Norris looked at the clock on the wall. “The meeting should be about over now. You want me to stick around?”
“I think it would be better if I handled this myself,” Brooke said – though she didn’t feel comfortable by herself. But she knew she had to give them the best example possible. They would see her having Norris here as a weakness – and that was something she couldn’t show them.
“You’re probably right,” he admitted. “But I’ll be outside. Not close enough to eavesdrop. Just close enough to be here in case you run into any real trouble.”
“Thanks, Mr. Norris.”
“Anytime, Miss Slater. And don’t worry – you just stick to the lesson plans, show them the videos, hand out the tests. You’ll do fine.”
She heard noise from outside of the door; the recruits were filing down the hallway. She heard a lot of footsteps and grumbling.
They’re already not happy. They’re not going to take this well.
Norris left the classroom and then moments later, the recruits were filing in. The first thing she noticed was the first man looked angry – his golden eyes blazed with intensity that scared her. The next guy wouldn’t even look at her. The next man smiled – though somehow, she felt afraid of him.
And the fourth man took her breath away. He smiled at her, too, but his smile lit up the room. And then he had walked past, and the next man, and the one after that, and the one after that all scowled at her.
They filed in and took their seats.
“I’m Miss Slater,” she started. “But you can just call me Brooke. I’ve been assigned to teach you the course.”
“You’re a human,” one of the men said. It was less of him saying it, and more of him spitting it. His voice was nasty – as was his entire demeanor.
“I’m a human.”
“I ain’t taking advice from a human about Shifter matters!” he yelled.
“Shut up!” one of the other men yelled.
There was a slight argument and nearly everyone in the room was arguing, bickering back and forth and paying her no attention whatsoever.
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and tried to remind herself just how badly she had needed a job.
Sam sat there for a few moments in silence, then he joined in the argument. Smith was sitting there, agreeing with the other recruit, who said he wouldn’t listen to a human – and what did it matter, anyway? She was here to teach, human, or Shifter, or whatever. That was the important thing.
He watched as she closed her eyes and he knew she was bracing herself for a hard day – probably wondering why she had even decided to take the job in the first place. He closed his mouth and watched her.
She was beautiful. It had been the first thing he’d noticed when he walked in. Then he’d had to remind himself that beautiful or not, she was his teacher, so he would have to ignore that and focus on what she was going to teach him. That was the most important thing, after all.
But he couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t much older than him – if at all.
Brooke Slater opened her eyes and there was something there, something that blazed almost like a Shifter’s, and Sam knew that she was about to truly let them know what kind of person she was. Sam nudged John next to him, who was arguing with the others. He immediately fell silent.
“This is going to be your final warning, or else you’ll be leaving my classroom,” she said. Her voice had taken a hard edge and immediately the recruits around him stopped talking. “I don’t have to deal with anyone who doesn’t want to be here. So if you want to leave, leave.”
The Shifter who had said he didn’t want to learn from a human stood up.
“Gates,” Smith warned. Sam didn’t like the man – but he was smart enough to realize that pushing Miss Slater was a bad idea.
“I won’t,” he hissed.
“Then get out of my classroom,” Brooke said, her voice still icy. He paused, as if reconsidering, but she said, “Out.”
He left, giving Smith a grin – but the other Shifter didn’t return it.
“Guys like that give Shifters a bad name,” John whispered.
Sam nodded and had the feeling that this would be the last he would see of Gates – a feeling in the pit of his stomach told him that the Forest wouldn’t take kindly to those who acted this way towards humans. It made him feel sick.
Looking around, Sam saw the other men. There were only nine of them left. Somehow, the class suddenly seemed much smaller, even though they’d only lost one man recently.
“Okay, now that that’s taken care of, let’s get down to business,” she began. She looked around the room and smiled.
Did she smile at me? Knock it off – don’t think that way.
She grabbed a stack of papers and handed them out to each man. She was left holding one extra, which she looked at for a moment with a look like sadness, and then she put it on her desk.
“There’s more to firefighting than just fighting fires,” she said. “And they want me to teach you some of the finer points of that. There’s a lot of science that goes into this. And there’s also other things you’ll be doing, because of course, you can’t be fighting fires all of the time. There are car wrecks, building collapses, other natural disasters, and the Forest wants you to know not just what to do when these happen, but the why.”
She looked at one of the men in the class and said, “Tell me. What does a fire require to burn?”
It was such a simple question – but the man floundered and said, “Well, it’s gotta have something to burn, right?”
“What else?”
John raised his hand and the look that Brooke Slater gave him made Sam wish he was the one to answer it.
“A fire needs heat, oxygen, and the fuel source.”
“Good,” Brooke said – and Sam lost himself in her voice. He knew he was supposed to be paying attention to what she was saying, not that she was just talking, but he couldn’t help himself.
Looking around the room, he saw he wasn’t the only one.
At least the other men don’t have problems with learning from a human.
