The Baby Shift- New Mexico by Becca Fanning

Author:Becca Fanning [Fanning, Becca]
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter 3

“Forgive me for asking such a ridiculous question, but how exactly would my shifting help you?” Graham asked. He glossed over the fact that she knew he was a bear; it went without saying that they could both detect their kind when they smelled it. She smelled like bear and coconuts, and he probably smelled like bear and Fergus. Out of the two of them, Graham figured her scent was probably the preferable one.

“Because I am on a camping trip with my best friend,” the woman said, jerking her thumb toward the tent behind her, “who is fast asleep right now, and we desperately, desperately need to leave. Like, so bad. I nearly shifted in front of her earlier when I smelled you, and I can’t afford for that to actually happen,” she said, her voice laced with anxiety.

“Okay…but how would my shifting help you out of the camping trip? Can’t you just tell her you need to leave? I’d be happy to help you two navigate in the dark, if need be,” Graham said, though he wished it could just be him and this woman in the dark, preferably the dark of his bedroom.

The woman shook her head. “She won’t let me leave for anything other than fatal emergencies. She’s convinced we need to stay here and ‘commune with nature,’ but I can’t do that. Not with her around. I’m too afraid I’ll hurt her. Please, you have to help me!” the woman said, her hands laced in front of her in supplication.

Graham was tempted to comply, so tempted, especially with the way she was looking at him like she was Guinevere to his knight-in-shining-armor Lancelot, but he shook his head. “I’m sorry, but no. I will happily help you out of here some other way, but it goes against my principles to do what you’re asking,” Graham said, trying to convey with his voice how serious he was. “The point of our kind is to learn to get along with humans, not scare the shit out of them. Besides, do you know how terrifying it is to have a bear sniffing around your tent? Trust me, I’ve heard the screams of campers when a raccoon stops by, and that’s just a tiny, tiny mammal. Bears, in case you hadn’t realized, are big,” Graham said, shaking his head when he remembered the screeches that had reverberated through the park after that pest snuck into that Girl Scout troop’s tent. What a nightmare that had been.

The woman’s shoulders slumped down. “I just don’t know what to do. I can’t be here, not if you’re in the same park. I haven’t been around my kind in so long that whenever I get the faintest hint of bear, every molecule in my body wants to shift.”

“What do you mean, you haven’t been around our kind in so long? You don’t have an adopted clan?” Graham asked, surprised. He thought every one of their kind had some sort of ad-hoc community by now.

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