Clipped Wings: A New Orleans Shifters Novel

by C. J. Snyder

  My mind is rambling again. I get a grip on myself and remind me that I am only on a yearly quest here. I can’t be planning a big move just because it feels good now. I’m a man and will have responsibilities when I get home or shortly thereafter. Responsibilities that I’m not even sure I want; to make matters even more complicated.

  Now that I have you completely caught up on my life up to this point, we can fast forward to the present day and about three weeks later. This damn job put me in the most boring spot they could have.

  I’m stuck indoors all day. ALL DAY! Running the little ticket and gift shop is only interesting because of the people I get to meet, but dammit, I wanted to work outside. They could have given me anything besides what they did. There’s tube racing and a bungee jump for kids outside, I would have taken those in a heartbeat. Nope. My ass is stuck inside. I can feel my spirit dying a slow death every day.

  Ok, maybe I’m being overdramatic here, but I count down the time until breaks and lunch so I can go sit outside and breathe in the fresh, cool mountain air.

  Sometimes I take the slow thirty-minute ride up the ski lift just to relax. Everyone here is nice, except a few of the guys, they like to tease me that I got a ‘woman’s job’. Bash the new guy, I get it. They are so lucky that I believe in the quality of life, otherwise, I would have pushed a few of them over the cliffs already.

  I fly around every night after work, watching for poachers and seeing what other wildlife is around. I’m surprised I haven’t seen anything bigger than deer. No bears or wolves yet. And even then, it’d be hard to tell if those were actual animals or shifters hanging out in the wild for some quiet.

  At least peace is easy to find here. That is the one good thing I can say about this area.

  ∆∆∆

  Chapter 4

  cora

  It just occurred to me that I never asked him his name. I guess that would be good to know since I want to track him down and make an excuse to be near him again. Having a man affect me this way is not something I am used to especially in this short amount of time, but I can’t let him know. I'm going to have to keep acting tough.

  Looking up in the work computer where they dropped off his bike was my first task, then finding out where he was staying. I should have been a detective. Ah, Knights Auto Body. I went to school with Jesse, so this will be easy.

  I pick up the desk phone and call the number listed online.

  Jesse answers the phone in the normal business greeting, “Knights Auto, this is Jesse.” I grin at the sound of his voice, he was always one of my favorite people at school.

  Let me be honest, I didn’t have too many. “Hey Jess, it’s Cora. Do you have Harley’s guy name?” I can hear him typing away at the computer to look it up.

  “You know I do, Cora. But that information is going to cost you.” Laughing at his attempt to flirt, I remind him, “Jess, we tried this already, remember? It didn’t work out.” Which we did; we tried dating, I worked too much and so did he. We just never were able to fit each other into our schedules.

  I hear a sad sigh before he answers, “Yeah, I know. Ya can’t blame me for trying though.”

  Smiling at that statement, “Yah, I know. What’s his name and do you happen to know where he’s staying?”

  Jealously and sarcasm line his voice this time when he answers, “You know stalking is illegal in all fifty states, right?” Trying not to laugh out loud I say, “Yes, Jesse, I am aware.”

  He provides me his first name, along with where he is staying for the duration.

  Thanking Jess, I hang up the phone and look up his first name to see what it means. It’s not a typical American name, so it has to have some sort of origin meaning behind it. Typing Kangee into a search engine, it populates with Kangee: Lakota for Raven.

  Lakota huh? So, he’s tall, dark and handsome for a reason. Native American, which makes him even more mysterious and attractive to me.

  Standing up from my computer, I stretch out my upper body and then grab my Jeep keys and head outside. Leaning up against my Jeep is Colin. Narrowing my eyes in irritation, because he is another who I tried to have a relationship with and he just couldn’t keep his cock in his pants, “What’s up?” I ask, telling myself to try and play it cool and casual.

  Colin stands up straight and puts his hands up in the generic form of innocence, “That guy you brought in yesterday was asking all kinds of questions about you on the way back down the hill.”

  This piques my interest, “Oh, was he now? What did he want to know?” I toss my keys onto the driver’s seat and lean against the door as I wait to hear what he has to say.

  Colin crossed his arms over his chest in a defensive gesture, “He wanted to know everything there was to know about Cora.” He stood there with his arms crossed and legs in a spread-out stance like he was waiting for an impact. “Well. What did you tell him?”

  I sigh and try to control the slight rolling of my eyes. Colin chuckled and a smug smile appeared on his face, “I will only tell you if you go get a cup of coffee with me.”

  Irritation spikes through my entire body, “I don’t like coercion, Colin.” I did not want to go to a coffee shop with him, hell; I didn’t even want to work with him. He’s arrogant and thinks he’s God’s gift to women. I will say that he’s your everyday playboy, looks-wise; only an inch or two taller than me, golden blonde hair and baby blue eyes. He spends 85% of his time in the gym lifting weights. And he has no problem bragging about how much he can bench press. His body is A-shaped, with a strong jawline and he leaves no room for imagination with how tight the clothes he wears are. Even his Ranger uniform is one size too small.

