by P. Jameson
Text copyright ©2017 by the Author.
This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Lisa Ladew. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original One True Mate remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Lisa Ladew, or their affiliates or licensors.
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One night together on a frozen mountain was all it took to find home…
Cedar Van Holt might be a thrill seeker extraordinaire, jumping from one dangerous stunt to another, testing limits that should be beyond her capabilities. Because it’s the only thing that makes her feel normal. Less alone. And she might be the daughter of Chicago’s biggest billionaire. Might even be following in her father’s footsteps. But she’s never felt like she belonged in her family’s world of business mergers and charity balls. Secretly, she dreams of a simple life. In a simple town. With a coffee shop to call her own. And a man who will love her unconditionally. Is that too much to ask? Because Cedar sure has some big secrets she’s running from. And she needs a man who can handle her strange powers and help her battle back the demon that comes for her in her dreams.
Coast Guardsman, Daryn West, was born to save lives. When the goddess Rhen gifted his ancestors the ability to shift forms between human and bird, they were given the task of watching over humankind from the sky. A dark demon hunts the humans, and the only thing standing between them and evil is the Shiften. Those who are part beast, part man. But his kind is growing restless to mate, and with all their females eradicated, their only hope is to find the One True Mate destined for them. Daryn has lost hope that he can find his in cold and desolate Alaska. And he and his flock of Shiften have a job to do, even if it means a life of loneliness. Semper Paratus. Always ready.
When fate leaves him stranded on a mountain with a female possessing odd powers, Daryn gets his chance to save them both, and the future they’ve each longed for.
Raven’s Heart
By P. Jameson
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Forward From Lisa Ladew
Ha! I met P. Jameson, too, and she is just the sweetest ever! I didn’t realize until JUST NOW how biased I was, favoring authors who live in the Pacific Northwest. How did that happen? I didn’t plan it that way or try.
I almost wonder if there’s a higher concentration of shifter authors out here because of the scenery, the wilderness. I mean, it’s all about inspiration, right? How much does the greenery and the wildlife contribute to the subconscious formation of our stories? Probably a lot. An author who lives in New York is going to write about …. You know, New York shit. I’ve never been, but I imagine New York is all about too many cars and too much people and predatory businesses and walking to work in your tennies, with your heels in your purse, and hot guys dressed in suits and speaking every french word on the menu perfectly. Is that New York? Or am I ridiculous? Lol. That’s what movies and TV tells me.
So now that I told you the ridiculousness that is New York in my mind, let me share with you what the Pacific Northwest is all about. This I’ve lived. Hot, hardworking, badass guys who wrestle bears and stalk wolves. Elk on your porch and bears in your garbage and raccoons taunting your dogs. But it’s cool, because your badass man is the one who deals with it. Mostly he does that by heading outside and getting into a pissing contest with the animal, which can get dicey if it’s a bear. And that is the reason why all us PNW women know how to handle a shotgun. In case we have to save our men from a bear in the yard at three in the morning.
LOL!
Ok. I’ll leave you here. I need a nap or something. I hope you love PJ’s story, it’s a heartwarming one. I absolutely adore where she went with it.
<3 Lisa
Other books by P. Jameson
Firecats (Alley Cats)
All is Bright (Book 1)
Ouachita Mountain Shifters
Series
Dirt Track Dogs
Series
Dirt Track Dogs: The Second Lap
Series
Ozark Mountain Shifters
Series
Sci-fi Fantasy Romance
Starwalker (Amazon)
Breaking the Skin (Amazon)
Stay up to date with all P. Jameson news!
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And don’t forget to check out the other amazing One True Mate Kindle Worlds stories!
Chapter One
Daryn West slowed his beat-up F-250 to a slug’s crawl as he pulled up to the entrance of the United States Coast Guard Kodiak station. He peered out the window and up at the graying Alaska sky just as a gust of wind whipped his truck. A storm was brewing. But that wasn’t what gave him the familiar sense of dread in the pit of his gut.
He locked eyes with the cold stone statue of an eagle that flanked the entrance of the station like a sentinel. There was one at every Coast Guard station in Alaska, and every time he slowed to pay his respect, the damn things ruffled his inner Raven’s feathers. Creeped his bird right out.
And he wasn’t the only one. His best friend, Kai, said the same thing. Even Justice, the quietest of them all, had mentioned it. Talon, their commander, hadn’t. But Daryn didn’t miss the shiver the older man got when they rode by it the other day.
Civilians thought the eagles represented America. And yeah, shiften had done a lot to push that belief. But it really stood for those first flight beasts that the goddess Rhen gifted the ability to turn human.
His ancestors.
Sort of.
It was by happenstance that a raven was among the flock who helped her track down the demon Khain that night lifetimes ago. Otherwise, he’d be bald like Talon. And have a name like Talon. Who the hell wanted to be named after their foot anyway? Humans didn’t go around with names like Toe or Sole or Heel.
