"Right?" Laurie cried indignantly. "That's what I said! Anyway, so I haven't really talked to her since."
"Maybe we should switch," Briana offered wryly. "She and I might not know each other, but at least she's never thrown a bucket of fried chicken at me."
"I don't know, I think maybe if I explain the whole fated mate thing she might forgive me a little?"
"Fair. Fair. All right." Briana offered him another brief smile on her way out. "Good night, and good luck, Laurie."
Chapter 13
Briana's housemates kept her up until well after midnight assuring themselves she was okay, and the sun woke her a little after five despite that. She staggered out of bed more from habit than desire, and headed to the climbing gym where she knew she could find Stephen most mornings.
He was halfway up the outdoors wall when she got there, which was a little more ambitious of him than usual. Briana considered following him up, then decided having a conversation about shifters while hanging precariously from a high point was probably a bad idea, and waited for him to come down. He noticed her before he reached the top, paused a minute, and then belayed his way down, releasing the ropes and dusting chalk off his hands before folding his arms across his chest and assuming an expectant expression.
So,Briana thought to her goat,no doubt he saw us, then.
We can headbutt him off a cliff if he's a danger,her goat said in the same placid tone it might suggest taking a nap.
We can't headbutt anybody off a cliff!
Her goat gave off a serious 'agree to disagree' vibe as Briana approached Stephen, who wasn't tall, but had the rangy slimbuild climbers often did and looked tall because of it. He was an acrobat at the Faire, part of a 'traveling circus' of entertainers, and she was pretty sure that the rest of the time he did computer programming or something like that. And he was frowning at her like they had serious beef.
Which was fair enough, but she had no idea how to broach the topic. Shifters didn't usually talk aboutbeingshifters with any true humans except their fated mates. After an uncomfortable hesitation, she started off with, "Hey."
Stephen had the decency to keep his voice low, even though they were outdoors and two of only a handful of people around this early. "So have youalwaysbeen able to turn into a goat?"
It was so abrupt and to the point that Briana actually laughed, part stress and part relief. "Yes. Can we go, like…anywhere else to discuss this?"
Stephen pointed up. At the wall. Which was exactly where Briana had thought they shouldnotbe. "How fast?"
"What? Oh. Um. A…lot faster than I let on."
"Let's see it."
There were worse things he could have suggested. Briana took a deep breath and glanced around. It was early, and in the summer at this hour, a lot of climbers were out on the mountains, taking advantage of free climbing while they could. It was as good a time as any to show off, if she had to. She shrugged her shoulders a couple times to loosen them, then went to the wall, hauled herself up a couple of steps, then, with literal goat-like ease, made a simply impossible jump to another hand-hold eight feet up and to the side, then did it again a few more times, reaching the top of the fifty-foot wall in a few seconds.
Stephen, down below, said, "Shiiiiii—!" and when Briana returned to the floor moments later, said, "Can you teach me to be a goat?" with tremendous hope.
"It would be so cool if I could, but no. It's just who I am."
The other climber positively deflated. "Yeah, I didn't think so. And I guess you can't really tell anybody because it's gotta be dangerous as shit. So I guess you guys are really fucked right now. 'Cause there were a bunch of bears and wolves and shit out there, and awholelot of people saw you."
Briana sighed. "Yeah. You're not wrong. I gotta ask that you, you know. Not tell anybody."
"Bree." Stephen lifted his hands and let them fall. "Aside from the people who also saw it, who would believe me? And I'm not sure most of them will either. It's not very believable."
"I know. That's part of how we stay hidden. Look, can I buy you a coffee or something so we can talk about this?"
Stephen gave her a wry smile. "If you're asking whether I can be bought off for the price of a coffee, the answer is yes. And yeah, sure, let's go for coffee. But…man, mostly I'm just envious as hell. How cool. And no wonder you can out-climb me!"
Briana laughed out loud. "I told Laurie that's exactly what you would say."
"Torben? I saw him and his brother out there too. They're bears, right?" Stephen was, thank goodness, still keeping his voice down. "Are their whole family bears? Does it run in families? Can I meet a nice lady goat and settle down and have baby goats?"
"Yes, it runs in families, and I do have three younger sisters, but two of them are still in high school, so, no. I'm afraid there aren't really that many goat shifters overall." They went for coffee, leaving the gym for a much-superior coffee cart a couple blocks away, which also meant fewer possible ears to overhear as Briana answered what turned out to be a literal list of questions that Stephen had noted down on his phone. She eventually said, "You're taking this very well," gratefully, and the other climber shrugged.
"You shifters saved a lot of lives yesterday, and I guess I could either be cool with it, be a dick about it, or lie to myself about what I saw. I'd rather be cool." He hesitated. "I'm not sure Alan-a-dale is going to be as cool, though."
"Alan-a-dale? The rooster from that one Disney movie?" If the guy was a rooster shifter, Briana didn't know him, but assumed he wouldn't be a danger. "That's not one of the names we have on the list of people to talk to."