  He walks over to me and places his right hand above my head to the top of my Jeep, leans down close to my ear, “But Cora, I have so much fun when I get to dominate you.” Resisting the urge to smack his perfectly tanned face, I duck under his arm and sneer back at him, “I don’t remember any dominance, just a lot of performance issues.”

  Slamming my driver’s side door shut and starting the engine of the Jeep, Colin looks through the window, “Maybe if you weren’t such a tight-ass bitch, my performance would have been top-notch.”

  I couldn’t help it, I laughed right in his face. “Nah, that thing has so many miles on it, it’s past its expiration date.” His face turned beet red and he started to huff and puff out his chest. Deciding now was a good time to drive off, I put the Jeep in reverse and forced him to let go of the window.

  I could hear him cursing halfway down the gravel drive that leads out to the road.

  I hope I ran over his fucking foot; he deserves so much worse. The drive to the bottom of the hill took the normal fifteen minutes where the little cabins sat in a half-circle shape. Pulling in and parking the Jeep, I scan the area to see if I can locate Kangee before going in to ask which cabin, he is renting.

  No sign of him anywhere. Guess I will start with the little office and see if they will tell me which one he’s in.

  Walking into the small building, a nice blonde lady greets me at the window.

  “Hi, welcome. Do you have a reservation?” She must not have noticed my uniform. Smiling back at her friendly demeanor, “No, I’m just looking for a friend. Could you tell me which cabin Kangee is in?”

  The woman laughs and asks for his last name, which I failed to get. “I honestly don’t know his surname. I just met him yesterday.” Smiling she shows me a map of the property and points to one of the lone cabins in the back.

  “This one.”, she said, “It doesn’t have another attached and it’s one of the only ones like that back there. The number to the cabin is located right on the door.”

  Thanking her, I walked back out and made my way toward the back of the row of cabins to the left, found the one he was supposed to be in and knocked. He didn’t answer so I knocked a bit louder in case he was in the bathroom and didn’t hear the first one. Still nothing. Looking around, I decided to sit on his tiny porch in very comfortable l
ooking lounge chairs.

  The wind was cool and light, it felt great to sit there and listen to nature. As relaxing as the surroundings were, I can understand why people from all over come here to unwind and clear their heads.

  I began to relax and just let my mind wander. I imagined all the different people this place sees in a week. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I know, Kangee is lightly shaking my shoulder to wake me up.

  He had a very concerned look on his face, “Hey, Cora, you alright?” He was shirtless and in a pair of tight black jeans.

  His bare chest was muscular, and a natural tan made it seem perfect. My mouth suddenly went dry and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth.

  Why is he shirtless?

  “Cora?” he asked again.

  His answer was rapid blinking on my end while I tried to get my thoughts straight before my befuddled brain said things I wasn’t supposed to say. Like how the hell do you look so good and where is your shirt?

  My Ranger hat fell off to the back of the patio, and my shoulder-length brown hair was pulled tight into a knotted bun at the crown, but I still reached up and attempted to fix my hair, “Yah, yah sorry. I must have dozed off.” Kangee lets out a chuckle while unlocking the cabin door, “Yah, this place tends to do that. Random naps.” He stepped into the cabin and said that he was going to put on a shirt and would be right back out. I wanted to tell him that, he didn’t have to, but I thought better of it.

  Standing up and stretching, I look at my smartwatch to see what time it was. Damn it, two hours went by. Stomping around toward the back of the patio, I grab my hat and slap it against my thigh to knock any grass or dust off it.

  By the time I walk back up the steps, Kangee is coming out of the cabin in a completely new outfit. Did he just change for me? Now he’s wearing faded blue jeans and a dark t-shirt. His feet are in black combat boots and his hair is pulled back into a loose low ponytail.

  Sitting down in one of the green lounge chairs, he picks up the cup of coffee that somehow magically appeared in his hand and took a sip, “So, how do I honor this visit?” looking at me over the edge of the paper cup, he then places it on the arm of the chair while he waits for an answer. Shit. I hadn’t thought that far ahead, I don’t have an honest to God reason why I’m here.

  Sitting down in the chair next to him, I shrug and swallow my pride as I hear myself say, “I came to apologize for how I treated you yesterday.” His eyes widened in surprise and he sat up a little straighter in his chair, “Oh? Well, thank you. My shoulder is still a bit sore from being slammed into a car window.”

  To emphasize what he meant, he reaches back to his shoulder and squeezes the muscle.

  Now I honestly felt bad, “I’m seriously sorry. I took it too far.” He waves me off and shakes his head, “Nah, it's ok. I’m just fucking with you. It takes a lot to injure me for a long period of time.” Embarrassment heats my face and I resist the urge to playfully punch him in his injured shoulder.

