by Marla Monroe
Creed stopped in front of her house and chuffed for his brother. Shayne hurried around to meet him. Together they rubbed against the trees near the front door then raked their claws down the bark to mark it. Any other males would recognize that they’d laid claim to the female inside, and she would know of their intentions when she saw it. How she took it, though, would be the big question.
He and Shayne walked back to their property, and after making one more round, walked into the garage and shifted. One of the others, probably Seth, had left jeans for them. He was the mother of the group, though he’d probably beat anyone’s ass who said as much to his face. The Kodiak bear stood over 6’4” and weighed over two sixty, so it was hard to associate him as motherly until you watched him constantly making sure everyone was well and had what they needed. None in the group ever made the mistake of pointing this out to him, though.
They quickly pulled on their jeans, and while Shayne closed the garage door, Creed walked into the mud room to wait for him.
“What are we going to do about her?” Shayne asked, his eyes flashing with the after effects of sensing their mate nearby.
“First we’ll introduce ourselves,” he said. “Then we claim her.”
“She’s feline. I’ve never been around a female feline before. Their males normally keep them sequestered when we’ve met with them for some reason. What if she refuses us?” he asked.
Creed cocked his head. “We convince her. Felines are very sexual. That is one thing I do know. If need be, we will seduce her. She is our Ursa, our queen, and will be the mother to our cubs. Fate decreed it. She’ll adjust with time. It’s our job to make her happy and keep her that way. She’s the life blood of our sleuth and will draw other mates out for the den.”
“I hope you’re right, Creed. This move was hard on everyone. None of us wanted to leave,” Shayne reminded him.
“I know, but the clans have become too inbred. It has lowered the number of cubs born to us. The elders are right that once a clan becomes too large it tends to breed from within, and the sleuths become weak blooded so that fewer cubs are born. There was need for new blood, and moving was the only way to accomplish that. Our bears will locate mates no matter where they go. By moving far enough away, we ensure that they are from different sleuths and clans.” Creed knew Shayne already understood it, but it was obvious they all needed reminding while they were unsettled.
“Looks like ours is going to be from a different species all together. At least she isn’t a bunny rabbit or squirrel,” Shayne joked.
“I don’t believe there are any non-carnivore shifters. Omnivores, of course, but herbivores? I truly doubt it. We require way too much protein to power the shift to get our energy from anything except meat.” Creed smiled. “I’m looking forward to having a little pussy for a snack. What about you, little brother?”
Shayne chuckled quietly. “I can’t believe you made a joke. You never joke. Of course, if our future mate hears how you talk about her…” he began.
Creed growled in warning. “Don’t make me hurt you, Shayne.”
Shayne grinned but ducked his head. “You know I’m not going to do anything that will hurt our future with her. Wait until we tell the others. They will be jealous but pleased since it means theirs are not far behind.”
“Enough screwing around. We need to get some rest. There is much to do tomorrow, and the truck has to go to the nearest turn-in station by noon,” Creed reminded his second.
“I’ve already made sure that Eason knows to take it in tomorrow. He and Zeth looked up the location on their cell phone earlier.” Shayne yawned and stretched. “Okay. I’m heading to bed. Wake me if you get up before me in the morning.”
Creed smiled. “Don’t worry. No one is sleeping one second longer than I do tomorrow.”
He watched his brother head to the stairs. The main reason they had settled on this house was due to the huge basement that would work well for the sleuth’s den. They were going to enlarge it to make up most of the back part of the property over time, but for now, it would easily hold all of them and their mates once they were all found. Until then, they all slept above ground. There were five bedrooms. The master was downstairs on the other side of the living area. The other four bedrooms were upstairs.
He took the master, but once they had their mate between them, his brother would join him there. The others were sharing rooms for now with Otto sleeping in the living area until they got the main suite downstairs completed where he, Shayne, and their new mate would take up residence. Then his Ruka would take the master on the first floor so he would be close at hand to defend the den.
As he removed his jeans in the bedroom and stepped into the master bath, he wondered how things would work in their den when it came to his bears finding their mates. Would they all end up with a mate a piece, or would they pair up as the older, original sleuths did? His father felt that with him and Shayne pairing up in a bond as they had to break off from the clan, it was highly possible that they would settle into the earlier culture of sharing mates. It had been how sleuths worked many years ago when there was much more danger from hunters and other shifters.
Before The Awakening, when full humans knew nothing of the shifters and shifters fought each other, it was safer for the males to share a female to help keep her safe. While one hunted, the other guarded. If their sleuth returned to the old ways, it might cause some problems initially between the bonded pairs. He hoped not, but all the men who’d chosen to go with him and Shayne were strong, dominant males. Sharing when it wasn’t something they’d grown up with might prove to be much harder for them.
Then technology got too sensitive and it wasn’t possible to hide their existence any longer, especially when it came to forensics. With the encroaching populations spreading into more and more of the wild areas previously untouched, it was only a matter of time before someone witnessed something they shouldn’t have. And that’s what happened.
