Chapter Two

 

Hours later, Otto sat at the bar at Bear Hollow Brews, downing a giant mug of beer and wondering how in the world he was going to function the next day.

He’d managed to help Leo back to the spot where the food was hidden, and, thankfully, the food had been only about half eaten by the raccoon and whatever other animals had come along. Otto had pushed the food over to Bear Hollow through the tunnel, and Leo had limped along behind him. Once in Bear Hollow, one of the local “doctors” immediately came to Leo’s aid, while Otto passed out the food. The “doctor” wasn’t professionally trained—no one in Bear Hollow could afford formal education—but the shifters here did the best to learn what they could despite the lack of university classes. In any case, the shifter doctor knew more than Otto did, and Otto was grateful for the doctor’s help. With any luck, Leo would be able to walk around without hobbling tomorrow. The last thing any of the shifters who lived in Gilt Hollow needed was to draw unnecessary attention to themselves.

Otto took a long sip of his beer, and tried to relax. The atmosphere at the Bar tonight was jovial, as it was on most nights when the shifters from Gilt Hollow came to bring over food, and tonight was no exception. Even though the food had been late arriving, and hadn’t been enough to feed everyone fully, the shifters here were still grateful. With no winter food stores, thanks to a bad hunting season last summer and fall, the food from Gilt Hollow was the only thing keeping many of these shifters alive.

Otto turned around in his barstool to watch the makeshift band in the corner as they played a series of lively country tunes. He even managed a smile when he saw Oskar Warden dancing with Zora Severson. Oskar had briefly been forced to come over to Gilt Hollow to work as a competitor in the Shifter Games, but Nobleman Severson had exiled both his daughter Zora and Oskar back to Bear Hollow in a fit of anger after a death match gone wrong.

Otto felt a pang of jealousy as he watched the couple. He was happy for them, yes. But odds were good he would never find love or have the opportunity to move back to Bear Hollow. Being a competitor in the Games was supposed to be “voluntary,” but all of the shifters knew it wasn’t really voluntary. It was forced upon shifters at the Gilt Hollow nobles’ will, and the shifters who competed in the Games weren’t allowed any kind of social lives. They couldn’t come home to Bear Hollow, even for a visit. If it wasn’t for the secret tunnel the resistance had built, Otto wouldn’t be able to be here now, sitting at Bear Hollow Brews and surrounded by old friends. And finding love in Gilt Hollow was out of the question. There were almost no female shifters in Gilt Hollow, and no way in hell was Otto going to date a Gilt Hollow citizen. Oskar had gotten lucky and found the one decent Gilt Hollow girl when he found Zora. The rest of the Gilt Hollow humans were awful, dehumanizing the shifters and torturing them in every way possible.

Otto frowned and turned back to the bar, staring unseeingly at the row of half empty liquor bottles in front of him. Part of him wished that Zora and Oskar still lived in Gilt Hollow. He had just been getting to know Oskar well when the man had been kicked out of Gilt Hollow, and Otto missed his friend. Besides that, Zora had been a great asset to the resistance when she was still a nobleman’s daughter. She’d been able to get them inside information, along with all sorts of food and other supplies. These days, it often felt to Otto like the resistance was hanging on by a thread. Still, a thread was better than nothing. Otto drained his beer and signaled Axel, the bartender, for one more.

If Otto knew what was good for him, he’d stop drinking now and head back across the tunnel to Gilt Hollow. He had a big day of training tomorrow, and he needed to get some sleep. But Otto couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Bear Hollow just yet. The last few weeks had been so disheartening and unsettling, with no real progress made for the resistance. Otto wanted to stay here for just a few more minutes, pretending that he’d never been forced to work in the Games, leaving the town he loved behind. When he sat here at Bear Hollow’s only bar, surrounded by other shifters, he could almost forget the shitshow his life had become.

“So you managed to actually do something tonight, huh?”

The voice cut into Otto’s thoughts, taking him off guard. For a moment, he wasn’t sure that the sharply spoken comment had been directed at him. It didn’t make much sense. But when he looked up, he saw a petite dark-haired panther shifter had just taken the barstool next to his. Her crystal blue eyes were fixed on his face with an intense gaze, and her slender arms were crossed. She wore a dark purple, tightly fitted shirt that showed off every curve of her body. For a moment, Otto was distracted by those perfect curves, and by wondering where she got a shirt like that. It wasn’t the sort of thing you normally saw in Bear Hollow. Most people here wore boring, shapeless shirts that were rather ugly, but were cheap and comfortable.

“I said, you finally managed to do something, huh?” she repeated in an antagonistic tone, cocking her head sideways.

Otto frowned as he forced himself to focus on her words instead of her body. “What are you talking about?”

She shrugged. “I think you know. You got some food across the tunnel. A little bit at least. So your pathetic ‘resistance’ isn’t completely dead. Not yet, anyway.”

Otto glared at her. “I don’t know what you’re playing at here, Miss…sorry I didn’t catch your name?”

“Kate,” she said, in the same antagonistic tone. “Kate Strouse.”

“I don’t know what you’re playing at, Miss Strouse, but—”

“Call me Kate.”

“Whatever, Kate. I don’t know what you’re playing at, but being a shifter in Gilt Hollow isn’t exactly easy. And doing things to resist Gilt Hollow isn’t either. We’re doing our best over there, and most of the shifters here are appreciative of those efforts. They understand that building up a revolution against Gilt Hollow takes time.”

Kate snorted. “Right. Okay. I mean, I appreciate the food, don’t get me wrong. It’s nice to not starve to death. But to be honest, it isn’t dying I’m afraid of. It’s living my whole life under this blasted regime.”

