The Mating Season: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (19 page)

Kim woke up the next morning in her comfy bed. She rolled over and found Tony sprawled out next to her, snoring softly. She managed to untangle herself from the duvet and sneak to the bathroom without waking him up. She stepped into the bathroom and saw a few bite marks on her neck and shoulders, and grabbed some antibacterial ointment to help heal them up. Tony could be rough at times.

After she placed the ointment on her wounds, she felt a wave of nausea hit and she collapsed to her knees and retched into the toilet. The noise of her emptying her stomach of the previous night’s meal woke Tony from his slumber.

He got up and walked to the bathroom to check on Kim. “Hey, are you feeling okay?” His chiseled face creased in concern.

“Yeah, just goes with the territory, I guess,” Kim replied as she stood and flushed the toilet. She went to rinse out her mouth with the cup next to the bathroom sink.

Tony smiled warmly as he stood naked in the open door of the bathroom. “Mind if I fix you some toast? It might help settle your stomach.”

Kim smiled wanly and nodded. “Thanks so much. I’ll get some PJ’s on and join you in a few minutes.”

Tony smiled and turned to go back into the bedroom. Kim couldn’t help but check out his tight behind for a second before unceremoniously retching into the toilet again.

Tony put on his boxers and walked into the kitchen to prepare some toast for Kim. A self-satisfied grin crept across his face as he remembered the previous evening. It had been so long since he had enjoyed that kind of sex with anyone.

Sometimes he’d paid visits to the ladies of the village while their mates were out of town, either logging or working up on the oil sands in Alberta, and fooled around a little, but since he found Kim, he had no desire to go traipsing about. He just wanted her. He would do anything to have her choose him.

Unfortunately, though, whoever that child’s father is is who her mate would l be. Tony sighed to himself and hoped it was his.

The toast popped out of the toaster and he stood there debating with himself if he should put anything on it or not as Kim stepped into the kitchen.

“Hey, thanks for the breakfast.” She greeted him after a yawn.

“I didn’t know if you wanted anything on it just in case, well you know...”

“Yeah, I think a little butter might help. Dry toast always makes me want to gag, and that’s the last thing I want right now,” she said with a grin.

“You got it, sunshine. By the way, Rusty wants to have a little chat with you later today. I need to head on over to the station and do some work, so maybe you could stop in and help him with some of the store cleanup?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Kim said. She had most of her garden harvested and preserved and was just waiting on the squash and kohlrabi to be ready, so that was all taken care of. Tony somehow managed to wrangle up a deer from who knows where, but she wasn’t going to ask any questions. She wasn’t ready to deal with that part yet.

“If things are too quiet, I might go with Junior to bring in an elk. We need the extra meat for the winter. With all the drama, no one has had much time to go hunting. Don’t want to be left living on scraps when the snow hits.”

Kim nodded, trying to avoid the grizzly subject. “Yeah, I don’t really want to know how you guys get the meat as long as it lands in my freezer wrapped in nice brown paper.”

Tony laughed. “You know, you might be able to help with the hunt once you’re done baking that kid. You never know.”

Kim shuddered uncomfortably. “Heh, I don’t think so.” But in her mind, she didn’t believe herself.

Tony put his hand on her shoulder. “Not before you’re ready though, don’t worry. I’m gonna go get dressed and head on over to work now. Call me if anything goes down, okay?”

“Not a problem,” Kim replied quietly. She was about to get lost in her thoughts again.

Tony stepped out of the kitchen, leaving Kim to her ruminations. She nibbled on her toast while looking out the window to her back yard. The two garden mounds looked barren after most of the bounty had been squirreled away in mason jars and freezer bags.

She put a hand on her belly. She wondered if she was going to have a boy or a girl, and more importantly is it Tony’s or Keith’s?

She loved both men. She couldn’t deny that. She loved both of them equally, but in different ways. Keith felt safe, dependable and loyal. She didn’t care for the way he withdrew from the world when things got rough, though. He was attractive enough, but his lifestyle made him a bit on the pudgy side, but that was okay with Kim.

