by V. Vaughn
“That’s the reason I came to speak with you today, I was hoping you could give me an extension on the debt. Maybe a week?”
“Unfortunately, there’s no way that I can offer further extension on this tax debt. If it isn’t paid in full in the next seventy-two hours, I’m afraid that this property is going to be auctioned off by the state.”
“All I need is one more week, tops. My father just passed away. Is in there anything that you can do?”
“No, there isn’t. This property has been delinquent for over a year. Not a penny has been paid on the debt, and now that your father has passed away, the state will no longer offer any extensions on the taxes. If you want to inherit this land you have to pay the debt, now.”
“But I can’t pay it today. What am I supposed to do?”
“However you intended to pay in a week, pay it today.”
“Okay,” Ginger said, rising from the chair. She knew she wasn’t going to get anywhere with this guy. She might as well start on Plan B right now, and not waste any further time with James Salvo. “I’ll be back with the money in less than seventy-two hours.”
“Good luck, Ms. Allen, I hope it works out for you,” James Salvo said, not looking up from his computer.
She raised an eyebrow and turned to the door, shaking her head. She hadn’t expected to find a pencil pusher like that in Alaska. She had hoped he would be warmer, kinder, more willing to work with her as a person if she showed up here. Unfortunately, she had been wrong. He seemed to be the worst kind of bureaucrat. Coming to the tax office had been a complete waste of time.
2
Ginger wandered down the sunny streets, watching the crowds of happy tourists walk by. The fall colors were overtaking the trees that covered the hillsides beyond the town, but hanging baskets full of flowers still lined the streets of the city.
The overpowering smell of fish and chips made her stomach twist and turn painfully. Needing a place to sit down to check the Yellow Pages, Ginger sat on the outdoor patio of the restaurant making that delicious smell. If only she could afford to buy herself something to eat, she would stuff her face. Ginger had been eating cheap bags of chips and microwave burritos for as long as she could remember.
She asked the waitress for the Yellow Pages, when the woman came to take her order. She ordered a glass of water, and said she needed more time to decide on her meal. Ginger wouldn’t be eating any lunch today. She needed the last of her money to hire a wilderness tracker to get her out to her dad’s cabin. In her haste to make it to Alaska and speak with James Salvo, she had neglected to contact any wilderness trackers before she left.
Now she would have to find someone in the Yellow Pages and use the last of her phone minutes to contact him. The waitress came back with the Yellow Pages and a glass of water and set in front of Ginger with a smile.
She began flipping through the pages, her stomach gurgling and grumbling loudly in her ears. There were several pages of wilderness trackers, and she didn’t even know where to begin. She had exactly seven minutes left on her prepaid cell phone. That wouldn’t give her nearly enough time to compare prices and finally make a decision on which tracker to hire.
With a heavy sigh, she sat back in her chair and took a sip of the ice water. At least water was free and she could quench her terrible thirst. As she glanced around the patio, her stomach rumbled again so loudly she was sure the other guests could hear it.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ginger spotted a beautiful lady approaching her. The woman was dressed in a designer skirt suit, embroidered stockings, and knee-high high-heeled boots. Her hair was styled in white curls, but she couldn’t have been more than thirty-five years old. Ginger could tell by the smooth skin on her cheeks and the bright glint in her eyes.
The woman was so incredibly stylish and so incredibly striking, that it amazed Ginger that she was even in a place like Alaska. Most of the tourists dressed in outdoorsy clothing, appropriate for a boat tour or a hike through southern Alaskan rain forest. This lady looked like she was ready to walk down the streets of New York during fashion week.
To Ginger surprise, the woman slid right into a chair across the table from her and gave her a bright gleaming smile that showed her perfectly straight teeth. Ginger’s eyes widened.
“Hi?” Ginger said, looking around to check if there were no open tables on the rest of the patio. There were actually plenty of open tables on the rest of the patio, so this woman was sitting next to Ginger because she wanted to be sitting next to her.
