Clay (BBW Secret Baby Bear Shifter Romance) (Secret Baby Bears Book 4)

by Becca Fanning

  “Obviously,” she said, rolling her eyes. She looked up to see the barest hint—bearest hint, ha—of a smile.

  “You know, you—” she started before a yawn cut her off.

  “Long day?” Hyde asked wryly.

  “Oh, shut up,” she retorted, suddenly aware of how heavy her eyelids were. She had guessed she would crash quickly after all the excitement of the day, but she wasn’t prepared for the swiftness of the lethargy creeping over her body. “I’m just…” she trailed off, resting more heavily on his shoulder and letting out a muffled curse when her glasses pressed uncomfortably into her cheek. She pulled them off and tossed them to the side before curling instinctively back into the warmth of Hyde’s body.

  “I’m just gonna sleep for a little,” she told him blearily. “Wake me up if something happens.”

  “Of course,” Hyde answered.

  “And listen,” she said, closing her eyes and feeling her body almost melt into the mattress, “I just want you to know.” She grabbed his hand to make sure he was listening. “I’m glad you’re on my frequency.”

  She felt his fingers twitch once before gently threading through hers.

  “Good night, Thalia,” she heard him say softly before she slipped off into sleep.

  Thalia woke up, rested and refreshed (if a bit groggy), eight hours later to Hyde shaking her shoulder.

  “Whazzit?” she asked, blinking up at him.

  “I’m going to my shift,” he told her. Check in with Rick or Annie at some point to talk more about what’s going to happen.”

  She nodded and waved him off, pressing her face into the pillow and falling back asleep almost before he was out the door.

  The second time she woke up was an hour later, her body having had enough of stillness. Dressing and taking care of her morning hygiene routine quickly, she strode out the door before realizing she had no idea where she was going or what she was doing. She wandered aimlessly until she realized she was hungry and made her way to the kitchen where she found Zosha and Delphine watch a holovid over what appeared to be dried fruit.

  They looked up when she entered, Zosha smiling and Delphine nodding in acknowledgement.

  “Hey there,” Zosha said brightly. “Care to join?”

  Thalia smiled back and took a seat. Delphine pushed the plate of fruit over to her and she gratefully took what she thought was an apricot.

  “So, are you going to interview us?” Zosha asked, leaning forward and propping her chin up on her hands.

  “Do you want me to?” Thalia asked around a mouthful of apricot. “Because I totally can.”

  “Great! Do I need to pull my hair back so I look more serious?” Zosha asked.

  “No, I work mostly with audio,” Thalia said, laughing. She opened the recording app on her multi-tool and cleared her throat. “Breakwater series, entry one, subjects Zosha and Delphine. It is nine hundred in standard time and we are in the Breakwater’s kitchen. How did you two end up on the Breakwater?”

  “I stowed away in the cargo hold because I was trying to get away from people chasing me,” Zosha said. “So, a little like you. We had to settle a civil war to get them to leave me alone, but we did it. I ended up falling for Rick and never left.”

  “I was sent to assassinate the crew in retaliation for a business relationship that was disrupted when they settled that civil war. They convinced me to join them,” Delphine said.

  “Hyde mentioned that you were a splice. Who did you work for?” Thalia asked.

  “I would prefer to keep the company I was employed by off your recordings as part of an arrangement we currently have with them,” Delphine answered. “I will tell you later if you are curious.”

  “Sounds good. How do you think being part of the Breakwater crew has changed you?”

  “I am more aware of myself, I think,” Delphine said. “I was raised to believe that love and attachment were weaknesses and that I should feel nothing and only obey. Now I realize I am not a means to an end.”

  “The Breakwater’s a lot more stable than life on Lytos. And I have people. It’s nice to know that you’re not alone even when you’re by yourself,” said Zosha.

  “I see. Delphine, you said you no longer feel that, well, feeling is a weakness. How has that changed?” Thalia asked.

  “It hasn’t. Love is still a weakness, but it has made me understand that I was also weak before. It is merely an allocation of strengths and weaknesses. Before, I had little to lose but I was virtually alone. Now I have much to lose, but I have—as Zosha said—a network. Looking over my past weaknesses and my current ones, I must say I prefer the present,” Delphine answered easily.

  “That’s amazing. But I have to ask—Custer? How does that even work?” Thalia asked.

  Delphine let out a little laugh. “He is not, perhaps, a good man, but he is a good friend and an excellent lover."

  “Nice,” Zosha said with a leer, nudging Delphine in the ribs with her elbow.

  Thalia grinned. “Zosha, what’s being with Rick like? He’s first officer, right?”

