Laurie’s eyes popped and he cut a glance toward Brian, who waved a big hand dismissively. “I’ve known about shifters most of my life. Your secrets are safe with me.” He didn’t explainfurther, and although Laurie was abruptlydyingto ask, he decided he’d better not push.
Instead, he said, “Briana and I just ran into a woman who’d seen us shifting yesterday. She accused us of being freaks, but…” He smiled faintly. “She did it in a whisper, right? And I thought, if she’s so freaked out, why is she whispering about it? So I basically asked and she got really angry and said nobody would believe her and everybody would think she was crazy, so Briana thought that might generally be a good approach to take. Not denying it, but just kind of being like, ‘so why aren’t you telling everybody, then?’ It probably won’t work with everyone, but there aren’t any pictures and a lot of other people who also saw are keeping quiet about it, so just being politely confused might do some good.”
Kathleen’s eyebrows went up a little and after a moment, she nodded. “It won’t stop the Reddit posts or the conspiracy theorists, but—therearen’tany pictures?”
“You know how they don’t turn out well when we’ve been shifting anyway,” Laurie half-asked. Brian obviously hadn’t known, because his expression was curious, but he didn’t say anything as Laurie went on with, “We did some experiments last night at the pub and with a bunch of us shifting regularly like we did right after the landslide just rendered all the pics blurry messes. You can’t pick out the deck chairs, never mind a bear or a wolf.”
Kathleen slumped with relief. “That’s something. I’ll let people know that through the grapevine, too, along with the baffled politeness as a disarming technique. Maybe we can keep this thing under control.”
Laurie nodded, then, as Brian said something about getting financial information together and began to do that, said, “Speaking of the grapevine…are there any updates on Diane? Or anything about…funeral arrangements for the others?”
Kathleen, who wasn’t a young woman to begin with, suddenly looked much older. “All I know about Diane is that her surgery went well and she’s in excellent condition, so she’ll probably recover to the fullest extent possible, but nobody knows what that extent will be yet.”
Laurie nodded. “That’s what I’d heard so far, too, yeah.”
“Her back was broken in two places. The Faire insurance is covering it, so her family’s not going to be bankrupted, thank God.”
Brian muttered, “TheFaire, on the other hand,” and Kathleen sighed.
“It’s why we have comprehensive coverage despite the annual cost of it all, Brian, and you know it. It also includes acts of nature,” Kathleen said to Laurie. “Formerly known as acts of God. Natural disasters, basically. It’ll cover the funeral expenses, too,” she said more quietly. “I think there’s a memorial service being put together for tomorrow afternoon, but everyone is so overwhelmed I don’t know exactly what’s happening. We have to know,” she said to Brian. “We all have to be there.”
“I know,” he said gently, like they’d had the conversation a number of times already. “We’ll find out. But in the meantime, Laurie, I don’t know if you’ve heard we may not be able to use the fairground location going forward.”
“I had, yeah, although there doesn’t look like there’s much mountain left to fall down again.” Laurie took the paperwork Brian handed him and glanced through it very quickly before looking up at the other man, who waved a hand again.
“Should be most of what you need to give people for fundraising efforts. Online donation email addresses, the full organizational name for checks, the code to set up a tap-and-go on your phone, some other stuff.”
“And you’re just handing it over,” Laurie said, amused but also slightly horrified.
Kathleen gave him a toothy grin. “First, you may be young and large, but youth and good looks are no match for old age and treachery, which I have in spades. And more importantly, I know where you live. And your parents’ phone number. You don’t want me calling your parents.”
Laurie laughed. “You know I’m thirty years old, right?”
“So are you telling me you’re fine with me calling your parents to say you were embezzling funds?”
“No! I mean, I wouldn’t anyway, but no!”
“Then we have nothing to fear by giving you the bank information,” Kathleen said cheerfully. Then, more seriously, she added, “Look, thanks, it’ll help to have another person to call on right now. It’s a lot.”
“I’m hoping I’ll be helpful in the longer run, too,” Laurie said, but nodded. “Oh, and—is there a chat group? I can give you my number?”
“Yeah, let me get that.” Brian grabbed his phone and got Laurie’s number, and a minute later, as Laurie headed out, a chat invite popped up. He joined with a thumbs-up, and with an unusual feeling of accomplishment, went to find his fated mate.
Chapter 19
There’d been a subtle tension in the air when Briana had gone back out to the town square’s impromptu Faire/fundraiser. Some of it, she thought, was the lingering result of that woman’s accusations, even if they’d come to nothing for the moment. Some was simply grief and exhaustion overwhelming people, although nearly everyone also seemed to be making an incredible effort to bekindto each other. They all needed that.
The tension had gradually faded until her goat no longer wanted to bite at it, as if it was something that could be chewed into submission. Though to be fair to her goat, given the opportunity, it could chew through alotof things that people wouldn’t generally consider edible, or even chew-able. Briana wouldn’t underestimate its ability to chew through tension, too.
You should let me try,her goat said with a slightly evil air to it.I could chew up the rude humans.
Goats aren’t carnivores,Briana pointed out, and received a very ‘what does that have to do with anything?’ expression in return.
A sudden laugh bubbled in her chest.Maybe we could do that as a fundraiser. Put your money down on whether this goat can eat…well, whatever.
Adefinitelyevil gleam came into the goat’s presence.Yes. Let’s do that.
Briana laughed again, shaking her head.No, we can’t, not really. People do know what mountain goats look like. They wouldn’t think we were a tame goat.
