Shifter Nation- East Coast Bears Collection

by Meg Ripley

  “Okay, hold on.” I put my phone in my pocket for a moment and removed my tank top. When I tied it over my face, I found that I could breathe easier. “Okay, it’s on.”

  “Alright, your voice is muffled, but I can hear you and that’s all that matters. Now, I need you to tell me what happened.”

  “It was Hanson; he called me. He said that he knew about the hack and fed us false information. Because of the hack, they changed the plan to attack a day early. He knew about our efforts, though; he was still watching Acadia through satellite surveillance.”

  And with that, the tears began to fall. Hanson was right. It had been all my fault. Maybe if I hadn’t hacked them, Acadia would have been more prepared. Maybe they would have stuck to the original plan of attack. Maybe Drew’s plan would have still worked.

  “Listen to me, Kathleen. That man is evil. Anyone who would try to eradicate an entire population is completely sick. He probably would have attacked a day early even if you hadn’t hacked him. It was never in their plan to give us a chance. They just wanted us to think that we had one.”

  He was right, but I couldn’t shake the guilt. And now I was being punished. I was going to die first.

  “Kathleen? I need information, so I can know how to put out the fire effectively. How did it start?”

  “There was a man who poured a greenish-yellow liquid on the sand bags and lit the fire with a cigarette.”

  “Oh, shit…” Dread filled Drew’s voice and it began to flood into me. If Drew was worried, that wasn’t a good sign.

  “What? What’s wrong?”

  “How fast is the fire spreading?”

  “Fast; too fast for me to chase it, and it’s too high for me to jump over.”

  “Sounds like they must have combined the gasoline with an additive. They really weren’t trying to give us a chance…” Drew’s voice sounded defeated and it did nothing for my nerves.

  “What? How can you tell there’s an additive?”

  “Certain additives can cause gasoline to burn through the sand bags, to a degree, and can make fire spread much more quickly.”

  I could hear the engine revving through the phone; he was speeding to get to me.

  “Drew, am I going to die?” The tears were back. Even Drew said it was bad and he couldn’t even see it yet—or maybe he could have, and that’s why he was racing there. Flames engulfed at least a third of the trees in the area, and they continued to close in at rapid speed.

  My whole world was on fire, and there was no way out.

  “No, Kathleen, I’m coming for you; you’re not going to die! Don’t give up on me now. I need you to stay on the phone and keep talking unless it hurts. If it starts to hurt to talk, put the phone by your mouth so I can hear you breathe and know you’re okay.”

  “Please hurry…” I was sobbing by that point. I knew he was going to try, but I couldn’t think of any way he’d be able to put that fire out. The hoses could only reach one hundred feet and that was only thirty yards in each direction. They would have to be at the edge of the fire, and even then, I was sure the fire had travelled further than that.

  “I’m at the closest site to you and everyone is ready with their hoses. If anything happens on your end, tell me. Okay, everyone, go!” Drew initiated the order and then I heard screams. “Fuck!”

  “What’s going on? What happened? Drew?!” My heart was beating what felt like a million times per second and it was making it increasingly difficult to breathe.

  “Kathleen, I’m going to need you do your best not to panic. But I can’t put out the fire with the hoses we have, or at such a close distance.”

  “What?!”

  “Water just made the flames erupt in this direction and, because of the additive, some kind of gas was released that just…melted someone’s eyes…We all had to run away from the area.”

  Oh my god…oh my god…oh my god…I really am going to die… The hyperventilating started again and I was wheezing.

  “Kathleen, I need you to slow your breathing. I don’t know if it was only the water that formed this gas, and I want to minimize how much of it gets in your lungs, okay? I need you to calm down. How far are the flames from you?”

  “Maybe two hundred yards? I don’t know. The flames have covered half the area already.” I sobbed. That much ground had been covered in a mere ten minutes.

  “So, we have about—”

  “Ten minutes. Yeah, I know…” I stifled my sobs and tried to calm myself. If those were going to be the last ten minutes I had, I didn’t want to spend it crying on the phone with Drew. “Drew, I need to tell you something.”

