Shifter Nation- East Coast Bears Collection

by Meg Ripley

  Yeah, bitch. You’d better be afraid. I don’t need a fucking babysitter.

  When I got to my room, I decided to call Hanson immediately to get the conversation over with. He had provided his number on the first page of the profiles he had sent me, and I punched it onto the screen.

  “Hanson.”

  “It’s Kathleen.”

  “Did you go to the park and meet everyone?”

  “Yes.”

  “Anything out of the ordinary? Anyone seem suspicious? Like they were hiding something?”

  “Honestly, I get more of that impression from you. I didn’t notice anything at all that was off about them. They seem like genuinely nice people.”

  “Well, they’re not.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “On your laptop is two videos. I had my team download them and place them on an encrypted file on your desktop. The password is b-e-a-r, although I’m sure you could’ve figured it out eventually. Doesn’t look like you’ve had much time to look at your computer, though. You’ll wish you had seen them sooner.”

  Seriously? Nice secure password, douchebag. And only four letters? Pfft.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I was so confused by everything he was saying, and his tone was so hateful towards these people that were nothing but pleasant to me. I didn’t like it one bit.

  “Just watch the videos.” And with that, he hung up.

  I threw my phone down in frustration and grabbed my backpack, pulling out my laptop. My usually blue password screen came up, and when I got in, I scoured the desktop screen for the encrypted folder and found one titled ‘Evidence’ that hadn’t been there before.

  Evidence of what?

  I opened the folder with the lame password Hanson had provided and noticed there were two videos in the folder. After a few minutes into the first one, I gasped in shock, covering my mouth in horror. There was a bear on the screen, slashing through a woman’s body while she was fighting against it until her body went limp. The bear licked the woman once and I thought it was going to eat her, but it didn’t. Instead, there was a sound in the distance. The bear growled and followed it. At the end, there was a note stating it was footage of Danielle Peterson’s death, who was the host of Danielle’s Destinations. I recognized the name from the Travel Channel which one of my hosts watched avidly. But I felt like I recalled them proclaiming it as a murder and that they found the guy who did it, but that he died somehow. I was very confused, and I didn’t understand. I recognized the clearing from the rocky beach Drew had shown me that day.

  So, what? There’s bears in Acadia? I’m not surprised. It’s not like the staff had anything to do with her death.

  I clicked the second video hesitantly, hoping I wouldn’t have to watch anyone else’s brutal death. What I saw was a group of people standing around under the moonlight, staring up at the night sky. It had a really eerie feeling and I didn’t really understand it. Then, the people started to change.

  Into bears.

  What?! How is this possible?

  I played the video again from the beginning, but nothing was different. They were really shifting into bears.

  Wait. That’s it. Shifting. Shifters! That’s what it meant on the profiles. Wait, so is Hanson saying that one of these people killed Danielle? Wait, so everyone in the profiles he sent are…shifters?

  I got out my folder and looked through all the sheets and it was true. Knox, Ramon, Trent, and…

  No.

  There was no way it was possible. I replayed the video once again, zooming in closer to see their faces, and that’s when I saw him.

  I watched Drew turn into a bear.

  5

  Drew

  I need everyone to report to the gate immediately. Stop whatever you’re doing and don’t ask any questions. I expect everyone here in ten minutes.

  I heard Knox’s voice echo in my head and I immediately pulled over. What could possibly be happening? He hardly ever called a surprise meeting for the clan, and based on the weak connection I was sensing, he was reaching out to all of us.

  I sighed and made my way to the gate, wondering all the while what news waited there.

  When I arrived, it seemed that most of the clan was already there. I had been on the opposite end of the park, so it took me a good ten minutes to get to our meeting spot. The clan had formed a semi-circle around the gate and I pushed my way through the crowd, trying to get to the front so I could see what was going on. I spotted Knox first and he was trying to quiet the chatter of the crowd; everyone was staring, and I finally saw why.

  Kathleen was standing in the middle of the semi-circle, trembling. She was wearing the same outfit she wore on our first date and my eyes widened as I watched her scan the crowd. Her gaze met mine and she immediately looked away; all I could see in her eyes was fear. I could almost hear her heart beating from where I stood and I wanted to reach out to her, but that seemed like the last thing she wanted.

  What is she doing here? Why does she look so scared? My eyes never left her, and Knox finally got everyone to be silent.

  “This woman is here on behalf of a certain faction of the government and says she has an urgent message to deliver from them. I’d like you to listen carefully.” Knox nodded toward the clan and then joined the semi-circle, turning his attention to Kathleen. It seemed even he didn’t know what the message was yet.

  I watched her eyes flit around the crowd in panic and my heart twinged. All I wanted to do was hold her.

  “I was sent by the National Center for Preparedness, Detection and Control of Infectious Diseases. They are a sub department of the Centers for Disease Control and have asked me to deliver a message to you all.” She seemed to gain her bearings the more she spoke. “The NCPD-CID knows your secret. They know about…bear shifters. They’ve been watching you all since the Danielle Peterson incident via satellite and they witnessed you all change during the full moon.”