  “First mate, technically, because we’re not working within the boundaries of a legal system, but yeah. And he’s… he’s great. He’s calm and kind and so, so funny. And we never fight, which is a new thing for me. Whenever one of us gets mad, he makes us sit down and talk it over, so we disagree sometimes but it never becomes a big thing, you know? Anyways, he’s the kind of guy that makes you think ‘okay, this one I’m keeping.’” Zosha looked like she was far away, a smile on her face and a shine in her eyes.

  “What about Annie and the captain? What’s that like?” Thalia asked. She was curious about the captain, she’d admit.

  “He acknowledges she’s ninety percent of our brain power, same as everyone else,” Zosha said with a shrug. “It helps that he’s disgustingly in love with her. Be glad you didn’t have to sit through his vows. I was about to throw up, and I think Rick was about to stage a mutiny just to get away from it. How’s Hyde?”

  Thalia spluttered. “What?”

  “Hyde. How is he? I don’t mean sexually,” Zosha clarified. “Well, not just sexually, I’m a little curious and I’m willing to admit that, but tradition states that you’re now ours forever and specifically Hyde’s so, how is he?”

  “I… I don’t know how to answer that,” Thalia said. “He’s good, I guess? He’s…not nice, exactly, but… I don’t know. Anyways, that wraps this entry up, end recording.”

  The app closed out with a beep and Thalia stood to leave. “Thanks for talking to me. Do you know where I could find Annie or Rick?”

  Delphine’s eyes were knowing but she just said, “I think Annie’s in the cockpit.”

  “Rick’s asleep, but he should be up in four hours or so if you need him,” Zosha added.

  Thalia thanked them and walked out of the room. She had the sinking suspicion that she liked these people and that staying on board the Breakwater would be one of the best things that could happen to her, but that would be dependent on Hyde’s acceptance, which she didn’t deserve. The fact he was if not nice, then kind to her was already too much.

  Annie was, in fact, in the cockpit, wearing her hair in a bun and piloting the ship in what were probably her pajamas.

  “Hello,” she said without looking up from the navigation panel. “Have you talked to Zosha?”

  “Yeah, just now,” Thalia told her.

  “Did she explain the situation with her friend to you?” Annie asked.

  “No, that did not come up,” Thalia answered. “But I feel like I know her better as a person now.”

  Annie sighed. “That girl. She talked to her friend, and he says Rajan and Antrecore IV both have a significant number of people willing to run the story and politicians who eagerly anticipate it breaking. Write it, send it in, and they’ll take care of the list. I’ll have a list of news outlets wanting to participate sent to you.”

  “That’s…” Thalia blinked. “Wow. I mean, I was planning on re
leasing it as an independent online article on my blog and then alerting outlets to its existence so I didn’t have to grant any one outlet exclusivity, but that… that makes things easier.”

  Annie looked up and smiled. “I want to thank you for doing this. Not the way you went about it, maybe, but Hyde didn’t deserve what happened to him. I’m glad someone’s doing something about it and so is he, even if he doesn’t say so.”

  “That’s… thank you,” Thalia said around the lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat.

  “So, how’s interviewing him going, anyways?” Annie asked, turning back to the dashboard.

  “Well, actually, I’ve decided I’m just going to make something emotional and touching up and then make him pretend he said it,” Thalia admitted, scratching her neck. “After getting to know Hyde better, I’ve come to the realization that nothing he would ever say on record could be used in an article designed to provoke sympathy and outrage on his behalf. So, you know, it’s nice to know I came all this way to basically do it all by myself.”

  Annie laughed. “I mean, it’s not like you gained nothing by coming here, or prove that you’re dedicated—if somewhat foolhardy—when it comes to your work. Have you ever considered using one ship as your base?”

  “I…” Thalia searched for what to say next. That all depends on the man I stalked and then got jumped? I don’t actually know how to consistently work with the people around me? I’d prefer to not get my hopes up, thanks? “I haven’t, no.”

  “Well, think it over. I think you’re good for Hyde. He sometimes gets it into his head that it’s him against us, but I get the feeling he’s not about to start thinking that way about you.” Thalia waited for her to expound on the subject, but after a moment of silence Annie just looked back at her. “When do you want to interview me?”

  “I’m still a little to terrified of you to ask,” Thalia told her truthfully. “Maybe later?”

  “Well, just let me know,” Annie said, sounding amused. Thalia took that as her dismissal and hightailed it back to the main body of the ship.

  Without a clear goal in mind, she once again wound up wandering aimlessly once again only to wind up in a massive space filled with machinery. Dominic looked up from his pad in the corner he’d been sitting in and regarded her calmly.

