Mischief in a Fur Coat (2 page)

Hope shuddered as she forced herself to meet his gaze. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen such a deep, primal fury in anyone’s eyes before. Drew might be a full human, but right now he looked like an angry bear.

This wasn’t going to be good.

Drew could literally feel the smoke coming out of his ears. He’d been in a pretty good mood up until about ten minutes ago, when he walked into the bar to ask about a hovercar he was planning to borrow from the bartender. But his happiness had quickly turned to shock and then anger when he saw Hope sitting at the bar, acting like it was no big deal that she had potentially just ruined their hiding spot so she could sit there and drink a beer.

“What were you thinking?” he roared, glaring down at Hope, who was lying dazed on the ground where he had just knocked her over. He hated to knock over a woman like that, even one as stubborn as Hope. But it had been the only way to stop her. She was one of the fastest runners he’d ever seen.

Hope met his gaze, a bit timidly at first, but her hesitation quickly turned to defiance. “What were
you
thinking?” she retorted. “Chicago’s Mayor is dead? New York City is burning? You told us you were giving us all the news, but you were lying. If you want people to respect you and your silly rules about not going into town, then you should at least be truthful in your news reporting.”

Drew let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m so sorry,” he said in a sarcastic tone. “I didn’t realize I was supposed to give a complete play by play of every little detail. I’ll try to do better. In the meantime, thanks to your little stunt, we might all have to move away from the cabin we spent so much time expanding.”

Hope’s eyes flashed angrily at him as she hopped to her feet. She wasn’t a petite woman by any stretch of the imagination, but Drew was still much bigger than her. And yet, although he stood a good head and shoulders above her, he knew that she could shift into a bear at a moment’s notice. He would never be able to win a physical fight against her, which was both annoying and awe-inspiring all at the same time.

“You don’t own me, Drew,” Hope said, her voice dripping with venom. “You can’t order me around like some child. And that guy at the bar has no idea who I am. I told him I was staying with a friend, and he left it at that. You’re being overly paranoid for no reason.”

“You might think he left it at that,” Drew said, resisting the urge to reach over and shake Hope’s shoulders. “But folks around here are nosy. They have nothing better to do than to try to pry into everyone’s business. I guarantee you he’s going to be asking around about you, and he’s going to get awfully suspicious of me once he realizes that no one else out in these woods has any visitors right now.”

“Whatever,” Hope said. “I’m not scared of a nosy old bartender, anyway. What’s the worst that could happen? He discovers you have some friends hanging out with you? So what? There are only a few people around here for him to even tell. Let them gossip. It’s no skin off my back.”

Hope turned around and stormed off in the direction of the cabin. This time, Drew let her go. He could feel the anger and frustration within him reaching the point of uncontrollable, and he didn’t want to lose his cool. He followed behind her, slowly, quickly losing sight of her as she stomped on ahead. He kicked at a tree trunk in frustration, and let out a long string of curses for good measure, even though no one was around to hear him.

Truth be told, he had been keeping a lot from the clan. It wasn’t that he was trying to be an asshole on purpose. It’s just that he didn’t want them to be angry and riled up all the time. Nine shifters living under one small roof tended to be a bit of a circus, anyway. Add in tension over what was going on in the outside world, and things were bound to get a little bit messy. Besides, there was nothing any of them could do to help at the moment. Why make them upset about problems they had no control over?

Drew knew he was going to have to change, though. Now that Hope had figured out his little game of secrecy, she was going to tell the others. And they were all going to demand an explanation. As he entered the clearing where the cabin stood, Drew braced himself to face a group of bears who wanted to know what the hell was actually going on in the news.

But, to his surprise, no one seemed all that interested in his arrival. Calum and Jack, who were the only ones still hammering away at the cabin addition at the moment, glanced up at him and nodded in greeting.

“What’d you say to piss off my sister?” Calum asked, his eyes crinkling up in laughter. “I haven’t seen her that angry in years. Well done. Teach me your secrets.”

