Jeanie had gone bright red as Ryan stripped to his boxers. He was absolutely not shy at all. And with good reason. He was so well built she wondered what he did for a living? Model maybe? But no, he had the look of a man who did hard physical labor, rugged and tough, not all man-scaped and soft.
And then things got really weird.
Just as Jeanie thought she couldn’t take it anymore, Ryan had begun to change shape. It was horrible. Jeanie was spellbound. As a scientist it was fascinating. Unpleasant, but intriguing. He went through forms that should be impossible for a human being, and yet it was all happening right in front of her.
And when it was all over a big black bear stood right there in Honey’s. No one paid them any attention at all as though this sort of thing happened all the time. In a daze Jeanie reached out and touched the glossy black coat.
“Oh. My. Gosh!” she said slowly, running her fingers through the fur. She stood up and walked around the bear which sat down on its backside watching her. She lifted a paw and examined it, checked the teeth in the mouth and peered into the golden eyes. “Ah, there you are. Hello, Ryan the bear.”
He grunted and stood up. Jeanie resumed her seat. The demonstration was over.
The change back into a man took less time. It was almost like the man stepped out of the bear form and Ryan pulled his clothes back on.
“Well that’s one way to tell someone you’re a Were-bear,” Marcus said. “Not the one I would’ve gone for, but what do I know?”
“Did you have to do it here where people eat?” Paul snapped.
“You’re taking it really well,” Valerie said smiling at Jeanie. “I wasn’t as cool.”
Jeanie shrugged. “Well I probably wouldn’t have believed him if he hadn’t changed right in front of me. I mean there’s no way to fake that. So were you born like this or did you get bitten?”
“Born,” Ryan confessed. “But listen I can answer all your questions later. Right now we need you to understand what’s really going on here. I’m sure once you hear this, the picture will change for you.”
“Okay, tell away,” Jeanie said.
The coffees arrived and Jeanie sipped hers as she listened. Marcus told the story. He explained as the chief elder of the Bear Clan it was his duty to lay out the facts. So he did with interruptions from everyone. Jeanie was spellbound. It was amazing. Almost a plot worthy of Hollywood.
“About six months ago a woman moved here to the San Luis Valley. She bought herself a ranch,” Marcus said. “Jess knew nothing about running a ranch and she hired Donna’s brother Wyatt to help her with the cattle. Everything was fine until her ex-husband came looking for her.”
It turned out that the ex was actually Mr. Petersen’s son and he was angry about Jess leaving him. So he set out to make her life hell. He attacked her and she killed him in self-defense.
“The big problem with this,” Paul told her, “Is that Petersen is a werewolf. He has ties to the local pack that lives one valley over in Prichard.”
“It caused a fight,” Kyle said. “Not that it would take much, there’s never been any love lost between us all.”
“So this is like a family feud. Like a Montague and Capulet thing just without the romance?” Jeanie asked.
Ryan nodded. “And we need your help to figure out how to win this. We have to save our homes.”
“Okay, but I don’t understand how Petersen-Snow can buy the land out from under you? If you own it then there’s nothing they can do,” Jeanie said.
Everyone looked a little uncomfortable now.
“You don’t own the land. Do you?”
Heads shook.
“That’s why I thought you could help,” Valerie confessed taking Jeanie’s hands across the table. As she took Jeanie’s bandaged right hand, she winced and Valerie let go. “So sorry, are you okay?”
“It’s nothing. I fell yesterday and hurt it. It’s fine really. So what am I doing here? You need a lawyer.”
Valerie sighed. “I was hoping you could work something out with Calvin. Is he here yet?”
“Oh crapper!” Jeanie exclaimed. “I’m supposed to meet with him in town in, like, an hour.”
“Then we need to come up with a plan real quickly,” Kyle said.
Jeanie looked around the table at the hopeful faces. “Tell me about the land. Who does it belong to and why don’t you buy it?”
“It belongs to the humans,” Marcus said. “To the council which is headed up by Jeff Headley. He hates us.”
“But he loves money,” Paul said. “You got a few million in those little jeans of yours?”
Jeanie shook her head. She wished she did.