Page 34 of A Bear's Nemesis

Chapter Nine

Julius

It only tookthem thirty minutes to finish off a bottle of wine. Julius and Hudson were still fine, but Quinn was definitely feeling the effects, noticeably, as she laid on her back on the checkered blanket, shoes off, nearly-empty wine glass resting on her belly with one hand on the stem. In the center of the blanket was the cheese board, along with a few half-finished cheeses and a bunch of crackers.

Quinn’s chest rose and fell as she breathed, and Julius was having a hard time watching anything else.

“So are there rabbit shifters?” she asked, wriggling her toes into the grass.

“No,” said Hudson.

“Well, not that we know of,” Julius said.

“I think we’d know by now.”

“What about squirrels?” she asked, ignoring their minor disagreement.

“Also no,” said Hudson.

“All the known shifter species are carnivores,” Julius volunteered. He took another sip of the wine, stretching his long legs out in front of him.

“Why?” she asked

He just shrugged.

“It would be kind of a bummer for an animal to eat something and then realize that you killed another guy, you know?” Hudson said.

That made Quinn sit up, just a little.

“You eat things as a bear?”

“Sure,” said Hudson.

“When we’re bears, we’re bears,” Julius told the girl, shrugging.

She glanced from one man to the other, suddenly looking uncertain.

“Can you think at all? Or can you only think, like, bear thoughts?”

Julius frowned. How could he explain how it felt when he was shifted to someone who’d never done it and never would?

“You can still think,” he said. “And it feels mostly the same, except you think about different stuff.”

“You get very concerned with salmon,” Hudson said.

“And sniffing trees where other bears have peed.”

Quinn wrinkled her nose.

“Can you control yourself though? Or does instinct just take you over?”

Julius spun his wine glass between his fingers, watching the red liquid swirl. He wanted to lie to her, to tell her that every single shifter had complete and total control over themselves at all times. They all knew it wasn’t true, though.

“Yes, you can control yourself,” he said, slowly. “But it takes time and practice. You have to want to learn to control yourself.”

“Which most shifters do,” Hudson offered.

“But not all,” Quinn said. She sounded uncertain again.

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