The Mating Season: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (3 page)

He saw Kim stiffen as she looked out the window. The fleeting moment of joy he witnessed crumbled as she stood staring out the window in abject terror. She began to tremble and hyperventilate.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he said, full of concern.

“I…I just…It was nothing.” She rushed from the living room to the bathroom.

Kim closed the bathroom door behind her and tried not to retch from seeing her ex drive by. He wasn’t supposed to find her here. She hoped he didn’t see Keith come into her house. She would die if anything happened to him because of her. She didn’t understand it, but she did feel a spark of something for him.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a polite knock at the bathroom door. “Hey, are you okay in there?” Keith asked through the door.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bit of nerves from moving into a new place, that’s all. It’s all pretty overwhelming. I’ll be fine, honest.” She opened the door to the bathroom. She was moved by the genuine concern etched on his face.

The look of vulnerability Kim had about her triggered a deeply protective urge in Keith. He gingerly reached out and touched her bare arm to try to reassure her.

A shock of desire jolted through her as his warm hand touched her arm. Kim’s eyes went wide in surprise as the sudden compulsion to make love to this virtual stranger hit her like a ton of bricks. She averted her gaze downwards, hoping he didn’t notice. She couldn’t get involved in another relationship, not so soon.

“Seriously, if there’s anything you need, I’m literally next door. I can come over and help you put your garden in tomorrow if you want. The sooner it gets done the better. At least you can concentrate on getting your house set up.”

“Yeah. You have a point.” She neglected to mention that she would feel a bit safer as well. “Well, umm... I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

“Yeah. I’ll definitely see you tomorrow,” Keith said with a grin. “Oh, what kind of seeds do you want for your garden?”

“Eh, probably the usual. Carrots, peas, tomatoes, maybe some potatoes if they grow well here.”

“Sure, I think I have some. I’ll check. If not, I know of some other guys that would. You know, you have quite a bit of planting area back there. If you trust my judgment, I’ll plant a bunch of stuff for you. You have a deep freeze?” he asked, craning his neck around her to look for it.

“Yeah, it’s in the dining room.” She chuckled. She noticed he had a difficult time going home and was vaguely amused by it.

“Nice, you’re gonna need it,” Keith said with a grin. “I’ll make sure you’re well provided for. Heck, I think anyone in this village would.” He just couldn’t bring himself to take that step out the door to go home. “Anyway, see you tomorrow, eh?”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow,” Kim said as she closed the door behind him, smiling.

Keith stepped out of the house, his broad smile replaced by a frown as he wondered what could have scared Kim so badly. He had seen the news of the murders on the news a few months ago. He wondered if she had any connection to that. He’ll have to go talk to Tony. According to the reports, the guy hadn’t been caught yet.

He decided to take a walk to the band police station, a double wide trailer with one of the rooms converted into a holding cell. Usually it was just used for someone who’d had too much to drink, to sleep it off before heading home.

He passed by the communal orchard, noticing that the cherries were ready to be picked, and the apples were growing at a decent pace. He made note to stop by the general store to pick up some seeds and fertilizer for Kim’s garden. It was the only shop in town, restocked once a week during spring and summer and, whenever the roads were clear enough, in the winter. They usually ordered much larger quantities in mid fall to make sure they had enough supplies to last the winter.

Keith arrived at the police station and opened up the door. He looked around and saw his cousin Tony sitting at one of the two desks.

“Hey, I thought you had the day off today, Cuz,” he greeted.

“Yeah, I was gonna but I figure I’d look into something. Did you get a chance to meet Kim?” he asked.

“Yep. I did. I think she likes me, too,” Keith replied with a goofy grin on his face.

“ ‘Bout time you landed someone. The elders will be happy.”

“Didn’t land her yet. I hope I do, though. Gonna help her with her garden tomorrow.”

“Ah, that’s so like you, being the white knight. Remember, girls like a little bit of a bad boy streak,” his cousin chided.

“Maybe. I want to take it slow before telling her all about me, that way I don’t scare her off. Speaking of Kim, when I was over there, helping her set up some stuff, she saw something and got really scared for some reason. I mean shaking, running off to hide terror. Never seen anything like it.”

Tony sat up. “What do you mean?”

“Like, I didn’t see it, but it obviously scared the daylights out of her. I hope it wasn’t one of the other guys stalking around. I hope they know better than to change when there’s someone brand new in town.”

“Remember, Keith, nobody new has come to town in almost thirty years. You’d hope the rest of us would have some common sense, but if one guy didn’t hear, well, she might have seen him stalking around town.”

“Maybe that’s what happened,” Keith stated, not quite believing it. He had a hunch that there was something else. “You know that double murder that happened outside of Golden a few months back? That guy was never caught, eh? One survivor.”

“Yeah, what of it?” Tony said, losing patience with his cousin. He wanted to get back to watching his movie.

“Well, the news said there was one female survivor. They didn’t want to give out her name...because the killer was still out there.”

“You think it’s Kim?” Tony scoffed. “Come on. Like, I bet she’s here because of a bad break up, nothing more. Her grandmother wasn’t very forthcoming about why she had to hide here, but until she causes trouble, I’m gonna leave her alone, at least as a cop.” he added with a wink, and the allusion was painfully obvious to Keith.

“You’re an asshole, you know that? Anyway, I’m gonna keep an eye out. If something or someone is stalking her, I’m gonna put a stop to it. You’re the cop, so you should want to help.”

“Well yeah, but I can’t go on that kind of hunch. I need hard evidence. Anyway, you keep an eye out. I’ll do the same. Nothing wrong with keeping her safe. She looks like she’s been through a lot.”

“I’ll do that. Anyway, I’ll call ya if I see anything. Oh, do you have a description of that killer guy? I just want to keep it handy. You aren’t the only one with those instincts.”