Calum and Jack both laughed, apparently amused by Hope’s temper, and Drew realized that Hope hadn’t actually said anything to anyone yet. He shrugged at Calum and Jack, and then went into the one room original cabin. Several more of the clan members were in there, apparently taking a late lunch break. They were all talking and laughing—all of them except for Hope. She was standing next to the counter stirring protein powder into a glass of milk, although it looked like the protein powder had long since dissolved. She was still stirring, though, furiously twirling her spoon in circles and glaring down at the glass of milk as though it had killed her firstborn child.

She looked up and saw Drew, let out a huff, then grabbed her glass and stormed out the cabin’s front door. No one else seemed to notice, but Drew couldn’t keep his eyes off of her.

Strangely, even though he was frustrated with her right now, he felt a twinge of desire fill him as he watched her go. She was beautiful when she was angry. Ever since the clan had arrived at the cabin, Drew had considered Hope to be the most beautiful shifter out of the bunch. But when she was angry her beauty shot up to a whole new level. Something about the way her blue eyes burned when she was upset made his stomach tighten up with longing.

Drew shook his head to try to clear away the thought. Was he going crazy? He’d been spending too much time cooped up in the cabin with everyone. He didn’t want a girlfriend, especially not one with an attitude like Hope’s. He liked his solitary existence out here in the middle of nowhere, and he’d been secretly hoping that this whole shifter war would die down soon so that the clan could get back to their lives and he could get back to his. He almost didn’t even suggest building the addition onto the cabin, since it seemed like a waste. Once life got back to normal, he would never use all of that space. But he’d wanted to give the clan some sort of physical labor to keep them busy and happy, and the cabin addition had worked wonderfully for that purpose. Of course, now that it was almost done, he was going to have to figure out a new project for everyone to do.

Drew stepped back outside, ignoring the chatter going on inside, and breathed in the fresh air. He loved it out here. The only reason he’d opened up the space to a bunch of shifters in the first place was that, well, he owed shifters his life. He’d been orphaned at a young age, and had bounced around between foster homes and orphanages. He’d reached the point where he was too old to be easily adoptable, and had been warned by his friends at the orphanage that he’d probably never find a forever home. He wasn’t a cute, chubby baby anymore, and no one wanted kids who were already kids. They wanted babies. Luckily for Drew, though, one of the volunteers at the orphanage had fallen in love with him. She had convinced her husband, who happened to be a shifter, to adopt Drew and bring him home.

As a child, shifting had seemed like the most natural thing in the world to Drew. He was surrounded by shifters, and his sister, Sophia, was a shifter. Drew chuckled. She always won fights when they were kids, because she’d shift and be bigger than him. It was totally unfair, but it’d taught Drew a lot about life and its absence of “fairness.” It was only as Drew entered high school that he began to realize that, as a full human, he was actually the normal one in society, not the odd one out. At first, he’d been angry with his parents for not explaining this to him. But then, he became angry with society for treating shifters like monsters, when they were really just good people for the most part. Finally fed up with all the labels and roles the world seemed to thrust on everyone, Drew had escaped to the woods.

This place was his sanctuary. He was a hermit, and he liked it that way. He spent his time tinkering with all of his toys. He had numerous guns, several swords, and a hodgepodge collection of gas powered items—anything from weedwackers to four wheelers. Until the addition on the cabin was started, his shed had actually been bigger than his house. He also knew where to find gas powered vehicles, a true rarity these days. Gas-powered vehicles were strictly prohibited in all states. Of course, little details like laws had never stopped Drew.

As technology had progressed at lightning speed, Drew had become obsessed with living off the grid. He hated how everything was tied to your fingerprint these days. Or, worse, to the DNA in the iris of your eyes. Everything was computerized, even transportation. Almost everyone owned a self-driving hovercar, and multiple personal computers and tablets capable of doing everything from making coffee to giving you advice on which outfit to wear. The whole world had become one damn robot.

Drew had taken immense pleasure in not being part of that robot. Everything out here was old school. His family and a few close shifter friends knew how to find him, but that was it. He’d been enjoying complete solitude out here, until the new shifter-detecting eye scanners.

