The Mating Season: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (15 page)

Kim sat at her kitchen table, looking at Keith. Her blue eyes filled with dread. She looked at her omelette and her appetite vanished.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said, looking at Keith. “Like, really. I didn’t expect to get pregnant so soon.”

Keith frowned. He was nervous about what her pregnancy would mean. If Tony was the father, she’d have to mate with him. Of course, if Keith was the father...but there was no way of knowing until the baby was born.

“You’ll have to tell Tony, as well,” he said, looking at her with concern in his eyes. “I don’t think he’ll take it very well. Some of the kids in this village are his, despite their moms being mated to someone else.”

Kim didn’t know what to say to that, so she sat in silence, moving the once delicious omelette around her plate. Thoughts were racing through her head a mile a minute. How could she have been so stupid? She should have gone to the pharmacy when she had the chance and picked up her pills. All this drama with Smiley caused her to forget about them, and now it was too late.

What if Smiley found out she was pregnant? What would he do then? He would probably murder her baby while she watched, then leave her to live with the loss. He really was that sadistic.

Keith got up from his chair and walked over to Kim. He put his arm around her and gave her a hug. “Really, it’s going to be okay. I promise.” He tried to lie to himself. He fervently hoped that this baby was his.

Kim mutely nodded as she stared blankly at her food. It was easy for him to say, it wasn’t his body that had to go through the pregnancy. It wasn’t his body that would blow up to gargantuan proportions, vomit profusely or have to go through unspeakable pain while forcing the baby from her womb. It wasn’t his blood pressure that would go up, or his blood sugar messing up. It was all hers. So yeah, she had a right to be a bit angry at the whole thing. She didn’t really want to become a mother, to be honest.

She was hoping to be child-free, but it looked like fate had different ideas. This was probably the most devastating news for her to get, next to that of her parents’ murder. Even then, that wasn’t really news since she was right there when it had happened.

Keith looked at the mute woman and left the kitchen. He knew there wouldn’t be anything to say. She didn’t seem to be too thrilled with the news, to be honest. Maybe she wasn’t ready for a kid? Maybe she was scared. He decided to leave Kim to her thoughts and go play some video games.

He turned on his console and flopped down onto the sofa. He fell into the video game world with ease, since it was his preferred method of escape. He really didn’t want to think about the possible pregnancy right now. He did want to be a dad, and he really wanted to be Kim’s mate. He shoved that out of his mind as he concentrated on the game he was playing.

While Keith played his game, Kim sat at the table staring out the window. Her food had gone cold. Thoughts swirled around her mind like smoke. Some lingered, some were fleeting, since she couldn’t make sense of the whirlwind of emotion that she was experiencing.

She tried to run what she was going to tell Tony through her head, multiple times, and each time it came out wrong. She decided to go over to Betty’s house later, since she had to go over anyway, to help with the girl’s coming of age ceremony. She might as well ask her how to handle all of this. Who knows, maybe Betty will actually answer her questions without needing to be asked, during the ceremony.

Kim got up from her chair, grabbed her plate and scraped it into the garbage. She felt awful wasting the food, but her appetite was shot. She silently moved to her bedroom and proceeded to get dressed. She peeked into the living room to see Keith completely engrossed in his video game. She decided she would leave from the back door as to not interrupt his game, and avoid any unpleasant questions he might ask.

She sneaked out the back door and checked the garden mounds. She noticed more produce needed to be picked. She hoped Keith would do that for her, since she would be busy all that day with Betty. She’ll send him a text later, she thought to herself. That way he wouldn’t worry.

The back gate creaked loudly as she opened it. She heard the loud booms and base music from inside her house, and felt confident that Keith didn’t hear her as she left. The sun was shining brightly in the clear blue sky; a few crows cawed out raucously as they chased a large raven from their territory.

The smaller, louder black birds harassed their larger cousin mercilessly. They dive bombed and whirled around the larger bird in aerobatic precision, trying to cause the poor thing to plummet to the ground. The caws from the crows grew louder and more insistent as they wheeled around the raven. Three more of the smaller birds flew from the trees to keep harrying the bird as it tried to escape. It was like watching a bunch of school children bully a peer for being different. Kim felt a pang of sadness for the large raven.

As she walked, the drama above her unfolded. The crows and raven were almost following her as she made her way slowly to Betty’s house. She needed time to gather her thoughts for the ceremony so she decided to take her time. All of a sudden the large raven plummeted to the ground as one of the smaller crows landed a lucky strike with its talons. The large bird crashed into a nearby bush, and rustled around, croaking pitifully for someone to help it.

Kim jogged towards the bush where the raven fell to see if it was injured. She knew they could be dangerous birds when provoked. Their beaks were large and powerful, meant to rip tough carrion from carcasses, and to crush strong nuts. Ravens were scavengers and would eat anything they could find. They were also opportunistic predators if they found an unfortunate enough animal to grab.

The bush rustled as the large bird attempted to free itself from the twigs and leaves that confined it. Pitiful croaks of alarm erupted from the bush as Kim approached it. The poor bird didn’t know if she was a predator or not, so it was calling out to any other ravens that were near to come help it.

Kim peered into the bush and saw the black beady eye of the raven stare back at her. It turned its head and opened its beak in a threatening manner, to warn her off, else it would bite her. She noticed that the inside of the raven’s great maw was still a bright pink. The bird was just a fledgling. Kim removed her sweater and made a makeshift net of it and slowly lowered it into the hole in the bush so as not to panic it any further.

She reached into the bush with the black sweater stretched between her arms. She whispered soothing noises at the panicked bird as she reached in to scoop it out from its woody prison. She gingerly reached in and wrapped her sweater around the large bird.