  “No, Kathleen. Whatever it is, you can tell me when I get you out. I know what you’re trying to do; you’re not going to die. Knox is sending a helicopter to you. It will make it.” His voice was shaky, and I knew that he was only trying to comfort me. But I couldn’t blame him for lying.

  “I love you, Drew. I’ve felt strongly for you since our first date and this week has made that feeling grow even stronger. I’ve never loved someone other than my parents before they died, but I know that I love you. I just need you to know that, okay?” My voice choked on the last part, but I fought it; I was not going to die crying. I was going to die strong, standing my ground until the last moment. “Drew?”

  Then, the phone line went dead. I slowly looked at the phone and my assumption wasn’t wrong.

  He had hung up.

  I don’t understand…Why would he hang up? Does he not love me back? If not, it’s okay, but I needed him! He said he would be here for me! And I couldn’t fight the tears any longer. My sobs rocked through me until I was shaking all over, tears streaming down my face and soaking the tank top that covered my mouth. I’m going to die alone…

  “Kathleen! Kathleen!”

  Just then, I heard someone calling my name. I opened my eyes, but all I could see were the colors of the fire blurring through my tears.

  “Kathleen! Look up! Grab my hand! Hurry!” I tilted my head up and saw Drew, dangling from a ladder. I somehow hadn’t heard the sound of the helicopter in the sky above me, but it suddenly filled my ears. He was holding his hand out. “Come on, grab me! We have to get out of here before the ladder burns!”

  I wasted no time and jumped to reach for his hand. We were immediately lifted out of the flames, high into the sky and carried beyond the fire. Drew had pulled me up to hold me and I buried my face in his neck, crying again.

  “You came for me,” I sobbed.

  “Right after your little confession, Knox arrived with the helicopter and I immediately got on. I closed my phone without thinking about it, but I knew I would be with you in an instant so I could tell you face to face. I love you, too, Kathleen.” His lips were right by my ear, so there was no mistaking it. Another round of tears erupted from me and I coughed for a long, nasty minute. “You must have gotten a lot of smoke in your lungs. Don’t worry, we’re almost there.”

  “Where are we going?” I asked as he squeezed me tightly against his chest.

  “Everyone had to evacuate the park. All we can do now is douse it with water from the sky, since attacking it from the ground produced those toxic fumes, and we can do it with a 747 Supertanker. A massive amount of water can be held in its pressurized tanks, which will atomize it and allow it to extinguish the forest fire more effectively. I’ll just have to call the base and have one deployed as quickly as possible.” His words comforted me. At first, I thought Acadia would be doomed, but knowing that there was a way to put out the fire made me relax a bit. I hoped everything worked according to plan.

  When we were completely clear from the fire, someone started to pull the ladder up into the helicopter. Drew hoisted me up onto the ladder when we were close to the entry point so I would be let in first, and then climbed in after me. It was Knox who had pulled us up.

  “I thought you were flying it for some reason!” I shouted, taking the tank top from my mouth.

  “Thankfully not. We ha
ve a pilot for that.” He said nodding to the man operating the aircraft; I couldn’t see him, but I made a mental note to thank him when we touched down. I had been too scared to look around when Drew was carrying me on the ladder, but at that point, I decided to peer out the window. My heart sank as I watched the fiery destruction of Acadia fade into the distance as we headed toward Bar Harbor. I didn’t know exactly how, but I vowed to help the clan rebuild its home, no matter how long it took.

  9

  Drew

  On the ride over to Bar Harbor, I radioed the fire department base to explain the situation we were up against, and they immediately approved the use of the 747 Supertanker. They issued an order for it to be filled up and they’d send it over as soon as it was ready.

  “So, what makes this 747 Supertanker equipped for the job of taking out a 3-mile-wide fire?” Knox asked when I ended the call.

  “The 747 Supertanker can carry up to twenty thousand gallons of water. It’s probably the only aircraft in the world that could hold enough water to put out a blaze like that.”