  “Um, hi,” Thalia said after a beat.

  “Hello,” he said. “Can I help you?”

  “Nope, just looking for somewhere quiet,” she told him.

  “Well, stay as long as you like,” he told her, turning back to his tablet.

  Thalia wondered for a moment if this was one of those times she was supposed to read in between the lines and be polite and walk away, then decided she didn’t care and sat down by a wall, leaning back against the cool metal and feeling the thrum of the engines reverberate through her body.

  She pulled up the article on her multi-tool, scanning over it. She’s had most of it done before meeting Hyde, only needing him to add a bit of pathos to the scathing overview of statistics and details on the rise of anti-shifter activity in the past decade as well as a list of evidence of Tillman’s many, many misdeeds. She located parts that sounded too dry and tweaked the wording, finding places to slip in quotes that sounded vaguely like what Hyde would say if he wasn’t a sarcastic asshole about ninety-five percent of life. She was in the middle of debating whether or not it would be over the top to write about the glimmer of unshed tears in his eye when Dominic unexpectedly began talking.

  “Is that the article? The one about Hyde?” he asked, nodding at her holoscreen.

  “Yes? Well, it’s not just about Hyde, but yes it’s the article that I chased Hyde down to write and have since decided to write without him because I want people to be more sympathetic towards the shifters on Serkot, not less,” Thalia said.

  Dominic tilted is head. “I thought journalists were supposed to be moralistic.”

  Thalia snorted. “You don’t meet a lot of journalists, do you?” She turned so her back was towards him and he could read over her shoulder. “At the moment, it’s mostly just facts and evidence.”

  “I like the part where you describe Hyde as a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in sarcasm wrapped in the body of a Greek god,” Dominic said.

  Thalia laughed. “Thank you. Unfortunately, like everything else in red, I need to replace it with something more professional.”

  Dominic hummed, thoughtful. “You like Hyde, then?”

  “Okay,” Thalia said, setting her multi-tool down, “why is everyone asking me that?”

  “Because he needs someone,” Dominic replied, “and you… he lets you in, I think.”

  “Oh my God. I’m totally the girl at your engagement party in the red dress,” Thalia breathed out, eyes wide. Dominic looked at her curiously and she waved him off. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just going to…” she picked her multi-tool back up and starting working again.

  There was surprisingly little left to do. She had planned it out so that Hyde’s personal story would enhance but not dominate the article, so within half an hour she was finished and edited. She looked down at her multi-tool in disbelief and mild suspicion, like it all was about to disappear.

  “Done?” Dominic asked her.

  “I think I am,” she told him.

  He looked down at his tablet. “Hyde gets off shift in thirty minutes. You should show him.”

  “Thank you,” she told him, standing and stretching. Her legs were stiff and her spine popped uncomfortably, but she felt better than she had in ages. “I’ll see you around.”

  Dominic grunted in lieu of a reply and Thalia almost flew back to Hyde’s room. She tossed the multi-tool on the table and opened the list Annie had, indeed, sent her, sending a message to each one notifying them of the article going live before opening her blog and, before she could think twice, uploaded the article.

  She looked at the holoscreen for a moment, staring in fascination at the date of publication under the title, before shaking herself out of it. Hyde would be back soon and she wanted to shower before he arrived. Grabbing a change of clothes and tossing them on the bed, she slipped into the bathroom and started up the sonics. She stripped quickly and hopped in, sighing in relief as she felt the clean-feeling tingle cover her skin. As she tilted her head back and closed her eyes, she tried to think up what she wanted to say to Hyde. She knew the points she wanted to convey, but felt that begging him to let her stay was a bit much. She decided to say what she wanted as plainly as she could and let things fall where they might.

  She didn’t want to get out of the shower, but she also didn’t want to be the person who used all of someone else’s charge so she reluctantly stepped out and wrapped herself in a towel. Walking out of the bathroom, she stopped short at the sight of Hyde sitting at his desk and looking over the article. Her heart did something dramatic at the sight of him staring so intently at the screen.

  “I was expecting it to be a good article,” he told her quietly, “but I wasn’t expecting this. It’s… amazing. You…” He swallowed.

  Thalia walked carefully over to him, feeling a tingle of shock go through her as she saw the steadily rising viewer count. “Well, that’s my job.”

  “You do it well,” he told her with a wet laugh. “You really did it, you know?”

  “I had a lot of help,” she said, suddenly nervous. “You’ve got a pretty good network here. I’ve been wondering if you’d let me be part of it for a little longer.”