She felt it struggle a little as she lifted it out of the bush. She cradled it close to her chest for a minute, crooning softly to it to calm it down. Kim moved the sweater from the bird’s head to allow it to see its surroundings, and her.

The raven looked at her with one black, beady eye. It tilted its head to get a better view of her as she held it to her chest. The raven rested its iridescent feathered head against Kim’s chest and relaxed. It felt safe. Kim knew the nature of these birds. She knew they had a very long memory and could recognize humans that harmed or helped them, eventually passing the knowledge to their offspring.

Kim walked over to one of the benches and sat down. She unwrapped her sweater from the placid bird and tried to check it for injuries. She noticed its wings were folded against its black body, so they weren’t broken at least, and its legs were able to hold its weight without issue. The fledgling predator was probably just dazed.

The raven sat perched on her lap for a few minutes, staring at her, waiting for her to make a move to eat it or something. She sat ramrod still, not wanting to traumatize the poor bird any further. The raven tilted its head one way, then the other and then hopped off her lap. It hopped a few paces away and stared at her some more and then proceeded to fly off. The kindness she showed this raven would be remembered for the rest of its life.

Kim resumed her trip to Betty’s house. She soaked in the bright sunshine as she strolled down the road. She pulled her phone out and sent Keith a quick text, just so as not to worry him. She looked up the main street and saw the burnt out husk of the general store. The chemical smell of the recent blaze still lingered.

She felt a welling in her throat as she saw what remained of the town’s life line to the outside world cordoned off by yellow police tape. Her grief was quickly replaced by a white hot rage welling up from inside her. She wanted Smiley dead, jailed wouldn’t do; she wanted that fucker gone forever, since with jail, there was a really good chance he would return to haunt her someday.

She stopped at the bottom of Betty’s driveway. The front lawn was neatly landscaped. A few spiral herb gardens graced either side of the front yard and the green grass had flower beds elegantly distributed in it. Kim noticed that Betty was already outside puttering about in her garden in the mid-morning sun. Betty was busy weeding a bed full of azaleas as Kim strolled up the path, and didn’t notice she had a visitor.

Kim knelt down in the grass next to Betty and grabbed a near-by dandelion and pulled it out. Betty startled and looked over and saw the beautiful dark haired woman shake the dirt off the plant and put it in the gathering basket. Betty had a huge basket full of dandelions, and one more wouldn’t hurt.

“So, what do you plan on using these dandelions for?” Kim asked the older woman.

“Oh probably dry out the root for tea, good for the kidneys. Might make a salad out of the leaves, who knows. Might save the flowers and some extra roots for dandelion wine. You can do quite a bit with this humble little plant. Grows everywhere, too. Hearty as all get out. It takes root wherever the wind blows it, and it’s a dickens to get to leave. Kind of like a young woman I know.” Betty smiled warmly at Kim.

Kim grinned and nodded as she helped the older woman take the dandelions out of her flower bed. “I was wondering if that ceremony was tonight?” she asked.

“Oh, the one for the girls? Yeah, if you want, we’ve been waiting on you. Just didn’t want to rush it so soon after your injury and all,” Betty replied, as she looked at Kim from the corner of her eye.

Something seemed different about the young woman. Rusty told her that he suspected something, but couldn’t put his finger on it. Betty now had the same suspicion.

“Nice,” Kim said as she clawed out another weed. “I can’t wait to sit in on it; I really want to learn more about this band and the shifter lifestyle.”

“Oh you will. Don’t you worry. You keep pulling, I’m going to hop in the house and give the girls’ mothers a call.” Betty got up and jogged into the house while brushing the dirt off of her hands onto her gardening apron.

Kim found another dandelion and reefed it up. She wondered what the ceremony would be like. There wouldn’t be shifting, that’s for sure. That’s reserved for the entire village to witness, so the youngsters could stay safe during such a vulnerable transition. It might just be a girl’s night in with chocolates and other girly stuff. The only thing she remembered when she became a woman was her mom tossing a box of sanitary pads at her head and telling her to never flush them, along with a curt warning to keep her legs closed or else she’d regret it.

Boy, did she regret it now. She was woefully unprepared for this pregnancy. She didn’t want to tell Betty or Rusty about it just yet, but eventually they’d find out. She wanted to tell Tony about it first.

A large shadow blocked the sun from her back. Kim shivered and was afraid to look up in case it was Smiley ready to take her life. Suddenly the shadow moved and she looked next to her and found Junior kneeling next to her in the grass with a big grin on his face. Kim sighed with relief knowing it was Junior and not her psycho ex wanting to kill her.

Junior waved at her in greeting. Being deaf and mute meant that he couldn’t communicate in a conventional way. He also had no opportunity to learn traditional sign language, so he had to come up with his own modified signs to communicate with others in the small village of Predator Springs.

Kim smiled back as the giant man knelt beside her to help her with weeding his mother’s garden. In between pulling out dandelions and other unwanted plants from the azalea bed, she and Junior chatted up.

“I’m glad you’re feeling okay,” Junior said shyly. “I’m really sorry for hurting you.” It was clear the giant felt bad for what he had done to Kim on the day of the fire.

“Don’t worry about it. You saved my life,” Kim signed back. “From what Keith told me, the window exploded out just before you tackled me and the shrapnel would have killed me.”

“Exactly,” Junior signed back. “I’m sad we couldn’t catch him, though.”

Betty came out of the house and gave Junior a stern look. “Now you git out of here. Leave her alone. Go back to your room. You’ll get to do some work once we rebuild.”

Junior looked sad as he waved to Kim. Poor guy. His parents had no idea how intelligent he was.

Betty knelt down and got back to work in her garden. “Meeting is tonight at eight. The parents didn’t mind the last minute arrangements since they want to get this meeting over and done with. The shifting ceremony can’t proceed without this meeting. So please be there.”