“Here you go,” Tony replied as he handed over one of the wanted posters. “Doubt it’s him, but whatever makes you happy and gets you out of my face for a bit.”

Keith folded up the paper, put it in the back pocket of his jeans, and left the station. He stopped at the general store and picked up some seeds for Kim’s garden before they closed for the night. He also wanted to get a case of beer to help dull the burning need that Kim awoke deep in his soul.

When he got home, he cracked open a bottle and sat down at his computer. The satellite internet was sketchy out there at best, but it was better than nothing.

The band might not want much in the way of government aid, but the help they did accept was always for the betterment of their community. The satellite internet was part of the government program for education in the village. There were too few children born in the village to warrant them opening up a school, and it was too remote for them to be bussed into the nearest town, especially during the dangerous winter. So, the government supplied each house with a satellite modem so the band could home school their children. Because of this, the Predator Springs community’s children had one of the highest literacy rates in the First Nations of Canada, since they weren’t forced into a school system that worked against them.

Before the government supplied internet, the kids went to a one room school house located in the center of town. The teacher was old Mrs. Bear. She taught the kids for almost seventy years before she finally passed away at the ripe old age of ninety three.

Keith pulled the wanted poster out of his pocket and unfolded it. He studied the face carefully and noticed the name. Smiley Rockborne.

He opened up Facebook and typed in the name in the search bar. Only two results popped up, and his was one of them.

He clicked the page and gasped at what he found. In some of his public albums, there were photos of him and Kim. He couldn’t believe it. He clicked through the albums, dumbfounded. He noted that Smiley was tagged in his wanted poster by the Interior RCMP. Of course, his last viewable post was three months ago.

He sent the link to Smiley’s Facebook page to Tony, just in case he wanted to see it.

*

Tony was sitting in his office, doing some late night paperwork, when an instant message notification went off on his computer. Great, it’s from Keith, he thought. Wonder what he wanted.

The IM had a link to some dude’s Facebook page, and a “You better check this out,” from Keith. Out of curiosity, Tony opened the link and was struck by what he saw.

Photos of the new woman in town, Kim, alongside the man who allegedly killed two people three months back, filled the timeline. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Looking at the pictures, they seemed deeply in love as well.

He punched the speaker phone button and called his cousin.

“Hey, I checked out that link you sent me, eh?” He began.

“I was pretty shocked to see it, too.” Keith replied. “Like, she doesn’t seem like a bad person, to be honest…”

“I doubt she had any involvement in it, if you want to know my gut feeling,” Tony assured his cousin. “If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if she came here to hide from the son of a bitch. After all, watching your parents get murdered, and have god knows what else done to you, would leave your head spinning, to put it lightly,” Tony said.

“Yeah. I think we should back off a bit from her. You know, to let her heal? I know the ceremony is coming up soon, and one of us needs to pick a life mate soon. Just, I dunno. I don’t want to force it if she’s not ready.”

“Yeah, you have a point. I’ll talk to the elders to see if they can postpone it. I know neither of us is getting any younger, but you’re the oldest and still haven’t picked. They are more after you to get it over with, than me.” Tony laughed.

“Tell me about it,” Keith groaned over the phone. “Seriously, it sets my teeth on edge the way they’re breathing down my neck every year. It’s not my fault I haven’t found anyone yet. Not like I haven’t been looking.”

“Anyway, I’ll talk to my deputy and see what we can do to buff up the surveillance. We might be out of the way, but since we’re connected to the outside, it might not take much for this guy to find her. We need to keep her, and the rest of the town, safe,” Tony sternly told his cousin.

“Oh, I know. If this guy has no problems shooting two people in front of their own daughter, I doubt he would think twice about gunning us down.”

“Yes, and we’re too few in numbers as it is, my friend. We can’t afford to lose any more. Predator Springs is slowly dying. We’re having too many boy children and not enough girls for them to pick from. We’re bringing in new blood but that dilutes our own. The elders are getting pretty worried.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ll let you get back to your job, eh? I’m probably gonna have a few more beers and hit the hay. I promised I would help Kim with her garden tomorrow.”

Tony smirked. “What’s this thing about backing off?” he teased.

“Oh come on, you helped her move in, I can at least help her last through the winter.”

“True, true. Remember, don’t do anything I wouldn't do. I think after I’m done here, I’m gonna poke around the woods for a bit. Walking around at night always helps clear my head. Since you dropped this murder bullshit on my head, it’s going every which way.”

Keith smiled. “Yeah sounds like a plan. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I might be able to get something out of her by then.

“Right on. See ya,” Tony said as he pushed the button and ended the call.

Tony leaned back in his creaky old office chair and stared at his computer screen pensively. He opened up the national database that the RCMP kept regarding open files. Every local police department had access to this database. It helped keep everyone in law enforcement on the same page regarding criminal activity.

He typed Smiley Rockborne’s name and date of birth into the search fields and hit enter. The database pulled up all the information regarding the murder case, as well as crime scene photos. Tony winced at the sheer brutality of the evidence.

Two adults, one male and one female, lay in a crumpled heap, and blood pooled in a wide area around them. There was a photo of a pile of shredded clothes in the corner. A 30-0-6 rifle, one used to hunt large game such as elk and moose, was in the evidence folder, along with two slugs.

Photos of the blood on the walls, close ups of the victims and the results from the rape kit that was taken from Kim, he read through it all with morbid fascination, and a single minded purpose to catch this guy. No wonder she was so damn skittish around him, he thought. She had been through absolute hell. He decided to tell Keith about what he had found in the case file. Not the gory details, mind you, but just the important things. If anything, it would add an extra pair of eyes to look out for that psychopath.