Finding Sanctuary

by Tyler, Jules

  Finding Sanctuary

  Silver Creek Shifters

  Book 1

  Jules Tyler

  Copyright © 2018 Jules Tyler

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical review and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Dedication

  For Amanda,

  You'll always be

  Mama Ally.

  I love you.

  Prologue

  Stella bustled from one end of the bar top to the other, getting drink orders collected as fast as they were being shouted at her. She was in a rhythm tonight. Bartending to her was like a dance; you had to be light on your toes and quick but also give off the appearance that everything happened on purpose. Drop the bottle? Catch it and flip it over with a flair, and no one would be the wiser. This was her element.

  She could feel her black tank top cling to the sweat beading up underneath her breasts and on her lower back. Friday nights were always her busiest shifts each week. Frat boys and business men came into her bar on the prowl for a sweet slice of heaven wrapped up in a single lady who needed some validation in her appearance. Not that she would complain. Friday nights were her bread and butter and the only reason why she could afford her rent in her tiny studio apartment across the street from the bar.

  As the night grew to a close, Stella felt someone's eyes on her and turned to make eye contact with a man in a dark blue suit with a silver shirt beneath it. He was smiling at her, and Stella tried to ignore the blush that was creeping up her neck as she watched his eyes take in her curvy appearance in a hungry fashion. His bright green eyes were tinged with a gold color around the edges as he licked his lips. Stella was used to the casual bar patron hitting on her, but nothing like this before. Her hips were softer than what most men liked, but her booty could fill out a pair of jeans right up there with the best of them, and if you asked her, she thought her rack was better than some of the Victoria's Secret Angels had.

  "You're gorgeous. Has anyone ever told you that?" the stranger crooned at her.

  Stella fidgeted with her apron. She wasn't typically shy. In fact, she was quite the opposite. Her manager liked to compare her to Fireball actually, spicy and warm at the same time. But this stranger, there was something about him that both intrigued her and set her instincts ablaze just from looking at him. He seemed both safe and dangerous at the same time, and she wasn't sure if she was ready for that kind of challenge.

  Fighting to get her brain to focus, she cleared her throat and put her game face on before responding to the stranger.

  "Only if they want something from me typically. What can I do ya for, sir?" Stella asked, wiping her hands on her apron before reaching for a wine glass, assuming like most of the businessmen she'd waited on, he'd want a glass of red wine.

  "I'll take a double Grey Goose on the rocks please," he practically purred at her.

  Man, what is this guy's deal, she wondered to herself. Usually guys would back off after she offered to fill their drink order, as though the only reason they had attempted flattery was to get what they came for and get out of her way. She made quick work of pouring the right amount of the spirit over the ice she had filled his glass with and slid it across the counter to him.

  "Would you like me to open a tab for you, sir, or close out your check? Last call is creeping up on us within the hour," Stella said coolly to the stranger, thinking this might throw him off of his game and send him back to whatever woman he had followed into her little corner bar.

  "Go ahead and open a tab. I think I'd rather sit here with you awhile longer. I've found something sweet that I've got my eye on for now. Once I find something I like, I've got to have it, and trust me you, I will have it," the man said, taking the cocktail straw from his glass and stirring the ice around, never taking his eyes off of her as he did so.

  Alright, Stella thought, we'll play it his way, I guess. I mean, what's the harm in a little innocent flirting? It's been months since I got laid anyway, so no harm done, right? If we hook up, he'll be gone in the morning, and I can pretend this was all just a weird dream.

  "My name is Stella. Do I get to know your name, sir?" Stella asked, taking a wet wash cloth from her bin under the bar and wringing it out slowly.

  Raising his glass, he took a sip of his vodka and set his glass back down before locking his cool green eyes with her amber ones. He smiled at her as his name dripped off his lips like a dangerous but intoxicatingly delicious nectar.

  "Nice to meet you, Stella. My name is Alaric."

  Chapter One

  Stella leaned back against the armchair she was sitting in by the window of her cabin, watching the snowfall outside. The trees looked like something out of a Christmas decoration box with the way that the snow was perfectly dusting their branches. It’s the last week of November, and she was itching to get Christmas put up around here. Too bad she didn’t have any decorations with her. Maybe she could see if the lodge owner had some things that she could borrow. Pulling the warm cup of cocoa she'd just fixed closer to her chest, she pondered over her current situation.

  Hiding out in the middle of nowhere in the Idaho wilderness with zero technology at her disposal was definitely not where she had originally planned spending her holidays. In fact, this was the exact opposite of where she thought her life had been headed when she had met Alaric almost three months ago. Thinking about him made the still healing wounds along her abdomen burn as though they had just been torn wide open again.

