In the Woods, Bears

Chapter 59 - Going Viral

When they pulled free David's blindfold, the light from the bright product testing room blinded him. The space had been cleared, and the presence of those gathered made his skin go cold. Around the table, he knew a few faces, leaders from other communities, including one from the wolves that lived to the west, and the townie preacher. A gathering of the communities had been called, which rarely meant anything good was happening. His heart hollowed out and filled with ice. Why was he here? They only came together when there was trouble.

At the head of the table, Ba sat with her face set like stone, exposing no emotion to the council circle. He knew she was angry. A rose patina shone under her dark skin and her eyes flamed black. There was violence in the way she gripped her coffee mug as if only its weight kept her hand from striking out. What he didn't know was at who?

Blinking, to adjust his vision, he asked, "Why am I here?"

The preacher spoke first, leaning forward, his hair slicked back, smelling of sheep. "To answer some questions."

A sharp-nosed woman with raven eyes, a stranger, said, "Is she taking Ursa or not?"

"No. We decided against it as a family. There are four fathers, so it is easy for us to take turns watching over her when she sleeps." He swallowed. The hardened faces around the table staring at him were unnerving. He wasn't used to being the center of attention. "We have a mother's room in the barn. The old-fashioned kind that has bars on all six sides. The bottom is buried in the dirt. She chose what was best for the baby."

"And what about what is best for the community?" The sharp nosed woman leaned forward and turned her phone toward him. "Is this your woman? It certainly looks like the pictures I've seen of her."

David's skin prickled with wariness. The hair on the back of his neck rose. "Why would you have pictures of her?" When the grainy video began to play, he recognized her instantly, asleep on a couch in a college apartment. "She is somewhere sleeping. Where did you get that? It isn't our home."

"We know that," the preacher said. "Keep watching."

The skin at her ankles and wrists split obscenely as the baby pulled her into a change. Body twisting, she rolled into her heart shape on the shag rug. Kennedy had offered to show him the video before they burned the memory card. He'd refused to watch it. "Is this Sandy's house? Kennedy took the memory card from the camera. We destroyed it. How do you have a copy?"

Ba's voice was tired, heavy, and weighted. "The video transmitted to the roommate's phone, all of it. The girl's boyfriend posted it online. In the past twenty-four hours, it's become quite the sensation. It's all over the Internet. Everywhere."

The wolf steepled his fingers on top of the table. "We've never had a breach like this."

The preacher added, "We are going to mitigate the problem by proving it's a hoax. We can claim it's a film project. Lord willing, it will work."

Ba sneered. "Don't call to your filthy God in my house. You are hardly better than a sheep. I don't think this is stoppable."

The preacher stiffened. "You don't see one of my people getting caught on camera. From birth to death, we stay in the skin as a sacrament. This is our sacred sacrifice to Christ."

The woman holding the incriminating video shook her head. "Delusional fool."

The Wolf didn't curb his mocking laughter. "I thought you were just cowards."

"Animal," the preacher hissed. "Why are you here, anyway?"

"Because this is a breach large enough to affect us all, sheep lover. It's been generations since they've hunted any of us."