Free Shifter Mountain: A BBW Paranormal Romance by Annora Soule Page B

it up there. And we won't all have to go on foot. Our production company bought a couple of old military vehicles for this sort of situation.  And we've got some ex-marines working for us as part of the film crew.  They're mapping out the mountain now, and believe me, these guys can get in and out of anywhere in the world.  Scopes Mountain is child's play to them."
     
     

Chapter 9
     
     
    Cephas stood on a ridge looking at an unsettling scene below.
    The production crew had loaded up the military trucks, and everyone was making their way to the overlook at Slacum's Holler.
    "Who the hell do t hese people think they are?"  Cephas demanded of no one in particular.
    His brother Daryl shrugged his shoulders.
    "I told you that Lawless guy was up to no good."
    Cephas ' shoulder was bandaged up underneath his shirt, and it still hurt pretty bad after he got shot up by Kay, but he was out and about ever since last night.  Ever since Daryl told him his wife had come out of hiding and was fraternizing with strangers.
    "Well, I don't like what happened the other night, that's for sure ," said Cephas' younger brother Johnny. "If this guy is who I think he is, then we're in for some changes around here, and that's not going to be good for us."
    The three brothers resembled each other both in their looks and in their meanness. Their father had beaten any possible good sentiment out of them when they were young. Now, they had become just like him.  Worse even. All three were married.  And all three were terrible husbands.
    "How is it possible that a Country and Western singer out of Nashville is 'the 'Man-in-the-Mountain'?"  Daryl asked.
    "Old Man Cowell said he was bor n here," Cephas answered.  "Then his mother took him away when he was young.  Daddy told me about Rufus Lawless when he was 'the Man-in-the-Mountain.'  But then he died and no one took his place.  Until now."
    "Well, Kay's a bitch for letting another man take your place at her table.  Cookin' for him and all that."
    "Kay's a pathetic cow. And I'll put her out pasture soon enough.  I've got her land, her moonshine, all that's rightfully mine as her husband."
    "The moonshine I get, but there's no money in this land," Daryl said.  "There's no coal, and nothing else that makes a mountain worth much."
    "Don't be a dumbass. We've got more ginseng growing on this mountain than anywhere else in Appalachia."
    "Well, yeah, but it's still not as lucrative as coal."
    "Alright, genius, let me tell you something else. There's no coal all right, but there's coltan. It's worth more than coal these days, and nobody's tapped it yet."
    "Coltan? What the hell is that?"
    "It's a metal ore they use for computers.  Right now Apple and Microsoft and other companies get it from Africa.  But it turns out, we've got it right here buried in Scopes Mountain.  Right under our feet."
    "So what do we do?"
    "We've got to stop this Lawless fella before he transforms fully," Cephas said.  "Before he knows who he really is.  He's still vulnerable."
    Cephas' body trembled as he went into a shift. The air around him shimmered and suddenly he morphed into a hawk, soaring upward above the treetops.
    "You shouldn't be trying to fly!" Daryl yelled after him. "It's too dangerous.  It's one thing to be a panther with that injury, but it's a whole other thing to be a bird!"
    "I'm fine, goddamn it!"
    Cephas' shoulder did hurt, and he really had to favor that particular wing over the other. But he was a tough son-of-a-bitch, and he could do whatever was necessary to take care of business.
    His brothers then each followed suit, shifting into hawks, and catching a high wind and wheeling over the production crew down below.  They flew overhead the whole way, following them up the mountain, towards its most picturesque and most unreachable point.
    When they reached the holler and the production crew settled in, Cephas, Daryl and Johnny alighted on opposing tree branches, high up in a spruce