The Mayor of Chicago had always been power-hungry, and had seen the war on shifters as a way to solidify his power. At the Mayor’s urging, eye scanners had been developed that would detect whether a person’s eyes contained animal DNA, meaning they were a shifter. Then the Mayor had stirred up panic in the general public, and gleefully watched Chicago burn. He probably hadn’t expected the chaos to get quite as out of control as it did, however. One of the riots had ended with his assassination. But the shifter witch hunt the Mayor had started hadn’t ended with his death. It had swelled and grown and was quickly spreading to the furthest reaches of every American city. The rest of the world was watching uncertainly as the United States struggled to regain control over its citizens, who cast fearful eyes on their neighbors, always suspecting that a shifter was hiding in the shadows waiting to eat them up.

Or kill them, or dismember them, or whatever the hell everyone thought shifters did. Drew couldn’t believe that so many people could be so irrational. Clearly, everyone had been getting along just fine with shifters for neighbors for centuries now. But just knowing that shifters existed was enough for people to turn into the most fearful version of themselves. This was part of why Drew hated to spend time around his old clan. He hated seeing the way they felt they had to hide themselves from the world around them. His clan and family were the most loving, giving people he had ever met. Watching them be judged so harshly for no reason was painful, and made Drew pretty much hate humanity.

So he avoided humanity altogether.

But he held close ties to the shifter community, and when the group of shifters currently here had needed a hiding place, he hadn’t hesitated for a second. Of course, he hadn’t expected for one of the shifters to be as frustrating, feisty, and beautiful as Hope. He should have known, really. There was always at least one mischief-maker in the bunch. Usually, though, that mischief-maker was him.

Drew didn’t want to admit it, but he might have just met his match.

Hope had been sitting out here by this waterfall for hours. She would have loved to go for a swim, but it was too cold right now to swim in human form. And she didn’t feel like putting energy into shifting at the moment. What she’d really like to put energy into was punching Drew in the face, but, of course, that was unlikely to end well.

She had originally planned to storm into the cabin and tell everyone in the clan that Drew had been keeping half the news from them. But, by the time she arrived home, she wasn’t sure she wanted to say anything.

What if Drew was right? What if Hope had just blown everyone’s cover? A sick, uneasy feeling filled her stomach at the thought. She didn’t know how things worked around here, and Drew did. She had to admit that much. What if the bartender started prying, and found out that a whole group of shifters was hiding in the woods. Would he tell someone? And where would the clan run to now? They had nowhere else to hide.

For the first time in her life, Hope wished that she had not been born a shifter. She wished she was just a normal human who could go about her life without worrying that some paranoid idiot was going to stick an eye scanner in her face. But wishing didn’t change anything.

She was who she was, and the world apparently hated her for it.

A rustling in the leaves behind her made the hair on the back of Hope’s neck stand on end. She sat up straighter and quickly whipped her head around, ready to shift and fight at a moment’s notice. There could be wild animals or crazy humans out here. The world felt like such a dangerous place right now. But as the thick brush parted, Hope breathed a sigh of relief, and then rolled her eyes.

It was only Drew. Of course, she should have known he wouldn’t allow her a moment of peace out here.

“What now?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he walked across the small, grassy space between the trees and the riverbank, and sat down next to Hope. He kicked off his shoes and socks, then rolled up his pant legs and put his feet in the water. Hope couldn’t help but notice how big and strong his feet were. He was such a giant of a man. It was easy to forget sometimes that he wasn’t actually a shifter. After a few moments of silence, he finally spoke.

“You didn’t say anything to the others,” he said. His voice was calm, a markedly drastic difference from his anger earlier in the day.

“Yeah, well, I’m trying to process everything,” Hope said, crossing her arms. She didn’t want to say much more. She was still fuming mad at him, and she definitely did not want to admit that she was worried that he might have been right about her staying away from the bar.

Drew ran his fingers through his hair and leaned back on his elbows, looking up at the late afternoon sky. He was silent for a long time, and then looked over at her with a sorrowful, tired look.

“I’m trying, Hope. I really am. I know this doesn’t all make sense to you, and you’re angry at me for keeping things from you guys. But I honestly didn’t think about the mayor thing being that important. And, well, I kind of don’t like talking about all the bullshit going on in the world right now. I feel stupid saying this, because obviously as a human it’s less of a threat to me. But I just hate even thinking about all the atrocities happening to shifters out there. My family is half shifter, you know. I’m worried about them just like you’re worried about yours.”