Daryn sped up once past the eagle and turned into a muddy parking spot. It was work time. The only thing he really looked forward to these days. The only thing that settled his inner beast and its drive to mate. Something that until recently had been an impossibility for all shiften.
Many years ago, their greatest enemy, the demon Khain, went through species by species, killing off all the females of their kind in an attempt to wipe out future shiften generations. With shiften the only thing standing between him and humanity, who he was intent on destroying, Khain thought he’d won.
Daryn smirked to himself. Not so, asshole.
A few months ago, his flock had gotten word that there was hope for shiften kind after all. That out there somewhere, there were One True Mates that a avien like him could mate with, start a family with, have a future with.
The story was, twenty-five years ago, an angel in love with Rhen heard her cries to save humanity. He came to earth for forty days and put as many human women with child as he could, so that one day these half-human half-angel females could be strong enough to mate with shiften. Now they were come of age, and developing their powers. They were ready to meet their mates.
Daryn didn’t know if he believed it. But Talon had been talking to some wolfen from Idaho, where the first female was found, and seemed convinced.
Even if it was true. It would seem unlikely that he or anyone in his flock would find their one true mates soon. Not deep in Alaska, on the cusp of winter, away from most other shiften.
They could take off for Serenity, Idaho where so many were finding th
eir matches. But they had an obligation to protect the humans of the last frontier. Rhen had chosen them to watch from the sky, like the avien before them. Guard the humans from Khain’s brutal schemes. And that was what they would always do.
“Semper Paratus,” Daryn sighed, pulling his parka hood up before stepping from his truck. Always ready. It was the Coast Guard motto, and it fit just fine. But he couldn’t deny the way his gut churned at the thought of never finding a woman to spend his life with. To protect with all his might. Never feeling soft touches or hearing soft words whispered in his ear.
Then again, maybe it was for the best.
When Khain demolished the females, Daryn had lost his own mother. He was only three, but he remembered the way it drove his father insane to lose such an integral part of himself. Before his fourth birthday, Daryn had lost them both, and was taken in by Talon.
The eagle shiften was only sixteen years his senior but he’d been a father to him. The best one he could ask for.
Was it too late for Talon? Daryn wondered as he tromped around the back of his truck and pulled his gear out of the bed. Was there still a chance the eagle could find a one true mate too? If so, maybe he should go to Serenity. The crew could take care of things here while he sought out happiness.
The bastard was tough, but he deserved the chance more than any of them. He’d sacrificed more than was expected. Given until it hurt. Even Rhen must think so.
Daryn would bring it up later. When the time was right. If he could get Kai in on the idea maybe the old man would listen.
As Daryn approached the side door of the building, the metal burst open, nearly swinging off its hinges. Out poured a crew of four guardsmen with Talon bringing up the rear.
“Oh, good,” he rumbled, coming face to face with Daryn. “You’re here. How fast can you suit up?” Through the open doorway, Daryn could hear the SAR alarm sounding, telling him a Search And Rescue was underway.
Adrenaline surged under his skin, his inner raven ready to feather up. “Ten minutes. Less.”
Talon nodded and turned to the crew. “Change of plans. Justice, you shift and fly ahead. Scout for us.” The young avien nodded and jogged around behind the building. Seconds later, a large eagle with a white capped head soared into the murky Alaska air, disappearing into the cloud cover. Talon continued, “I’ll pilot the helo, Kole will fly co. Kai, you and Daryn take the inside with Daryn as swimmer.”
“I was supposed to jump tonight,” Kai argued, and Daryn tried not to snicker at his friend’s competitive side. The urge to be the best in the crew bled through them all, and sometimes caused Talon to grow extra wrinkles around his eyes.
“Daryn’s better with land drops and you’re the best one on communication.”
Land. This was a land rescue? They hadn’t been called in on one of those in a while. And it was true, Kai could outswim him most days, but Daryn was the one with the most success landing on solid ground. And the one with more hours of medic training. By twenty minutes. But who was counting?
“Yes, captain.” Kai nodded a hard move of his head.
“You update lieutenant Daryn on our mission and meet us at the helo in ten.”
With that Talon and Kole jogged off toward the helopad while Daryn and Kai ran for the locker rooms. It was go time.
Semper Paratus.
Chapter Two
Cedar Van Holt trudged up the icy incline of one of Alaska’s most dangerous recreational mountains. One of them. It was Alaska. There were many. And she was scheduled to scale five before her impromptu vacation was over and she headed back to Chicago to deal with her family and her business.
Turnagain Pass was beautiful even if the weather was not. And Cedar preferred the graying skies overhead, and the brisk whipping wind. It meant less people on Magnum Mountain… even though it wasn’t the most crowded one around anyway. Too risky. Too likely to have an avalanche.
And just perfect for what she needed.