They went over the syllabus – a long, twelve week long class that Sam had to admit he knew nothing about. He did great on his physical exams and passed the entry level exam without a problem – but he knew nothing about the chemistry side of fires, little to nothing about the human body and what to do in case of emergencies, and most of the other topics.
It wasn’t going to be easy – but he wasn’t going to fail. He would learn everything Brooke Slater had to teach him – and he would excel.
He didn’t have a choice. He had nothing to go back to. This was it.
And then before he knew it, class was over. Everyone else around him was standing up and Sam did the same. He’d hardly paid any attention to what had been going on around him.
He suddenly felt extremely guilty and more than a little stupid.
I can’t get distracted. I have to do this.
It wasn’t just that Brooke Slater was an attractive woman, though that was part of it. He hadn’t known exactly what to expect from trying to become a member of the Forest – but sitting in a class, learning all of this – stuff – hadn’t been what he had been expecting.
It had thrown him a curve ball, but he vowed that he wouldn’t let it distract him any longer. He could overcome anything, because like he had reminded himself in the class, he had to.
He spared a glance back at Brooke Slater as he filed past her desk, but she was looking down at her paperwork and didn’t spare him a glance. For some reason, he felt just a little bit sad – then he shook his head to clear it.
Stop. Get your head together.
Outside the room, Norris was standing there, looking grim.
“Recruits, follow me,” he grunted. His voice was tight and Sam noticed that the man didn’t appear to be happy – which was unsettling. Every other time Sam had seen Norris, he had at least be impassive. Nothing like this.
/>
McCready was standing in the bay and he looked even grimmer than Norris did. Norris came to stand behind him, crossing his arms behind his back.
“Norris tells me that you ran into some – issues in your class. Let me be the first to tell you that your fellow recruit, Gates – he’s no longer a recruit here. We will not tolerate any kind of action like that towards anyone. Miss Slater was chosen because she’s an excellent teacher and her being a human has nothing to do with it. Does anyone here have any sort of problem with that?”
There was a collective no and all of the recruits shook their heads.
“Good. If I catch wind that you’re disrespectful towards her – or let me make this clear, anyone – then you’ll be out of here faster than you can shift. Recruits, is that clear?”
There was a collective yes, sir and McCready nodded.
“Okay, that brings me to our next test,” he said, nodding curtly. “You’re Shifters, so we need to see if you can shift.”
“Are you serious?” someone – Smith – yelled from the back. “Of course we can shift!”
“Well then you should have no problem showing me that,” McCready said. “We’ll do this one at a time – just in case any of you are nervous about shifting in front of others. Who wants to go first?”
John Forbes raised his hand and McCready said, “Okay, let’s go. Into this room here.”
In a few minutes, John Forbes was back. He nodded at Sam, who nodded back. One by one, the Shifters followed McCready back to the room off of the bay. The rest of the recruits stood around muttering nervous, with the exception of Smith, who was boasting.
What is this about? Sam wasn’t one to argue – but why would any of them be here if they couldn’t shift? That was part of being a Shifter, after all.
There must be something else to this. Some kind of angle that I’m not seeing. It has to be more than just to see if we can shift. Maybe that we can follow orders? Shift at a moment’s notice?
Finally, with only a few recruits left, it was Sam’s turn. He followed McCready back to the room.
“I’ll stand out here. Close the door behind you. When you’ve shifted, I’ll know, and I’ll just check in. It’s simple.”
“Okay,” Sam said, nodding. He was still a little confused – but he refused to question anything McCready wanted him to do. He knew it was necessary to do whatever he was asked, without question.
Sam walked in the room and shut the door behind him. It wasn’t anything remarkable – just a small meeting room with a table in the middle of it. Sam peeled off his shirt and then stripped down to his underwear.
When was the last time I shifted? In truth, it had been so long that he couldn’t remember. It had definitely been before he’d moved to New York, he was sure.
And suddenly self-doubt was flooding through him.
What if I can’t?
But he knew he could and he knew he had to.
So he shifted. He felt everything about him changing; fur sprouting up all over his body, his chest expanding outward, growing into a huge, barrel shape, his arms and legs growing long and claws extending from toes and fingers.
As always, it hurt – just for a moment, ever so slightly.
And then everything was different. He was still him but things were a bit more – primal, bestial, cloudy – and then the door opened and McCready stepped in. Sam took a deep breath, breathing in the other man’s scent, and he knew that McCready was satisfied. He closed the door and Sam shifted back.
Clothes back on, Sam opened the door to find McCready still standing there.
“It’s weird, I know,” McCready explained. Sam got the distinct impression that he hadn’t said this much to many of the other recruits. “But it’s something we have to do.”
“Run into a lot of Shifters that can’t shift?” Sam asked, genuinely curious. Truth be told, he didn’t know a lot of other Shifters – but he’d always been able to shift whenever he needed to, so he didn’t see why others would have the problem as well.
