Bear the Burn(44)
“And what if the woman doesn’t want you back? What then? Does your animal side force them?” a man called out.
“Absolutely not,” Boone said, standing. “Women in our culture are revered and make their own decisions. If they don’t feel the bond, it’s their choice to tell us to fuck off.”
“Language,” Cody warned.
“Can the infection spread through sex with the human population?” one of the council members asked.
Rory stood and held Aaron tightly. “I’m Cody’s mate. He is a very dominant bear shifter, and the alpha of what we call our crew. I can assure you, I’m still very much human and will remain so until I choose to Turn. Which might be never because I don’t envy what they have to go through.”
“Like what?” Mayor Randolph asked.
“Like the pain of the Change is very real. I watched my son experience it for years before I came back here seeking help from Cody and his Breck Crew. It is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone. In addition to that, our crew has been taken advantage of by a special interest group called IESA. The men in our crew have been forced to do many, many things they didn’t want to because they were threatened with exposure, death, and the torture of their families. Which is why we have decided to come out to you and beg for your aid to stop the exploitation of our kind. We are just trying to live our lives quietly, but many of our kind have been killed simply for not doing missions IESA ordered them to.”
“Have you killed anyone?” a man asked in a hard voice.
“No,” Rory said, anger flashing across her green eyes.
“Not you, human. I’m talking to the bear shifters.”
“They served their country in wartime,” Rory gritted out. “That isn’t a fair question.”
“If a human is going to speak for them, why are we even here?” the man asked, his bald dome shining with sweat.
“Answer the question,” Mayor Randolph said.
“Don’t,” Cora Wright ordered from beside a camera man. She held a microphone in one hand and a notepad scribbled with notes in the other. “You don’t have to answer anything without a lawyer and a trial. You aren’t being accused of anything today. This is a question and answer meeting only, not a trap to string you up.” She narrowed her eyes at the sneering man. “Next question.”
“No answer means yes!” the man yelled. “They’ve murdered people. Humans. And we’re just going to let murderers live unpunished in our town. Fuck that.”
Quinn shook her head as the crowd erupted. It wasn’t fair. Most of the people the Kellers had killed were shifters at the order of IESA.
“What kind of shifters are there?” an older woman asked over the erupting crowd.
Looking troubled, Cody stood and leaned toward a microphone. “That we can’t tell you since we aren’t sure. It wouldn’t be our place to talk about people who have nothing to do with us.”
“How can we be sure our children would be safe around your children in a public school system?”
“Because we teach them to behave just the same as you teach yours to.”
“Mine don’t have teeth and claws. They don’t have built in weapons! I want any shifter cub, as you call them, registered as a shifter, wearing a name badge or tracking bracelet or something so that we can easily identify what and where they are.”
Panic seized Quinn’s throat at the thought of how close they were getting already to discussing trackers. Dade swallowed hard beside her and shot her a wide-eyed look. They were losing control of this meeting.
“Are males the only bear shifters able to Turn humans?”
“No,” Cody said, shaking his head.
“Are you trying to take over the world?” a man shouted.
“What? No,” Cody growled out.
“Quiet down!” Mayor Randolph warned.
“Is the Breck Crew a cult?”
“Why have you decided to come out now?”
“Do you eat raw meat, more specifically human flesh when you are in your animal form?”
“How fast can you heal?”
“Maybe if we put them in special housing behind fences…”
“Do you live forever like vampires?”
“How many of you are there?”
Cody sat heavily into his chair, looking at Rory as if he were utterly overwhelmed.
“Enough!” Quinn screamed, standing so fast her chair clattered to the floor behind her.
“Introduce yourself,” Cora called out in a rush.
The room dipped to silence.
Quinn’s voice quivered, and her breath shook. “I’m Quinn Copeland, the one you saw on that awful video. I was human a few days ago, and now I’m not.”