“Hello, dear, I’m Babs Bula,” the woman said. “I noticed you sitting here all by yourself, and you hadn’t ordered any lunch yet.” As soon as she finished speaking the waitress appeared again with a basket of fish and chips that she promptly set in front of Ginger. “I ordered you a basket of fish and chips. You simply cannot miss the exquisite fish and chips they prepare at this restaurant.”
“Thanks? I’m Ginger Allen,” Ginger said hesitantly. She wasn’t used to people just randomly buying her food, especially stylish women like this lady.
“What are you looking for in the Yellow Pages, Ginger? I know absolutely everything that’s going on in town. Maybe I can help you find what you need.”
“I need a wilderness tracker who can take me up into the backcountry. But I only have two hundred dollars to pay him, so it has to be somebody who works cheaply.” Ginger dug into the fish and chips, eating greedily. Her stomach seemed to be of bottomless pit, and she didn’t feel like she’d made even the slightest dent until the entire basket was gone.
Babs pressed her perfectly manicured, pink tipped finger to her bottom lip. “Hmm, I think I know just the man for you. In fact I’m sure of it.”
“Really? There’s so many wilderness trackers in here, I don’t even know where to start.”
“The man for you is Brock Montgomery. He runs the Montgomery tracking company and is one of the best wilderness guides in the entire state of Alaska. Not to mention, he’s incredibly handsome, and incredibly eligible.”
Ginger was a little surprised by her comment. She bit her lip and nodded her head. “Okay. Does he work cheaply?”
“I’m sure Brock will make an exception for you, dear,” Babs said, pulling a business card from her designer purse. She handed the business card to Ginger who took it and stared at it blankly.
“What is FGD.com?” Ginger asked.
“FGD stands for my business, Fairy Godmother Dating,” Babs said nonchalantly. “I specialize in matching up burly male shifters and curvy human brides.”
“Are there a lot of shifters in Juneau?” Ginger asked. Shape shifters had made their presence known over sixty-five years ago, and the human populations of the world had come to accept them. Nobody really knew who was a shifter and who wasn’t. The shifters kept that to themselves most of the time, blending in with humans as much as possible. As far as Ginger knew, there had been some issues way back in the nineteen-fifties when the shifters first came out, but at this point everybody was pretty much used to the idea.
“Juneau is simply crawling with shifters. Hot, chiseled, tall, dark, and handsome. They’re everywhere. I help sweet, curvy girls like you find their perfect shifter match. Some might even call it fate.”
“I’m not in the market for a man,” Ginger said, putting her hand up in front of her as warding off something dangerous.
“Of course you’re not. You just need a wilderness tracker. And the wilderness tracker for you is Brock Montgomery.” Babs pointed to the advertisement on the Yellow Pages that said Montgomery Wilderness Guides. “You call that number. Brock will do the rest.”
Babs stood up from the table with a smile, her curly hair bouncing around her shoulders. “What’s the deal with the fairy godmother?” Ginger asked.
“Well dear, that’s me.”
3
Brock Montgomery stared into the faces of the people that he’d known his entire life. His mother and father and the rest of the clan elders sat in Montgomery Lodge
blinking at Brock. The original Montgomery building on the family’s generational homestead now served as his clan’s meeting hall and a place where his clients could stay when they hired him as a tracker or guide.
The elders of his clan had just delivered the news to him. He would be the new clan leader, the Alpha of the Montgomery bears. It was a position that he knew was coming for a long time. His father was getting up there in years, and wanted to retire as clan leader. Brock’s father and mother wanted to spend more time together in their older years and watch their sons marry and have children.
He knew his mother and father wanted to see him mated and settled down, but he didn’t expect every clan elder to gang up on him on the very day that he became the new leader. Brock said his coffee cup down on the end table beside the couch in the main meeting room of the Lodge and sighed.
“I’ve known I would be clan leader most of my life. As the eldest of Montgomery still living on the Homestead, I knew that it was my duty to take this role.”