Hope frowned. “If you’re so worried, then you should understand how much I just want to talk to my family and at least know they’re ok. This big ban on any communication with the outside world that you think is so necessary is keeping me from even knowing whether my parents are alive or not.”

“They’re alive,” Drew said.

Hope shot a questioning glance in Drew’s direction. “How do you know? Did you talk to them?”

“I talked to my dad,” Drew said, sitting up straight again. “I know, I know. I said I wasn’t going to contact my own parents either. But my dad contacted me. He has his ways. Anyway, he’s actually heading up to Alaska with the rest of my clan. They’re going to Glacier Point, and they’re going to hide out in the Black Ice Caves.”

Hope’s eyes widened. “Really? Those are even still open?”

The Black Ice Caves were an extensive network of underground caverns near Glacier Point, Alaska, where Hope’s family lived. There was plenty of room in the caverns for a lot of shifters to hide, but no one had been in the caves for years. Hope was surprised anyone still knew where the entrance was.”

“Yeah, your dad and a few of the other older guys from your clan found them and dug out one of the old entrances. It’s the perfect hiding place. The caves have been sitting there untouched for almost two decades. There are no computers in there. No electronics. No way for anyone to track them down. They’ll be safe. And there’s room for a lot of bears in there. It’s going to be a good hiding place for more and more shifters as this whole mess continues.”

Hope nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. But I’m still mad at you for talking to your dad when I haven’t been able to talk to mine. And besides, if the caves are so safe and so great and all of our families are there, why don’t we all just go out to Alaska? Why are we still sitting here in Michigan by ourselves?”

“Because, Hope. Michigan is a long ways from Alaska, and there are eye scanners everywhere right now. I mean,
everywhere
. Being out in the open for that long is a huge risk. We’re safer here. At least, we were, before that little stunt you pulled today. Who knows at this point.”

Hope rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, Drew. Give it up. Seriously. I had a couple beers and made small talk.”

“You made small talk with one of the nosiest guys in the county,” Drew said. “I guarantee you that for at least the next week, he’s going to be asking every single person who comes into that bar whether they know who you are.”

“So what if he does? We’re in the middle of nowhere. Even if they realize someone else is staying out here, they’re not going to do much except gossip about it. They’ll probably just think you got a new girlfriend that you don’t want to tell anyone about, or something like that,” Hope said, her frustration and anger rising. She was starting to wish she had chosen somewhere other than this waterfall to try to find a moment of peace and quiet. This spot was too popular. Of course Drew had known to look for her here.

“Hope, you don’t get it,” Drew said, his own voice rising. “There is a freaking holocaust of shifters going on. They’re trying to kill off all of you. You should be grateful you at least have a cabin to stay in instead of a being cooped up in a cave. Although it might not be that much longer before we have to move to the cave, so enjoy it while you can.”

“There’s not too much to enjoy about being stuck here with you,” Hope spat out. “And besides, even if there is a holocaust, the bartender didn’t seem like the kind of guy to be scared of shifters.”

“Oh, no. He’s not the type to be scared of shifters,” Drew said. “But he’s definitely the type to make a quick buck when he can.”

Hope furrowed her brow, confused. “What do you mean?”

“The Federal Government is offering a reward for the capture of shifters. Ten thousand dollars per head, dead or alive. Plus ten thousand dollars for information that leads to the capture and conviction of anyone harboring shifters, which is apparently a felony these days.”

Hope stared at Drew in shock. “Ten thousand dollars? Each? Dead or alive? That’s insane! They’re treating us like America’s Most Wanted or something.”

Drew’s look of anger had once again melted into an expression of sadness. “I know. It’s sickening. But it’s the reality of what we’re dealing with right now. There are nine of you here, Hope. Plus I’m worth an easy ten grand since I’m harboring you all. So if the bartender, or anyone else, discovers our little hideout, it’s worth a hundred grand to them. We have to be careful.”

