by Kim Fox
The plane stopped at the beginning of the runway and Chloe watched the camp with her heart racing. She always got nervous flying. She didn’t even want to think about the parachuting part.
The plane took off like a rocket down the runway and Chloe flicked on her GoPro. She watched out the window as a white pickup truck sped up the road and swerved through the camp. The car hit a white, plastic chair and it rolled up over the windshield and flew over the roof.
Chloe was forced back into her seat as the plane raised up off the ground. The truck skidded to a stop on the grass and Ellis jumped out of the car looking up with his arms wide open.
Keene was laughing as he pulled down his pants and stuck his butt in the window, mooning him. He saw Chloe watching and yanked up his pants and sat down with his hands in his lap.
The plane climbed and Chloe gasped at the view. The snow capped mountains and the sheer amount of trees was nothing like anything she saw in the city. The colors were so vibrant. A flock of birds flew in formation under them. She gasped as a hawk flew into the birds and snatched one away. Nature could be so beautiful but so brutal.
Keene turned around and smiled at her. He glanced down at her knuckles that were white from gripping her seat so hard. “Are you okay?” he mouthed.
She nodded and smiled nervously.
“What were you saying before? About when you were a kid?”
She glanced back out the window. “I’ll tell you another time.”
A big, black cloud of smoke was pumping out of the forest in the distance. As they got closer she could see the giant flames eating the trees. She held up her camera and got some shots.
They were heading straight for it. Chloe tried to control her breathing as she glanced down at the ground. A pack of wolves was chasing a deer towards the fire. Five, six, no seven wolves were in pursuit. The deer was running at full speed, desperate to get away. Chloe was praying that it didn’t hit a root or a loose rock that would cause it to stumble or worse, to fall. The wolves would be on her in an instant.
She exhaled in relief as the deer cut across a valley where her speed was an advantage. The frustrated and hungry wolves faded off one by one until the deer was safe.
“Ready?” Keene asked.
The door of the plane flew open and wind, lots of wind, and noise, barreled into the plane. Chloe gripped the seats even harder. The guys, dressed in orange flame retardant suits, began jumping out the plane, laughing and doing flips on their way out.
Chloe watched the flames in horror as the plane circled around the drop zone. She had never seen such a large, destructive fire before. It smelled like a million campfires.
The plane was empty except for Keene, Beckett, her and Amanda up front. Keene held out his hand. “Time to go pretty lady.”
She closed her eyes and stuck out her hand. He pulled her up and wrapped his arms around her in a suffocating hug. Her face was mushed into his massive pecs. Her glasses dug into her temple. He picked her up off her feet and ran to the door.
Chloe screamed as they sailed out the door of the plane, only his powerful arms saving her from a horrible death. The plane shrank above her in the sky until it was the size of a bug. They plummeted to the earth as Keene whispered words of assurance to her.
She opened her eyes as the parachute ballooned above them and they slowed down to a floating pace. Her heart was racing. She wasn’t strapped in. Only Keene’s arms were holding her in place.
His grip was solid. His arms were like granite. She wasn’t going anywhere.
She could feel the heat from the flames from here, or was that heat from Keene? The scenery was spectacular without the plastic window filtering out the bright colors. She checked her hip for her note bag. It was strapped over her shoulder.
She scanned the forest and saw the wolves again, sitting behind rocks, waiting for any more deer fleeing out of the fire.
Quint, Sander and Finch had landed in an opening down below. They had detached their parachutes and were rolling them up.
“Watch this,” Keene said, as they got closer to the ground.
He jerked his body to the right and they were sinking fast towards Quint. Keene held his knees up and yelled, “Head’s up!” right before crashing into Quint and kicking him in the back with both feet.
Quint went flying forward and landed face first in the grass. Sander and Finch burst out laughing.
Quint stood up with dirt streaked down his face and pieces of grass stuck to his eyebrow. He looked at Chloe with the camera strapped to her bag. “Is that thing on?”
