Submitting to the Bear Shifter

Chapter 2-1

2While Deep Male Voice/Snorty helped himself to another cookie, his third already I was pretty sure, I took a long drink of my coffee, planning what I was going to say.

Then, I set my mug down and scanned the faces of the four agents with what I hoped was a look of complete sincerity on my own. “Look. I’m just going to come clean. The reason I didn’t want to answer the door tonight, and the reason I don’t want to go to my ‘assigned post’ is because I’m embarrassed. You see, I’m not really a Gifted. I just happened to be nearby yesterday when that little boy leaped out of the way of the car, and for some reason, the people who witnessed him leap just interpreted what they saw completely incorrectly... probably because the sun was so bright, I think. It probably was half-blinding people, not to mention that it was making blinding glare on the cars. I certainly didn’t levitate the little boy out of the way of the car that almost hit him. That’s crazy. I don’t have a gifted bone in my body.”

Deep Male Voice/Snorty snorted. “What a crock.”

I shrugged. “Believe what you want, but I’m not a Gifted.”

Living up to his new additional mental nickname, he snorted yet again, then pulled his phone out, pulled something up on the screen, then turned the screen toward me. “So... the young woman in this video. The one who gasps and whips a palm up toward the little boy walking across the street just a split-second before he goes rocketing into the air, out of the way of the speeding car... that wasn’t you yesterday? That wasn’t you seen slowly lowering your palm at the exact same time as the little boy was slowly floating back down to the street? Because to my eyes, the young woman in this video looks an awfully lot like you. And to my eyes, it looks like this young woman has the gift of levitation.”

Cringing inwardly, I didn’t say anything.

Seemingly satisfied, Deep Male Voice/Snorty put his phone back in his jacket pocket. “Bet you didn’t know that one of the onlookers who witnessed the whole thing just happened to be randomly recording a video of the street, just trying to figure out how to shoot video with his phone. And bet you didn’t know that he sent his video to us in DC right away, with a message that he was pretty sure he’d captured a clip of one of you rare ‘secret Gifteds’ in action... one of you rare women determined to remain hidden and shirk your national duty, for whatever reason. But you know all this now, don’t you, Miss Clark? Now you know that we know with certainty that you’re a Gifted. So, no more wasting our time with crock-of-baloney denials, if you don’t mind.”

I was really, really starting to dislike Deep Male Voice/Snorty.

But, not knowing how to respond to what he’d just said, I just took another long drink of my coffee, and he continued.

“Look. You seem to like keeping secrets, so if you have a special secret sweetheart in town that you don’t want to leave, married man or whatever, know that you’ll be able to come back to visit him whenever you please. Your post isn’t that far away. You’ve been assigned to work with the Timberline Clan, the group of bear shifters up in that little camp, or town, or whatever it is, that they call Timberline, which is what? Three miles north of here?”

I shrugged, hugging my arms to my chest. “Closer to five.”

“Well, then, see? Plenty close enough. You’ll be able to visit your secret boyfriend any time you want. Who knows? The leader of the Timberline Clan might even let your boyfriend move on up there with you.”

“I don’t even have a boyfriend, secret or otherwise.”

Deep Male Voice/Snorty did a snort for the ages, the force of air through his nostrils actually moving his white paper napkin a few inches across the table. “Well, then, what’s the damn issue here? You think you’re too pretty to help defend the nation or something? You think your looks should make you exempt? I agree you’re a looker, and you’ve got a nice little body and a nice set of—”

“Let’s all keep our focus, here.”

Peacemaker had spoken, giving Deep Male Voice/Snorty a brief but clear dirty look while he did so. This made me feel somehow grateful, just to know that Deep Male Voice/Snorty was irritating someone else, which made my eyes suddenly misty for some strange reason.

Absolutely refusing to allow myself to cry, I quickly blinked the moisture back before speaking.

“Look. You all want to know the truth? Well, here it is. I’m too cowardly to help defend the nation. I’m the most cowardly person you’ll ever meet. I’ve heard stories about how brave all the animal shifters are, and how brave all the Gifteds are, and that’s just not me. I’m not brave. I can’t save anyone. I’m a chicken. More than likely, I’d just be a hindrance to everyone if I tried to help. I’d probably get in the way and let everyone down. People would probably even get hurt because of me, maybe even lose their lives.”

On my right, Peacemaker spoke in a quiet voice that didn’t reflect any surprise at what I’d said, as if he’d almost been expecting it. “You say you can’t save anyone, but you saved that little boy yesterday.”

“Well, that was a fluke. Normally, under pressure, I completely choke. I think I was only able to save that little boy yesterday because it was just a split-second reaction kind of thing. I don’t do well when I have a little longer to make a decision about what to do. I tend to freeze and then run, which makes me not a Gifted, but a complete coward. Not someone they’d probably want in Timberline.”

Platinum Blonde Lady set her mug down with a sigh. “Miss Clark, we know a lot about you. We know that you lost your mother in a car accident when you were only eight. We know you were present when the accident occurred. If that has something to do with—”

“It doesn’t. And I don’t want to talk about that subject. At all.”

