Bear Mountain Daddy (Bear Mountain Shifters)

by Sky Winters

  He gestured to the abandoned house around him.

  "Not a note, nothing. I asked around town, and out of the few people who even knew about this compound, none had any idea. One of my cousins, Atticus, was an electrician in the area, but he kept his personal details pretty close as far as anyone else in the town was concerned."

  "So, you just left your old life behind, like me?"

  "Yeah, more or less. I had some…events come up, and I-"

  But before he could finish, more steps sounded through the house. Unlike Aaron's, these were softer, quieter, lighter. Adeline could hear them approach the kitchen, and when they came to a stop, she spun around in her chair.

  There was a small girl, no older than ten, now standing in the entry to the kitchen.

  "Daddy," the girl asked, her eyes wide with fear. "Who's this lady?"

  CHAPTER 6

  "Who is she, Dad?" the girl asked again.

  "Now Bethany, what're you doing? Walking in here when you hear me talking to someone is the exact kind of unsafe business I warned you about."

  "Sorry, Dad," said the girl, now standing straight and still.

  "It's OK, B," said the man, getting up from his chair, scooping the girl off her feet and walking with her back to his seat.

  There's a kid here? thought Adeline. Who is this guy?

  The expression on Aaron's face seemed to indicate that he wasn't sure if introducing this girl, which Adeline assumed to be his daughter, to her was a good idea. But Adeline could see that he realized that unless he wanted to throw Adeline out, he wasn't going to have any other choice.

  "B, this is, ah, Ms. Parker," said Aaron.

  "Um, hi," said Adeline, awkwardly sticking her hand out towards the girl, who simply looked towards it with a blank expression.

  "She's ten," said Aaron. "Not so big on handshakes."

  "Oh," said Adeline placing her hand back on her lap and covering it with the other.

  "You can say ‘hi', at least," said Aaron.

  "Hi," said Bethany before tucking her face back into her Dad's chest.

  The girl was clearly Aaron's daughter. She had the same sandy-blonde hair, the same striking green eyes, and the sort of face and features that indicated already at such an early age that she would grow up to be a stunningly beautiful woman. Her little arms were wrapped around Aaron's shoulders, and she looked back at Bethany with wide, skeptical eyes.

  Something else struck Adeline. There seemed to be something in those wide green eyes of Bethany's- something like an intelligence that one wouldn't normally find in a girl her age.

  "You're here with your daughter?" asked Adeline, looking around at the run-down house.

  "Well, we didn't think the place was gonna look like this when we showed up. We expected a family here. Instead, we got…"

  "Everyone's gone," said Bethany.

  "Yeah," agreed Aaron. "Everyone's gone. Damnedest thing."

  "Then…what's your plan?" asked Adeline.

  "Stay here, see if I can get this place up and running again, and find out anything I can about where my family went off to. Not to mention, get to the bottom of whatever it is that was compelling me to come here. I just…I just know that I won't be able to leave until I get it sorted out."

  "I feel the same way," said Adeline. "There's something that brought me here. Something about those dreams."

  Aaron gave Adeline another look over. She could tell that he wasn't sure what, exactly, to make of her. And she found her eyes fastening on to various parts of his body. His strong arms, his gorgeous green eyes, his big, rough hands She had to snap herself out of her staring.

  "Well, we still haven't addressed the whole issue of you breaking and entering," said Aaron.

  "Still want to call the cops?" asked Adeline, still not sure what to make of this strange father and daughter.

  "No," he said. "I think I can trust you for now. How about you stick around the house, help me get this place tidied up, and maybe I'll look past your…let's call it, ‘fast and loose attitude with property law'."

  "Deal," said Adeline, pleased that she could both avoid trouble and to stay around the place.

  Now that she was here, she didn't want to leave. She knew more than ever that her destiny was tied to this strange home in the middle of the woods.

  "No electricity?" asked Adeline.

