She could see her room just down the hall. It was early, too early, she didn’t want to be awake yet, but she had to get back to her own room before her father woke up. She shouldn’t have stayed the night, going back in the wee hours would have been safer, but Remy’s arms were too comfortable to walk away from. She got her key card out of her pocket and dropped the second one Remy had given her so she didn’t have to knock to get into his room anymore. “Shit,” she whispered and crouched to pick it up.

When she stood, her father was waiting in the doorway of his room. “You’re up early.”

“I’d forgotten something downstairs. I just wanted to grab it before getting going today. It’s going to be a busy one. I’ll see you downstairs for breakfast. I need a shower.”

She smiled at him but his serious expression didn’t change. He didn’t return to his room and he didn’t head for the elevator.

“Okay. I’ll be quick,” she said, and placed the key card on the lock. “See you soon.”

She slipped inside and stood leaning against the door, her heart hammering. She took a few deep breaths, listening intently. After several heart-pounding minutes, she heard her father’s door close and footsteps in the hallway.

She relaxed. “Safe,” she said. “For now.” But it was becoming more and more obvious that this wasn’t a secret she’d be able to keep.

---

“Haven’t seen you in a bit,” Daniel said as Remy joined him and Marnie in the restaurant Tuesday morning.

“Been busy. Had some emails from home.”

“Nothing wrong, I hope.”

“No, just work stuff. They don’t understand what ‘unavailable until next week’ means.”

The waiter came by and Remy quickly ordered steak and eggs and coffee.

“So glad I’m retired,” Daniel said.

“I can’t believe I’ve got ten years to go,” Marnie said. “I feel a lot older than fifty-five some days.”

“It’s hard being a Chief,” Daniel said, nodding. “There’s a weight that goes along with the position. And you inherited a troubled clan.”

“She didn’t inherit it,” Remy said. “She won it.”

“True, meant no offence. But the fact remains, it’s a lot of work pieceing a clan back together.”

Remy smiled at the waiter as he poured coffee and so happened to be looking up when Tara walked in. She’d showered and changed and wasn’t looking in his direction at all. He turned his attention to his coffee.

“She’s here,” Marnie said.

“I saw her.”

“Are you going to wave?”

“No.”

“Remy, so help me if you don’t talk to the girl I will …”

Remy put his coffee down so fast it spilled a little. “Marnie, hush.”

“No, I will not …”

“Marnie, please.”

Daniel put a hand on Marnie’s arm and Marnie lowered her voice. “Fine, but I’m not dropping it.”

“Yes, you are,” Remy said. He lowered his voice a little more. “I already talked to her. Everything’s fine. Everything except her father. And if you make a scene it’ll be that much harder to keep him in the dark. Okay?”

“So this avoidance thing is a ruse now?”

“Yes.”

“Were you really busy with work stuff yesterday?”

“No.”

Marnie grinned. “I told you so.”

---

Charles was sitting in the restaurant reading the paper and sipping his coffee. Being a local paper there was very little there of interest to him but it beat staring at the wallpaper while he waited for his daughter.

A raised voice from the other end of the restaurant caught his attention and he looked up to see one of the female Chiefs and Remy in some heated discussion.

He was able to make out some of the words, since she was pretty upset and not watching her volume. “...if you don’t talk to that girl ...”

“Morning Dad,” Tara said. “What’s going on?”

“Seems to be a disagreement over …” he turned to point but Remy and Marnie were talking in hushed voices and Marnie was grinning from ear to ear. “No, nothing, never mind.”

Tara sat and opened her menu.

“How did you sleep?”

“Just fine, thanks.”

“That’s good. You’re not mad at me, are you?”

“For what?”

“Warning you about Remy, about his history with our family.”

“That? Why would I be mad about that? I haven’t spoken to him since Thursday.”

He studied his daughter carefully but her complete attention was on the breakfast menu. He glanced back at Remy, his mind carefully going over his daughter’s odd behavior, putting pieces together to form a picture he didn’t like, at all.

