Shifters in the Snow

by Jacqueline Sweet

  Naughty Ms. Fox enjoys writing about smoldering, hot love in both the contemporary romance and paranormal genres. Curvy heroines rule!

  If you would like to drop Ms. Fox a line, feel free to email her at: authorcynthiafox@hotmail.com or message her on Facebook

  How the Bear Stole Christmas

  by Claire Ryann

  Chapter 1

  Andi pulled into the next turn out she came to, catching her breath as the trail of cars that had piled up behind her passed by one by one. Some drivers waving their thanks, some just waving with one finger.

  She stayed pulled over in the wide dirt semi-circle on the side of the barely two lane mountain road far longer than necessary letting her heart rate return to normal. There wasn't much traffic out here on this forgotten Sierra mountain pass road, but the people who had chosen to cross the mountains on highway 108 all managed to meet up behind Andi's Camry as she crawled around each hair pin corner at a pace that would frustrate a snail.

  When she'd punched the address into her navigation, she hadn't realized that the little red line on the map designated as a highway would turn out to be little more than a crumbling two lane road that draped over the 9,000 foot elevation point in a series of paralyzingly steep twists and turns and sheer drops if you missed.

  She scolded herself for not opting for the Interstate farther north. It added several miles to her trip but at least she'd have been able to keep up a reasonable speed.

  Andi angled the rear view mirror down and checked the road behind her. The sun was setting through the tall pine forests that she'd just traveled through, leaving the sparse landscape before her bathed in a creepy blue gray tint that only added to the eeriness of the twisted trees that struggled to survive in the rocky slopes of the high elevations.

  She'd never gotten to the east side of the mountains this way before. Other than Tahoe or Reno for a couple of weekends with the girls or the occasional wedding. But Tahoe still looked like you were in the mountains, this was-- Andi looked around at the twisted trunks of the trees struggling for survival on the exposed rim, at the stretches of rock that looked like someone had poured concrete over the entire mountain range, at the reflective yellow signs showing a car headed down a frighteningly steep hill-- this was a whole new look at the mountain range that Andi had grown up looking at from her home town.

  She checked the map on her dashboard. Still about 80 miles to go and from the looks of the blue line that indicated her route, she had plenty more of these curves to get through before the road joined the more familiar highway 395.

  Andi pulled back onto the road, turned on her high beams and slid the car into first gear to save her brakes. The last thing she needed was to overheat the brakes on what the last sign promised was a 26% downhill grade.

  How do I get myself into these things? She wondered as she crept around the next curve, her eyes working hard to adjust to the dimming light outside as she scanned for wildlife. I could have just moved back home. I could have taken the job with the transport company. I could have saved my money and gotten back on my feet.

  Her foot came down hard on the brake pedal and the sedan lurched to a stop. A disgruntled raccoon emerged from the shadow with glowing eyes as it glared at her before continuing across the road. I sure as hell didn't need to drive out here to the other side of the world and freeze my ass off for a seasonal job serving lattes to a bunch of spoiled hipsters that think they're "too cool" for Tahoe.

  Andi continued her creeping pace down the eastern side of the mountains while she ran through the list of options she hadn't been willing to consider a week ago.

  She knew she'd made the best decision for her, all things considered. Working at the transport company with her dad wouldn't have been too painful, but living with Mom would have lasted all of 12 seconds before they were at each other's throats.

  Her mom didn't deserve that, she was a good mother who was just trying to be there for her daughter but her method of "being there" was a little too much for Andi. It didn't help that her mom hadn't really accepted that her dad had moved on from their divorce six years earlier.

  Andi knew that she'd have been subjected to a nightly inquisition about her dad's new life with Stacy while her mother piled comfort food on her plate and tried to make her feel better about her own break up by focusing on what a loser Mike had been all along.

  The last thing Andi needed was more comfort food. If she'd moved in with her mom, she would have put on another 30 pounds by Christmas, for sure.

  As for Mike...

  Andi sighed heavily and spun the steering wheel around another 180 degree turn.

  She hadn't gotten to the mad phase yet. It was still too new, hurt too bad. She couldn't have listened to her mom tell her "I told you so" every day when some where deep down she was still hoping Mike would call begging for her forgiveness.

  She checked the cell phone on the seat next to her. No signal. Well good. That's better than no message from him at least. She thought as she gripped the wheel and pulled it hard to the left to avoid heading toward the cliff in front of her.

  No. This was the best plan for her and she knew it. She needed to put some space between her and Mike and taking Becks up on her offer of running the cafe for the winter ski season seemed like the perfect opportunity for Andi to get her head clear.

  She just wished Becka would be there with her to help keep her focused.

  Becka and she had been friends since high school. Becks had always been in love with the mountains and it hadn't been a surprise to Andi at all when Becka moved to the tiny town of Silver Peak when she finished college.

  Becka owned a little coffee shop slash ice cream shop slash local art gallery slash used book store on the end of the main strip, just down the hill from the ski lodge. She'd built up a nice little business for herself out of the down stairs shop with an adorable little apartment above it.

