by J. K Harper
Coming to Deep Hollow had been the best decision of her life. It was a lucky break that she intended to make the most of. Forget the past, and live for her new future in these beautiful mountains.
She drank in every detail as they drove upward to the Silvertip Lodge, the main shifter tourist draw of the area that also happened to belong to the Walkers. It was an entire landscape filled with adventure and excitement, all wrapped up in a crisp newness Haley desperately craved. She'd spent the last year in a nightmare. This was a sweet, incredible dream she'd finally been able to find. She only hoped she wouldn't suddenly wake up to realize it was just as false as the life she'd been forced to leave behind.
As Jessie steered the big truck around one more corner, she glanced over at Haley and smiled. "Your expression is just like the one I had the first time I saw all this. I feel so lucky I found this place. You will too." Her voice was cheerful and upbeat, just like she was.
Haley had met Jessie at the Mountain Muffin, a cute little bakery that was the heart of Deep Hollow. She liked to split her time between writing at the house, with its privacy and peace, then heading to the Mountain Muffin at midday to soak up the energy whirling around her as she worked on the more mundane tasks of running an online, one-woman business.
Jessie worked as a barista there. The very first day Haley had shown up, Jessie had immediately smiled at her. "You're Haley, right? You're house-sitting for the Walkers? I'm Jessie. Welcome to Deep Hollow." She'd been so instantly friendly and likable that Haley naturally liked her. Jessie was also human, but she was the mother of a shifter son, both of them living with her shifter mate, Shane, up at Silvertip Lodge where Shane worked. She told Haley she'd lived here for about a year now and that she absolutely loved this little town and its boisterous yet extremely protective clan of bear shifters. In Jessie, Haley knew right away she'd found a new friend.
Jessie had been fascinated to find out that Haley had already known about shifters, since she herself had never heard of such a thing until her son was born and she noticed something different about him. Luckily for her, her best friend was originally from Deep Hollow and immediately knew what was going on when single mother Jessie had told her that her infant son, who'd been born from a weekend fling, sometimes growled like an animal. Although Jessie curiously pried for how Haley knew about shifters, Haley was reluctant to share with anyone exactly how she'd found out about Deep Hollow.
Her best friend, Pix, was a dragon shifter who'd partially renounced her heritage. But that wasn't Haley's story to share, and Pix kept her shifter side a secret from most. So she just vaguely said that she knew a shifter back in Boston who'd hooked her up with the shifter-only online message boards through which the Walkers had been seeking a house-sitter. That was the truth. Jessie had easily accepted that, not pressing for more details.
"I think it's amazing here," Haley murmured now. “I definitely feel very lucky already.”
They rounded one more corner of the road, and suddenly a scatter of cozy brown log cabins, a barn, then a building that dwarfed all the rest, which must be the main lodge, came into view. Haley sucked in a breath, swiveling her head around to take it all in as Jessie drove them toward the large building. Nestled into a small valley beneath the imposing brow of the mountain above, which she knew was called Silvertip Ridge, the mountain lodge was spectacular but not overwhelming. The place felt cocooned in the safety of its little valley, yet at the same time it also opened up to the wide open sprawl of the mountains beyond. Haley got a sudden little shiver down her spine, then another, as she realized that bear shifters ran around back there. All kinds of shifters, actually. This place was the ideal mashup between meeting the needs of the human side of shifters as well as the animal side. Haley had to admit she didn't really know any shifters at all except Pix. And Pix wasn't a bear.
Suddenly, Jessie's delighted laugh rolled out. "There they are! My cub, and my man." Devotion and pride filled her voice.
Haley turned to look where Jessie pointed. Involuntarily, she gasped, her eyes widening as her brain stalled out. Charging across the snowy grounds, directly for them, was a little bear cub, an actual bear cub, all cute and roly-poly and sort of disjointed as he ran in that little baby creature way. He was followed by an absolutely giant grizzly bear. A grizzly bear that had to be Jessie's mate.
