Bear in a Billion: EXPOSED (#1) by Zola Bird

was. She was staring at photographic evidence. Ethan was the shifter. Come on, Haley. The clock is ticking. What are you going to do? She felt her hand reaching down off the bed, reaching for her sandals. One sandal, two  sandals, good. She reached across the bed with her other arm for her shorts and top. No sudden movements, Haley. Keep it easy. Keep it relaxed.
    “Haley, I can explain.”
    No, Haley thought. I don’t think you can. She rose slowly, so as not to provoke him. Whatever she had been feeling about shifters, whatever notion she had about their presence eventually feeling normal, whatever Ethan was, it didn’t feel normal right now. It felt terrifying, and Haley knew only one thing. She needed to get out of there, fast.
    “Wait, Haley. It’s not what you think.”
    This was her moment. He could already see she was leaving. No use pretending she wasn’t. She tore toward the bedroom door, wrenching it open.
    “Haley, please.”
    No, no, no. Stay where you are. She heard footsteps behind her. Don’t follow me. Please don’t follow me.
    “Stay away!” Haley screamed.
    She gasped for breath, streaking down the long hallway.
    “It’s not safe out there,” Ethan shouted.
    Haley didn’t listen. There was no way she would ever listen to him again. She ran all the way to the back door and kept on going.

    **********************

    Ethan cursed his stupidity. He hadn’t wanted Haley to find out like this. True, there was no good way to tell her that he had been misleading her as to who he was. But for her to find out like this, after sex, for her to find out that the man who acted as if he loved her had been lying to her all along was a shocking blow. And to find out because of that stupid picture…
    The photo she had found had been taken by one of his shifter friends as a joke. They had been horsing around. Ethan said a good steak brought out his bear. He partially shifted to prove it and the photo had been snapped. Ethan knew that he should have destroyed it. That kind of photographic evidence of their species wasn’t something that should have been allowed to float around. But he had forgotten about the picture and Haley had found it.
    Haley.
    His mind rushed back to her. He couldn’t let her walk home alone. Not given the rioting outside. But he couldn’t exactly offer her a lift, either. She wouldn’t get into his car. Hell, after tonight, he’d be lucky if she deigned to share a time zone with him. So Ethan did the best he could under the circumstance and stealthily tailed her back to her cabin.
    Once or twice Haley looked behind her, and Ethan desperately wanted to reveal himself. To go to her. To explain everything. To lay his soul bare. But something stopped him. He knew it would be too much for her to process too soon. Instead, he simply ensured that she got home safely. Fortunately, the demonstration had died down, and she arrived home safely, but it did nothing to fix the situation at hand.
     Ethan had screwed up. Majorly. Everything had been so perfect. Why did he have to bring her back to his house? She hadn’t been ready. That much was obvious. In the event that they might at some point go back to his place, he had hastily taken down the photos of himself, but he hadn’t exactly locked them in a vault. He had to ask himself again, why had he brought her back to his home? The demonstration, of course. But that wasn’t the real reason. On some level he had wanted her to know the truth. He knew he did.
    Ethan had never planned on lying to Haley about his identity. His shifter status, yes, that was something he couldn’t reveal to her up front, but the part about him being a surfer, that had just happened. Ethan often tried to blend in with the crowd. He really was a surfer. And a cameraman. He had started out that way, anyhow. It wasn’t an entirely conscious decision that his passion had spawned a multi-billion-dollar company. No, things had simply fallen into place. His love of