  The cafe served coffee and pastries and ice cream in the summer months. Becka let local artists hang their work on the walls for sale and a large bookshelf offered the local "leave one/take one" library service.

  It was all very cozy but Becks wanted to be a real live forest ranger, not a small town barista. She'd been working part time with the local ranger district for the past couple of years and was spending this winter snowed in in no man's land on the hopes that volunteering for the worst job that Andi had ever heard of would land her a special place in the new head ranger's heart and a full time job in the spring.

  That left the little cafe short-staffed through the busy winter season. It had been a cinch for Becka to offer her bestie a place to regroup while she was away.

  Problem was, Andi had only been out to visit her friend in Silver Peak once. She remembered it as a tiny place with a long row of little shops running along the main street as it stretched up and curved into the mountains toward the ski lodge. Nothing but bait shops that thrived during the summer fishing season, and ski shops that thrived during the winter.

  Not much to keep her mind off Mike.

  Andi pulled off the main highway onto the little loop road that ran along the row of lakes that Silver Peak was built around. She'd forgotten how long the road went on with nothing but lake on one side and mountain on the other before you got to town.

  The first signs of civilization began to dot the road in front of her, shops lit with small neon signs and strings of twinkling little fairy lights lighting her way to the far end of town till she reached the renovated cabin with the hand crafted sign that read "Sliver Peak Cups & Cones."

  Andi chuckled when she saw the misspelled sign. Poor Becks had been fit to be tied when she saw that. Becka had originally opened the cafe with another girl. Andi sifted through her memory for the girl's name-- Tanya? Tasha? Tasha. That sounded right. She had been so ga-ga over the guy who made the sign, she hadn't even double checked it. Becka and Andi had arrived in town with the last load of Becka's stuff to move in to the little loft apartment and Becka had come unglued as
soon as she saw the sign.

  It was a nice sign. All hand-carved into a thick piece of wood by some miscellaneous stranger who'd been staying in town temporarily. He was a really good artist, just maybe not the best speller. Tasha had handed over her share of the business to Becka before the shop even opened and run off with the sign guy.

  Andi pulled into the private driveway that led to a small garage at the back of the building. She had to park in the driveway and retrieve the hidden key to Becka's apartment before she could get to the garage door opener that Becka promised she'd left on the kitchen counter.

  October nights were still warm back home, but up here at almost 8,000 feet in the mountains the temps were already flirting with freezing. Andi shivered as she walked up the stairs to the apartment's front door over the garage.

  She found the key inside the flower pot where Becka had left it and let herself in. A light glowed softly from the living room, making it much easier to find her way through the entry way toward the kitchen. The remote for the garage door was sitting on the small breakfast bar next to a set of keys for the shop and a two page hand-written note of instructions on everything from how to operate the microwave to which shampoo to use.

  Becks. Andi shook her head, You have always been a tad too organized for my tastes. I can't believe she actually told me which shampoo to use. Andi made a tour of the apartment. Just one bedroom that sat directly over the garage, one bathroom, the kitchen and the main living room that sat over the shop below with a large deck that overlooked the lake.

  Cozy. Andi started turning lights on as she made her way through the place, stopping in front of the bookcase in the main room. Mmm, real books, she thought as she ran her finger along the spines. The bookcase held more photos and knick-knacks than actual books, photos of Becka with her parents, photos of Becka in the coffee shop, a photo of Andi and Becka together from what Andi remembered as the worst camping trip ever all in cute little wooden frames with bears and moose on them sitting among little bear figurines and wooden carvings of wolves and other forest critters. A set of carved wolf bookends holding up Becka's collection of books of Native American folktales, Norse mythology, and something calling itself a "Dream Dictionary" with a spine at least 2 inches thick.

  Andi nodded at the familiar titles, remembering her friend's interest in pretty much all things mythical and mysterious. She cast a longing glance at the fireplace and decided to go downstairs and pull her car into the garage and bring up her luggage before lighting that puppy up. Then she could relax and spend the next few days settling in.

  The summer tourist season had passed and the ski resort wouldn't open till the first good snow. That left about 600 full time residents and a smattering of travelers, hunters, and anglers to make coffee for in the meantime. Light business that Jen could handle on her own while Andi got settled in and caught up with the daily operation of a small town coffee shop.

  Andi pulled her car into the garage and hauled her suitcases up stairs. Then she got a fire going in the fireplace and set the kettle on the stove to heat some water for tea.

  She chose a spiced peach tea bag from Becka's collection and dropped it into the waiting mug. Then she checked her phone. It said it had good signal here but there were still no text messages waiting for her. No voicemail. No missed calls.

  She called her mom to let her know she'd arrived safely. The whistle of the tea pot gave her an excuse to end the call. She poured steaming water over the tea bag, put the kettle back on the stove top, and took a deep breath before checking her email.

  Not a single message from Michael.

  Andi felt her shoulders sag. She set the phone on the counter and picked up her mug of tea, blowing gently across the surface of the still too hot liquid as she stared at the name and number on her phone till the display went dark.