  Gasps and whispers erupted in the crowd, and some of the men began to shout in anger.

  Knox turned towards them to quiet them down. “Let her finish!” he yelled. Everyone quieted as his Alpha authority rang over us. I was in too much shock to say or do anything. I also wanted to hear what else Kathleen had to say.

  “They have a proposition. They want you all to turn yourselves into the government where you will be housed in cells for testing and observation.”

  “What the fuck?” Trent shouted. “Hell no! We’re not going to become anyone’s lab rats!”

  The clan murmured in agreement and Knox held up one hand in an attempt to silence everyone once again. I could tell he was irritated and angry, but he was trying extremely hard to contain it. His lips were tightly pressed together, and his muscles were tense.

  “What is our other option?” was all he asked.

  “They said if you do not turn yourselves in, in one week, they will set Acadia ablaze and destroy your home. And all of you along with it.”

  “WHAT?!” Trent exploded, heading toward a trembling Kathleen. Knox had to grab him, but I could see Knox’s grip was shaky as well. They were fighting their anger to prevent provoking a shift.

  Kathleen looked like she was ready to bolt in the opposite direction. The crowd now resembled an angry mob and I just stood there, stunned.

  She lied to me…She said she was here as a tourist, and all along, she knew. She was scoping out the area. I can’t believe this! Anger began to surge through my veins.

  Knox raised his arm again to silence us, taking a few moments to formulate his thoughts.

  “I speak on behalf of my entire clan and I am sure we are unanimous in this decision. We refuse to turn ourselves in for testing. If the government wishes to eradicate us, they will just have to try.”

  Shouts of approval resounded through the crowd and I just stared at Kathleen. I wanted her to look at me and see the betrayal, hurt and anger I was feeling. But she didn’t; she seemed too preoccupied with the crowd of angry be
ar shifters glaring at her. I turned to Knox and caught him nodding to Trent, who started to head toward Kathleen. I instinctively moved to stop him, but Knox gave me a stern look. Kathleen’s eyes widened, and she stumbled backwards, but Trent caught her, placing her hands behind her back.

  “What are you doing? Let go of me!” Kathleen struggled against Trent and I could see the panic on her face.

  Despite all the negative feelings I felt towards her in that moment, my body seemed to want to move on its own volition. My gaze shifted to Knox again, and his eyes had moved to me. He had noticed my slight advances towards her and was glaring me down. I sighed and held myself in position, looking on with a mix of feelings.

  “Don’t kill the messenger!” Kathleen yelled.

  “On the contrary, we aren’t going to kill you. But if you think we’re just going to let you go back to them, you have it all wrong.” Knox’s tone was stern; he meant what he said. He would hold her hostage, but I didn’t understand what good it would do. Was he hoping that holding her captive would stall the fire?

  The crowd didn’t seem to follow my mind’s path. They erupted into cheers as Kathleen was carried away by Trent to what I imagined would be the holding lodge. Was he just doing this to appease the clan’s bloodthirst? I’m sure if he had asked for her punishment, people would have wanted her killed, but Knox was a fair leader. All she had done was deliver a message from people who wanted to kill us. She had made no moves to harm us in any way and Knox wouldn’t just take someone out for no good reason.

  “She is a traitor. Whatever feelings you had for her, bury them. We trusted her in our park and among our staff, and she was an enemy all along.” My eyes left Kathleen and Trent and turned to Knox, who was now standing before me.

  “I’m not so sure she’s the enemy—”

  “She’s working for a faction of the government that wants to kill us all. How does that not make her the enemy?”

  “There could be more to the story. I just…I don’t know…” I sighed. I wanted so badly for this to all be just a bad dream.

  “I need you to pull it together. They’re sending fire and I need you to set up the safety plan. I want Acadia fire proof by next Monday. You can have as many workers and other resources as you need, but you have to make it happen.”

  By next Monday? That was going to be a stretch, even if I had the entire clan working with me and all the money in the world, but I knew better than to say that to Knox. He was obviously counting on me and I wasn’t about to let him down—I couldn’t. The whole clan and the entire park were on the line. I had so many lives in my hands and I had to try my hardest to get the park secure.

  “I can get it done,” was all I said, and Knox nodded. His eyes lingered on me for a moment. “I’ll be fine. Seriously.”

  “You don’t have much of a choice.” With that, Knox walked away. Most of the clan had already dispersed and Kathleen’s shouts for freedom were long gone. I stood there, alone, forcing down the feelings for someone I felt that I no longer knew. Who was Kathleen, really? How much of what she told me was actually true?

  I had no answers for those questions, but there were more pressing issues to contend with. I had to figure out how to get fifty thousand acres of land fire-safe in one week.

  * * *

  The execution of my safety plan began immediately. I got all the financials approved for securing enough sand bags to cover the entire perimeter of the park and had planned on sectioning off each area. I was sure to get enough extras to disperse randomly as well. I also lined up extra digging supplies, since the park’s tool shed only had enough for three workers. The last items on my list were water tanks. I was able to acquire enough two hundred seventy-five-gallon water tanks to disperse throughout the park, one for each area. I made sure each tank had three openings for hoses and obtained enough hoses to attach to them all.

