Chapter 14 Weston
WESTON
My head was still spinning from everything that had happened: from thinking Asher didn’t want me to finding out he did, to wandering in the woods to be captured by Kipp, to discovering that the polar bears here were actually people most of the time, to Kipp’s death… It was all so much, so fast.
I spent last night holding on to Asher, trying to focus on the fact that everything was okay—that I was fine, that he was mine, and that, yes, the polar bears were shifters.
So was Asher, and we were mates. I asked question after question, and Asher answered them all, not once getting frustrated when I’d ask the same thing in multiple different ways, just trying to wrap my head around it all.
As shocking as finding out that shifters were real, learning that had so much of what happened here making sense.
They were people, and yes, they lived in a “den,” but it wasn’t a bear den.
It was just what they called their housing, but it was so much more than that.
There was a hierarchy and politics involved.
I wanted to learn everything, but not for publishing in a scientific journal.
I wanted to know so I could better understand my mate.
Poor Asher, all the things he went through because of Kipp. And the fact that he’d grown up with wolves meant there were other shifters out there, something that blew my mind. How many animals had I passed over the years that went home and lived a boring human life most of the time?
All the nice, neat compartments I put everything in were now gone, and I needed to figure out this world all over again.
But one thing was for sure, I needed to protect this town and these bears, and that meant my project couldn’t continue.
The crew was probably already packed and ready to come, and I needed to cancel it or at the very least buy some time to figure out how to cancel it.
It would be best to have an all-hands meeting soon, but that would take time to organize, and we really didn’t have that.
Not with the timing the way it was. If I didn’t catch them pretty much now, they were all going to be leaving their homes to come here, and things were chaotic enough without adding a team of scientists to the mix.
I wrote an email with the subject: Field delay due to environmental complications.
It was a lie, but it would keep them from being too pissy about it.
The body of the email talked about unstable terrain, community resistance, a needed safety reassessment, and a whole bunch of bullshit.
It was plausible bullshit, though, and that was what we needed right now.
I felt bad that the work they had planned on doing for the next month was gone, but I’d try to figure out a way for them to still get paid and see if I could pull some strings at the university for those who signed up to get some field practice in.
Before I could change my mind, I hit send.
It was a very real possibility that this email would be the destruction of my career. But I really didn’t have a choice.
Now that I’d done that, I had to tell Uncle Frank. For him, I did a video call. I wanted to be able to read his body language.
When he answered, all smiles, asking how things were, I went into the conversation I had rehearsed in my head, telling him that we needed to postpone the study, possibly cancel it…
that as things stood, I couldn’t ethically continue.
I’d already been worried he was going to pull the funding, and now I was sealing that fate, because the truth was, postponing wouldn’t be actually postponing and more likely cancelled.
“I don’t know how I could— Hmm, what’s that on you?” He pointed to where my Asher had left what I called a love mark, and I instinctively pulled my shirt up. How did he hear all my word salad about basically blowing all of his money and think my hickey was the first order of business?
“It’s… it’s… ”
He smiled. “I know what it is. I was asking as an ice-breaker. You found your mate.”
Did he think it was a mate mark? No. He couldn’t know about mates, could he? But then again, it seemed that the more I got to know Frank, the less I knew Frank. The man was unusual, to say the least.
“Did you not hear all the other things I just said?”
“Yeah, you want to postpone, and ethics, and blah, blah, blah.”
“I basically told you I might’ve wasted all your money.” Or more accurately, I did.
“Eh, money’s nothing but dirty paper. Or is it dirty plastic now? Whatever. You...”
“I’m really confused about this entire conversation.” I wanted to school my face and be professional, but it was impossible.
“Yeah.” He tapped his nose. “I suppose I’m leaving out chunks. Stevenson’s always telling me I have half my conversations in my head, and he has to fill in the blanks.”
Stevenson did that, too.
“First, congratulations, you found your mate. I’m assuming he’s a local based on where you are, not being what you’d call a tourist destination.”
“My what?” This wasn’t the first time he said mate. To think I thought he was asking about my sex life the first time. “You know—”
“I know about shifters, yes.”
Well, that changed my perspective on this entire conversation. “Are you one?”
Is my bestie?
“No. But my brother had a shifter mate. He disappeared not too far from where you are.”
“Is that why you sent me here? You think I can find the answers to his disappearance?”
“No, forcing answers doesn’t bring loved ones back.
But I thought… I thought maybe having you there, you might open a door or a window for me to be connected to him again?
I didn’t have a full plan, but Stevenson loves you like a brother, and the location was perfect, and your study would mean being near shifters.
Honestly, I knew that I wanted to put my money behind you.
That and my gut said that you were supposed to be there. ”
“Really? Why do you think that is?” Mine had said the same thing, though, so I wasn’t questioning him. I was simply curious.
“You have a polar bear stuffie, right?”
“Yeah.”
“It doesn’t look new.”
“How do you know that?”
“It was in some of the pictures Stevenson has from your college days. Sometimes we get hints about what our future holds, even when we’re young. And call me romantic, but that’s what it felt like to me.”
“I’m going to pretend to understand this conversation, and I probably will after I overthink it all night long, but if I don’t, can I call you, but not as an investor, as a confidant?”
“I’d like that. And for the record, you’re every bit the person Stevenson says you are,” he said, and there was such affection in his voice.
“And to be clear, I might not be able to start up the project again. Or I might be able to start up a new one, I’m still working on that, but some of the money is gone.”
“Still not worried about the dirty paper. Make sure you pay your people and any accommodations you already booked. And maybe one day, after things settle down and you’re situated in your new home, I can tell you my brother’s story.”
“Yeah, I’d like that. And what do you mean about my new home?”
“Well, I assumed you’re going to move there.”
We hadn’t really talked about that. But he had a point. My mate changed into a polar bear. He wouldn’t exactly blend in in the city. “Yeah, I’m going to stay wherever he is.”
“Just make sure wherever that is it’s safe.” It didn’t feel like a threat. It felt more like a regret, maybe something he wished he’d said to his brother.
We chatted for a few more minutes and then hung up.
I grabbed my small garbage can to take outside, the smell of the lunch trash starting to get to me.
I didn’t want to wait for housekeeping, not when I could easily take it out myself.
Getting used to my nose leading the way was going to take some adjusting, but it really had been lately, especially today.
I stepped outside, the cool air slapping against my cheek. Could I really live here in this climate?
“Afternoon!” Someone I’d met at Mike’s Place my first night waved at me as they walked by with their dog.
Yeah, I think I probably could. I think I probably could.
“Afternoon.” I waved back, and as they passed by, my mate’s vehicle came into view.
I couldn’t wait to be back in his arms.