”
“We’ll see,” Bash said. “We’ll handle it if not, but it would be nice to not have any police or government officials on our trail.”
“Alright, guys,” Wyatt piped up. Everyone ready?”
Everyone nodded, but Bash didn’t miss the look of panic on Lily’s face. The girl was terrified. He didn’t think she’d ever done anything more dangerous than jaywalking in her entire life.
“Dammit, Juno,” he muttered under his breath. “Couldn’t you have found someone to rescue with a little more pluck?”
He had to admit, though, that what Lily lacked in courage she sure as hell made up for in the looks department. She was one of those girls who was drop-dead gorgeous but didn’t realize it—probably because she’d been too busy with her nose in a book to notice when all the guys were staring. She had long, silky blonde hair that had just the slightest hint of a wave to it. Her eyes were deep blue and full of emotion, even if that emotion was too often fear. Her skin was smooth like porcelain, and the sight of her curves sent little chills of pleasure all through Bash’s body. If he had met her under different circumstances, he might’ve tried to take her out on a date and win her over. But there was no time for wining and dining right
now. Not when they were in a race against time to keep humanity going.
“Good luck, guys. Keep us posted and we’ll be rooting for you,” said Grant. He slapped Bash on the back hard enough to make Bash jump. Bash nodded and gave Grant a quick hug, then looked around at the group that was going with him.
“Alright, let’s load ‘em up,” he said, turning and heading for the door. Once outside, he directed Juno, Wyatt, and Calum to one hover. He took Mia and Lily with him in the other hover. Lily was silent and pale as she stepped into the hover, but her eyes widened when she saw the interior.
“Wow,” she said. “I’ve never been in a Ferrari before. Not too shabby.”
“I like to ride in style,” Bash said.
Mia rolled her eyes. “Well then, you’re lucky the city was abandoned, because otherwise you’d still be driving your cheap ass old Kia Hover.”
“Hey, that Kia was reliable and a really good value!”
“Maybe so,” Mia said. “But it definitely didn’t win you any style points.”
Bash laughed. “Well I was just smart and knew that the world was about to fall apart, so why would I waste money on a Ferrari when I could get one for free a few months later?”
“Yup, you saw it all coming, didn’t you?” Mia teased.
Bash laughed again and then fired up the hover. “Something like that,” he said. “Now stop your yakking and buckle up.”
Mia laughed and put on the her five point safety harness. Bash glanced back at Lily, who already looked like she might faint, and they hadn’t even left the ground yet. This was going to be interesting. That’s when he noticed she only had her lap belt on. Hovers all came with both lap belts and five point harnesses. Most of the time, in city driving—which was probably all Lily was used to—you only needed a lap belt. But a puny lap belt wasn’t going to be enough for the kind of flying they were about to do. There were some pretty rough skies ahead of them.
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