Tony, on the other hand, was wild, free and had an element of danger around him that attracted her to him. With him she felt a reckless abandon to let everything out. She didn’t feel like she could scare him with anything she could throw at him. The thing was, he was almost too dangerous. She could tell, under his cool facade, that he was trying to bring something out in her that she wasn’t quite ready to face yet.

She sighed and finished her toast, then got up and went into her bedroom to get dressed. Rusty wanted to speak to her, and who was she to keep him waiting. She fished around her dresser for another bra, since the one she had on last night had been destroyed during the romp that she and Tony had shared. She found a ratty old sports bra in the back of her underwear drawer and figured that would have to do until she could get a new one.

She pulled her jeans on and noticed that the waist was beginning to feel a little snug. She sighed and tried her best to get them done up, but gave up after a few minutes and pulled a black leather belt through the loops and tossed a baggy t-shirt over top to hide the fact her pants were undone.

Guess I have to ask one of the guys to take me to town so I can buy some new clothes,
she thought to herself. She sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror, her rumpled, baggy band shirt made her look extremely unkempt. She tried to put her unruly long black hair into a bun, but failed miserably and left it in a punked out mess on the top of her head. Why not go whole scrub, she thought. She would be working amongst the burnt out rubble anyway, so no need to be wearing decent clothing.

Kim stepped out her front door and locked it behind her. She looked over to Keith’s house and saw him outside mowing his front lawn. She smiled and waved to him as she bounced out the driveway on her way to meet Rusty. Keith returned her wave with a shy smile and a limp one of his own. He did feel bad about avoiding her, and had no idea how he could break the ice, social graces were not his strong suit.

Kim strolled towards the central square listening to the birds sing in the trees. She was startled by a throaty croak from a nearby poplar tree and looked up.

Peering down at her was a large, iridescent raven. It tilted its head one way, then another, and let out another croak as it noticed Kim looking its way.

“Oh hey, you must be the raven from the other day. You don’t look any worse for wear.” She chatted up the bird, knowing full well how crazy it must look to the other people in town. She really didn’t care, though. She knew ravens were smart birds and it probably could understand all that she was saying to it. “I’m glad to see you’re doing alright. I need to get going though.”

The raven croaked in reply and flew off towards a patch of woods in the distance. It circled the area for a good five minutes before perching in one of the pine trees.

Kim smiled as she watched the black bird while she walked down the street. She turned the corner and saw the burnt out shell of the general store. The tattered crime scene tape twisted in the soft late summer breeze and her smile faded. The memories of that day were still fuzzy, but the chemical scent of burnt metal and melted plastic still clung to the structure. The sharp acrid smell caused Kim to gag and run towards a bush so she could bring her toast back up as discreetly as she could.

She grabbed a Kleenex from her purse and while she was wiping off her mouth she felt a hand land on her shoulder. She startled and looked to see who the owner was, and saw Rusty smiling at her with kindly eyes.

“Not feeling well?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye.

“Kinda, but I think I’ll get better in a few months,” Kim replied wryly as she put the tissue in a nearby garbage can. “So I heard you want me to help with some of the cleanup?”

Rusty stared at her with his piercing eyes, his already craggy face creasing with concentration. “Nah, I don’t think so, not in your condition, but I do want to talk to you, come sit,” he said motioning towards a wrought iron bench in the fruit orchard.

Kim nodded and followed Rusty as he guided her to the bench. “I’m not in trouble, am I?” Kim asked.

“Nah, you’re not a child, there is no real trouble, just consequences,” Rusty replied while staring off into the distance. “Consequences...”

Kim gulped and looked at her hands as she sat down. Rusty sat down beside her and continued on with his talk.