“You understand that the shifter council of Juneau expects all clan leaders to be mated?” His mother, Nora Montgomery, said, her bright blue eyes twinkling with some hidden mirth.
“I know the shifter council expects clan leaders to be mated. But it’s not like I have to be mated today, my first day as clan leader.”
“Of course, you can’t possibly find a mate in one day,” his father Clark Montgomery said.
“He should go to Babs Bula, the matchmaker,” said his father’s sister-in-law, Lola. Lola was the mother of his cousins, Shaw and Zane Montgomery. Brock, his two younger brothers, and his two cousins had all been inseparable as children. As they had grown older and gone their own ways, the men had drifted apart, but there was always that bond between them that would never break.
“I’m not going to a matchmaker. Especially not a cagey woman like Babs Bula. What is she anyway? Is she a shifter? A human? I can’t tell. Every time I’ve smelled her scent it confuses the heck out of me,” Brock said, trying to change the subject.
“Maybe she really is a fairy godmother,” Brock’s mother said.
“Right,” Brock said. “And I’m Smokey the Bear.”
Everyone laughed uncomfortably because no one really knew what Babs Bula really was. All anyone knew was that she was incredibly fashionable, cutely curvy, and the owner of a matchmaking agency with an office downtown.
“Are we done here?” Brock asked. He was getting tired of all of the pressure from his parents and his clan. He had already accepted the role as clan leader, but he couldn’t help but feel it had been thrust on him. He’d never really had a choice as to whether or not he would become his clan’s leader. It was a responsibility he didn’t know if he could shoulder.
As clan leader, he was expected to deal with clan disputes, be the godfather of everyone’s children, make sure that his entire clan was provided for and that everyone was getting along. It was a tremendous responsibility for any one man, let alone a man who would rather spend his time alone out in the wilderness. But if it were a choice between Brock, his wild brother Keaton or his sensitive, artistic younger brother Tate, the obvious choice was Brock. That didn’t mean he was happy about it.
He had even asked if either Shaw or Zane could be considered for the position. But Brock was the oldest son of the oldest son of the original Montgomery clan, and the rightful position of leader fell on to him.
“Don’t be so defensive, Brock,” his mother said as the rest of the clan elders began to stand from their seats and make their way towards the exit.
“I’m not being defensive, Mom,” Brock said. “It’s just a lot for me to take in right now. I’m really busy with work. I’m trying to keep the wilderness tracking business afloat. And now I have all of this responsibility as a clan leader. And on the very same day that the elders inform me that I am now the clan leader, you gang up on me to tell me that I need to find a mate ASAP. I admit it’s making me a little grumpy.”
“Finding a mate shouldn’t be something that makes you grumpy. It should be cause for celebration,” his mother said, patting his arm as she moved towards the door. His parents had their own cabin on a private part of the expansive Montgomery homestead. The homestead covered hundreds of acres of land in which each Montgomery had their own parcel. Brock’s own place was within walking distance of the original homestead building that had become the Montgomery Lodge. His parents were around the corner from there. They were all just one big happy family.
“I’m sure when I’m ready to find a mate, I’ll be plenty happy about it,” Brock said, leaning down to give his mother a kiss on the cheek goodbye.
“I know you’re going to be an exceptional clan leader, Brock,” his father said, giving him a few hard slaps on the back. His inner grizzly growled as his father smacked him slightly too hard to be considered affectionate. He narrowed his eyes and growled down at his father who had already lost some of his youthful height.
“Thanks dad,” Brock said, nodding at the older man. His dad took his mom’s hand and walked with her out to their car, where he opened the door and helped her inside.
All his life Brock’s mom and dad had been wildly in love and affectionate towards each other. They truly were fated mates and perfect for each other. That was part of the reason the idea of just randomly finding a mate the first day he became clan leader made him a little nervous. How was he going to find the perfect woman for him just because his family was giving him pressure? He wanted what his parents had. He wanted to have a happily ever after--if he ever found a woman at all, that was.
