Free Love to Bear: A Werebear Shifter Romance by A.T. Mitchell Page B

culprit.
    He denied it, of course, just like any man in the day
would. Too bad for him the woman was the daughter of a powerful
Kalispel shaman.
    It happened late in January. The settlers were awakened
in their frigid temporary cabins, their eyes drawn toward the high
fires rising beyond the Indian encampment, all the way to the highest
mountains.
    A ritual of some kind with green flames and monstrous
silhouettes was underway. Large shapes like grizzly bears stalked
near the fires, pacing and pawing at the ground.
    Robert Stanton was the first to change. The people had
stepped outside, gathering in a small group on the crisp valley snow.
Stanton fell to the ground, his bones and flesh rearranging
themselves, brown fur sprouting from every square inch of his skin.
    The other settlers began to scream when they saw the
bear. But there wasn't much time to be afraid. Before they'd even
taken a single step from the creature, they also began to fall,
shredding their clothes as their bodies twisted and transformed
underneath the winter moon.
    The Grizzly Bone Clan was born, and severed from the
human world forever.
    “ God, I wish your people didn't have to live in
the shadows. My friend Jenn would love this. She's a real history
geek.”
    “ If you say so,” Don said. “Interesting
or not, I don't think history is what Emmerick wants you for.”
    I looked away from the old chronicle, mildly irritated.
But he was right.
    With a heavy sigh, I shoved the old records away, pawing
deep into the stacks for the less dusty, more modern folders
beginning in the late 1980s.
    Half an hour of skimming through the files later, I
wanted to face-palm my forehead. It amazed me that the scouting
missions had kept the clan safe at all.
    The latest entries went back a decade. I stared at them
in mild disbelief:
    10/11/97: Ben's Sporting Shop is selling a sort of
homing device. This “GPS” claims to image roads and track
vehicles. When I had the shopkeeper demo it, all I saw was a static
dot. There's no way this tracking could work outside the cities
anyway. A passing fad.
    06/03/03: Heard a science report on TV about National
Parks threatened by global warming. The one they all Glacier was on
the list. Scientists say the glaciers will be gone by 2030 and the
park will flood. These fools must be bored out of their minds to
believe such nonsense.
    08/12/06: Scared off several trespassers just past
the ether. They were holding up their telephones like they were
cameras. I think they were deluded.
    04/20/09: All the reporters are buzzing about a pig
flu epidemic in Mexico. They say it will sweep across the USA and
make the Spanish flu outbreak a hundred years ago look like practice.
We should consider scouting parties to haul back supplies once
Kalispell is uninhabited.
    I shook my head. Again and again. I could practically
hear the confusion ratting inside me like tiny pebbles.
    “ What?” Don said for the second time. “I
can't tell if you're about to laugh or cry.”
    “ Maybe both! I have to ask...who's responsible for
writing up these little reports?”
    “ Just three of us.” Don pointed at himself.
“Alex and a guy named Barry rotate. It's been that way for
almost twenty years. Emmerick used to go, but he's past his prime for
that.”
    Yes, way past his prime.
    I didn't want to think about the little census I'd seen
in the older records. It recorded an Emmerick Hoskin's birth in 1910.
If it was him, it meant he was over a hundred years old – and
he didn't look or act a day over sixty.
    I cringed. Don seemed
like the smartest man among them here, and certainly the most
powerful. If he was so far off the mark on these missions, then the
clan had a lot of
catching up to do.
    “ There's a lot you're missing with these
technologies. The news reports too.” I shook my head. “But
I guess that's why I'm here – to clear things up.”
    “ That's right. You'll have to go through Emmerick
for that.” He yawned, rolling his biceps up over