“Do I have time for eggs, you think?”

“Yes. I don’t think I’ll need your help this morning so why don’t you take a few hours to yourself today. I know this is probably very boring for you.”

“Oh. Uh, okay. I do have some emails to catch up on.”

“Wonderful. Then you certainly have time for eggs.”

---

Remy’s morning session was on politics. He didn’t want to be there but with his second being both a nationally recognizable business man and the mayor of New Orleans, he had little choice. He walked in to find Charles already there and deep in conversation with the moderator. He shrugged and found a seat and pulled out his phone.

There was a message there from Tara. “Dad gave me the morning off. See you tonight.”

Remy glanced up at Charles then replied, “What session does he have?”

“Some meeting with the Council,” came the reply.

“Because he’s here in my politics session.” Remy couldn’t wait for the reply as Charles seated himself in the chair next to him. Instead he put the phone away and opened his folder.

“You must have a lot to share in this session,” Charles said, smiling widely.

“Most of it second hand I’m afraid. Politics is not my game.”

“And yet, you’re a Chief. There is some politics involved in that.”

“Yes, but you won’t see me trying for a seat on the Council. Let others do that. I just want to look after my people.” The older man’s grin was unsettling.

“An admirable quality. I am looking forward to what you have to say.”

---

After the morning session, Remy went to the front of the room and introduced himself to the Council member who’d been leading the session, a man named Reymond. The room was quickly emptying as people headed out for lunch. “I was hoping I could ask you a question about the clan oaths,” Remy said.

“Of course. Though I should think after Gabrielle leaving and that other girl coming in that you’d be an old hand at this sort of thing.”

“You’d think. And honestly this is more hypothetical, something I’ve been wondering because of a conversation I had with one of the other Chiefs.”

Raymond leaned against the table and crossed his arms. “Okay, now I’m curious. Go ahead.”

“Are there other ways, besides the standard transfer of oaths, to break free of your oath to a Chief? I mean, when Jane came to us she didn’t actually have her Chief’s permission. We didn’t know that at the time and didn’t suspect anything because the oath exchange worked.”

“Then I guess that’s an answer in and of itself, Remy. Yes, I’ve seen other cases where a person who has been abused, or traumatized, in some way, breaks free. Your Jane, she’s safe now?”

“Yes. I’m sure you heard all about that business with Laurent?”

“That was her old clan? Well, no wonder she left. Sad business, that.” He shook his head. “But doesn’t that answer your own question?”

“In a way, but would other strong emotions work? Besides fear?”

“I suppose if a bear got angry enough he could break from his Chief’s control but I’m sure in the process of such a violent break he’d go rogue and would be a severe threat. Or would challenge the Chief.”

“What about love?”

“What about it?”

“Have you ever seen someone fall in love, against their Chief’s wishes or orders, and be able to defy their Chief?”

“I haven’t seen it, personally, haven’t even heard of it, but given that fear works and anger is possible, I suppose it’s not outside the realm of possible either. Why this sudden interest in breaking oaths?”

“Because our safety depends on our control over our clans. We need to know if and how someone could free themselves from our control and protection, don’t we?”

“I’ll mention that to the Council. You raise a valid point. Fortunately, arranged marriages are falling out of favor. But anger, that poses a threat we hadn’t considered. Thank you.”

“Of course.” Remy turned and saw the door easing shut. Was someone listening? There was no way to know. He shrugged and headed off for lunch. He’d have to hurry if he wanted to eat and still make it to his afternoon session.

---

“Why are we doing this?” Tara said as she stacked papers.

“So all the Chiefs can take home contact information and such,” Mabel said.

“We live in a digital age. Why didn’t we create a mailing list or something and send it all digitally.”

“It’s nice to take something home at the end of an event like this.”

“They’re not children,” Tara muttered.

Mabel ignored her so she sighed and kept on sorting papers. The volunteer work was boring but at least she didn’t have her father watching her like a hawk and she didn’t have to sit in on a bunch of boring old men discussing their business investments.