  “Wow. That’s impressive,” Kathleen said, taking a swig from her water. We were waiting in the airport, along with most of the other members of the clan. Those who had been exposed to the fire or smoke had been examined by Sophia, the park medic, and everyone had been fine—except for the one casualty we had suffered.

  Knox had cleared all park employees to have the week off. He had told the clan we’d begin our restoration efforts the following Monday, thinking a week would be long enough for the fumes to clear and for everyone to be able to be safe in the area again. The park was closed until further notice, and a clip from the helicopter camera was sent to news stations around the world. However, it was being broadcasted as a random forest fire, of course; not one deliberately set by an arsonist taking orders from the government, which pissed off a lot of us.

  The hotel by the airport was very gracious in housing everyone who had been evacuated, and JetBlue had offered flights to all of those involved, as long as they could prove they had family living where they wanted to go. If someone did not have proof or they wished to stay in Bar Harbor, the park had emergency housing vouchers for everyone to stay in the hotels. They would have to stay two to four in a room, and couples would get to request to stay together.

  “Do you want to go back to your hotel room?” I asked Kathleen.

  “I doubt I still have one,” she snuffed.

  “Well, what I meant is that I could use the housing voucher on your room, so you could keep it and we could stay there for the week. It’s a single, right?”

  “Yeah, it’s a single.” Kathleen smiled up at me. “Good idea.”

  I called the hotel and arranged everything, but when I got off the phone, Kathleen’s eyes were glued to something. She looked as if she had just seen a ghost.

  “Kathleen? What’s wrong?” I squatted in front of her, but her eyes never drifted from where she was looking. I followed her gaze to a thin man sitting across the airport wearing square-framed glasses, packing a box of Marlboro Reds. “Do you know him?”

  “That’s him, Drew! That’s the guy who started the fire!” she whispered.

  I was immediately filled with rage. That was the piece of shit who almost killed the woman I loved. He agreed to start a forest fire in an attempt to wipe out my entire clan and had destroyed our home. And I was going to kill him.

  “Please, Drew! Don’t rush at him! He’ll see you coming!” Kathleen pleaded.

  “Oh, don’t you worry. I’ve got this.”

  I walked over to Knox and Trent, who had been talking about where they were going to stay for the next week, and told them I had the arsonist in sight. They both nodded and we casually walked in his direction, talking idly as to not startle him.

  When we were only a couple of feet from him, he laughed as he continued to pack his cigarettes. “What took you pussies so long to get here? Run into a little traffic along the way?”

  We pounced, all grabbing him at once. Even though Trent had gotten the asshole’s hands clasped behind him, I could not hold back my rage. I wailed on him, punch after punch, hearing bones crack with every contact of my fist.

  Knox placed a hand on my shoulder and I stopped my fist in midair. “Hey, hey…that’s enough, Drew. I think he got the message.”

  When I looked at the bastard’s face, I realized Knox was right. I had broken his nose for sure, and the skin around his left eye socket had split, gushing blood everywhere. My breathing was ragged as I stepped back and allowed Trent to haul him away.

  “Don’t worry, Trent will take care of it. I already sent a mental note to everyone, telling them he was the arsonist who started the fire, so everyone watching is with you.”

  I finally took notice of the crowd that had formed around me and realized they were my fellow bears, who had blocked the fight from everyone else’s view. People were nodding in approval and clapping as I caught my breath. My knuckles were bloodied, and my hands were tired, but I was filled with elation.

  “I would have done it myself it you hadn’t, big guy,” Knox chuckled, patting my back. The crowd slowly dispersed, and I could see one person still standing with her eyes fixated on me. It was Kathleen, and she was smiling, a tear gliding down her cheek.

  I walked over to her and held her, doing my best to avoid getting any of the prick’s blood on her.

  “Thank you, Drew. For saving me; for everything.”

  And in that moment, I knew she was the one. I would kill anyone who tried to lay a finger on her. She was mine.