“Oh yeah!” Keene laughed.
Quint spit out a piece of grass. “Damn.”
“That’s going on the cover,” Keene said, laughing.
Beckett landed and started to give instructions right away. Chloe could hardly focus on what he was saying. Her adrenaline was jacked from the jump. She definitely had to do that again.
The Crew broke up and ran towards the fire. Keene came over to her. “You can stay and watch from here.” He zipped up his orange suit. “I’m going to keep an eye on you but just yell if you need anything okay? It shouldn’t take too long. It’s a small fire.”
This is a small fire? Chloe didn’t want to be around when a big one hit.
Keene disappeared into the trees and Chloe pulled out her camera. She couldn’t see anything. Just smoke coming out of the top.
She could hear trees and branches snapping and falling. The boys laughing. I need better footage.
There was a hill behind her with a clearing on the top. She could get a better view from up there.
She wrapped her note bag over her shoulder and began the hike up the hill. She was nearly out of breath when she reached the top. I need to get my ass to the gym more.
But it was worth it. She could see much better up here. She could see the guys in the distance with axes, chopping down the trees. Finch slammed his ax into a thick tree with a thunk that Chloe could hear from her position. He hit it once more and the tree toppled over. They were chopping the healthy trees on the outskirts of the fire, making a perimeter and trapping the fire to let it burn out within the circle.
She smiled when she spotted Keene. He had his suit zipped down to his waist, his large muscles were jacked and coated with sweat. The ax looked like a kid’s toy in his huge hands. He cocked it back and whacked it into the tree. The tall tree fell over with one hit. He was so strong.
Chloe raised the camera and zoomed in on him. She started clicking away as he strutted around shirtless. For the article. Not for me.
She lowered the camera when she ran out of film and opened her bag for a refill. A low, growl sent shivers up her spine. She froze.
She felt a presence watching her. She slowly reached into her bag and slid her fingers around her gun. She flicked the safety off and slowly looked up. A gray wolf with a long scar on his cheek was hunched over, watching her with his lips curled up and snarling. His fangs were long and yellow. Drool hung down from his mouth.
Chloe rose as calmly as she could, gripping the gun in her hand. Whatever you do don’t run. She backed away as slow as she could manage, never taking her eyes off of the wolf.
A movement in the bushes to her right caught her eye and she jumped. A second wolf with a hint of red on his head was watching her.
Shit.
She moved down the hill, walking faster, squeezing the handle of the gun, wishing that she had practiced with it more.
A wolf cut across her path in front of her like a shadow. He disappeared into the bushes. She didn’t think she’d be as lucky as that deer. She definitely couldn’t run that fast.
She turned left, in the opposite direction of the wolf and sped up. The slope was downward and before she knew it she was running full sprint. She could hear footsteps chasing her. She fired the gun in the air, hoping to scare them away.
The shot was deafening. She kept running. Tree branches slashed into her face and she almost tripped on a rock but recovered.
> Where is the meeting point?
The ringing in her ears subsided and the sound of multiple footsteps chasing her from behind came back to her ears. Her adrenaline spiked and she ran full out.
A wolf ran up beside her snapping and snarling. She pointed the gun to the side and shot it wildly. The wolf disappeared. She wasn’t sure if she hit him or not.
She looked back and her toe slammed into a root. Her legs gave out under her and she sailed through the air and landed hard on the ground. Her hands were empty. The gun had flown away. She looked around frantically as her elbows and knees burned, but the gun was gone.
She adjusted her glasses and flipped over on her butt as the wolves came down the hill from everywhere. They slowed to a stop, not one of them taking their eyes off her. The large alpha with the scar on his cheek walked down the middle of the pack and snarled.
Chloe looked around in a panic and grabbed a stick. It was way too dry and thin and wasn’t much of a defense but it was better than her bare hands.