  Kangee puts his cup down and walks into his cabin without saying a word and comes back out with a little gift box wrapped with a bow. “As promised, here’s a new set of cuffs.” Taking the box from him, I smile and unwrap the bow and open the box. Unfuckingbeliveable. “Really? You got me pink feathered SEX handcuffs?”

  Kangee roars with laughter, “I never said what kind of handcuffs I’d buy you.” Wiggling his eyebrows up and down in a suggestive manner he says, “Wanna go give them a shot? You can go first.”

  My pulse starts to race before I can think of an answer.

  Reaching deep for some control of my racing pulse and the thoughts that go with it I give him an irritated look, “If I used these on you, I’d glue your damn hands to the metal.”

  That made him laugh even harder. I put the cuffs back into the box and set it on the railing of the patio. Shaking my head in disbelief, “Is that all you guys have on your mind is sex?”

  Kangee’s laugher died down and he took another sip of his coffee, “Depends on who we are thinking about. I thought about those cuffs deeply before I bought them.”

  Realizing he’s a jokester and he’s harmless, I laughed at his shenanigans and sat back in the chair. My pulse returned to normal and I was able to put my thoughts all in order. But what would happen if……? My mind asks me.

  ∆∆∆

  Chapter 5

  Kangee

  Looking over at Ms. Hardass kickboxer Ranger, I can’t believe she apologized. I had to go to so many different novelty stores until I found what I was looking for.

  I didn’t think it would have been quite this quick that she swallowed her pride and told me she was sorry. Was I still sore? No, not really. My body heals faster than the normal human.

  Taking another sip of my now lukewarm coffee, I sneak a peek over the rim of the cup at her while she sits on my patio in my chairs yapping my ear off.

  Smiling over at Cora as she continues on about her Ranger job, I reach over and lightly touch her arm, “I heard you were a kickboxer, how did you get into that?” The smile she produced just lit up her whole face, “Well, when I turned five, my parents thought it’d be great to get me into something that teaches discipline.” She reaches for a bottle of water and takes a sip, “So karate is what they put me in, and I excelled. I reached black belt status by the time I was nine.”

  Cora then sat up some and rested her elbows on her thighs as she continued her story, “So after I turned twelve, and after many competition trophy’s, the company that I had been with since I was five, wanted me to mentor some of the younger kids.”

  This woman is way overqualified to be a park ranger. I think to myself. Standing up and stretching out, my stomach starts growling with hunger. We’ve been sitting still for a couple of hours now and I could use some food.

  “Hey, you hungry? The restaurant on the property has great tavern food.”

  She perked right up, “Yes, absolutely!” Standing up and stretching herself, she skipped down the two-step patio and waited at the sidewalk for me to catch up.

  As we walk to the restaurant I try to keep up the conversation, “I go into this little place at least twice a day, a lot of fried foods and greasy items, but hey, you only live once, right?” I silently chuckle when I saw her head move up and down in agreement. We arrive at the restaurant, go in and stand next to the bar to let someone know that we were there.

  Standing with my back against the bar, I nudge her shoulder with my own, “We can sit outside at one of the umbrella tables, if you want, Cora.” I said pointing out the window at the tables with the green umbrellas opened over them. Shrugging her shoulders, “Doesn’t matter to me, it is beautiful outside though, so that’s fine if you want to eat out there.”

  She accepts the menus and silverware wrapped in napkins from the server, then heads outside and finds a table that is half in the sun and half in the shade. Sitting down, Cora opens the small menu and scans over it. I sit across from her, pick up my own menu and do the same.

  Although, honestly, I’ve eaten there so much; I pretty much have the damn thing memorized.

  Our server comes out and takes our orders, Cora is not the A-typical female, she orders a bacon cheeseburger and house fries.

  Ironically, that’s exactly what I wanted, so I ordered the same. We made small talk for a few minutes, general chit chat about the place and people in here this time of day. Then I asked, “So, finish your story, how did you get into competing and winning Kickboxing tournaments?”

  The food arrived right after those words left my mouth so in between bites of fries, Cora tells me how she helped other kids with a passion for martial arts win competitions and tournaments and when she turned sixteen, she joined a kickboxing gym and was a natural at it. Before she knew it, she entered competitions with people who were older than her by a couple of years. By the time she was nineteen, she was a fifth-degree black belt in both Karate and Kickboxing. My eyes were the size of saucers and I didn’t realize that I had stopp
ed eating my food until I went for a fry and it was cold, “So you really are a bonafide badass?”

  Laughing, she tosses a fry at my head, “I mean, I guess? I never really saw it like that.” She said popping another fry into her mouth. I couldn’t take my eyes off it as she chewed. Her mouth was perfect. This woman could really be fun if I could sweet talk her into my bed. “So, have you done that professional type of wrestling too?” She looked at me with huge eyes that screamed surprise, “Wrestling? Like WWE?”

  Throwing my head back in deep guttural laughter, “NO, no. I mean like the MMA that I see advertised on cable.” Cora’s mouth went into a tight firm line on her beautiful face, “I haven’t, no. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I chose not to due to all the traveling involved.”