She found herself wondering if Cortez, that sexy, sexy man she'd met the other morning, would be as big as this bear. Be as fierce, and strong. She couldn't stop thinking about him, which half bugged her and half keyed her up. Even though he'd left on that sad, dark note, a note that jostled into her own deepest fears and told her he had fears of his own, what she most remembered about him was his deep laugh and the sparkle in his eyes. She couldn't help but wonder if he was up here somewhere. He was a Walker, after all.
Jessie coasted the truck to a stop on the side of the road. Opening the door, she jumped out and fearlessly went straight for the huge grizzly and the little cub, clearly joyful as she knelt down and spread out her arms wide so the little bear could run right to her. Haley just stared at the improbable but totally adorable scene, frozen to her seat with excitement and wonder. The next second, the little bear abruptly morphed into a little boy, probably around two years old, butt naked and giggling cheerfully in the freezing cold January weather. He leaped barefoot out of the snow into his mother's arms, flinging his own little arms around her neck and squeezing her tight.
Haley rubbed her eyes, blinking. Whoa. She'd met the little boy, Grant, at the Mountain Muffin several times, but there he'd always been in human form. And while she'd seen her friend Pix change into her dragon before, and it was amazing, she'd also been seeing it since they were both in elementary school. She was kind of used to it. Haley had never in her life seen bear shifters before. Her mind soaked in the details even as at the same time it could only unimaginatively come up with Wow as a descriptor.
The adult grizzly bear gently whuffled his nose over the boy's head, then equally gently nuzzled the top of Jessie's. Jessie reached out to rub the golden fur between the bear's fierce eyes, completely unafraid. Grinning, she gestured back at the truck, half turning to wave at Haley. Haley waved back, still nonplussed. The giant bear turned his head toward the truck, letting out a muffled roar that she really hoped was a greeting. He gently nudged Jessie one more time before turning and loping toward some sort of maintenance shed tucked around back behind the lodge.
Jessie stood up, naked little boy held tightly in her arms, and came back to the truck. She slid in, beaming at Haley. "Shane will say hi later, over lunch. We decided you didn't need to be freaked out too much just yet, so it would be better to meet him when he's human. And when he has clothes on.”
“Uh—sure. Clothes are good.” Haley's voice was a squeak.
Jessie laughed over her son's babbles. “I felt the same way when I first saw them in their shifted forms. Come on, let's get up to the lodge. Abby will have lunch ready for us. It'll just be sandwiches and soup probably, but it will be good. And you can meet everyone finally.” She put the truck back into gear and they rumbled the remaining hundred feet up to the beautiful main building.
Her head still whirling from seeing the bears, Haley murmured a delighted “Ooh!” as they pulled up to the stunning lodge. Huge windows spread from floor to ceiling while a wrap-around deck the size of the Titanic ran the full length of the building. Huge pines, the ones Haley had learned were ponderosas, rose to dramatic heights on either side, their limbs covered with sparkling snow. Jessie pulled up and parked in the lot beside the lodge, shifting Grant in her arms as she got out of the truck and headed toward the front doors. Haley followed up the cleared walkway, which was lined by fluffy piles of snow all the way. It was fairytale beautiful here.
When the reached the doors, she made a noise when she saw the carvings in the wood. Jessie smiled at her. “Pretty neat, huh? The lodge is open to all shifters, but it's a reminder that this is native bear country.”
On
the upper panels of the gorgeous oak doors, huge carved silvertips, or grizzly bears, stood on ridges surveying their domain before them. On the panels below, enormous grizzly paws decorated the wood, carefully etched in by a master hand. “Those are the actual paw prints of the boys,” Jessie said as she pushed open the door. “Shane's is down there,” she added, pointing proudly to what clearly was a newer carving. “He just moved back here a few years ago, but he's part of the Walker clan since he's a cousin. He got to have his on there too.”
Driven by sudden impulse, Haley asked, “Which one belongs to Cortez?”
“Cortez?” Jessie gave her a funny look. “I didn't know you knew him already. That's his.” She pointed to a block in the middle of the left door. “You can tell because he's missing a claw tip.”