She held it up as the wolf stalked forward. Chloe raised her arms up to cover her face when a thunderous roar surged through the forest. All of the wolves heads turned towards the sound.
A white blur burst through the shaking trees and plowed through the pack of wolves like a bowling ball. They scattered and fled in a panic as an enormous polar bear bit into the alpha’s back. He whimpered and howled as the bear shook his giant head and tossed him into the bush. The wolf stumbled to his feet and limped away as the polar bear guarded Chloe.
Chloe held up her stick with clammy hands to this new, more ferocious predator. The polar bear turned and stared her down. Things were moving too fast to process. She threw the stick at the bear and it bounced off his nose like a feather.
She closed her eyes and grimaced, waiting for the teeth to sink in but they never came. She opened her eyes and the polar bear was curled in on itself and shrinking. Turning pink. She took the GoPro off of her bag strap and made sure that it was still running. It was.
The bear phased into a naked man in front of her. And she had the whole thing on camera. She had a werebear phasing on camera!
The monster was crumpled in a ball on the ground. She pointed the camera at him and watched with her breath caught in her throat.
She gasped when the monster sat up and turned towards her. It was Keene.
Her hands started shaking.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She just stared at him with her mouth dropped open. Her mind was fuzzy. She couldn’t think properly. What is going on?
He ran up to her and put his hand on her cheek. “It’s okay. You’re safe,” he whispered in a reassuring voice. “They’re not going to come back.”
“You’re a werebear,” she blurted out.
“Guilty.”
“How can that be?” she asked, her mind clearing a bit. “You’re so nice.”
“Not really,” he said with a laugh. “Didn’t you see me kick Quint in the back?”
Keene took her note bag and covered his nakedness with it. The trees shook as Beckett ran up to them. She slipped the GoPro into her pocket without Beckett seeing. She couldn’t lose that footage.
“Are they gone?” he asked. He sniffed the air like an animal.
“Is he a werebear too?” she asked.
Beckett looked at her and sighed.
“Sorry boss,” Keene said. “They would’ve had her for brunch.”
This was unbelievable. They were a crew of werebears. And she had Keene phasing on tape. This would be the story of the century.
five
Keene held his breath. Beckett had his serious face on. This wasn’t going to end well for Chloe. Or for him for that matter.
“Give me the camera,” Beckett ordered.
Chloe held it to her chest for a second and then handed it over when she saw Beckett’s expression. She had hid the video camera in her pocket. Keene had seen that. But Beckett hadn’t.
Keene stepped forward as Beckett cycled through her pictures, bringing them up on the tiny screen. “She’s not going to do anything with them boss,” he said.
Beckett turned away, continuing to flip through her photos. “I don’t want to see your naked ass on the magazine rack when I buy a carton of milk.”
Keene watched over his shoulder, holding his breath. There were only pictures of the guys cutting down trees.
“See?” Keene said. “There’s no bears.”
Beckett was tense, pushing the button with more force than necessary.
“Oooohh that’s a good one of you!” Keene said, pointing at the tiny screen.
Beckett turned around with a look that would turn Medusa to stone.
Chloe was sitting on the ground examining the scrape on her elbow that was bleeding down her arm. “Those are my pictures,” she complained. “That’s my personal property.”
Beckett tossed her the camera. There was nothing incriminating in there. Chloe shifted her leg, hiding her bulky pocket. But in there…
Beckett grabbed Keene’s arm and pulled him away. Keene flipped the note bag to cover his ass as he turned away from Chloe.
“Take care of this,” Beckett said through clenched teeth.
“It’s all good boss,” he said. “She didn’t take any pictures.”
“She saw you phase.” Beckett shook his head and turned away. “I knew this was a bad idea. What was I thinking?”
“She’s not going to say anything,” Keene promised. She’s totally going to say something.
“She better not,” he said, exhaling hard. “I don’t have to explain to you what the SEA would do to us if that got out, do I?”