One day a family went out hiking in Yellowstone National Park and strayed off the beaten path to see a wolf cub change into his human form and dress right in front of them. He’d been upwind of them and hadn’t known they were there until it was too late. At only thirteen, he’d run home, afraid that he would be killed for allowing them to see him. He’d ended up very lucky in that they had been so shocked, they hadn’t remembered to take any pictures.
It had served as a wakeup call to the elders of each group, and the decision was made to reveal themselves to the humans so they could control the fallout as best as possible.
With the knowledge that it could all go bad, they chose someone who was already a much-loved popular figure among the humans. Andrew Fisher, a popular music star known for his friendliness and straight living, held a press conference surrounded by other shifters from all walks of life and The Awakening occurred. Humans became aware of things they’d only dreamed and fantasized about in books, movies, and TV.
At first they’d embraced the knowledge, comfortable with them walking the streets and living in their neighborhoods, but soon secular groups began to form protesting the shifter’s rights, saying they weren’t human, so they shouldn’t be treated that way.
Like humans, shifters sometimes had deviants among them who broke the laws of all shifters as well as human laws. Once one of them was determined to have killed someone, humans began questioning every death that occurred, trying to turn all of them into shifter kills. And so the Rogue Hunters were born to police the shifters and bring down those who broke the law.
Unfortunately the hunters didn’t much care what a shifter was allegedly guilty of. It was all the same to them. When it came to taking them in, if they resisted or protested that they were innocent, likely as not they ended up shot under the pretense of being a dangerous animal who just needed to be put down.
Lucky for them, they had quite a few shifters in key official offices, both nationally and throughout many of the states. Most humans were fine with shifters and
being around them, but like anything or anyone who was different, they developed a following of haters who made it their mission in life to destroy them any way they could.
He quickly showered off. Once he was dry, Creed cl into the big bed, wishing his mate was already there with him. While he and Shayne would share her, there would be times they each spent time alone with her to keep their bonds tight. He would love to curl up around her right now and have her rest her head on his arm or shoulder. His bear rumbled in agreement.
The comforting scent of cinnamon-spiced honey lingered in his nose as he considered how to approach her. He wished he’d had more interaction with felines before they’d moved. It had never occurred to him that his future mate might not be bear or wolf. They had moved directly into the middle of bear and wolf country when they’d chosen the Talmadge Community at the edge of Glacier National Park. It had seemed to be the most similar to where they’d moved from out of Alaska. Finding a feline up here wasn’t unusual, but he’d have thought most felines would stay a little farther south. Maybe she was a snow leopard, he thought to himself. That would make sense.
Visions of a pretty snow leopard leaping from rock to ground and across snowbanks made him smile. Worries over the future with him now, the Ursus of a sleuth shoved the lighthearted thoughts down. He had set up Talmadge Sleuth with the hope that they would grow to be their own clan one day. When it had all been theory, plans, and dreams between Shayne and the others, the pressures hadn’t seemed unbearable. Now, in the early morning hours of his first day in their new den, Creed fully appreciated the difficulty and stress his Ursus had been under in their old home.
With change came challenges, and with success came sorrow. It was one of the many things his great grandfather Papa Bear had taught him many years before he’d gone to the Father five years ago. His kind lived long lives, but as Papa Bear had said to him just before his death, great age and great wisdom might join hands for most. Few are allowed the privilege of sharing it with their mate, and it made for a sorrowful time. Papa Bear’s mate had died nearly fifteen years before, leaving his great grandfather alone and lonely.
He and his brothers had all taken turns staying with him when they were growing up. It had kept the older bear busy and helped him live through the long days. More than that, it had helped them to learn things they might not have had they not spent the time with him. He and Shayne had spent a lot more time with their Papa than their three other brothers. He prayed they’d used that time wisely to learn what they would need to know to nurture and protect their new sleuth.
I promise that I will make you proud, Papa Bear. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and time with Shayne and me.
Creed pushed the button on his cell phone to check the time and winced. He needed to be asleep already. With one last thought of his yet-to-be-claimed mate, he let sleep claim him.
Chapter Two
Serenity’s feline half woke seconds before her human half did. The lynx sniffed the air and relaxed before yawning and opening her eyes. Once her human side stirred, joining in the start of a new day, the feline crept out of the mini-den and jumped off the bed before stretching. Seconds later, the lynx retreated, and Serenity’s human side stood to her full height of five feet, four inches.
As she moved around the room, pulling on clothes and pulling her hair back into a ponytail, all of the stiffness from the night before was gone, as she’d known it would be. Sometimes being a shifter proved to have some advantages after all. Then the memory of new neighbors of the shifting kind crashed her good mood.
“Damn and double damn!” She stomped into the kitchen to pick out her coffee, thankful she’d managed the nearly seven hours of sleep she’d gotten after drifting off sometime around one thirty that morning.