  The bill for this safety plan racked up quickly. In fact, I was sure the bill for everything totaled nearly two million dollars. I wasn’t sure how the administrator found it in the park’s budget, but the following day, the supplies were delivered. Ironic that the government was paying for our safety measures against its own plan for destruction.

  As soon as all the supplies arrived on park grounds, I put everyone to work.

  The plan was to set up the sand bags and station three people in each area on the day that the fire was supposed to break out. They would start their watches at 12:01am on Monday and remain on duty until the last of any fires had been completely put out.

  Whoever caught sight of the fire first would send out a mass telepathic message to the clan as an alert, and everyone would move to act. Each area would have a water tank with three hoses and its perimeter outlined with sand bags. After the alert, each person would grab a hose, open the valve enough to wet the sand bags, then kill the water and wait. If fire broke into the area, he or she would use the hoses to fight it off with the remainder of the water in the tank. The sand bags, however, would prevent the fire from entering their domain. If it somehow encroached, the sand bags would prevent the fire from spreading further and any flames that escaped would be weaker with each wall of sand they hit. It would take two days to set up the sand bags alone and another two days to set up the water tanks and hoses.

  As an added precaution, I planned to have trenches dug around the sand bags. It would take three days to do all that digging, but the trenches would significantly slow down the fire and buy more time for us to put it out.

  I didn’t know how the NCPD-CID was going to initiate the fire, but I had to be prepared for the worst. Forest fires have killed hundreds of people and eliminated millions of acres of land, but if I did my job correctly and everyone payed close attention to my directions, we would lose several trees, but nothing that couldn’t be replanted and regrown in ten or so years. Depending on how quickly everyone responded, and if the fire could be contained to one area, we could probably save all but a few trees.

  My crew and I got to work on the plan, starting with the sand bags. After a full day’s work, I decided I would go visit Kathleen; it was hard to concentrate, and I needed to talk to her. I needed to know if there was any truth to everything she and I shared, and unfortunately, she was the only one who could tell me.

  6

  Kathleen

  I was sitting in the holding cell, clutching my knees to my chest, while Trent sat at his desk, rifling through some papers.

  I took this job to escape jail, yet here I am.

  Life sure knew how to lay the irony on thick. I had hoped Drew would come see me and bail me out; the sting of his absence was something I couldn’t ignore. Even though I knew bear shifters were killers based on the footage I saw, a little voice in my head kept telling me Drew was different. He couldn’t be a killer. Maybe he was one of the nice ones. But still, it had been almost two days and he hadn’t shown his face.

  How could I blame him, though? The government had chosen to use fire to eliminate the bear shifters of Acadia National Park, and he was their lead firefighter. It was like fate had separated us.

  However, there was something about the way the clan of bear shifters had banded together that resonated with me. I had never seen a group of people with such camaraderie, that they were willing to die to protect each other. It was a kind of bravery that was rare, and it touched me. When I first uttered the message I had been sent to deliver, I thought I would have been mauled and torn to shreds. They were indeed angry, but no one had physically attacked me whatsoever. Trent was a little rough while detaining me, but I would have probably reacted the same way. He wasn’t growling or snarling at me like a wild animal. In fact, I had seen no shifting; not one person had turned into a bear.

  I hadn’t understood this at first. From the videos I’d been sent, it seemed like they were these ravenous monsters housed in human bodies. But, all the bear shifters I had encountered had been kind and welcoming, even though they knew I was a human. And even when I had told them their entir
e clan and home was in danger, they had behaved civilly; instead of killing me for working with the government, they had just locked me up.

  Something didn’t fit in this story. I wasn’t sure what it was, but something was wrong. There was no way these people were the hideous beasts the government tried to make them out to be. I had been so terrified by the videos, I was ready to believe anything.

  I needed Drew. I needed him to come and tell me the truth about the clan. Only he could tell me what was really going on.

  But I couldn’t blame him if he felt betrayed. I was sure he must have thought I was a pathological liar or a con artist. He was probably thinking nothing was real between us. But if that was what he thought, he was so wrong.

  I wished he would visit me so I could let him know. I would tell him everything, anything he wanted to know. I closed my eyes as they pooled with tears, but I fought them back; I didn’t want anyone to see me cry.

  “I hope you’re thinking about all the trouble you’re causing us.”

  I knew that voice all too well. My eyes snapped open to see that Trent was gone; I had been so deep in thought, I hadn’t heard him leave. To my surprise, Drew was sitting on the floor on the other side of the bars. My eyes widened at the sight of him and I scrambled on my knees toward the bars, holding onto them.

  “You’re here! You came!”

  “You wanted me to?”

  “Of course I did. I need to talk to you!” I pleaded. “No one will listen to me, but I know you will.”

  “Are you going to tell me how you got into this mess?” I nodded. “How do I know I can trust you? You’ve already lied so much.”

  “I know, but I had to! I was advised that if I told anyone about the reason I was sent here, I would be killed instantly. They have people watching me, but I don’t think they have an insider in the park because they needed me to infiltrate.”