  Of course, he had been charming and kind at first. His bright green eyes had stood out from his dark brown hair, and the way he talked to her had sent shivers up her spine. Sure, he seemed like he could be a bit much and came on strong, but what logical woman would say no to an attractive man that was built like an ox that was showing interest in her? Especially if he looked like he could show her a good time. Certainly not this girl.

  At first, she had been flattered by his attention. After their first meeting while she was bartending, she'd let him take her out to a couple of fancy dinners in Seattle and she certainly wasn’t going to stop him when he would stop to buy her nice things. She was a struggling waitress. It wasn't completely terrible to let someone spoil her from time to time, right? Stella shook her head in frustration at her past self. She had been wrong, oh so very wrong. Guess that was the kind of karma you got when you let yourself act like a gold digger with someone who was obviously off of his rocker.

  After the first month, things slowly started to change about Alaric. The previously well-behaved gentleman began to fade away and was replaced with someone much more terrifying and controlling. Sometimes when he would stay over, Stella would wake up in the middle of the night to him staring at her like he was going to eat her, and not in a good way. He grew possessive and predatory; he was the hunter and she was his prey. He would sit at the bar while she worked, practically growling at any male patron that approached her to order a beverage. It was easy to brush off at first, but then it began to affect her tips, and then eventually regulars stopped coming, one by one.

  They would get into arguments after her shifts were over about his behavior, and he would promise to be better, but the next night he only grew worse. More growling, more predatory stares, more arguing when they would go back to her apartment. In her mind, there was no way that a business man could possibly behave this way and still run a business, so she continued to brush it off. But the more she brushed it off, the crazier he continued to get, until one night he fin
ally snapped when she had decided she had had enough.

  Stella sighed before taking a sip of the creamy, chocolatey goodness that was in her mug. That was the past though, it was time to push forward. She was stronger than that shit and she had the wounds to prove it. She had survived Alaric and his craziness, and now she was safely ensconced in her cabin in a place where he'd never think to look for her.

  She hadn't been to the Silver Creek Campground since she was a child, but she had spent plenty of time here as a small child. Her Grandpa Buck had brought her here every summer from the time she was four until he passed away after her ninth birthday. He used to tell her that the waters that filled the hot springs at the campground had magic healing properties. While she was too old to still believe in fairy tales, it was enough to give her hope that it could heal her aching soul. With that in mind, she had run away from Seattle and Alaric and towards the only thing in her mind that could possibly give her troubled heart peace and her mind sanctuary.

  With the roads being completely covered in snow, there was a slim to none possibility that she was going to be able to get up the mountain road without a different mode of transportation. She had sold her car to a teenager in Garden Valley before bribing a group of snowmobilers to let her hitch a ride up to Silver Creek with them. This time of year, people would snowmobile into the hot springs to rest their cold and weary bones and stay a few days before heading back to reality. It was the perfect plan. There was no way that Alaric would think to look for her here. Besides, the sweet older woman at the counter in the Lodge had been more than eager to rent her out a cabin for the foreseeable future. With the amount she had earned from the sale of her car, she should be able to finish out the rest of the winter up here before having to worry about something more permanent from there.

  Stella set the now empty mug down on the side table next to her arm chair and pushed herself up so she was standing. Running a hand over her cropped short black hair, she resolved that it was time to pick up the pieces and start over. No more sitting around thinking about what Alaric had done to her. No more focusing on her life in Seattle. She had a life to live, and by damn it, she was going to do it.

  Her stomach growled in protest at the idea of doing anything productive without food. Okay, so the goal setting and soul searching would have to be put on hold for the moment. First, she needed to make herself some food.

  Chapter Two

  Brady's bear lumbered through the woods on the outskirts of the camp, enjoying the snow that the winter had brought so far this year. It was the most snow they had seen up here in probably fifteen years, and it was well needed. The woods had been looking a little too dry as they had headed into this winter, so his bear felt reassured that there would be plenty of green in his territory come spring time. Brady chuffed a laugh as he thought about the irony of a polar bear, a beast that was bred for the cold, enjoying the thought of green in the springtime. He knew why though. These mountains were home to him and to his bear. Making sure that it stayed healthy during all seasons meant that they didn't have to worry about finding a new home because their current one had burned down. That's how his grandfather, William, had stumbled upon this place in the beginning.

  Coming to the edge of the hillside, he sat back on his haunches. He watched as the sun set slowly over the mountains, covering the meadow below in a blanket of purples and blue before the stars could start decorating the sky. This was his favorite part of the day. Since he was a small cub, he and his grandfather would climb up the hill a few miles from their home and watch nightfall coat the campground. There wasn't much in life that could get better than this.