Serenity settled on a fairly strong morning brew since she had a feeling the day was going to be challenging with her deadline as well as new neighbors. All she could hope for at this point was that they would want to keep to themselves and leave her alone.
Just give me until Monday to finish this project without interruptions, and I’ll play nice when they come visiting. I promise.
Right. She wasn’t living out on her own, a female shifter without a mate, for no reason. Serenity’s name didn’t reflect her nature, or even her personality, by a long shot. Her mom had been dreaming or wishing when she’d named her youngest kit Serenity. Chaos would have been a much better label for her. As in, anytime she was around, chaos ensued.
She sighed and waited for the Keurig machine to do its magic before continuing on to figure something out for breakfast. By the sound of her belly, it had been longer than eight hours since her last meal. When she was in the middle or on deadline with a project, eating only occurred when she could no longer think over the noise of her protesting belly. Until then she ignored the sounds.
“Looks like eggs and toast and—eggs. Time for a supply run.” Had it been that long since she’d been to town?
Normally Serenity only went to town once every two weeks, but knowing that she was going to submerge herself in the computer program until it was finished, she could have sworn she’d stocked up on everything to last her three weeks. Since the project was due on Monday, according to her deadline program that counted down the days for her, it had already been three weeks, and she was out of food.
The scrambled eggs, toast, and jelly settled her hunger pains for the time being, so she took her coffee and her preprinted grocery list outside to make notes on what she needed to order and pick up in town. The instant she unlocked and opened her front door, the scents attacked.
“What the…” Serenity took a step back then forced herself to walk out onto the front porch.
Leaving the grocery lists and coffee cup on the table by her favorite chair, she walked down the steps to stand a few feet away from the trees on either side of her sidewalk. Here she had no trouble determining what brand of shifter had moved in next door. Nor did she need to talk with them to find out what the relationship between their homes might be. They’d introduced themselves and staked their intent for all the world to see in her front yard. At least every shifter who might pass through would know their business once inhaling and viewing her trees.
Her new neighbors were bear shifters, and they were claiming her as their mate—their mate, as in two of them. She could smell two distinct scents and could tell the differences in the claw patterns they’d left behind on her trees. Why were there two of them, and were they planning on fighting over her? Hell no. She wouldn’t have either of them, so there was no reason for them to fight over her. End of story.
She turned her back to the mess, and after grabbing her coffee and the food list, walked back through the house to the back porch and settled out there to commune as best she could. Though there were no claw marks marring her trees back there, their scents were still potent and irritating to her feline constitution.
“Even my lynx knows it will never work.” At least that was what she hoped since the feline had been so quiet since picking up the bears’ scents.
By the time she’d finished her coffee, Serenity had a makeshift list of her needs for the next two weeks and was chomping at the bit to head to town. That in itself should have warned her that she was freaking out. Serenity never eagerly went anywhere other than for a run around her territory. She hated going to town and dealing with pesky humans who were either scared to death of her or too curious for their own good. Somehow going to town edged out staying in close proximity to the bears as the lesser of two evils. This was proving to not be the easy clean up day she’d envisioned for finishing the program.
Serenity set some program tests into play to work while she was gone then set up a new program that would keep track of things she monitored in various forums around the Internet. If anything was posted that included certain target words or phrases, it would mark the location and time so that she could review them when she got back.
With the majority of the world now activ
e with technology, threats of all types emerged for not only humans, but shifters as well. She kept up with as much of it as possible and sent out reports to those who might be interested to follow up on or not. She maintained her anonymity through careful re-mailers, switch stations, and recycled temporary e-mail addresses. It wouldn’t do for her cover to get blown. She’d be either an enemy or a major resource to be owned, controlled, or eliminated. Serenity’s goal was to be none of the above. She belonged to no one, and no one told her what to do.
With everything set into motion to keep her programs going while she was gone, she grabbed her bag and, after checking to be sure there was no one around the carport, raced out the back door to her SUV. She felt a little foolish acting like a teenager sneaking out of the house under her parents’ noses, when she’d never done so as a teen in the first place.
The drive into town took over thirty minutes with so many people on the road out to enjoy a pretty Saturday. Everyone knew how soon winter would be slipping in to force hibernation for those without alternate transportation.
Hibernation? Where did that word come from? I don’t use words like hibernate.
She suppressed a growl over the unintended reference to bears. She hadn’t even had a confrontation with them yet, and already her subconscious was focusing on them.
At the local department store where one could find anything from grapes to pipe cement, Serenity parked and mentally prepared herself to deal with the humans and any other shifters that might be out shopping. With her unusual eye color of pale light green and the otherworldly aura that gave humans goose bumps or had their hair rising all over their body, she had no illusions that she could shop undetected. While there were some lucky humans who were other unaware, or as some shifters called them, danger dumb, the majority of the human population sensed something when around them.