Hope felt foolish and sick to her stomach all at once. She hadn’t realized yet the full extent of how much the rest of the world hated her right now. She stared down at the swirling water in the river below her and tried to focus her attention on the patterns of ripples. She tried to forget the harsh truth of reality. She was angry at herself for brazenly going into town as though she had nothing to lose. And she was angry at Drew for not being honest about how bad things were out there.

“I never would have gone to the bar if you had just been honest with me about what was going on,” Hope said, her voice cracking with emotion.

“I’m sorry,” Drew said, surprising Hope with how earnest his voice sounded. “I just wanted to protect you guys, somehow. I thought there was no point in telling you how bad things are out there, since there isn’t much you can do about it, anyway. I thought it would just make you all upset for no reason.”

Hope tried to formulate a reply, but she wasn’t even sure what to say. And then, without warning, she started to cry. She had never been much of a weeper. With a twin brother like Calum, she’d had to learn early on to develop a thick skin. But everything that had happened today, and in the last few months, had finally caught up with her. It was too much.

“I’m a good person!” she said between sniffles. “Most shifters are good people, but we’re being hunted like wild animals. And now there’s literally a price on our heads.

“I know,” Drew said gently. Then he surprised Hope by reaching over and wrapping his arms around her shoulders. The sweetness of the gesture, especially coming from Drew, caught her off guard and brought on a fresh wave of tears. Hope tried to tell herself to stop crying like a silly baby, but she couldn’t stop. And she couldn’t keep a torrent of frustrated confessions from spilling out of her mouth.

“I just feel so trapped here, you know? I had so much freedom in Chicago. I had a beautiful condo, and a career I loved. I used to make art, Drew. Art! I was a graphic designer and I spent my days on the computer making the most beautiful graphics you’ve ever seen. I was damn good at it. Now I sit here and twirl my thumbs, feeling useless and wondering whether I’m ever going to have a real life again. I know you probably think I’m just whining. I mean, you’ve been living out here forever and don’t care about technology. But technology was my life. Everything familiar to me has been ripped away.”

“I’m sorry,” Drew said again. “I won’t pretend to understand exactly what you’re going through, but I know it’s been hard on you. And I know the secluded life I live isn’t for everyone. But you have to believe things are going to get better, eventually.”

“Are they, though?” Hope said, wiping at her eyes as she finally started to regain control of her emotions. “We’re all just hiding. None of us are fighting. Nothing is going to change while we all just sit here and wait. Someone has to actually
do
something.”

Drew reached up and took Hope’s face in his palms, forcing her to make eye contact with him. The strength and warmth of his hands sent an unexpected shock of desire through Hope’s body, and she silently told herself to get a grip.

“Things will get better, Hope,” he said, his voice earnest. “I promise. Everyone is hiding now so that they’ll be safe, but we’ll all regroup. We’ll make a plan. We’ve dealt with threats to shifters before, and we’ll do it again.”

Hope found herself trembling under the electricity of his touch and the intensity of his voice. His eyes blazed with a crazy rage that, for once today, Hope knew wasn’t directed at her. In her peripheral vision, she could see his tanned biceps bulging. For a moment, she wondered how he even still had a tan in the middle of a Michigan autumn. She slowly nodded her head, letting him know that she had heard him. That she understood him. His words had touched her, truly. He wasn’t born a shifter, but he stood ready to fight alongside them. She shouldn’t have given him such a hard time for his strict rules. She had been too hard on him. He was doing the best he could.

“I’m sorry,” was all she said. She didn’t need to say more. He knew what she meant.

“Me too,” he said softly.

And then, without warning, he leaned in and put his lips on hers. They were rough and warm, and she felt an instant flash of hot fire passing from his body to hers. He had closed his eyes, but hers had flown wide open with shock.

Drew Brooks, a man she would have sworn hated her only fifteen minutes earlier, had just kissed her.

As suddenly as he had made the move, he pulled back and opened his eyes again, looking a little shell-shocked himself. Then, without any further words or explanation, he jumped up and took off into the woods, leaving Hope alone and baffled.

She touched her lips where his had been moments before, and then, despite the shitty day she’d had up to this point, she cracked a small smile.