Chapter 16 #3
Simon thought about lying. The last thing he wanted to admit to anyone was that he’d been a bear all those months.
That amount of animal time was unheard of.
Anyone who lasted that long stayed furry.
The fact that he’d come back was both unusual and grounds for a deeper inspection into his psyche.
Humans didn’t live wild without going native…
and crazy. In fact, if Alyssa hadn’t shot him, if it hadn’t been a matter of survival, he probably wouldn’t have ever come back to human.
Which meant that it would have been Carl’s job to hunt him and kill him.
“Simon? Don’t you dare—”
“I was grizzly. The whole time.”
Carl’s curses echoed long and loud through the phone. “You can’t do that, Simon.”
“I certainly can’t now. I’m alpha of the Griz.”
“Yeah, lucky you,” Carl drawled, clearly not sympathetic.
“So if you’re alpha now, you’ve got to deal with the Detroit Flu.
I saw that video on the news. We had people changing like that.
They were kidnapped and injected with some bad shit.
Most died, but a few changed. Like what was on that video. ”
Simon’s head snapped up. “They were kidnapped?”
“Yeah. We’ve got a serum. It’s not a cure, but it slows down the process. Enough for someone to adjust. But you’ve got to stop whoever is injecting people with that shit.”
Alyssa was shaking her head and at Simon’s nod, she spoke up. “It can’t be an injection. There’s too many people getting sick. It’s been happening all over Detroit.”
Which is when Simon put it together. “It’s in the water,” he said. “That’s what I smelled.” He looked at Alyssa. “You said there were two outbreaks. That means two times when someone tainted the water.”
“But you smelled it this morning. You just noticed it this morning,” Alyssa said.
Simon nodded, his gut twisting with horror. “Yeah. Which means we’re about to get a third outbreak of the Detroit Flu.”
There was a long pause as everyone considered that possibility. The ramifications were hideous. And then Carl spoke up, his voice weary.
“Look, I don’t understand this science stuff. I’ll email you everything I’ve got. You’ve got to get it to somebody who can handle it. Do you know any shifter-aware doctors?”
“I just got here, Carl. And Nanook wasn’t exactly the note-taking type.”
Alyssa frowned. “Maybe Detective Kennedy would know?”
“You’ll have to figure it out. With the quarantine, I can’t get there to help.”
“What?” Simon’s voice was sharp, and he could hear Carl’s sigh through the line.
“Jesus, turn on the news. The city was put into quarantine a couple hours ago. Nobody in or out. You got national guard blocking everything.” Then he snorted. “You sure picked a great time to go grizzly in Detroit.”
That was the understatement of the year.
The city was going to go insane in short order, and shifters would be the most vulnerable to the chaos.
Their animal natures were going to react to the tension and without a way to run off the excess emotions, there was going to be some ugly fights. And that’s if they were lucky.
He looked at Alyssa. “Did you know about this?”
She nodded. “I was listening to the news when you got up. I was going to tell you, but we got distracted.” Her cheeks heated at just how they’d gone off course. Fortunately, her words gave a difference explanation. “You were focused on the taint in the water.”
“It has to be it,” he said, though his doubts kept his voice quiet. “Nanook thought it was the wolves.”
“Nanook thought everything was the wolves,” Carl grumbled. “Look, I’ll try to figure stuff out on this end. Can you get the info to the cop?”
Simon nodded. “We’re headed there now.”
“I’ll check back in a couple hours.”
“Yeah—”
“And Simon? Don’t go grizzly again.”
Simon bristled at the tone. He was in control, damn it, and he didn’t need another bear telling him things he already knew. “You’re not my alpha anymore,” he said, his voice low and threatening. “You can’t give me orders—”
“It wasn’t an order, you moron, it was a damned plea.
If you lose it, I’m the one who will have to shoot your ugly ass, quarantine or not.
I got problems enough here and Becca’s pregnant.
I sure as hell am not going to miss the birth of my son just because you can’t remember to keep your hair on the inside. ”
Simon frowned, struggling to process all that information at once.
Not the fact that Carl would be his hunter, but that Carl had gotten his girlfriend pregnant.
Or maybe they were married by now. And though it was the most inconsequential thing in the very long list of things he needed to know right then, somehow it hit him broadside.
Marriages and births were incredibly important in the shifter community.
Especially within his own clan. And Simon had missed all of that.
“You’re having a son? Congratulations.”
“Yeah,” Carl’s voice was gruff with clear pride. “Yeah, we found out a month ago. Tonya’s pregnant, too, and Alan’s so deep into father mode that I hardly get to see him anymore.”
Tonya and Alan? God, what else had he missed?
“Congratulate them for me.” He looked at the clock on the printer and used the time as an excuse. “We’ve got to get to the police station.”
“Right.” Carl’s voice was all back to business, but before he signed off, he had one more suggestion to make, though it came out more as an order. “And Simon? Get yourself a girl.”
“What?”
“You’re on the edge. We both know it. The right woman grounds people like us. She’ll keep your head in the right space.”
Simon’s jaw tightened, but he couldn’t stop himself from looking up at Alyssa. Her gaze was fixed on the phone, very carefully avoiding his. So rather than acknowledge any of the sudden tension that was thickening the air, he chose to deflect. “I don’t need dating advice from you,” he growled.
“It’s not dating advice!” Carl snapped. “It’s a warning. Find a girl or I’ll have to break quarantine to run you down. I don’t want to do that, but I will. You can’t go feral in a place like Detroit.”
No, he couldn’t. It would be too dangerous for everyone.
“Carl—” Simon began, but Alyssa cut him off.
“He’s got me,” she snapped. “And I’ll keep him human.”
Simon looked at her, seeing the determined jut to her chin. If anyone could keep him human, it would be her. And he couldn’t deny the wave of raw pleasure that came from her words. She was his, and that thought flushed him with testosterone-filled pride. But it also wasn’t true.
He was so strong a shifter, it was dangerous for him to have a human relationship.
He could get too violent, too animal, or too damned focused.
Regular humans could get hurt so easily.
He didn’t want to risk Alyssa like that.
Though God only knew if he could give her up.
He already thought of her as his alpha female.
But Carl didn’t need to know that. And he wasn’t ready to explain things to Alyssa yet. He needed her too much right then to push her away. But he had to tell her soon. She had to understand what she was risking.
“Send me that serum information,” Simon said. “And a list of any shifter-friendly lawyers. And judges. And medical anything.” At this point, he’d take a shifter-aware orderly.
“There aren’t any,” Carl growled. “Because all the sane ones don’t live inside the city.”
Sadly, he knew that was true. And with that, he thumbed off the connection. “Okay,” he said as he avoided looking Alyssa in the eyes. “Play me all my messages, starting from the top.”