With her tight, platinum blonde French twist throwing pale golden sparks in the overhead kitchen light, she shrugged. “Fair enough. But understand that you do have to come with us. With the nation in such peril, we don’t have the luxury of allowing one of you Gifteds to just simply refuse to—”

“Well, what are you going to do if I do refuse? Lock me up in jail until I agree to go to my ‘post'?”

Stunning me, she immediately nodded. “Yes. Because of a special law recently enacted, a Gifted refusing to be escorted to their post is now charged with a federal crime.”

Digesting this bit of news, I didn’t respond, and she continued.

“Please let me explain something to you. All the little posts and towns around the country where shifters and Gifteds work together to defend our nation... all these communities have shifter leaders who were carefully selected by their people because they’ve proven themselves to be good, fair men with the highest level of integrity. I’m sure that James Duncan, the leader of the Timberline Clan, is no exception. I don’t think he’s just going to push you out on the front line to fight the Angels before you’re ready. And if you’re never ready, I really don’t think he’s going to use torture to force you to participate in national defense. He may try to appeal to your sense of morality and duty, for certain, but... no one is going to force you out onto the battlefield, Miss Clark. However, you do have to go to your post. It’s now law that all Gifteds do at least that much. It’s either that or prison, and trust me on this... I think you’d much rather go to Timberline.

“From what I’ve personally seen on a few other Gifted escorting trips I’ve been a part of, and from what I know from our government file on Timberline, it’s a nice little community of about a hundred people. They live in lovely little cabins that they’ve built, and everyone who wants their own, gets their own, though I know that many of these folks now live two to a cabin. With nearly all of the Gifteds and shifters in this community having arrived single, you might be interested to know that some of them have quite happily found partners. Some have even gotten married and are looking forward to having children, children who might become shifters and Gifteds themselves. We might have to wait to find out about the Gifteds, but once the first babies are born, genetic testing will tell us if the male offspring will become shifters, anyway. Personally, I think this is all very exciting.”

Platinum Blonde Lady paused, seeming to be waiting for some kind of a response from me. I gave none, just kept staring at my coffee mug on the table, and after just a moment or two, she continued.

“Anyway, despite all the couples, there are still many single people at Timberline, and if I were a single young woman, I’d be thrilled to go to live there, among all the attractive single shifters. You do know that most shifters tend to be attractive, right?”

I had heard that, but again, I didn’t respond, and again, Platinum Blonde Lady continued.

“We’re not sure exactly why most shifters tend to be attractive... the spell, or the residual magic, or whatever it was that created them primarily affected very physically fit men between the ages of twenty and forty, a demographic that tends to be attractive anyway, so maybe it was just chance. But at any rate, it’s true that in general, shifters tend to be very attractive men. In fact, James Duncan is himself a remarkably attractive man, and last I knew, still single.”

“I’m afraid I just don’t care about any of this.”

Or so I was working fairly hard to convince myself, although I knew I definitely cared about not going to prison.

Platinum Blonde Lady picked up her mug with a little sniff, as if what I’d said had offended her. “Well, all right. If you don’t care about attractive shifters, then you don’t care. But just know that I think you’ll really like Timberline, even all dating opportunities aside. Once you’re there, you’ll be able to do whatever you’d like, within reason, I’d guess. We know you have a passion for art, and you’ll be able to pursue that interest to your heart’s content. You can even own a pet if you’d like. One young woman brought a golden retriever with her to Timberline, I believe it said in the file.”

I’d seen this young woman and her golden retriever before, because she was one of the Timberliners, as most people called them, who came into Ridgewood frequently. Although when I’d seen her, I’d thought of this young woman more as a girl. Very petite and with a bouncy, energetic walk, she looked no older than fourteen. At a good distance, maybe even twelve.

Platinum Blonde Lady had finally seemed to run out of steam, and Peacemaker took the opportunity to jump in.

“Miss Clark, all of what my associate has said is completely correct. Timberline is a lovely place, and you do have to go there, but their leader isn’t going to force you into any combat situations you don’t desire to be in. I wouldn’t tell you this if it weren’t true.”

For some reason, I believed him, even though some part of me didn’t want to.

After pushing up his wire-rimmed glasses a bit, Peacemaker continued. “Also, and maybe we should have mentioned this earlier, but like all Gifteds and shifters, you’ll be given a generous salary as compensation for your defense work. Even if you don’t actually participate in that defense work right away, funds will be deposited into your bank account monthly once you move to Timberline, with the first p*****t scheduled for just a few days from now. Of course, provided that you go to Timberline with us tonight, with no fuss.”

And that included no kicking, screaming, or even “protesting loudly,” I was sure.

Lowering his voice a degree, Peacemaker spoke again. “Miss Clark, why don’t you go grab a bag? We’ll have movers deliver the rest of your possessions tomorrow.”

After a second or two just looking at my coffee mug, thinking, I found myself slowly rising from my chair.

They took me to Timberline in a shiny black sedan. I sat in the back, between Platinum Blonde Lady and Peacemaker. No one spoke.