  "Nope," said Aaron. "Something's wrong with the generator. I did a little house construction back in college, and it looks like it's just a matter of a missing part. Had it ordered in at the general store, but it won't get in until tomorrow."

  "No electrician in town?" asked Adeline.

  "Well, there was," said Aaron, his mouth turning upwards into a wry smirk. "But it was one of my cousins."

  Adeline shook her head. "Some luck."

  "No kidding," said Aaron.

  "Dad, is Ms. Parker going to stay with us?" asked Bethany.

  "She's going to help us out around here," Aaron said. "Help us get this place looking nice."

  Bethany said nothing, instead still staring at Adeline with those brilliant, green eyes.

  "Well, then," said Aaron. "We were just clearing out the bedrooms if you want to help with that. If you can take that over, I can get back to work on the portable generator I found in the garage. It's not much power, but it should give us some light and let us get our electronics charged until I can get things back up and running tomorrow."

  "Sounds good to me," said Adeline.

  "What do you say to supervising?" asked Aaron to Bethany, mussing her sandy-blonde hair.

  "OK!" said Bethany, seemingly happy both for the attention and to be alone once again with her Dad.

  Adeline watched the two leave out the front door and down to the basement, their voice muffled through the floor. Looking into the woods through the tall kitchen windows, Adeline observed the sun streaming through the lolling branches of the thick-trunked trees, a thin fog swirling over the grass and dirt.

  Seems like a decent guy, thought Adeline. Strange kid, though.

  Adeline rose and walked through the living room, noting that the electronics and décor were, while dusty and grimy, were still intact, seemingly unmoved.

  Who would leave this stuff here? she thought.

  She made her way to the nearest bedroom, a small, cozy space with a four-post bed, birch furniture, and the same level of neglect as the rest of the house. Her eyes fell upon a crib in the corner of the room.

  Kids, she thought. They must've had kids with them when they up and left.

  The house was beginning to instill in Adeline a sense of unease.

  I don't know how long I'd be able to stay here if Aaron wasn't around, she thought. Place gives me the willies.

  As she straightened up the room, putting away clothes that lay here and there, preparing the space for a thorough vacuuming once the power was out, a sense of creeping dread overcame her. It felt as though she were being watched. Adeline walked to the window and looked out once again, her eyes on the woods. There was nothing but the wind in the trees.

  She returned to her cleaning, but the sense of dread returned, now stronger, more insistent. Adeline felt her body tense, as if preparing her for a fight. She looked out the window again but saw nothing. Turning her eyes back to the room, she realized that there was no way that she could stay on task feeling this way. She knew that she needed to go outside and confirm up close what, if anything, was out there. Tossing the clothes in her hand onto the bed, she marched out of the house and out through the front door, making her way to the back of the compound, the area that she could see from the kitchen.

  There was nothing, even as Adeline grew closer. As she walked towards the black, crisscrossed steel of the fence, she saw something, gray indentations cutting into the black. She approached the fence and looked at it close.

  It looked like bite marks.

  Adeline's eyes widened as she looked at the small chews in the fence. She stepped closer, placing her fingertips on the
fence, the thick iron rough and bitten.

  What kind of animal could make bites like this? thought Adeline. They're almost through the steel.

  Then, her gaze moved past the fence, onto the grass just on the other side. In the soft earth were the indentations of dozens of tracks, paws, bigger than any animal that she could think of.

  To her horror, Adeline realized that she was right. There was something or some-things stalking this place. But as her eyes snapped onto the woodlands beyond, there was nothing but the soft hush of the forest wind in the leaves.

  CHAPTER 7

  Aaron looked at the bite marks with narrow eyes, as if the sight of the indentations were confirming some sort of fear.

  "Don't tell Bethany about this," he said as he stood near Adeline, leaning forward and placing his fingers on the fence. "She's shaken up enough as it is."

  "Something was trying to get it," said Adeline. "Look at those tracks."

  She pointed to the clustering of imprints on the rough ground on the other side of the fence. They looked to Adeline to be from dogs, but they were bigger than any dogs she'd ever seen.

