by J. K Harper
Tilting her face to mine, she nodded. “Certain. She’s a Mae.”
Taking advantage, I pressed a kiss to her upturned lips. “She’s perfect. You’re perfect—”
“Can I come in now?!” The shout came through the door, impatient and very excited.
“Yes, sweetheart,” I called, bracing myself.
The door flew open with a bang and a whirlwind of energy poured into the room. One with pigtails and two new front teeth. Lizzie stopped just short of the bed, her eyes going round. “Ooooh!”
“Say hello to your new little sister, Mae,” Gina said.
I patted my knee and she hopped up, her hand hovering in the air.
“Can I touch her?”
Gina nodded.
Lizzie reached out and slid her finger into Mae’s tiny curled hand, holding her breath the entire time. “She’s beautiful!” she gasped. “She’s got dark hair just like you, Daddy!”
“Yup. She’s a looker,” I declared, “just like you and your momma.” Hugging her in close, I stroked a finger across Gina’s cheek, catching her eye. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I’d caught a hint of sadness through the bond, though she was getting pretty good at shielding her emotions when she tried. “I have everything I ever wanted,” I whispered, the words only for her ears. “And we’re damn proud of everything that got us here, remember?”
“Daddy, you said damn!”
I winced, pulling what I hoped was a funny face. Oops!
The sadness on Gina’s face evaporated in a peal of laughter. I love you, she mouthed over our daughters’ heads.
People surged into the room, Amy, Connie, Merrie, and Monica rushing to Gina’s side to coo over the new baby. Over the last few months, they’d become as thick as thieves, and I’d been told—warned—to expect many a girls’ night out in the future. Also, I was pretty sure they were giving Gina ideas about the dare I owed her. One of the suggestions, and I was guessing it had come from Amy, courtesy of Ryan, was that I shift and let the children ride me around like a pony. I was man enough to admit, the thought of the women choosing that one petrified me. I was hoping, and dropping strong hints, that my mate would come up with something a little more…interesting. And adult.
A nudge on the shoulder had me accepting celebratory handshakes from my brothers, Ralph falling back to slouch against the wall, a look of hunger on his face as he surveyed the scene in front of him. Catching Ryan and Craig’s eye, I nodded. Ralph’s time was up.
But not yet. Not right now.
I had better things to do.
Catching my mate’s eye, I blew her a kiss, ignoring the hoots and hollers from the crowd. I love you, too.
Deputy Bear
by Scarlett Grove
Chapter 1
Harper Brown turned off the highway onto the snow-covered dirt road that led to her late grandfather’s cabin. She pulled up in front of the small structure and parked her car. Icicles hung from the rafters and snow covered the roof. Her grandfather hadn’t been here since he’d entered managed care two years ago. Harper had been up to the cabin a few times, just to sweep out the dust and make sure that the utilities were still working.
No one had expected her grandfather to leave her the cabin, but Harper was having a growing sense that everything was as it should be. She had been the one who was there for him in the last years of his life. Her parents had already retired to Florida, and hadn’t been back to Oregon since she graduated high school.
Harper worked as a bank teller and visited her grandfather every weekend. They’d grown close during that time and losing him had been a blow.
She slammed her car door and walked up the snow-covered gravel driveway to the front of the cabin. She slid the key into the lock, took a deep breath, turned the knob, and stepped inside.
The interior of the cabin smelled musty and all the furniture was covered in dust. The air felt even colder inside than it had outside so the first order of business was to make sure that the fireplace still worked.
When Harper had come up last summer, she had ordered a cord of firewood. There was still a pile sitting beside the fireplace. She had even hired someone to come out and clear the chimney. Hopefully, it still worked. She knelt in front of the fireplace and shivered, the stone of the hearth cold under her knees.
In that instant, Harper was terrified of the prospect of living in this place. But she had nowhere else to go now. After the break-up she’d just been through, there was no going back to her old life.
At the back of her mind, Harper had always known that Colin was a player. All of her friends told her the same thing, but she never listened. Earlier today, after the reading of the will, she came home to find Colin in bed with her friend Sasha. After screaming at them both, she packed up all her things, put them in the back of her Subaru and left.
It was hard for her to believe that she left her life behind just hours ago. She hadn’t even been able to give notice to her bank teller job. When she’d called her supervisor on the way out of town, he refused to give her a letter of recommendation.
All she had left in the world was the cash in her bank account and a freezing cold, old cabin that an old man used to use for fishing trips. A tear slid down her face as she threw logs into the fireplace. All she had in the world was this place.
Of all the places in the world she could be stranded, her grandfather’s fishing cabin had to be the best. Even if it was bone freezing cold. She had so many memories of their time here in the summers when she was a child. Her grandfather had taught her to fish and hunt in Fate Mountain summers of her youth. She glanced above the fireplace and saw his rifle still hanging there and the fishing poles neatly arranged in the corner of the room.
Harper was a city girl at heart, but she had survival skills under her belt. Once she had a fire blazing, she walked into the tiny kitchenette and turned on the water faucet. Rust colored water chugged out of the faucet. A gurgling groan strained from the pipes as they came to life.
