Chapter 48: Bear Necessities

A leash ran from the collar around the capuchin monkey's neck to the music organ where the stocky dark-haired Colton Stokes ground out a shrill melody. Crowds gathered to watch as the small monkey floated around the people, hat held out, begging for tips from the onlookers. This is frickin' humiliating, Liam Lamont sent through the mindspeech of the shifters as he shook the hat in his hands at an elderly gentleman who couldn't stop talking baby talk to him. Why do people always talk to animals and babies like we're ignorant?

"Oh, George, he's so cute," the elderly man's wife cooed as she leaned down and wiggled her fingers at Liam. "Aren't you cute, you little chimp? You are, aren't you? Such a cute little chimpanzee. Give the little monkey some quarters, Harold."

The two of them set up at a fair celebrating carnivals, disguised as an organ grinder and his capuchin monkey. The fact that Liam actually was a capuchin monkey stuck him in the humiliating role of money collector. Everyone'