The Mating Season: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (2 page)

CHAPTER ONE

The sleepy town of Predator Springs was located deep in the British Columbia Rocky Mountains. It was one of the most remote reservations for the Cree people of the Interior. The main Cree population didn’t know their brothers and sisters up in Predator Springs even existed, except in legends. Kim’s mother told her about it when she was a child. Her grandfather spent the winter there after getting lost in the woods while out on a logging job. He said the people were kind. After the band police took him in for identification, one family let him sleep on their couch. He said they were a bit different than the people from his reservation. They spoke in a purer version of Cree than the elders did where he came from. They were saddened when he told them about his time in the residential school in St. George.

Her grandfather left Predator Springs a changed man. The few months he spent among the isolated people caused him to become more connected with his past. After a few years, he became one of the head elders, and passed down his story to his daughter, who passed it down to Kim after he died from diabetic complications.

It was early morning in the remote village. The sun was barely cresting over the mountains in the east, so the small valley was still cast in shadow, and the mountain air still held a crisp bite. Ravens were calling out their throaty songs and chickadees sang in counter point in the cool dawn.

A U-Haul truck pulled up in front of the only vacant house in the small village. It had gingerbread style wooden shingles painted white, and a red tin roof that was sharply sloped down. At the elevation that Predator Springs happened to be located, snowfall in the winter could literally tear one’s roof down. So sharp triangular roofs were par for the course up there. The front yard was neatly tended, despite no one living in the house for almost five years, when the previous resident passed away.

A short, dark haired woman opened the driver’s side door and hopped out of the truck. Her dark blue skinny jeans hugged the curve of her tight butt like a second skin, and her white tank top clung to her firm, perky B-cup breasts. She shivered in the chill of the early dawn. She drove five hours from Golden throughout the night in hopes that Smiley wouldn’t follow her to Predator Springs.

Once she got out of the hospital, she called her grandmother to inform her of her parent’s murder. She told her she wanted to get far away from Golden, without actually leaving the province. Her grandmother suggested the sleepy little village that had helped her husband out so long ago, with a warning that it was mostly single men. Kim thought it odd, but a village full of bachelors sort of made sense, some guys wanted solitude, or other guys, who knows. With her Cree status, she could join the band and move onto their reservation with the elder council’s blessing. Her grandmother called their old friend, who happened to be on the Predator Springs council, and arranged for a band transfer.

Kim walked up to the front door of the house, keys in hand, and unlocked it. The smell of fresh paint assaulted her nose as she entered the house.

The bare hardwood floors of the small bungalow were newly refinished. All signs of the previous resident were meticulously erased. She was grateful to the residents of the small town for doing that for her. She wanted a completely fresh start. Why not start with her home?

Kim walked through her new house, mentally placing where she wanted to put her belongings. She found the master bedroom and noted it was quite spacious, containing a walk-in closet, and a door directly to the bathroom. There was a small galley style kitchen with appliances already in place.

After she took the grand tour of her humble little house, Kim propped open the door and started towards the moving truck.

“Hey there, neighbor.” A pleasant baritone voice greeted her.

She startled, totally not expecting anyone around at that time of day. “H...hello?” she replied skittishly, her heart beating faster as the strange man approached her.

“Name’s Tony Underhill. I live just over there.” He gestured to a house similar to hers, next door. “I won’t hurt you; I’m the head of the band police. Looks like you could use a hand moving in.” Tony was fairly tall, and had a lithe grace about him as he moved. His wiry frame was dressed in a pair of faded wranglers and a white button up shirt. It must have been his day off, Kim thought to herself, since he was dressed so casually. He had long black hair tied back at the nape of his neck, and a genuine smile graced his handsome face.

Kim was taken aback by Tony’s charisma. His face had high cheekbones and a strong square jaw. He looked as if he had sauntered out of an old Western novel; the only thing missing was the straw cowboy hat.

“Umm...sure, if you want.” Kim stammered. “I’m able to do this myself but an extra set of hands is more than welcome.” She unlocked the back door of the U-Haul truck and pushed it open. Inside were all her worldly possessions, neatly stacked. She tried to keep her fear down, telling herself that this guy was a cop, and he wasn’t out to hurt her. Smiley’s attack did a real number on her. She did a few months of therapy to help her over it before coming out here, but sometimes the only thing that’s needed is time with situations like hers.

“So, you’re old Otis’ granddaughter, eh?” Tony asked, in an attempt to get to know this beautiful stranger a bit better. “This house used to be my granddad's. My dad knew Otis when he stayed here for that winter. It was a harsh one. I don’t know anyone who would go out for anything during weather like that.”

Kim smiled. “Well, my grandpa was quite the stubborn guy, and he said that his boss increased the quota. He wanted to get in good with the company, I guess, backbiting and selling out his workers, especially if they were Cree.” She grabbed a small box from the truck and walked towards the house with Tony, who was carrying a larger box.

“Well, things are a bit different out here. For one, we don’t allow anyone who isn’t Cree on our land. You’re lucky we’re allowing you, since you’re only half, but since you’re Otis’ family, my uncle thought you were okay.”

“Yeah, Grandpa told me that this place has pretty much isolated itself from the rest of the country. Not that it’s a bad thing, to be honest. You guys missed the worst of the bullshit the Government put us through, mostly those damn schools. Nowadays it’s the addictions, cops targeting us, it’s still pretty bad.”

“Well, we have none of that here.” Tony assured her. “Like, we see all that on the news. All that garbage just makes us want to isolate ourselves even more. Luckily we can, since we’re pretty much self-sufficient out here.”

“Really? That’s interesting.” Kim stated, still keeping this stranger at arm’s length. She placed the box she had down in the living room. As personable as this guy was, she was still pretty leery of men in general. Smiley had done a real number on her.