She paused at the first crest to catch her breath—which wasn’t even strained. She wondered for the millionth time what was wrong with her. She leaned on her ski pole, but it was more habit, or because she should need to. But she didn’t. Just like she didn’t need the layers and layers of outerwear or the heat packs she carried with her gear or even food most days.
Her employees were right. She was a freak.
She’d heard them whispering at her twenty fifth birthday party. And then again before the last board meeting. The one that urged her here. To the mountains. As if she had something to prove to them or herself.
If her parents knew she was in the Alaskan wilderness alone, they’d flip their collective lid.
Cedar grinned imagining her father, David Van Holt III, calling in every favor he held in his pocket for a search party. He’d bark at them from the other end of the phone, sitting behind his perfectly polished desk in his high rise in Chicago. And her mother, nervously fretting. She’d have the checkbook out and every charity based in Alaska would be receiving a donation.
Cedar smirked. Maybe she should tell them. For the greater good of the Alaskan people—who were some of the friendliest she’d met in her life. They could probably use some extra medical supplies for that little mountain clinic she spotted on her way to Turnagain Pass.
Gazing up the path, she spotted her destination, a large crest of snow close to the peak. Rumor down the trail was that there was a crack starting and that the entire shelf might fall. They were advising people to stay lower down, but she wanted to see it for herself before she set up camp for the night.
Danger.
Her chest zinged with adrenaline and she absorbed it like a drug. It lit her up inside, gave her satisfaction like nothing she had experienced. And she’d put herself in many a perilous situation over the past six years. Rock climbing, BASE jumping, shark diving, paragliding, storm chasing. If there was a dangerous stunt to be done, she’d done it.
Now, she was taking on Alaska.
Cedar trekked forward, anxious to get to the top. The crest was still far out of reach, and there was only a few hours of daylight left, but she wasn’t worried. She’d make it. And she’d make it back down the mountain tomorrow morning.
Cedar always survived.
No matter what life threw at her, she always survived. And since she’d been throwing her own stuff in the mix, nothing had changed. She still made it out of every perilous situation she put herself in.
As she traversed the snow covered mountainside, she considered the events of the past few months and the tangle of emotions that came with it.
It started with her birthday. Her parents had chosen her twenty-fifth as the perfect time to tell her the biggest revelation of her life.
She was adopted.
They must have expected her to be upset. Maybe even furious at them for keeping it from her for so long. Because they’d given her the most beautiful pendant of a raven with teal eyes on one side and a dark-haired angel on the other. The jewelry had taken her breath away. Had put her in a temporary daze of awe. At one point, it even felt like the raven was staring at her as she gazed into the navy case the pendant was nestled in.
But instead of being angry, Cedar had been relieved. It explained why she had always felt out of place in their world no matter how hard they tried to convince her she belonged. Her parents loved her, and had given her a life better than most were lucky enough to have. And she loved them. But the itch to know why she was so different rode her hard.
And sent her on crazy expeditions like this to test her limits.
But that was the fun part.
The not so fun part was getting emails like the one she received this morning from a woman in Somewhere-that-starts-with-an-S, Idaho claiming to be her long lost half-sister. Which might be nice if she could trust it. The whole world knew her net worth, so she received similar messages on the regular. So far, none of them had checked out.
And the downright scary part was the eerie dreams she’d been having
of a dark beast coming for her. He called her the promised, and seemed bigger than the sun but exactly the opposite. So steeped in evil, he was a shadow. A shadow with a core of sick and twisted. A shadow that had plans for her. Plans she’d never agree to, but had a feeling he’d enjoy forcing.
Cedar shivered, and it wasn’t because of the blast of wind that rattled the mountain.
The dreams scared her more than any daring stunt. But they didn’t give her the rush of adrenaline she craved. The adrenaline she seemed to need just to feel human.
No, that wasn’t it.
The adrenaline made her feel less alone.
She was surrounded by people, day in and day out. She attended parties her parents threw, charity balls, events galore. But she was so… alone. The challenge, the dare, it was like a living thing within her.
It was her best friend. It was her lover.
How sad was that.
Cedar lifted her face to the swirling sky and breathed in the thinning air. It was going to snow. She could almost taste it. And from the looks of things, it was going to be big.
A thrill raced up her spine. Let it be a blizzard.
Time to get moving if she wanted to see the crest and get back to a level where she could build a snow cave for the night before the sun went down.
She made it to the top as the first flurries began to fall, slow and ominous, as if they were warning of the storm to come. Cedar’s smile stretched across her face.
This was going to be a perfect night. Just her, and her adrenaline lover. What more could she ask for.
Chapter Three
“There you are, you beautiful thing.” Cedar squatted on her skis to examine the crack in the snow shelf. She shouldn’t attempt to get any closer. But it was dangerous so she did. After a look down the mountain to make sure no one was in the path of any potential avalanche.