“You’d be surprised, around here,” McCready said with a shrug. “We get some – rough Shifters around here. Tough guys. Think they’re everything – and when it comes to shift in a time when they don’t absolutely have to, they fail. Some people just can’t master it and can’t control it.”
“I see,” Sam said. He wanted to say more – he wanted to tell McCready that he and the other men were the most Shifters he’d ever seen in his life. He wanted to tell them that somehow, he already felt like he belonged and was part of a family.
But then they were out in the bay and McCready was leading one of the last recruits to the back and Sam joined the others. No one was saying much now.
That was odd. I never thought I would be challenged in such a way – but something tells me that I’ll be challenged in ways I can’t even image.
Finally, all of the Shifters had come back.
“I’m pleased to tell you that everyone here passed,” McCready said. “And that’s good – because you’ll need your abilities as a Shifter more than ever for your next challenge. It’s time – so follow me.”
And he led the way over to two big, white vans that had been parked just outside of the bay. The cold air blasted Sam and he shivered.
“Climb in. We have a long drive ahead of us,” the Sergeant ordered. The recruits, confused, started to climb in, unsure of what their next test was.
And out of the corner of his eye, Sam saw Brooke Slater leaving the building and going towards her car. She didn’t look over at the recruits as she did so – and Sam somehow felt his heart drop in his chest.
Then he was in the van, the doors slammed, and they were driving off – to where, he had no idea.
“It was horrible.”
Forks and knives scraped against plates. There was a pause, broken only by the sound of chewing.
Brooke watched her father, who swallowed his bite of steak, expecting him to say something else. He didn’t, so she cut off a small bite of steak and ate, chewing and watching, just waiting.
“They give you any hell? Besides Recruit Gates?”
“No,” Brooke said. “But I’ve never been treated like that before, by anyone. Grown men or even children.”
“He’s gone,” her father said. “And I promise you, you won’t have to do with anything like that again. The men there are supposed to be better – and they will be.”
Her first day had been horrible. She hadn’t thought any of the men she’d been teaching had noticed just how badly shaken up she had been. Shifters had never scared her; after all, her father had been one. Being around them had been a natural part of her life. Brooke had known there was some animosity between the two species – those that knew Shifters existed, anyway.
But I never expected to be on the receiving end of it. My father is a Shifter. How could any of them hate me?
She hated admitting it, but she had been scared. She was scared.
Maybe I made a mistake in taking this job. Maybe I was too desperate.
But she knew she hadn’t been. She didn’t have a choice. She’d just gotten out of her apartment lease, too, so there was absolutely no going back. She was committed to living with her parents – and teaching Shifters all sorts of stuff even she didn’t know.
What kind of a teacher does that make me?
She’d been spending the evenings studying the material she’d been going over. There was a lot more science involved than she’d ever thought. Besides the obvious part of teaching just how fires worked, there was a lot of medical stuff, as well. She certainly wasn’t a medical professional, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t give these men the basic instruction they needed.
Lesson plans upon lesson plans were building up. She didn’t have much time with them, only a few short months. She had to make the best of it. After all, that was her job.
But for once – I don’t find myself much liking it.
Her mother, of course, hadn’t taken her worries serious
ly. She’d given a light laugh when Brooke had explained what had happened. Brooke stabbed a bite of steak with her fork, shooting her mother a glare that she, of course, didn’t notice. Everything was perfect in her world – so that was all that mattered.
Oh, how quickly things evaporate. Only a few short days ago we were actually getting along. I hardly believe it – and I was there.
“How’s it going at work, honey?” she heard her mother ask.
“Not as bad as Brooke – but it isn’t easy. Some of the men have been grumbling about me taking over. Most of them know it’s not my fault things are going to change around there. They’re still quick to point fingers, though. Especially McCready. He’s not happy about serving under someone that isn’t Rawls.”
“He’ll get over it,” her mother said – like her saying it made it true. Brooke stood up, no longer wanting to eat dinner with her parents. Her mother gave her a look and Brooke half expected her to tell her that she needed to be excused, but then she turned back to her plate and Brooke left the dining room.
She tossed her leftovers in the trash, rinsed her plate, and headed up to her room. There wasn’t much there besides stacks of paperwork, textbooks, and everything she needed.
With a sigh, Brooke dove into her next lesson.
She went at it for hours, the time slowly ticking by, then she found herself dozing off and decided to climb into bed. She had a hard time drifting off – but eventually did, and her alarm was incessant in its noise.
And suddenly, rather unfortunately, it was time for her to go back to work. She dreaded it but got out of bed just the same. A quick shower – extra hot to fend off the cold January weather – and she was out the door, wrapped tightly in thick clothes.
Her father had rescued her frozen car so she started it up, waiting for it to heat up while breathing in her hands, and after a few moments she was making her way down the road and towards the Forest.
The streets were deserted, a combination of the early morning and the cold weather. Plus, no one drove in New York if they could help it.
Bear Heat: BBW Fireman Bear Shifter Romance (Firefighter Bears Book 1) Page 7