  Well, there was one thing, but Brady had given up the search for his intended mate a long time ago. He had been so close to finding her. In fact, he had found her once, but they were too young to understand it. When Grandpa Will had explained intended mates to him, he was seven years old and not nearly old enough to comprehend what he had meant. So when he had met the girl with the raven colored hair and his bear stirred inside of him, he just thought that they were supposed to be best friends. Besides, he was seven and girls still had cooties. This girl though, she was special, and he had known it, even then.

  He waited every Memorial Day by the window for her grandfather's old green pick-up to bump down the dirt road into the campground. Once the truck was parked outside of their cabin, he would bound down the steps and beg her to go play in the creek by the bridge with him. Every day, they would find new adventures together. She and her grandfather stayed all summer long, and every night she and Brady would sit around the campfire with each of their grandfathers while the old men told them stories about the miners that had found these mountains and the animals that were folded into their middles. Brady had known the stories were true, but she had not. She had assumed they were just more tall tales.

  After Brady turned ten though, the visits from the girl and her grandfather stopped. His grandfather had found out through a mutual friend that the grandfather had passed away from a heart attack and the girl was in foster care. Brady remembered promising himself that when he turned twenty, he would go looking for her because she would be eighteen by then. He had counted down the days until his twentieth birthday that last year, then started searching the Boise area for her. He searched everywhere for her, every foster care system from here to California, but he couldn't find her.

  One foster care director had told him that it was possible if she was adopted that her last name had been changed and urged him to give up. If she wanted to be found, she would find him. Brady waited two more years before finally giving up the search for good. The foster care lady had been right -- if the girl wanted to be found, she would have to come looking for him.

  Making note of the position of the moon and stars, Brady realized it was getting late, and Mama was going to be waiting on him to serve supper. Falling forward on all fours, he made his way to the lodge still thinking about the girl with the raven hair, just like he had every night since he had stopped looking for her all those years ago.

  As he neared closer to the lodge, he willed his body to shift back into his human form. Feeling his bones shift and pop into place, Brady felt the fur fade away from his body. Standing up and stretching, he reached inside of the hollowed out tree trunk he kept his clothes in and made quick work of getting dressed. Picking his way down the rest of the hill, Brady focused on his foot placement so he didn’t slide down the hill on his ass. Reaching the bottom of the hill by the cabin, Brady could hear the phone ringing inside.

  Hustling inside to grab the phone, Brady answered it, “Silver Creek Lodge, how can I help?”

  A panicked woman’s voice came over the other line, “"Oh, thank God! Look, I was making dinner and the sink started leaking. I swear I didn't do anything to it but I need someone to come fix this for me. I wrapped a towel around the leak, but water is going to be everywhere soon. Can you send someone out to Cabin D, please? Before I drown?"

  Brady’s bear perked up at the woman’s voice. Mate? Ignoring his bear, Brady shook his head. No, his mate was long gone and there was no way she’d show up here after all this time. His bear was losing his mind.

  "I'll be right there," was all Brady could muster up before hanging up the phone so he could go find his tool box in the shed. Sometimes owning this place could be a major pain in the ass. He desperately needed to win the lottery so he could afford to renovate around here. Things kept breaking and, quite frankly, it was messing with his patience.

  Finding the blue toolbox that Grandpa Will had given to him shortly before he had passed away, Brady smiled. Yeah, sure, the place was falling apart, but Grandpa Will had had faith in him that he could keep this place running. That’s exactly what he would do.

  Chapter Three

  Stella rushed from the kitchen to grab the phone on the wall that would connect her to the desk at the lodge and dialed zero for the desk.

  "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," Stella begged for someone to pick up.


  A gruff voice came over the phone line, "Silver Creek Lodge, how can I help?"

  "Oh, thank God! Look, I was making dinner and the sink started leaking. I swear I didn't do anything to it but I need someone to come fix this for me. I wrapped a towel around the leak, but water is going to be everywhere soon. Can you send someone out to Cabin D, please? Before I drown?" Stella word vomited to the stranger.

  "I'll be right there," the voice said, promptly hanging up.

  "Right, well, that is exciting, I guess," Stella said before setting the phone back on the cradle and making fast work of pulling out a few more towels to trade out for the now sopping wet one she had wrapped around the pipe.

  The sound of boots crunching through the snow could be heard from her awkward seated position on the floor next to the leaking pipe before there was a knock at the door.

  "Come in and hurry," she exclaimed.

  "Someone called in a leaking pipe?" the same gruff voice from the phone asked from the entryway.

  "Yes, yes, yes, that was me. Now can you please come help me before this water gets all over the carpet?" Stella asked hurriedly, gripping the pipe even harder, as if the little pressure she was applying would keep the water inside of it.