“You’re experiencing one of those consequences right now,” He said looking at her abdomen. “Don’t worry, it isn’t unwelcome or unwanted at least for us. Just unexpected.” Rusty took a toothpick out of the pocket of his plaid shirt and stuck it in his mouth, and his silver braids shone in the late morning sun. “Y’see, the daddy of that little cub in you, will be your mate.”

Kim swallowed hard. “Yeah, I know. Betty told me, but the baby is due after the equinox, and by then it’ll be too late. They’ll be in their cougar forms forever by then.” She lamented.

“Now...I know that, and Betty knows that, the boys know that, too. I can fix that problem, you know. You just have to ask.”

“Wait. You can tell which one the father is?” Kim asked incredulously.

“MmmHmm.” Rusty replied. “I most certainly can, without needles or fancy DNA tests or anything like that. Just need to do a bit of a ritual and as sure as anything, I can tell you who the daddy is before the fall equinox takes place. Then boom, we can do the mating ceremony and everything will be smooth sailing.”

Kim’s jaw dropped. “If you can really do that, I would be extremely grateful. What do you need me to do?” Her heart was going a mile a minute. In a way, she wanted to find out, in a way, she didn’t, because it meant that one of the men she held so dear would be hurt deeply. At least it wouldn’t be her outright rejecting one of them.

“Well,” Rusty drawled, “You need to take a bath in a special herb bath I’m gonna make for you. Don’t worry, none of these will hurt the baby. Then an hour before the ritual you’ll need to drink a tea I’m going to give you. It won’t hurt the baby either. Then you’ll lie down on a table and I’ll figure out who the daddy is. Most of the work will be done by me so you’ll just have to lay back 'n' relax.”

Kim nodded. “Sounds good,” she said. “When do you want to do this?”

Rusty leaned back and looked towards the woods where the raven flew. “Well, I’m thinking in two days time would be a great time to do it. The moon will be at the right phase, and the baby will be more secure inside. Sometimes the energies dislodge the pregnancy, this one seems rather secure.”

Kim nodded. “Sounds good. So in two days. Night before I bathe then I take the tea before going to your house.”

“Yep. Tony and Keith have to be there as well. Make sure to tell them, it’s not my job. I’ll send Junior over with the herbs after dinner.” Kim noticed Rusty was a man of few words. She knew he was ancient, but didn’t quite know how ancient he was.

“We’ll figure this out, don’t worry,” he said, patting her knee as he rose stiffly from the bench. “Anyway, I think I’m going to call a contractor to pick up that mess. Insurance is gonna cover it since it was an arson that I didn’t cause. I’ll see you in two days.” With that, Rusty shuffled off towards his modest home.

Kim sat on the bench a while longer and looked around the village that she called home. The local businesses surrounded the square of trees and bushes that bore the fruit for the small village. She remembered there being a seamstress next to the general store and she hoped she was still open.

She saw the small shop with an open sign in the front display window that housed mannequins dressed in various outfits. She rose from the bench and made her way across the street to the small tailor shop.

The doorbell rang as she pushed the shop door open. She looked around through the fabric dust motes that floated around the sunbeams shining through the large plate glass window. The dark wooden floors creaked as she stepped inside.

“Hello?” Kim called out. “Is there anyone here?”

A large lady strode in from the back room. She wore a pink kerchief over her long black hair, which was tied back in a ponytail. The tan skin of her face had smile lines around her dark brown eyes and thin lipped mouth. She wore a pink gingham jumper dress covered by a white apron. Her ample bosom heaved as she tried to catch her breath.

“Hey, you must be Kim.” The seamstress greeted her. “We haven’t met before, but I’m Mary’s mom, Rachel. She told me that you went to the meeting last night.”

“Yeah, I pretty much had to go I guess, all things considered...” Kim trailed off.

“Yeah, it’s really no secret. That whole triangle, I wouldn’t want to be in it, that’s for sure. Tony’s one hell of a charismatic guy,” Rachel said with a sly grin. “Pretty good in bed, too,” she finished with a wink.