Free The Mating Season: A Paranormal Shifter Romance by Jade White Page B

was able to smell what went on the night before. He was not impressed. He needed to talk to Tony about it, outside, away from Kim, before it ate him alive inside. Hot jealousy had a way of causing shifters to permanently stay in their animal forms, his dad told him. It was one of the reasons why he stayed single for so long. He couldn’t risk it, but now here he was, falling in love with this beautiful and kind woman, and she was pushing him away in favor of Tony.
    Tony put his feet up on one of the empty kitchen chairs. He was more difficult to read, but was just as tense under his lackadaisical facade. He knew Keith was pissed at him. He just needed to explain to his cousin that he really couldn’t control himself. Keith laid with the woman so he knows what kind of power she has over unmated males. She had a greater pull than most.
    Keith put a scoop of scrambled eggs along with a couple of rashers of bacon and some toast on a plate for Kim. He looked at her and smiled shyly as he handed it to her. She met his gaze and couldn’t help but return his genuine affection with a smile of her own. At that moment, she felt horrible for sleeping with Tony.
    Kim sat down at the kitchen table and ate her breakfast. Keith came over and put a cup of coffee on the table for her. She gently touched his hand as she went to pick up the cup.
    Keith’s eyes widened as he felt her soft hand touch his. If he were alone with her, he would probably have taken her right then and there. With that single touch, his anger evaporated. He was no longer mad at his cousin. He understood completely what had happened.
    There was a polite knock at the front door. “I’ll get it,” Tony announced as he got up from the table, leaving Keith and Kim sitting in an awkward silence in the kitchen.
    “Hey...I’m sorry about the other day,” Kim said. “Did you get the tools?”
    “Yeah, thanks for bringing them back. I noticed I was missing a trowel though,” he said with a sly smile.
    “Well, I might need it to dig out weeds or something,” she replied evasively. She couldn’t bring herself to say that she wanted him to come back.
    “Ah.” They both deftly danced around the elephant in the room. Neither one was willing to face it quite yet.
    Tony returned to the kitchen, followed by Rusty. “Hello there, Kim,” Rusty greeted her. “Hope to see you back at the shop soon.”
    “I hope to go back soon,” she replied. “I really enjoy working there.”
    “I like having you. I hope this personal issue of yours gets sorted out sooner rather than later,” Rusty said while pulling up a seat.
    Tony reverently went to the coffee pot to fix the elder a coffee and Keith stood there wide eyed as the elder sat down.
    “You’re probably wondering why I’m here,” Rusty began. “It’s not just because I want you back to work. I think it’s about time you learned about this place. Your grandfather, when he came to the village, half frozen, found out our secret before we were ready to tell him. He vowed to never tell a soul, and from the looks of things, he kept his word.”
    Rusty nodded to Tony who placed the hot cup on the table. He placed his hands on the mug and looked at it pensively, trying to find a way to explain the village to the poor woman who had already been through so much.
    Keith and Tony looked at their feet and shuffled around nervously. They knew what the elder was about to say and they were both worried about Kim’s reaction.
    “I am the head elder, and shaman of the Predator Springs band of the Cree nation,” Rusty announced formally. “Our band has been purposefully isolated from the rest of the Cree nation for hundreds of years, almost thousands. Ever since the Cree settled the prairies of Alberta and the mountains of British Columbia, we have endured. In the Cree myths and legends, there are rumors of shape shifters. People gifted by the Great Spirit to change into the village’s totem animal. We are one of those