At this point in time, all Brock really wanted was to be left alone to run his business and lead his tours out into the backcountry. There was nothing that he loved more than the smell of the forest air in the morning or the feeling of a big salmon wriggling on the end of his fly-fishing line. He liked his alone time, his privacy, his peace and quiet. He just didn’t know how a woman was going to ever fit into that lifestyle, or if he wanted one to fit into it at all.
As the leader of the Montgomery clan, he knew that eventually he was going to have to find somebody to settle down with. But he certainly wasn’t ready for that to be today.
4
Ginger ran her finger under the phone number on the Montgomery Wilderness Guides advertisement in the Yellow Pages. She pulled out her cell phone and flipped it open, quickly dialing the number with the last of her cell phone minutes. On the third ring, someone answered.
“Brock Montgomery,” a gruff masculine voice said on the other end of the line.
“Hi, my name is Ginger Allen. I need someone to take me out into the backcountry to my father’s old hunting lodge. He just passed away, and there’s something out there he wanted me to retrieve. I need to get out there as quickly as possible. Would you be able to help me?”
“I don’t have any other tours scheduled for the next couple of days, so I’m free to take you out there. Meet me out at the Montgomery Lodge in forty-five minutes and we can set up the details. You’re welcome to stay at the Lodge overnight, and we can leave in the morning. Does that work for you?”
“Sure, I’ll meet you out there in forty-five minutes,” she said, having no idea how she was going to make it out to the Montgomery Lodge or how she was going to pay for any of it. Babs Bula seemed to think that Brock was the right guide to take her out to her father’s land and that he would be willing to make a deal with her, so Ginger just kept her budget to herself for the time being. She would find a way out to the lodge somehow, even if she had to walk there.
Brock gave her the address and she quickly wrote it on a paper napkin she still had from her lunch. When she got off the phone with Brock, her heart was making these bubbling sensations she’d only experienced when she had a crush on someone. That had been a very long time ago.
Ever since her father got sick, and she had to leave school and move back to Seattle, Ginger’s life had revolved around taking care of her father. Now that he was gone and she had
nothing left, the bubbling feelings in her heart caught her completely off guard.
She looked down at the address on her napkin and had absolutely no idea how to get there. She no longer had any minutes on her phone. Even if she could get Internet reception through her network in Juneau, Alaska, she didn’t have any data left to look it up. She went inside the restaurant, stepped up to the hostess counter, and showed her the napkin.
“Do you have any idea how to get out to the Montgomery Lodge?” Ginger asked.
“Oh yeah, take the main road south out of town for about two miles. Take a left on Montgomery Way, and a mile up the road you’ll find the Montgomery Lodge. You can’t miss it. Just don’t turn off onto any of the other roads along Montgomery Way because that will lead you out to one of the other Montgomery homesteads.”
“Okay, I’ve got it. Thank you,” Ginger said, shoving the napkin into her pocket and turning out the door onto the sidewalk. It was already late afternoon, but the sun was still shining brightly in the western sky. She took a deep breath and let it out, realizing that she was going to have a long three-mile hike ahead of her just to make it out to the lodge. Once she actually hired the wilderness guide, she would have to make the trek all the way up to her father’s homestead. As far as she knew, that was twenty miles through rough terrain. Even though Ginger was completely unequipped to make a journey like that, she had to do it. It was the only way to salvage any of the life she’d once believed she could have.
She began walking down the sidewalk until it disappeared into the shoulder of a two-lane highway leading out of town. Cars zoomed by in either direction, and the sun began to slip lower on the horizon. The chill came back into the air and it cooled the sweat inside Ginger’s thin jacket, making her even colder. She hugged herself tightly, placing one foot in front of the other.
She finally came to a signpost that said Montgomery Way, and took a left up the well-maintained gravel road. Twilight was descending quickly, and the cold was already getting under her skin when a pair of headlights came up quickly behind her.