  "I had a friend who had a Great Dane," said Adeline. "And that dog's paw prints were maybe half the size of those."

  Aaron turned towards Adeline, his grass-green eyes on hers, the sleeves of his flannel rolled up and cuffed around the thick, ropy muscles of his forearms.

  He said nothing, his handsome face tightened in thought.

  Does he know what's going on here? thought Adeline. It doesn't seem like he's too surprised.

  "We need to get that generator up and running," he said, turning back towards the compound. "We're gonna need light for tonight."

  "Wait, what?" asked Adeline. "'We're gonna need light for tonight'? Why? What's going on? What're these tracks?"

  "Just…" said Aaron, his steps long and quick, Adeline struggling to keep up. "Just trust me. We'd be fine one night in the dark, but we're in the middle of the goddamn woods. We're gonna need some light."

  "And those bite marks?"

  "Some critter. But we don't need them getting past the fence."

  "What about the hole I crawled through?"

  "I'll get it taken care of. Just stay in the house; I'm gonna send Bethany in there. Keep an eye on her if you don't mind."

  With that, he ducked into the garage, leaving Adeline alone.

  There's something going on here, she thought. He knows more than he's letting on. Those weren't just bite marks from some "critter;" those were from a huge animal. More than one, most likely.

  Adeline wanted to confront Aaron and demand that he tell her what he knew, but she decided to let him get back to his work, but he seemed to feel that getting that generator back up and running was extremely important.

  When she reentered the house, she saw that Bethany was sitting on one of the couches in the living room, her eyes on the woods outside of the window.

  "Um, what's up, B?" asked Adeline, her awkward way with children stumbling forward.

  "My name's Bethany," was the response, the girl's eyes still on the woods.

  "Oh, sure- Bethany," said Adeline. "Do you want to help me clean up?"

  "Not really," said Bethany.

  "And why not?"

  "Because. The things in the woods are watching us. If they decided to come here to the home, it won't matter how clean the place is."

  What?!

  "What ‘things'?" asked Bethany. "What are you talking about?"

  "The men in the woods. The ones who want this place for their own."

  Adeline bolted over to Bethany, taking the girl by the shoulders.

  "What are you talking about? What men in the woods?"

  Bethany turned her placid eyes to Adeline, her expression calm and still.

  "There's a lot of them. And they're strong. And they can change."

  Her eyes then turned to Adeline's hands.

  "Take your hands off me, please," she said, her voice reverting to a childish whine. "You're hurting me!"

  Adeline's hands snapped back to her sides as she continued to stare at the strange girl, who had now turned her gaze back to the woods. She wanted more answers but knew that this child had likely said all she was going to say on the subject.

  It's not too late to leave, she thought. I can get back to the cabin and get the hell away from these people.

  But this solution didn't satisfy her. She knew that as soon as she put the car back on the highway leading back to Philadelphia, the urge to return to this place would come rushing back. She'd fought the urge to come here for a long time. She knew just how insistent it could be.

  She knew that she was here to the bitter end, whatever that might be.

  Before she could ponder the subject in too much depth, the lights in the living room flicked on, filling the room with a dim glow as every light source illuminated at once. Through the floor, she could hear a low rumbling. The appliances in the kitchen beeped, and various electronics whirred and illuminated.

  He got it, thought Adeline, a smile appearing on her face.

  A series of thuds cut through the den, and within moments, Aaron appeared in the threshold of the house. He looked around, nodding as he realized the generator was doing its work.

  "Good," he said. "We can run this for a while and store up some juice, but I'm gonna need to go into town tonight and get some parts if I'm gonna get this on permanently."

  Bethany ran up to Aaron, wrapping her arms around his waist.

  "Why do you have to go?" she said, her voice worried. "Stay here."

  "Sorry, kid," he said, patting her on the back of the head. "You're coming with. Get your shoes on, and we'll get going."