“Yeah, back when Sir John A. MacDonald was the Prime Minister, he tried to starve our people out. Since then, our band has vowed to not be reliant on the government for anything. We don’t even take the reserve payments. Well, we do, but we donate it to the other bands in the area.” Tony looked incredulous. “You mean you didn’t know that?”

“About the starving? No. I didn’t. School only covered how great he was and all that. Any talk about what was done to us, well, the nuns and other school staff were pretty quick to shut us up,” Kim replied sadly.

The duo made rapid work at unloading the rental truck. They chatted throughout the day, and Kim found Tony very amicable. As they finished unloading the last box, he finally asked the question that had been nagging at him since her application to transfer bands crossed his desk.

“So, why are you here, exactly?” His cop sense had been tingling and he wanted to know what kind of trouble this outsider would be bringing with her.

Kim paled and tried to come up with an excuse. Tony’s piercing eyes stared at her, she knew she couldn’t get away with a lie, but decided to try anyway. He’d pick up on it right away. She choked up. “I... I can’t” She whispered. He could see her spirit break as she forced herself to lie. He had a suspicion that she’d been through something awful, but, decided to let it go for now.

“I see, well, if you ever need an ear, I’m right next door.” Tony wanted to make sure she felt safe here. One, because it was his job and two, he was extremely attracted to her. The elders had wondered why he hadn’t taken anyone to be his life mate yet, and it was getting close to that time of year for him to try to choose again. Thing was, he wasn’t all that keen on settling down, not yet anyway. “You have a good day, okay? If you need me, you can call the number for the station.”

“Thanks,” she replied. “I’ll do that. Thanks for the help, too. It made things go pretty fast.”

“Not a problem, ma’am. I’m here to protect, and to serve.” Tony replied with a wink as he closed the front door behind him. He looked across to the other neighboring house, and saw his cousin Keith standing on the doorstep, staring at him and shaking his head. He was another one who hadn’t taken a life mate yet, and he was five years older than Tony.

“What’s up, Keith?” Tony called out.

“Nothing much. Didn’t take you long to sniff out the fresh meat, you mangy tom.”

“Never does, Keith. Never does. You might want to go over there; she seems like a nice girl. She could use a casserole; doubt she’ll wanna cook tonight.”

Keith Mountainside grunted in acknowledgment. “Yeah, whatever.” He closed the door. He had hoped to have met the strange woman before Tony did, but that man always had his claws, among other things, in everything in the town. He was well known for jumping in bed with the mates of other men. How many younglings in the town were really his, no one really knew, or cared, to be honest, since Tony was the resident golden child.

Keith decided to not let Tony steal his chance with the stranger. He went into his small kitchen to see what he could whip up. Women love men who can cook. His cousin could be such an asshole sometimes.

Keith had yet to find the right woman to call his own. All the local prospects didn’t tug at his soul in the right way. He hoped that this one would. He puttered around the kitchen for a bit. He opened the freezer and found some meat from the elk he managed to take down earlier that month. He got the largest share due to being the one who brought it down, but it all got distributed to the village. Every hunter who brings in a kill gets the largest portion, if he or she wishes, and the remainder gets shared. That was the main way the band stayed free of the government’s aid trap. Every house had a garden in the back to grow vegetables, and there was a community orchard in the center square full of cherry trees, apple trees, and various berry bushes.

He made a wonderful baked stew from the elk, some carrots, potatoes, and various herbs from his garden. He put some tin foil on the top of the dish and decided to introduce himself to his lovely neighbor. He couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was as he observed Tony and her from his living room window.

There was a polite knock at Kim’s front door. She sighed to herself as she wondered who on earth it could be now.

She opened up the door and saw another handsome man, holding a casserole dish. He smiled shyly as she opened the door further. “Can I help you?” she asked.

“Umm, hey, my name’s Keith. I’m your other…umm neighbor.” He stammered. He wasn’t as smooth with the ladies as his cousin, but there was something about him that endeared himself to her. She felt her wall of self-preservation crack just a little bit as she looked into his earnest brown eyes.

She noted that Keith was slightly stockier than Tony. He was shorter, and seemingly more powerfully built with broad shoulders and a slightly thicker waist. He was muscular, but not overly so, with just a little hint of a belly beneath his red plaid button up shirt; a blacksmith build is what came to her mind. His face wasn’t as chiseled as Tony’s either, softer, less predatory. But there was something about Keith that pulled at Kim.

“Mind if I come in?” he asked. “I mean, if you want. I can just leave this and go…”

“No, it’s okay, you seem harmless enough,” Kim replied as she smiled warmly at him.

Keith’s face lit up as she invited him in. “Thanks! I’ll just go put this in the oven so it doesn’t get too cold. It’s elk, my grandmother taught me how to make it.” He made his way to the kitchen among the maze of boxes and disassembled furniture.

Kim smiled and shook her head at Keith’s earnest practicality. She couldn’t put her thumb on it, but there was something genuine about him. She didn’t notice a wedding ring on his finger. Maybe after she healed a bit from the shit Smiley put her through, she might give this guy a chance. He was definitely her type.

She puttered around, unpacking things while Keith found a tool box and set to work putting some of the furniture together. “You don’t mind me helping with this, do you?”

Kim shook her head as she cut open another box to unpack. She observed him out of the corner of her eye as he worked.

“Did you check out the back yard yet? There’s a garden back there for you to grow stuff,” he said awkwardly, trying to break the ice. He really felt an attraction to this woman. Stronger than any attraction he had felt for any other woman previously. He really didn’t want to blow it.

“Yeah! I love gardening. I’m excited to get some stuff in before the growing season ends,” she answered and her entire being lit up at the thought of puttering around in the dirt. Keith’s breath caught as she smiled directly at him. Yes, he thought, she was the one.