I’m glad Remy cares more about me and about his clan than he does about money and business, she thought. She glanced around. Mabel had moved down the table leaving her alone, so she pulled out her phone and texted Remy. He was in a session but she missed him. It was a short message, just a quick ‘see you soon’ and some x’s and o’s, and then she tucked her phone away again with another glance about to make sure no one had seen her.

She was just finishing up and tucking the backs into the box labelled “take home” when someone touched her elbow. She turned, a big smile on her face, expecting either her father, or Remy. Instead she came face-to-face with Dimitri and he was standing much too close.

“Hey Tara, what are you doing this evening?”

“Excuse me, I’m busy.” She tried to push past him but found herself trapped between the table and his body.

“You didn’t have to call hotel security you know.”

“Yes, I did. You don’t seem to understand what ‘no’ means.”

“I do. But you don’t mean ‘no’.”

“You know what? Fuck you.” She braced her hands on his shoulders and drove her knee up between his legs.

He dropped.

“Next time I call the cops.” She hurried past him as he was staggering to his feet. She grabed her purse and fled to the lobby.

---

Remy and Daniel settled in along one side of the square of tables with their notes from home. Both had been hit by severe tropical storms and hurricanes in the last few years so it only made sense for them to attend a session on natural disasters. There were other Chiefs from the regional areas and some from the mountains where the forest fires had been a problem and a few from the flood plains, including two from Manitoba.

They were just about to start when the door opened and one last attendee stepped in. “You don’t mind if I join you?” Charles asked.

“Of course not,” the moderator replied. “Grab an extra chair from the corner.”

Remy’s heart started pounding. Winters could be hard in Boston, he knew, but did it really warrant Charles being in this session? And why had Charles changed his morning session too? Does he suspect something? Was he listening at the door earlier? Did he catch Tara this morning?

There was no time to worry about it now. Charles or no Charles, this was an important session.

---

Remy had dinner with Daniel and Marnie while Tara had dinner with her father. He picked at his food and tried to pay attention to the conversation. Staring at his food was best. If he looked up, he always looked across the room to where Tara was sitting, and more than once Charles had been looking in his direction when that happened. For the most part Daniel was filling Marnie in on their afternoon session.

Charles had actually raised some good points about the severe snow levels and the danger of being trapped at home over a full moon. They’d discussed early evacuation procedures and securing a safe zone for each clan as well as emotional stressers and how to avoid unwanted shifting during emergency situations.

“What are you doing this evening?” Daniel asked. “They’ve got me in a session about mental health and werebears. Apparently I’m not the only one who has raised concerns about dementia.”

“Hmm,” Remy said. “I’m sitting through one of the urban sessions – you know, safe shifting practices, what we can do to improve security and discretion, that sort of thing.”

“I do one of those tomorrow,” Daniel said.

“I don’t have a session tonight,” Marnie said. “But all the female Chiefs are getting together for our own, unofficial meeting.”

Remy rolled his eyes. “They’re planning on taking over,” he said.

“Be better than all these old, rich, arrogant men being in control,” Marnie replied, only half joking.

“You’re scarier,” he replied.

“You’d stay out of trouble.”

“If I had to deal with you after, yes, yes I would. You’re worse than my mother.”

“Take that as a compliment,” Daniel said.

“Believe me, I do.”

Across the room, conversation at Tara and Charles’ table was thinner and much more one-sided but at least she was having more success keeping her gaze away from Remy.

“You seem quiet this evening,” Charles said, leaving off his stream of chatter to stare at his daughter.

“Oh, just tired I guess. It’s been a long week and I was busy with the volunteers all afternoon.”

“So this has nothing to do with Dimitri?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Why do you ask?”

“He came to the Council while I was chatting with them, complaining that a young woman had assaulted him.”

“Shit.”

“Ah. So you do know something about it.”

“He cornered me. He was angry that I’d called hotel security to make him leave me alone the other day. I defended myself. And I’ll explain all that to the Council.”