Haley blinked at that. “Really? I thought shifters could, uh, heal really quickly.”
Jessie shrugged as she maneuvered herself and her squirming son through the doorway. “He was born that way. He's always been a little different. Abby!” she called out, waving at a blond woman behind the enormous reception counter. “I brought a new friend for us. Abby's a wolf shifter,” Jessie added. “Her mate is Quentin.”
Abby had almost immediately come forward to coo at Grant, who said something that sounded like “AmmyAwwy!” Abby smiled at Haley, who couldn't help but stare for a second too long. She was pretty sure she'd never before met a wolf shifter, either. But Abby didn't seem to notice. She said in a genuinely friendly voice, “Welcome to the Silvertip Lodge, Haley. I've heard all about you. We all have.”
Haley sighed. The quiet life of a writer had somewhat eluded her here. But at the same time, it was sort of nice. Everyone seemed to want her to belong, even though she was just the house-sitter. They were welcoming and friendly. It was a tight-knit yet accepting community like nothing she'd ever experienced before.
Abby turned to the man who was taking her place behind the reception desk, saying, "It'll just be an hour, Joe, thanks." The man cheerfully flicked two fingers from his forehead at her in an aye-aye, cap'n, sort of way, then cast a friendly yet curious look at Haley. She gave him a shy smile in return, wondering if he too was a shifter, then picked up her steps to follow Abby and Jessie as they went down the hallway. Grant walked between them on his own two legs, still stark naked.
No one seemed to notice or care that he didn't have clothes on in the middle of the winter. Then again, they were bear shifters. She knew they had a totally different metabolism and internal temperature than humans. The cold must not bother him at all. As they entered the small dining area, which by the casual, somewhat messy look of it appeared to be for staff only, she couldn't help her curiosity. "Jessie, would you let him run around like this in town too? I know everyone in Deep Hollow knows about shifters. But he's starkers."
Jessie giggled, but Abby answered, smiling as she gestured for Haley to sit down at the table. "No, not in town. It took a while for me to get used to it up here too. The pack I'm from lives closer to humans, even though on the pack estate there is a lot of privacy. But only members of that pack are usually there. So it's different up here. Here at the lodge, we welcome all kinds of shifters, from all over the world." Abby busied herself ladling out a hearty-smelling soup from the giant pot bubbling away on the stove in the corner. "I knew the lodge existed, of course, but I never actually came here until I met Quentin."
"Did I hear someone sexy and amazing just say my name?" Haley looked over as a big guy, Cortez's brother as well as her house property manager, walked in. He raised his eyebrows when he saw her sitting there, but nodded cordially. "Haley. Good to see you here." Even so, he gave Jessie and Abby a questioning glance.
Abby, who was walking the soup bowls over to the table, leaned over to brush her lips on his cheek for a lingering moment before she answered. "This girl works her tail off, even when she's hanging out at the Mountain Muffin all afternoon. Jessie's told me so. She's landed here for a whole year. Jessie and I decided it'd be good for her to come see the lodge and meet all of us."
Before Haley could say more than hello back to Quentin, a rush and tumble of enormous men sauntering into the room distracted everyone.
"Who wants to meet all of us?" The owner of this voice, a tall man with dark hair and that somewhat feral vibe Haley had come to associate with bear shifters, strode straight over to Jessie, whose face exploded into the same joy and happiness it had worn outside with the bears that were her mate and son. This must be Shane. Haley couldn't help a wistful stare as Shane kissed Jessie with all the possessive passion of a man who hadn't seen his woman in weeks, let alone about five minutes. Grant waved his chubby arms at Shane, obviously still recognizing Shane in his human form. And clothed, Haley noticed. Good thing he was. She was pretty sure Jessie was right and she wouldn't have had the grace to handle seeing naked adult guys running around all over.