  He turned to Adeline, who was watching the scene.

  "I'll bring some food back from town. We'll be able to get some better food now that the fridge is up and running. Say, why don't you work on getting the kitchen cleaned up? No sense in having a dirty kitchen if we're gonna be making food in there now."

  "Sure," said Adeline, a little pleased to have some alone time.

  "Then it's settled."

  "I want hamburgers!" said Bethany, stomping her little foot.

  Aaron looked at her with a skeptical eye. "You act like a little brat like that, and you're gonna get nothing but rice cakes and water."

  "Fine," said Bethany.

  "We'll be back in a bit," said Aaron. "Take a sweep of the house before you start on the kitchen. Turn off anything that's unnecessary. We'll be back in a back."

  "Drive safely," said Adeline.

  Moments later, they were gone, and the house was empty. Adeline was a little surprised that Aaron was fine leaving her here alone, but after she took her trip through the house to turn off lights, she found that there wasn't much to steal, even if she were the type to do something like that.

  Standing at the threshold of the kitchen, Adeline looked over the space.

  Nice set-up, she thought, noting the spaciousness, the modern styling, and the same great view of the woods as the rest of the house. The question of just what happened here to cause the original occupants, Aaron's family, to leave so suddenly appeared in her mind once again. Now that she was alone, a creeping sense of danger tingled at the base of her neck.

  Putting all of this out of her mind, she removed the cleaning supplies she'd need from below the sink, slipped on a pair of rubber gloves, and went to work. Hours passed as she scrubbed and swept, and as the sun sank down below the tree line outside, the air alight with a wild, orange color, the place started to look like a kitchen that she wouldn’t mind making a meal in.

  Finishing up with the fridge –which had seen far, far better days- Adeline stepped back and admired her handiwork. The granite counters gleamed under the light, the double sinks were spotless and clean, and a fresh handful of wildflowers that she found growing outside were placed into a small, purple vase, their soft scent drifting through the air. With a smile and a nod, Adeline declared the job finished and set off t
o take a long, relaxing shower, hoping to wash off both the grime from her cleaning and the stress of the day.

  Once done, she toweled off and got dressed. As she slipped into her shoes, a strange clatter sounded through the house. It was an odd sound, like a scuffle then a crash. The hairs on the back of Adeline's neck stood up, and at that moment, she felt that something was wrong.

  Get a grip. It’s gotta be Aaron and Bethany back.

  This answer didn't calm her down. Putting her hair back into a loose ponytail, she left her room, walking down the hallway with careful steps, her eyes narrow. Nothing seemed out of place in the living room below, or in any of the bedrooms.

  Once she reached the kitchen, the source of the noise was revealed... The small vase that she'd filled with wildflowers had fallen, the white and purple shards scattered on the floor in a pool of water, the flowers strewn here and there.

  Adeline sighed as she bent over to pick up the pieces. But as she did, she noticed that one of the windows near the breakfast nook was open, allowing a low, cool wind to blow through the kitchen.

  Did I seriously leave that open? she thought. God, I'm such a space cadet sometimes.

  After carefully picking up the mess, she walked over to the window to shut it. But as soon as she closed the window, she spotted something in the dark of the woods. Not just something- but pairs of somethings.

  Red things.

  Adeline felt her blood run quick and cold as she looked out at the pairs of red eyes, eyes that seemed to glow, eyes that seemed to float in the black of the woods, eyes that seemed to be watching her.

  CHAPTER 8

  Before she could react to the sight, the garage door opened, the rumbling sounding through the house. Right at that moment, the eyes disappeared, as though they were lights that all burned out at the same time.

  Aaron's back; thank God, she thought, her heart pumping from the shock of what she'd just seen.

  She pulled down the blinds, covering the windows completely. Moments later, Aaron and Bethany arrived in from the garage below, bags of groceries in their hands. Stepping into the kitchen and setting the bags down on the island in the middle, Aaron looked over the cleaned space with an expression of pleased approval.