  “I love you, Kathleen. I’ll never let someone get that close to hurting you again.”

  “I love you too, Drew.”

  Just then, Kathleen’s phone rang. She looked at it and she seemed afraid to answer the call.

  “It’s Hanson…”

  “My promise includes him, too. You don’t have to feel intimidated by him any longer,” I assured her.

  And I meant it. I would do everything in my power to make sure she wasn’t hurt again. I dared him to try.

  “Wait, when I hacked into the NCPD-CID’s systems to get the intel for you guys, I also hacked their security camera backup files and made a copy of the footage from when I was captured and threatened. I wanted proof in case you guys didn’t believe me. His technician was probably so busy addressing the message board hack that he didn’t realize I was hacking their video backups, too. The message board hack would have been the event that would set off the alarm. And if Hanson knew about it, he would have told me over the phone when he thought I was going to die. He gloated about everything except that, so he probably doesn’t know about it! I emailed it to myself, so I know I have it, and my email has some serious encryption, so I doubt he would be able to hack me.” Kathleen’s lips spread into a smile.

  “Use it against him! Threaten to expose him!” Her phone was ringing again, but this time, she answered it with confidence and put him on speaker.

  Hanson was fuming. “You little bitch. I will end you! No one will even know you ever existed. You can’t cheat death twice.”

  “You must have seen the news, then? Your awesome plan didn’t work. Acadia will be fine; a plane is on its way to put out the fire, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  She smirked and I beamed with pride as I watched her stand her ground.

  “Oh, killing you will make up for that, so don’t get too comfortable with your boyfriend over there because I’m sending someone for you. Right now.”

  Hanson’s tone was menacing and it infuriated me. I wanted so badly to speak up, but I knew Kathleen could handle it.

  “Oh, please do. Because I have all the surveillance footage and audio recordings from our friendly little meeting in your office. Tell your rookie technician he should have been on his guard. While he was busy trying to handle my message board hack, I deleted every pixel of satellite footage that would expose these shifters and waltzed my way into your office camera’s backup files. Se
nd someone to kill me, and I send that footage of you to every news network in the world. In fact, maybe I’ll send it right now for good measure. What do you think? That way, if I do die in the process, it won’t be in vain. Oh, I can just see the headlines now…‘Government Official Eric Hanson Charged With Kidnapping, Blackmail, Misappropriating Federal Funds And The Destruction Of Acadia National Park’…That would give your career a nice boost, wouldn’t it?”

  “Wait, wait! Don’t do that! We can work something out. Come on, Kathy; let’s not do anything rash!” Hanson had gone from angry and devious to a spineless piece of shit in less than a minute.

  Kathleen paused, her eyes narrowing.

  “I told you not to call me Kathy.”

  “Wait, please don’t! I won’t send anyone; I was just kidding—”

  And with that, she ended the call. As soon as she hung up, I grabbed her and kissed her passionately. This woman was amazing, and she was all mine.

  “Does getting payback turn you on?” she teased when we pulled apart.

  “Just a little.”

  “Well, then let’s go to the hotel room and do something about it.” She winked and ran to the exit of the airport and I chased after her, the happiest I had been in a long time.

  10

  Kathleen

  EPILOGUE

  “Come on, Kathleen! We’re going to be late!” I heard Drew’s voice call up to me, but I was already headed down the stairs. When he saw me, wide grin spread across his lips. “You look gorgeous. You’ll have an easy time upstaging the brides in my eyes.”

  I giggled a little and grabbed his hand.

  “You don’t look so bad yourself, handsome.”

  Drew was wearing a black and white tuxedo with a pocket square. We were on our way to Ramon, Trent and Knox’s triple wedding, and as Drew’s girlfriend, I had been invited. I was flattered and tried to get a dress that coordinated with all their colors. Hannah, Knox’s fiancé, stayed with a traditional black and white theme. Blanca, Trent’s fiancé, decided to go with fuchsia accents, while Min, Ramon’s fiancé, chose robin’s egg blue.