Free Animal Nature: A Paranormal Romance (The Animal Sagas) by Susan G. Charles Page A

daughter, normally manifesting itself around the time the girl hit puberty, but that did vary for some extra special individuals. And sometimes boys got it too but she had never met a boy with the powers. She had heard of tales of a few male cousins in areas far away with it, why were they always in far off territories she often wondered off topic, but as a general rule this was a “girls only” magical club. Shifting was the magic women in her family kept secret from the outside world.
    Now some girls, such as Lynda, were well blessed with the magic, and got their powers extra early. Lynda herself was extremely strong magically speaking and the ability to “shift” came to her when she was just over six years old. Needless to say, her parents weren’t quite prepared for that when it happened – just imagine leaving the room for one second,  with your little girl happily watching the Mr. Rogers, to come back and find a spitting mad cougar cub ready to rip your ankle off the next! Yeah, that was quite a transition for Mom and Dad!
    Mom was good at explaining things to Lynda though and told her all about the magic in stories and in response to thousands of questions that Lynda had right after that experience. Dad tried to help too as best he could but Mom was the source of all her shifter knowledge and Dad just filled in where he could. Dad wasn’t a shifter but his mother was, so he knew a lot about the experience if only through second hand knowledge. Plus he could be extra comforting in that Dad kind of way and she always loved him for that.

Chapter 2
    6 months ago -
    But something happened to the Yukonia clan around the time she became a teenager – she didn’t exactly know the real reason, her folks never discussed it as far as she knew – it might have been genetic, or environmental, or maybe it could have been something as simple as disease or accident – maybe even something in the water, who knows for sure, but their clan numbers dropped off fast. In fact, there were very few babies born to her relatives starting around ten to fifteen years ago and many that were did not make it past being a toddler.
    It was almost as if the Yukonia’s had been contaminated with some sort of paranormal shifter “pest control” – kind of like the stuff you put on your pets so the fleas can’t have babies. Once treated the shifters can’t have babies either. Hmmm? It made her wonder and worry too! But as far as she remembered her mother or father never really discussed it – at least not when she was around.
    Come to find out, herself and Sonya, an unexpected “miracle” her mother often called her, were the only living Yukonia relatives left right now. At least that she knew of. She had reached out to several relatives she hadn’t seen in years when she came home after the accident while making funeral arrangements but none had replied. Not even one and she thought this super strange!
    For a group once as powerful as the stories of the Yukonia she was told as a child, she now felt very alone. So as far as she could deduce, she and Sonya were the last of their line. She tried not to dwell on that though, for one thing because she had so little spare time to herself,  but also because it made her really sad. She now felt a surprising kinship with that character from “The Last of the Mohicans”.
    But their family home place, a simple log cabin several miles outside of town complete with about 100 acres of land, a little farm equipment, a few head of cattle, goats and chickens was quickly heading toward foreclosure if she couldn’t turn this ship around – and fast. It was still a lot like she remembered it as a child – except much more worn down than in her memories. And just over the time period of the three years she had been moved out, the place had really gone down hill.
    How could this have happened so quickly, she now wondered to herself? But her parents never said a word – “They were too proud to