The Alpha Claims His Mate

Chapter 1-2

There was not good documentation on the original inhabitants of the area. From what Samantha saw repeated most often in the archives, was that the bear clan had traveled down from Russian-settled Alaska and picked up various bears along the way. The clan that was here now was a mix of various bear tribes from the Old and New Worlds.

It was the same for the wolves. They could trace their heritage from tribes fleeing the California missions and Spanish settlements as well as from French-influenced native tribes fleeing Western expansion.

Depending on how one counted the years, the clans arrived at different times. What Samantha thought was most likely was that the two clans had expanded out and Klamath Falls simply represented the place where the two animal clans met for the first time. Either way it was pointless to go back and figure out who had arrived first. That wouldn’t change anything.

The information was disappointing in another way. Samantha was hoping that she would be studying two native tribes. Instead she was studying two immigrant tribes. This just drove home the point that this was not a real research position. It had more to do with social work than anything.

Still, there were bound to be interesting observations gained from this. Besides, if Samantha wanted to look at it positively, this meant that the two groups had equal claim on the area in question. It was rare when that happened. Despite the differences in culture, these two groups seemed evenly matched.

Samantha remembered from history lessons that this was often not the case and that some groups completely overpowered their neighbors. She had always found those groups less interesting. There was usually little one could do in that situation unless one was able to make laws. Even then, laws could not protect a group’s culture and often the smaller, less powerful group was subsumed by the larger one.

This was not the case. The hostility meant that there had been relatively little cultural exchange between the two. This was as close to finding two pure cultures as Samantha was going to get on the West Coast. She sighed and blinked. The microfilm machines always gave her a headache. Most of the books that she was interested in were reference books and she could not check those out. Instead she had to make copies at the copier and pay for it. It was like she was an undergrad again. Samantha hated it.

She hadn’t enjoyed her undergraduate experience. She was still raw from losing her mother, and by that time her father had remarried and had another child. Going home for breaks meant that she was crammed with Carol in the bedroom that had been her mother’s office, while her bedroom became the nursey for Annie.

Jacqueline, her stepmother, was awful. She wasn’t as bad as Cinderella’s stepmother but it was close. Honestly, the only reason that Samantha had pursued a minor in Social Work was to spite Jacqueline. She hated that woman.

Her stepmother had removed all evidence of her mother’s existence from the house. Even when her father was merely dating that horrible woman, Samantha was expected to entertain horse crazy Carol. At seventeen, Samantha had little interest in twelve-year-old Carol. But that girl had taken delight in tormenting Samantha. She was spoiled rotten and an absolute pest.

Samantha stepped back from the copier and sighed. Eventually she’d begin to warm to Jacqueline, but she still resented her for trying so hard to replace her mother. There were things of her mother’s that Samantha had wanted to keep that Jacqueline had demanded be put in storage.

Those had been lost to Samantha when the storage unit was broken into within a year. Samantha still had not forgiven Jacqueline for the loss of Denise Lashbrooke’s silver locket. She didn’t think that a person could forgive a thing like that.

Still, they had gotten to a point where they could spend holidays together. Samantha just thought that Jacqueline was boring and Carol was dull. Anne had grown into a sweet young girl. She was not interested in school, preferring to stick to her phone and her friends. Samantha didn’t blame her.

That didn’t make the years she spent as an undergraduate any less bitter. Jacqueline had hated the fact that Samantha went to a fancy university. She hated Samantha’s majors (anthropology and social work). She hated Samantha’s friends. She seemed to hate everything that Samantha did. Samantha certainly didn’t make things easier on Jacqueline. She was as rude as possible to her and when that didn’t work, Samantha flat out refused to acknowledge Jacqueline when her father wasn’t around. That drove Jacqueline mad.

Celeste was one of the few friends that Samantha made as an undergrad. That girl kept Samantha from growing too dark and moody. She was like a cheery ray of sunshine. They remained friends even now. Celeste had been the one to urge Samantha to break up with terrible boyfriends and comforted her when the good ones broke up with her.

They were fast friends and Samantha often thought of her.

Someone slammed a book and was shushed by a librarian. Samantha shook herself. She had been lost to the past for too long. She sighed and gathered her copies. She would return tomorrow to do more research if no one had replied to her emails.

The first response took her completely by surprise. Samantha hadn’t been expecting it at all. When she opened up her computer to check the library hours, she saw that she had an email. She never dreamed that it would be a bear couple inviting her over to observe them in their home.

She fired off a reply saying that she would be delighted to and looked forward to meeting them. Then Samantha had to decide what to wear. She settled on a nice pair of jeans, boots, and a thin green top that brought out her grey eyes. She brushed her mousey brown hair and let it hang down around her shoulders. She normally kept it confined to a ponytail but she’d been told that it made her look severe and stern.

Samantha didn’t need her subjects on edge. She needed to seem welcoming and unobtrusive. It wasn’t much of an opportunity and it seemed like the shifters were slightly curious and wanted to check her out.

They’d asked that she come after about four pm, since they had children. Samantha didn’t want to interrupt the children’s routine. At least at four they would probably be more settled in than if she came as soon as they got back from school. They were a family of bear shifters. Samantha looked forward to meeting them.