  She'd been lying to herself for days now.

  When she'd found out about Mike's girlfriend-- his other girlfriend-- she'd fallen apart. He had been her whole world since they'd moved in together three years ago. She worked with him at his auto shop, she lived with him in the house that he'd owned since before they started dating, she babysat for his sister, and it was his mother who had been helping her plan their wedding.

  Finding out that he'd been seeing another woman had been the end of the world for Andi. Watching him shrug nonchalantly as he popped open a beer and casually admitted to cheating on her for nearly six months had dropped her chin-- and her heart-- through the floor.

  "Well, Andi, what do you expect?" She could still hear his voice as he shrugged casually, "Look at yourself. Nobody wants to do that with the lights on." He had casually waved his finger towards her body, "You really let yourself go since we got together."

  The conversation had ended with Andi leaving her engagement ring on the end table next to Mike's beer.

  The funny thing was, he still wanted to marry her. He'd insisted that he "loved" her, that he wanted to have a children with her, that he even still liked having sex with her...as long as he didn't have to look at her naked, apparently.

  She'd quit working with him immediately and spent the last week moving her stuff back to her mom's house but she hadn't canceled the wedding yet. It was still six months away and she just couldn't help thinking that they still had time to work things out.

  Andi stared at the dark phone screen and frowned.

  In the darkest corners of her mind, she knew she was kidding herself. He was calling her bluff. Waiting for her to "wake up" as he'd put it, and realize that he was the best she was going to do. Waiting for her to come crawling back and agree to marry a man who had no intention of being faithful to her.

  Now she just had to decide whether or not she really was bluffing.

  That's why she'd let Becka talk her into spending the winter working in the coffee shop. She knew putting a mountain range between her and Mike would make it a lot easier to stick to her guns and keep her from running back to him.

  Still-- Andi set her empty mug in the sink and made sure the fire was behaving before heading for bed-- a girl could hope. Maybe Mike would realize what a great thing they had together. Maybe he would realize he had no clue how to run the shop without her. Maybe his skinny bimbo would stock his refrigerator with diet soda and carrot sticks and he'd realize how much he missed a girl who drank beer and ate fried cheese and was still willing to do it with the lights on.

  Or maybe she could start drinking beer and eating fried cheese again because maybe she wasn't going to have to worry about losing 20 pounds to fit into her wedding dress afterall.

  Chapter 2

  Getting the hang of the coffee shop wasn't going as smoothly as Andi had expected. She was glad she only had to worry about a few hundred people over the next few weeks till the ski lodge opened.

  Jen kept smiling. No matter how many times Andi forgot which drinks had steamed milk and which ones had foamed milk, Jen was patient and walked through the recipes yet again.

  A heavy-set woman in her late 50s, Jen had transplanted herself to Silver Peak from one of the cities in southern California that wasn't LA. She didn't even bother to say the name of the place when asked where she came from, she knew no one had heard of it and didn't know where it was. She just said "LA."

  Jen had retired early from a county job and, with no husband or children, there was no one to talk sense into her when she decided to get a motorcycle license at the age of 55. She'd sold her house, traded her car for a Harley and headed off on the great American road trip.

  She'd lived on the bike for two years before deciding to head back to California. She'd stopped in town for a pit stop and never left. These days, Jen's Harley stayed parked in the back of her garage under cover behind her 4 wheel drive pick up while she helped out in the coffee shop.

  Jen spent the first few hours every morning keeping Andi busy with stuff like making sure the fridge had enough milk in it, and signing for the daily pastry delivery while Jen made sure the locals got their coffee wi
thout making them late for work. Then she spent most of the afternoon teaching Andi the recipes while telling stories from her days on the road.

  Andi was waiting for her lessons to begin that morning. The rush had just ended and Jen was behind the counter making sure everything was clean and in its place while Andi swept the floor in the main sitting area.

  The little bell pulled Andi out of her day dreams as the door opened. The man who was on his way into the shop stopped suddenly, as though distracted by something.

  Andi looked up at him casually and then stopped to stare. Paul Bunyon was standing in the doorway. He was the biggest man she'd ever seen in real life. His head was as high as the door jam and his shoulders were so wide she was sure he'd have to turn sideways to come through the door.

  He stood still, one massive paw around the door knob making it look like a push pin on a bulletin board. His nostrils flared and he scanned the room.

  The big man's eyes fell on Andi. He seemed to have found whatever it was he had been searching the room for, but he looked none too pleased by Andi's presence.

  His brows furrowed over his narrowed eyes and his mouth set in a hard line amid the over-grown whiskers of the mustache and long beard that obscured most of his facial features.

  She was sure she heard a dissatisfied grunt from him as he continued over the threshold and approached Jen at the counter.

  "I already got it for ya, Grinchie." Jen handed over a cup with a lid and a small bag with some sort of pastry in it.

  Andi watched as the man dropped a couple of bills on the counter, took his items and turned to leave with a word.

  He gave Andi another deep frown and then approached her. Standing directly in front of her, he looked down at her with a look of mixed contempt and wonder and sniffed.