Karma's Shift (Magical Midlife in Mystic Hollow Book 2) - Lacey Andersen (black female authors .TXT) 📗

3

Daniel

My nose caught a scent I’d never picked up before. Given the fact that I was deep in my family’s land, there shouldn’t have been any scents belonging to any shifters, besides my own of course. The wolves sometimes drifted over the property line a little, but I didn’t mind as long as they didn’t come too far in.

This was different. The smell wasn’t a wolf or any other shifter I knew of. Just like humans could hear a voice and know who it belongs to, even if they don’t see them, shifters in a town this small got accustomed to each other’s scents. I didn’t believe there was one among us I wouldn’t be able to identify within seconds. Which meant this scent didn’t belong to one of the shifters in Mystic Hollow. It was a stranger, one who was cocky enough to step into an unknown bear’s territory.

Growling low in my throat, I moved my bulky body and followed the scent with my snout close to the ground. I had to find whoever it was and let them know in no uncertain terms they weren’t welcome here.

Other shifters should’ve known better. They should’ve smelled me and given me a wide berth. As a bear shifter, we were top dogs so to speak. Wolves might be fast and fierce, but an angry bear? That was a whole other level. Even a pup would scent a bear’s territory and run the hell away. Not that I’d be rough with a pup, but I would carry it straight back to its mama, mostly because it’d need to learn the lesson. Not all bears were as forgiving as I was.

But this scent. It wasn’t a pup. There was something… off. Something my bear instincts screamed to be wary of. Whether it was the beast within me that was nervous, or the ex-sheriff part of me, I had a feeling that whatever shifter brought this scent would be trouble.

Following the scent took me close to my truck. Which was a surprise. I would have thought even a foolish person wouldn’t do more than skirt the outlying areas of my land. But to come close to my home? To property clearly marked, even by human standards. Whoever this was, I didn’t trust. Not when they were so clearly willing to flout property lines, legal and otherwise.

When I passed within a few yards of the truck, my sensitive bear ears picked up the sound of my cell phone ringing. I stopped short, trying to decide which should be my priority. I didn’t get many calls, so when I did, they were usually pretty important. But this cocky shifter would also need to be dealt with.

Snuffing air out of my snout in frustration, I ambled toward my truck. I’d never make it in time to answer the phone, but I’d call back whoever it was. Then, I’d go after the strange scent.

Beside my truck, I shifted back into my human skin, feeling my bones crack, and my shape shrink. Yeah, I was big for a man, but my bear was bigger. In life, I always felt like I was towering over people, but not just because I was tall, it was as if everything in our world was made for people half my size. But the only time I felt delicate as a human was after I shifted out of my bear form. Then, and only then, I seemed too small for this world.

Opening my car door, I picked up my phone, which sat on top of my clothes on the seat of the truck. I fully expected a call from one of the wolves. Even though their alpha was still reluctant to accept my help after his father’s death, he had reached out more lately. Usually by text though, which was the young wolf’s way.

But to my surprise, the call had been from Emma. My heart immediately began pounding at the thought. My mind called up an image of her. For so long when I thought of Emma, it was of the shy, young girl I knew before she left, with the kind of smile that made a man feel weak in the knees. Now though, that image was replaced with a better one. Her now, with crinkles at the sides of her dark eyes when she smiled. How she’d touched her black hair in a way that reminded me so much of the girl she had been, a gesture that was nervous and spoke of a woman who had no idea how beautiful she was.

And yet, she didn’t exactly call me often. My smile faded a bit. She’d called me for one of two things. Either she wanted to go out on a date, and hopefully that was it, or she was in some kind of trouble. So far, this little woman seemed to be chased by trouble. And as much as I thought I was enjoying my semi-retirement; I’d take any amount of excitement or danger if it brought me closer to her.

As long as she was safe.

I hit the button to call her back and put it on speaker as I pulled on my boxer briefs and began to dress. “Emma?” I asked when she answered. “How are you?”

“Hey, Daniel, thank you for calling me back so quickly. I’m in a bit of a pickle here. Could you come over?”

She sounded worried and upset. My heart pounded even harder as adrenaline pumped through my veins. “Of course. I’ll be right there.”

“Thank you, uh, hang on.” Her voice sounded far away, then she said something in the background I couldn’t make out because I’d bent over to yank on my boots. What shitty timing that this happened when I was way out in the woods instead of in town.

Jumping into my truck, I turned around on the narrow path while I waited on Emma to come back to the phone. Usually, I took the dirt paths on my