The Martins were something of an anomaly in shifter culture. They were two women raising their children together. Though that happened more frequently in certain shifter populations (swans were very gay, while terns tended to be lesbian), for this area it was significant. To Samantha’s knowledge, there were no studies on homosexuality within the bear shifter population. It would be interesting to see how something like this would play out in such a traditional area.

It was hard to tell, when you studied shifters in urban areas, which mores were influenced by shifter tradition and which were influenced by the larger culture. Here, Samantha hoped that she’d be able to find out. But she had time to kill and that meant heading out to the library where she would hopefully find out about the shifter rivalry and when it all started.

The town liked to keep things private, it seemed. Samantha hadn’t been able to touch on anything with her internet research. The only things that had come up were that there definitely was a feud going on and things weren’t as bad as they used to be but that it could always change.

Samantha was hoping to find some primary sources that would shed some light on the issue. The library was close to her hotel and she walked over there. Samantha didn’t think she would need a rental car. There was a good bus system in the town and she honestly hated driving places.

But the program had insisted and had rented her a car. Samantha left it untouched in the hotel parking lot. She preferred walking. It helped keep her in shape. She knew that she wasn’t that pretty and so she vowed to at least keep her body in good condition.

After several enlightening hours in the library it was time to go to the Martin’s house. Samantha was nervous and excited. She needed this first contact to go well. It felt pathetic to think about this as a first contact. Samantha wanted to be studying in more exotic locales,, but instead she was stuck here in Oregon.

“Come in, come in,” Chancy Martin said. “I’m Chancy. This is my wife, Olga.”

Samantha smiled at the older woman and offered her hand to shake. The woman pulled her into a hug. She was warm. Samantha looked around the entry way. It was cluttered and reflected the fact that many children lived here. There were rain coats of all sizes and colors hung up on the coat rack.

“Children!” Olga called out and a variety of children tumbled forth from other areas of the house.

“This is Dr. Lashbrooke and she’s going to be visiting with us for a bit.”

“This is Marit,” Chancy said, gesturing toward the oldest girl. She looked about fourteen and was wearing heavy makeup. Her hair was expertly curled and her lips were glossy.

“Hi,” Marit said and Samantha shook her hand. “What are you a doctor of?”

“Anthropology,” Samantha said.

“Oh,” Marit said, sounding completely bored.

“Marit’s hoping to be a pediatrician,” Chancy said as an explanation. “She’s studying hard.”

“Yeah, speaking of studying,” Marit said. “I gotta go do that.”

“Run along then,” Olga said.

“I’m Elspeth!” the young girl looked like she was about ten years old. “Can I go play now?”

“Yes,” Olga said. “These are Mark and Prosper.” The boys looked about nine years old. They solemnly shook Samantha’s hands before looking up at Chancy, who nodded. The boys then rushed off for other parts of the house.

“And this is little Kaitlyn,” Chancy said, patting the smallest child’s head.

“Mom,” the girl whined. “I’m taller than Mark and Prosper were at this age.”

“Very right, dove,” Olga said. “Now, what do you have to do for school?”

“Spelling and writing,” Kaitlyn said. “I’m almost done with the word writing.”

“Did you start early on it?” Olga asked.

“Yes,” Kaitlyn said.

“You do know that the teachers want you to do that at home,” Olga said.

“But I can do it at school and it doesn’t matter, anyway,” Kaitlyn said.

“You’re supposed to read when you’ve finished everything at school,” Chancy said.

“But I don’t want to,” Kaitlyn argued back. “I have more fun playing when I’m at home than I do reading at school. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know,” Olga said. “You made sure that the teachers didn’t catch on, right?”

“Olga!” Chancy hissed.

“Yes,” Kaitlyn said. “They thought I was still doing the math problems for the assignment.”

“That’s my girl,” Olga said.

“You have so many kids,” Samantha said. She couldn’t imagine how having five kids would even work. They looked like each other and it was hard to guess at which children came from which mother.

“They’re each a blessing,” Chancy said. She patted the head of her youngest, Kaitlyn. “They’re wonderful kids.”

Samantha wondered how they’d come about. Unless Olga was actually a man, some man had to be involved with the children. Samantha wondered how that would work out. She wondered if they’d gotten the same man to father all of the babies or what. It was hard to work out just by looking at them.

Eventually, Kaitlyn left to finish the rest of her homework. The smallest child certainly was smart and serious. Samantha could see how she would pose a problem to the teachers. They probably didn’t know what to do with her at all.

During the afternoon, Kaitlyn interviewed Olga and Chancy about their lives and their opinions on their culture. She hoped to get an idea of what sorts of things she should be researching in the library and where to start with the history of the hostilities. Olga was happy to share the vague details of things and Chancy revealed more than she realized about the culture. It was interesting to Samantha.

Every so often, a child would come out with a homework question and one of the mothers would go and help them. Samantha kept puzzling over how they had so many kids together and where the father(s) was in this situation. That was something that she needed to learn about this Bear Clan. She had a feeling that it would become important later on.