She quickly turned and walked back out to her car. The cold air bit her skin, even under her insulated coat. Lifting up the back door of her Subaru, she inspected the boxes and plastic bags full of everything she owned. She’d been living in Colin’s house since they’d moved in together four years ago. He was a junior investment banker and made a good living. His income allowed her to live in relative luxury, considering the obscene rental prices in Portland.
She groaned thinking about him, and grabbed a box of kitchen things. She’d thrown together a few pots and pans, silverware and dishes from the kitchen.
Once she had everything inside, Harper then went about cleaning, sweeping, and dusting everything. She’d been smart enough to bring sheets, blankets, and pillows with her. Harper went into the bedroom and stripped the bed. She threw all of the musty old linens out the front door into a pile in the snow. After turning the mattress, she made the bed and lay down.
Looking up at the ceiling, with her heart pounding and dusty sweat on her brow, Harper tried to imagine building a new life in the tiny community of Fate Mountain. Summers in Fate Mountain had not prepared her for small town living. At twenty-seven years old, she didn't know if she could really adjust to this lifestyle. Maybe coming here had all been a mistake.
She’d left her boyfriend, blown off her job, and now she was moving into in her grandfather's cabin. There was nothing to do now except to go to the grocery store and get some food for dinner.
Harper swung her legs over the side of the bed and pushed herself up onto the floor. With a groan, she trudged around the corner into the bathroom and washed her face. She looked up into the mirror and saw the smeared mascara running down her cheeks. The sight of it spoke of her grief.
Harper was definitely grieving. She grieved for her grandfather, her old life, and everything she had known and loved. Even Colin. She grabbed a clean towel she’d brought from her old apartment and wiped off her face, leaving it clear of makeup, dust and sweat.
She went outsid
e onto the porch, locked the cabin, got into the car and started down the road toward Fate Mountain Village. When she arrived in town, she pulled into the parking lot of Fate Mountain Grocery and got out. On her way inside, she grabbed a shopping cart and went through the sliding glass doors. Right inside the front doors, she saw a newspaper rack so she grabbed a copy of the Fate Mountain Daily. She needed something to keep her occupied once she got home.
Walking up and down the aisles of the grocery store, Harper grabbed a week’s worth of groceries. It had been so long since she’d gone shopping for herself alone. The experience depressed her by the time she made it to the checkout line. The cashier scanned her items and put them into bags, cheerfully asking Harper how her day had been. It was already late afternoon and the sun was beginning to set outside. Soon it would be freezing cold.
“I just moved into my grandfather’s old hunting cabin, and I’m not quite sure how I’m going to get through the cold nights.”
“You’re going to try to live in a fishing cabin over winter?” the clerk asked.
“I don’t have any other options.”
“I hope the place has electricity.”
“It has spotty electricity and a space heater. But I think it is mostly heated by the wood burning fireplace. I cleaned everything and all of the utilities are working. There’s still a ton of firewood from the last time I was up here. I’ve been keeping it up for my grandfather. But he just passed away.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, dear,” the clerk said. “Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it. The people of Fate Mountain are always willing to lend a hand.”
“Thank you,” Harper said meekly.
She wasn’t used to people being so concerned about her. But slowly she remembered the warm sense of community she’d felt during her summers on the mountain.
She thanked the cashier, put her bags in her cart, wheeled it out to the parking lot, and transferred the bags to her car. When she got back to the cabin, she carried it all inside and put the perishables in the tiny, old refrigerator. She was lucky that everything was still working in the cabin. It was a huge relief to her. The fire had heated up the main room and the space heater was working in the bedroom. For the first time since leaving Portland, Harper felt like she could really make it here on her own.
She made steak and potatoes for dinner and sat down at the tiny table in the main room to read the newspaper. It was already dark outside. The naked bulb hanging from the ceiling of the main room gave off a dim light and buzzed overhead.
She took a bite of steak and unfolded the front page of the newspaper. She read an article about the upcoming Christmas party at Fate Mountain Lodge. The entire community was invited to the festive event. She sighed and thought about entering a new community where she knew no one.
As she ate her dinner and flipped through the newspaper, Harper began to get a sense of what Fate Mountain Village was like these days. There were a lot more shifters here since the Great War.
She’d heard a lot about shifters in the last several years since the end of the war. The shifters had made a major contribution to the end of the war. For that reason, the government had passed the Shifter Equality Act, ensuring that shifters had equal rights under the law.
They had even given shifters generous veteran’s packages for their service during the war. Most of the shifters had been drafted into the Great War after twenty years of social backlash against them.
Harper knew enough about shifters that she had an understanding of the politics involved. She’d grown up in the era after the Great Shifter Council had announced to the world that shifters existed.
Because she had been a child when the revelation came about, she had always had sympathy for the shifters. Not everyone had felt that way at the beginning.
She flipped to the back of the paper and opened the classified section. Reading through the Help Wanted ads, she found a position for a teller at Fate Mountain Credit Union. Her eyes widened and she almost choked on a bite of potato. That was a perfect job for her. If she wanted to start her life over, the first step was finding a job to pay the bills.