The Shifter Enforcement Agency had clear, strict rules. And at the top of their list: ‘Keep our secret safe.’
“Explain to her why she can’t expose us,” Beckett said.
Keene glanced down at his naked body. “I think it’s too late for that.”
Beckett grabbed him by the neck, his strong fingers cutting off his airflow. “I’m serious Keene,” he snapped.
Beckett let go and slumped his shoulders. “I can’t have the whole crew go down for this. If you can’t keep this under wraps then I’ll have to report her.”
Keene gulped. He knew what the SEA agents would do to her.
Beckett looked up at him. “And I’ll have to report you.” He turned away and walked back to the fire.
For the first time in his life Keene was speechless. Beckett had never laid hands on him before and he had never threatened to turn him in, no matter how irresponsible Keene had acted. But he had a point. Keene had put him in this position. Beckett couldn’t have his whole crew in danger over this.
It was okay because Chloe would never release the footage.
He turned around and she was replaying the video on her video camera with a huge smile on her face.
Oh shit.
The plane slowed to a stop and Chloe unbuckled her seat belt. She clutched her note bag to her chest. The mood had definitely changed from one of fun and happiness to one of stress and nervousness. Everyone kept stealing quick, worried glances at her. She had to get to her computer and download the footage to an outside location as quickly as she could.
She couldn’t wait to tell her boss what she had. Real footage of a shifter phasing in HD. She would be able to expose shifters as real. Everyone would finally recognize them as the killers that they were.
Quint opened the door and the guys spilled out of the plane. She stepped out behind Sander gripping her bag to her chest.
Ellis was standing on the grass with his arms crossed. “You could have waited for me,” he said, looking pissed off.
“We needed your seat empty,” Keene said, bumping into him with his shoulder as he walked by. “I like to put my feet up during the flight.”
Ellis shoved Keene’s back. He didn’t move. He was so strong. Chloe shook the image of his naked body from her mind.
There was a polar bear in him. He had save
d her from being eaten at just the right time. He had saved her and then changed from a ferocious alpha predator into a gorgeous, muscular human body. It was sexy as hell.
But he was a shifter. And shifters killed. She thought of her Dad, lying in a pool of his own blood, his eyes rolling back in his head as he died and she thought of the vow that she made to him.
She gripped her bag with a new sense of resolve and picked up her pace towards the cabin. She had to get the footage downloaded before Beckett discovered what she had recorded.
Keene caught up with her as she hurried across the field. “Chloe,” he called out. She stopped and turned. He jogged over wearing an orange flame retardant suit that hugged his muscles. There were patches of varying shades of orange all over the suit with lines of stitches in the most unusual places. He must’ve sewn three different suits together to make that enormous, Frankenstein suit.
He stopped in front of her. “I know what you filmed,” he said. “I’m not going to take your camera or threaten you.” His eyes were soft, his expression trusting. “I just want to let you know that if you release that footage a lot of innocent people will get hurt.”
She snorted. “Innocent?”
He snapped his head back and looked at her with a furrowed brow. “Not all shifters are barbaric killers,” he said. “Like all humans aren’t serial killers. I don’t know what happened to you, but shifters are good people.” He waved around at the guys folding up their suits laughing. Everyone was laughing except Ellis. He was sulking by himself.
“Do you really think any of these guys would harm anyone?” She wasn’t sure. She didn’t think so but how could she know for certain?
“Do you think I would?”
That she was more sure of. Keene seemed as harmful as a baby deer.
She had believed that all shifters were monsters for so long. Could she have been wrong?
“Keene,” she said, “this is my job. I hav-”
He put his hand up cutting her off.
“I just have one more thing to say.” He swallowed hard. “There is a type of police force for shifters. They are committed to keeping our way of life out of the public’s eye.” He paused and then continued. “If they see pictures of me phasing in a magazine or on the nightly news than I’m as good as roadkill.”