Otto’s anger flared. It had been a long night. Too long. The last thing he needed was some pathetic young panther shifter telling him what to do. It didn’t matter how pretty she was. He wasn’t in the mood to be bossed around and told that his resistance wasn’t doing enough. He was trying. But he wasn’t getting much help, and he had almost no resources to work with. Kate didn’t know what she was talking about. “Well, if you’re so willing to die, then you’re welcome to come on over to Gilt Hollow and set an example of what a ‘non-pathetic’ resistance force looks like.”

She grinned at him. “Maybe I will.”

Otto rolled his eyes. “You’re welcome to it. In the meantime, I would very much like to get back to enjoying my beer.”

In response, she leaned over and put her face inches away from his own. The effect was horribly distracting. She smelled sweet, like a lemon cake, and Otto wondered if there had been any lemon cakes in the shipment of food tonight. No one in Bear Hollow had the flour or sugar necessary for baking. But her sweet smell wasn’t the truly distracting thing. It was her porcelain skin. Creamy white and flawless, with cheeks that glowed rosy in the warmth of the bar, Otto was overcome by a strange urge to reach out and stroke that skin. He resisted the urge, and sat on his hands instead. Of course, this did nothing to stop him from having the urge to kiss her. The only thing more perfect than her soft skin was her soft, full lips pulled up into a slight smile.

“Listen, Otto. I know everyone here in town thinks you’re a hero and blah blah blah. And it’s true that you’ve done a lot. The tunnel you and the others built has kept the shifters in Bear Hollow alive this winter. But more needs to be done. Word on the street is that you’re too cautious, and won’t take any risks. If there’s really going to be a revolution, we’ve gotta take some risks.”

Otto scowled. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s easy to sit over here in Bear Hollow and say no one is taking risks. But if you lived in Gilt Hollow like I do, then you’d see that every little thing we do is a huge risk.”

Kate shrugged. “I get it. Anything that rubs the Gilt Hollow citizens the wrong way is a risk. But that doesn’t mean you should risk less. Our people can’t live like this forever, depending on food from a secret tunnel to stay alive. It’s time for a revolution, and that means we need to act, and act in a big way.”

Otto rolled his eyes. “I’ll take your words into consideration. It’s always nice to have the opinion of an expert.”

Kate didn’t even flinch at his sarcastic tone. She just shrugged again and smiled. “Make fun of me if you want. But I promise you that if I lived over in Gilt Hollow, I’d be taking a whole lot more risks.”

Otto’s only response was to turn his back on her. Luckily, she took the hint and didn’t bother him further. But she had already done a good job of souring his mood. Whatever happiness he had felt by being in the bar was ruined. He didn’t take enough risks? He’d almost been shot tonight, for crying out loud. Leo had been shot. And every time he crossed the secret tunnel to bring food over, he was gambling his life. If anyone from Gilt Hollow caught him, he’d be executed in a very public, very tortuous fashion.

And yet, part of why Kate had irked him so much was that she had echoed sentiments that many members of the resistance had spoken to him. The shifters he led over in Gilt Hollow were always pressing him to do more and take more chances. But no one seemed to understand the great responsibility that weighed on his shoulders. As the leader of this resistance movement, he felt responsible for protecting the lives of everyone involved. If anyone died, he would be at fault. He would have to answer to their families. So yes, of course he moved slowly and took great precautions. Better that then a bunch of shifters ending up dead.

But a bunch of shifters are going to end up dead if the resistance doesn’t hurry up and act. Otto could not fully escape that nagging voice in his head. The Gilt Hollow citizens had grown more and more oppressive over the last few months. They were raiding Bear Hollow frequently, demanding inspections to see whether anyone was hiding food in their home. The emperor had hoped to see the Bear Hollow shifters starving this winter, and was confused as to why that wasn’t happening. So far, the raids hadn’t uncovered anything, because the food Otto brought over from Gilt Hollow wasn’t enough to stockpile. It was only enough to fill everyone’s belly once. Sometimes not even that. It kept the shifters alive, but no one was feasting every day. Still, Otto worried that the Gilt Hollow citizens would start punishing people, even when they didn’t find any “evidence” of a reason to do so. They loved to do things like that, and the angrier they were, the higher the chances of random punishments.

Otto frowned down at his now-empty beer mug, then stood to leave the bar. He needed to get back to Gilt Hollow. The longer he was gone, the more the chances of someone discovering he was gone from his room. And he needed sleep. Training was going to be rough tomorrow.

Zora caught his eye from across the room and waved at him, and he waved back with a sad sigh. She was another example of a risk he hadn’t wanted to take. When Oskar and Leo had insisted that Zora could be trusted even though she was a Gilt Hollow citizen, Otto had balked. He hadn’t believed that any Gilt Hollow citizen would truly want to help the resistance, especially not a Gilt Hollow citizen who belonged to one of the prominent noble houses. But Zora had proven her loyalty, and had proven to be a valuable asset.

Otto felt his shoulders slumping. He had made a mistake, yes. But better to be overcautious than not cautious enough, right? Otto was beginning to wonder. But then, he saw Kate staring at him from a table near the door, and he hardened his face into an expressionless mask. Without looking at anyone else, he stormed out of the bar.

No one here seemed to understand how difficult it was to head up a resistance. He was doing what he had to do to protect the shifters in Gilt Hollow while still fighting for the shifters in Bear Hollow. He didn’t need anyone giving him unsolicited advice on how to handle things, especially not Kate.

No matter how damn gorgeous she was.