Luckily, her grandfather’s cabin and land were all paid off and she owned it all free and clear. But all Harper had in the bank was the last of her previous paycheck and a little bit of savings. She really needed to go back to work as soon as possible unless she dove into her meager retirement fund.
She decided to go into town in the morning and apply for the job. With that settled, Harper continued to read the rest of the paper. In between the articles she noticed a half page advertisement for a website called Mate.com.
She narrowed her eyes as she read the advertisement. She’d heard something about this website for male shifters and female humans before.
Ever since the end of the war, you couldn’t go a day without hearing about how hot and hunky shifter men were. Harper had been in college then and would have been more curious if she hadn’t already been dating Colin.
Now that she was sitting here reading this advertisement for a dating website, created by the notorious Corey Bright—founder of the Bright Institute for Shifters, located on Fate Mountain—she was beginning to feel more and more curious about what it would be like to be involved with a shifter.
Shifters had what was called fated mates. And because there were five times as many male shifters as female shifters, male shifters often found their fated mates among human women. With the changing attitudes among humans, a website like Mate.com had become mainstream.
Harper pushed her plate away and pulled her phone out of her pocket. Her curiosity was getting the best of her, or maybe it was boredom. With a small giggle, she navigated her phone to the Mate.com website and her phone began to immediately download the Mate.com app.
Within minutes, Harper was signed up for the website. She answered the questions that would match her up with her fated mate. Once she was done, she pressed enter. Her matches started to load. She waited and then scrolled through the profiles on the screen.
According to the website, a fated mate was a one hundred percent match. She had a seventy-five percent match, an eighty-three percent match, a ninety-six percent match. She continued scrolling with a sigh. All the guys were hot but none of them were a hundred percent match. No matter how attractive they were, these shifters would only want a one hundred percent match—a fated mate. She kept scrolling.
At the very bottom of the screen, there he was. Her one hundred percent match.
Chapter 2
Deputy Knox Carter of the Fate Mountain Bear Patrol pulled a bag of rock salt out of his patrol car and strode up the sidewalk in front of Fate Mountain Credit Union. People had been complaining of slippery sidewalks, and he was here to do his duty as a police officer.
He began to pour the rock salt onto the sidewalk to help melt the ice and keep the citizens of Fate Mountain Village safe. He poured salt at the end of the block and continued down to the other end. Halfway between the bakery and the credit union, he ran out of salt and had to go back to his patrol car for a second bag.
As he was throwing the empty bag into the back seat of his patrol car, he heard a familiar voice. It was Maisie Green from the bakery. She was the mate of Zach Rayner from the Rescue Bears—Fate Mountain’s search and rescue team. The Bear Patrol and the Rescue Bears often worked together on missions.
Maisie, who had been turned by her mate, was holding a steaming cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin in her gloved hands. She looked at him with bright eyes as she offered him the treats.
“I saw you out here pouring the rock salts and I wanted to show you my appreciation for your work,” she said with a giggle.
“Thanks, Maisie,” Knox said, taking the muffin and coffee.
He took a long sip of the coffee. Maisie had fixed it just how he liked it, with lots of cream and just a little bit of sugar. When he was done drinking, he sighed and then took a big bite of blueberry muffin. Maisie’s pastries were legendary. She ha
d been a famous pastry chef in Paris, but had come home to Fate Mountain to be with her mother, Kelly—a human who had been working at the Mountain Lodge for as long as anyone could remember.
Now that Maisie was a shifter, she and her mom, Kelly, were a big part of the bear clan of Fate Mountain.
“How have you been?” Maisie asked.
He hadn’t seen her since the clan’s haunted house at Fate Mountain Lounge on Halloween.
“Same old same old,” Knox said.
“Kicking ass and taking names?” Maisie said with a cute laugh.
“Something like that.”
“How is the mate search going?” Maisie asked.
Knox was afraid she would ask that. He didn’t have anything to tell her.
“No luck,” he said in a dejected tone.
He finished off the blueberry muffin in two more bites and chugged down the rest of the coffee.
“Are you still signed up to Mate.com?” Maisie asked.
So many of the bears from the Fate Mountain bear clan had found mates on Mate.com already. Of all the guys on the Bear Patrol and the Rescue Bears, he was one of the last bears without a mate.
“I’ve checked Mate.com almost every day for new matches. It’s beginning to get a little depressing.”
“I can see how that could be,” Maisie said sympathetically.
Knox didn’t want anyone to feel bad for him. He’d spent his life working hard and taking care of himself. Before he’d been drafted into the military during the war, he had worked in a lumber mill in Idaho. He’d grown up there with his alpha, Rollo Morris.
They’d even played football together in high school. After school, Rollo moved to San Francisco to work in the police department while Knox stayed at home in Idaho Falls. After he was drafted into the war, he ended up on the same Marine Special Forces unit with Rollo and the guys from the Bear Patrol.
After the war, they had all come to Fate Mountain to settle down and start families. Almost everyone had succeeded so far, except Knox. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tried to turn it on but the battery was dead.