That fascinating Cortez, though. Hmm. She might not entirely mind seeing him striding around buck naked. He'd be so big, and those legs like darned tree trunks, and that broad chest of his—
Nope. Not going there. She turned her head away. What Shane and Jessie had looked real enough, but it was also still painful to watch. Even so, she wondered where Cortez was in this gaggle of Walker bear clan guys. She also couldn't help thinking again about the sexy gold stubble on his face and what it might feel like against her cheek.
"If she wants to meet the clan of the wild and crazy, then she's come to the right place," Quentin said. His voice was mild, but Haley caught an irritable undercurrent. She remembered his mother, Elodie, had told her that Quentin was in charge of the lodge, as well as all his hooligan younger brothers while the elder Walkers were gone. Almost all of them were somehow involved with the running of the lodge. If they were all like Cortez, poor Quentin probably had a tough time reining them in.
It was probably impossible to rein in a guy like Cortez.
The noise level in the room turned way up, everyone chattering and laughing and just taking up so much space. If Jessie hadn't been right here with her, if Abby hadn't been so friendly and welcoming from the beginning, Haley might have wanted to leave the room and go hide. The energy in here boomed and ricocheted, amping up the entire space. So much suppressed wildness in all these huge men. She could sense it from Abby, too, though hers seemed more contained. Haley knew it wasn't just male testosterone filling the room. It was fierce, untamed shifter energy, brimming and curling through the room with its strength and innate power. Pix was very powerful, but her energy was more controlled. This bordered on half savage, invigorating as well as intimidating.
Abruptly, another energy tumbled in through the doorway, pulling Haley's attention like a magnet. She breathed in hard as she turned around.
Cortez.
He rolled into the room, feeling just as energetically wild as the others, but also like he had some sort of anger lashing beneath everything. Then his eyes landed on Haley. She almost choked on her breath from the sheer power of his gaze. His anger seemed to ease off and a surprised smile swept over his face. They'd left on such a strange note full of mystery and confusion, but now it felt good to see him.
Before he could say anything, another dang huge guy entered the room, followed by a pair of kids who immediately ran over to Grant and swooped him up in their arms, all three giggling at once. This guy paused when he saw Haley, his eyes narrowing. She took a nervous half step back. There was no mistaking the animosity in his gaze. It was disconcerting because he looked similar to Cortez. He must be another brother.
“Who's this?" Ooh, nope. His voice was definitely not friendly. The air seemed to chill.
Jessie, paying more attention to Grant's giggles as the two new children tickled his belly and the soles of his bare feet, said through her own giggles, "Hey, Riley. Meet Haley, the house-sitter.”
Haley drew breath to say a pleasant hello to Riley, even though her entire being felt suddenly pinned by his decidedly not happy presence. Pinned like a helpless butt
erfly to a board, unable to escape. He didn't want her here. Why? He strode to the center of the room, staring at Haley with a look that she could only think of as being predatory. The greeting died in her mouth. Though she managed to stand her ground, she quailed back. Holy crap, he was not happy to see her. She didn't even know who he was. Cortez. Where was Cortez? She opened her mouth to ask him for help, but her mouth had dried up into something that felt like desiccated twigs.
Rocking to a halt in the center of the room, arms down at his sides, fingers slowly curling, Riley snapped, “Haley. Yeah, I know who you are. The writer. The one who likes to tell secrets.”
The dark, angry thread beneath his words thunked sudden silence into the room.
“That's why you came here, isn't it? To spy on us?” His words came out flat, but with an edge beneath them. He leaned forward. She saw something not human lurch in his eyes, and she thought she might piss her pants. “You want to tell our secrets, expose our home to the whole world so more fucking humans who want to murder our kind will come here, isn't that right?"
4
Fucking Riley and his shit. Cortez instantly saw red at his brother's asshole move. That sweet, pretty Haley was standing stock still, clearly terrified. Cortez had instantly sensed Riley's simmering antagonism directed right at her the second his brother came in the room. His bear roiled beneath his skin, pushing hard at him. Cortez was on Riley's heels, a breath behind his brother as Riley got too close to Haley. Much too close to her with his ugly temper. Lunging the last step forward, he grabbed Riley's shoulder amidst the shocked silence in the room, yanking him back.