“There’s no need. A young man who works for the hotel happened to be nearby and explained how he rescued a young woman from Dimitri the other day. He admitted that he might be overreacting, apologized for wasting the Council’s time, and left.”

“But you’re still mad at me.”

“I am simply having difficulties understanding.”

“I see. How did the session on business security go?”

“I didn’t go.”

“Oh?”

“With the recent difficult winters we’ve had in Boston, I decided to go to the session on natural disasters and such. It was very informative. We discussed what to do with the clan in case of emergency evacuations, or if we were in any sort of weather-caused lock-down situation.”

“So snowed in or burned out?”

“Right.”

“Seems like good things to know, but you were looking forward to networking at the business meeting.”

“Don’t worry. There was someone at the afternoon session I very much wanted to spend time with.”

“Well, you should have told me about your change of plans. I only volunteered this afternoon because I had no interest in your business connections. I would have come with you.”

“Oh no, honey.” He put his hand over hers and smiled. “I didn’t want to bother you with a sudden change of plans. I managed just fine.”

“Okay,” she said, a little wary by his sudden good nature. “I’m glad to hear that.”

---

He’d been waiting all evening and yet the knock at the door still startled him. He swung his feet over the side of the bed as Tara let herself in with his spare key card. “Did I wake you?”

“No. I was starting to think you weren’t coming though.”

“He suspects something, I know it. He wouldn’t leave my side all evening.”

“He’s been following on my heels, too.”

“Damn. Then he suspects us.”

“Tara.” He opened his arms and she stepped into them. “It’ll be all right.” He kissed her forehead.

“I like it when you do that.”

“Come snuggle in with me. I think we’re both getting pretty stressed out.”

She nodded.

When they were both tucked in and snuggled in close, he said, “The conference is almost over.”

“I know.”

“I have to go home on Thursday. I’m a Chief. My clan hasn’t had any problems yet, but …”

“I know. I knew what I was getting into the first time I kissed you. Your clan needs you.”

“Tara, I need you.”

She kissed his cheek. “That’s sweet.”

“I know we talked a bit about the money already …”

“It would be a big change for me to leave my father. He pays for everything. And if I cross him in the process of leaving, he may write me out of his will. I may be the only child who shifted but I have siblings. The Brown name will live on without me and the fortune will stay in the family whether I get a piece of it or not. And my father is a master at twisting things to his advantage. By the time he’s done, my siblings and even my mother will likely hate me and believe I deserve to be written out of the will.”

“Do you really believe he’d do that because of me?”

“Yes. But maybe it’s time. I never agreed with him. Yeah, okay, I took the money, I took the credit card and the clothes, and maybe that makes me implicit in some way, but I don’t want to marry someone he’s going to pick out because he’s got these dreams of a dynasty. Shouldn’t the money and the gifts have been a sign of parental love? Not a way of controlling me?”

“If your father finds out …”

“I think it’s just a matter of when now.”

“Tara, maybe it’s better he finds out after the conference, after you get home.”

“You don’t want me to come home with you?”

“I want that more than anything else in the world, except your safety and well-being is also important. If you go home with him you can pack up all your stuff, ship it to me, and then tell him.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. If I go home with you, he’ll sell my stuff. I could call my mom, see if she’d pack it and mail it tomorrow.”

“Would she do it without talking to your father?”

“No, not likely. I’m sorry I’m making this so difficult.”

“You’re not, your father is. And I already made the mistake of projecting his problems onto you once. I’m not doing that again.”

“It’ll be a small wedding I guess.”

“You can invite your family.”

“I don’t know how many will come. My father is a dictator.”

“We’ll still invite them.”

“Does that mean you’ll propose?”

“At some point. Let me find a ring and a romantic way to ask, okay?”

“As long as I know it’s a guarantee. I don’t want to lose all my stuff for a fling.”

“A fling?”

She giggled.

“Tara Brown, you’re a horrible person but I love you.”

“Good,” she said, yawning. “I love you, too.”