The Alpha Claims His Mate

Chapter 1-3

They chatted until dinner.

Dinner was macaroni and cheese with breadsticks. It was good food and Samantha felt full and satisfied. The children went off and did their own thing after dinner. Samantha was happy that she wouldn’t be expected to participate in any type of a family board game night. Instead, she chatted with the wives about their experiences.

Samantha was good at taking notes but she’d found that that was off-putting and made people nervous, so instead she used a recorder. The downside was that it didn’t give her anything to do with her hands. She’d practiced her interviewing skills with Mara over the summer and eventually they’d gotten her to be able to avoid twisting her hands and other obvious signs of fidgeting.

Chancy was knitting a large blanket. Samantha felt jealous that Chancy was able to keep her hands busy and look natural the whole time. She wished that she’d thought of something like knitting or crocheting. That would have required a lot less practice.

Olga seemed to have the gift of holding completely still. Samantha wished that she was like that. But there was something about the knitting that came off as warm and comforting. She might need to consider picking that up—especially in female-dominated spaces.

“What can you tell me about life here?” Samantha asked to get the ball rolling.

“I grew up here my whole life,” Olga said. She smiled. “It’s a good place to live, even if there are other shifters in the area.”

“There hasn’t been anything terrible in a while,” Chancy said. “If you don’t go looking for trouble, it’s easy to stay nice and safe.”

“Did you also grow up here, Chancy?” Samantha asked. The clicking of Chancy’s knitting needles filled the room. It was a soothing background noise. She hoped that it wouldn’t overwhelm the recorder.

“No,” Chancy said. “I’m a transplant. I’m from a bear colony in Canada. There’s wolves up there too. But nothing as close as this wolf pack.”

“Was there much of an adjustment when you first moved to the area?” Samantha asked.

“Oh yes,” Chancy said. “It was actually really overwhelming for the first year or so. We live with a bunch of humans. That was it’s less dangerous.”

“Why does that make you safe?” Samantha asked.

Olga spoke.

“If there’s too many of one type of shifter in a neighborhood it starts to look like that shifter type has claimed that area,” Olga said. “Others start to see it as a threat. If it’s not actually a stronghold, then you’re practically sitting ducks when the attack happens.”

“It might seem unfair,” Chancy said. “But that’s the way it works around here. It’d be nice to have bear neighbors but that won’t happen unless we want to move to the actual stronghold. But I don’t want to live in a cave for most of the year.”

“Can you tell me about the caves?” Samantha asked. That must be where the other bears lived. She wondered if that was why she wasn’t getting any replies to her emails. She wondered if it was possible to get Wi-Fi in the caves. Maybe that was why no one had answered her emails.

“No,” Olga said simply. Samantha’s face fell. “But I can. The caves are the stronghold of the bears. Details can’t be published and I can’t tell you the exact location. No one can tell outsiders that. But they are where some of the more traditional bears live.”

“Is there a reason for the secrecy?” Samantha asked.

“Yes,” Olga said. “We can’t have the wolves knowing about the location. During the 1800s, the tribes conducted raids on each other’s settlements. That’s how the idea of strongholds first came about.”

“Oh?” Samantha said hoping that Olga would warm to the topic and continue. That was definitely something to consider for further research.

“Not many bear clans have cave holds like we do,” Olga said. “It’s modeled on the idea of caves, but instead of the surface caves that bears dwell in these are different—as there are more of us than just single families.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Samantha said. “Is there information about what led to the raids?”

Olga shrugged. “I’m a housewife, not a historian. But I think I have a few friends who are into that sort of thing. Every generation, there’s always at least five who think that they’re going to bring peace to the region. A few of my friends think that the solution lies in understanding the past.”

“I would love to talk to them,” Samantha said.

“Oh, Olga’s being modest,” Chancy cut in. “She likes to pretend that she wasn’t one of the five and that she didn’t try to broker a peace deal.”

Olga flushed. “That was a long time ago, Chancy. I’ve grown up since then.”

Chancy smirked at her. “I hardly think so.” She turned her attention to Samantha. “We’re so glad to hear that the city is finally taking steps to end this. I do feel safe here, but sometimes I worry.”

“Her family came over from Russia,” Olga said. “There’s been some nasty conflicts over there. She’s worried about nothing. The situation is stable. It could be better, of course, but it could also be worse. It’s a lot easier for things to get worse. One single misstep and all that progress is gone.”

“That and there’s the current human and shifter conflicts going on right now with the permanent president,” Chancy said. She scowled. It was a strange expression to see on such a kind and sweet face.

“Never mind that,” Olga said. “The humans are not going to take sides. They’re constantly worried that a shifter war means that everyone is going to be shifted all the time and then their town is going to be overrun by wolves and bears. Only if you shoot them, it’s murder.”

“Is that something that would happen?” Samantha asked.

“No,” Chancy said. “In a shifter war, humans are of little consequence. Everyone would simply retreat to the strongholds and the battles would happen in the wild. All the movies about the battles get it wrong. It’s hard to shift fast enough to open doors and use guns and drive before shifting back into animals.”

“That is interesting,” Samantha said. She made a mental note to check out the recent action movies and apply what she knew about shifts to them. She usually avoided terrible movies but she could make an exception for research.

“Chancy watches way too many movies,” Olga said. “No one actually believes those. Humans can’t do half the things that are shown in them, so why would shifters be able to?”

“I don’t think humans question the parts about shifters,” Chancy said. Samantha didn’t think that humans really questioned the parts in there about guns. She could see how that would be a problem and might unduly influence opinion—especially since there hadn’t been a shifter on shifter war.

“Anyway, shifter wars are a lot more like—say the Hatfields and the McCoys, than a full on war,” Olga said. “There’s a difference. It’s more a tit for tat. The worry here is that instead of two small clans, there’s two relatively large clans for the area.”

“I can see how that would make things tense,” Samantha said.

“Our main worry is that we’d lose this house,” Chancy said. “I like where the children go to school and I like the humans around here. It’s boring to be around just bears.”

“It’s something that I would miss too,” Olga said. “There’s so much to lose.”

“I’m afraid that the humans don’t take that into consideration,” Chancy said. “The stronghold is fine for hibernation. But that’s because it feels right. After that period ends, it gets rather annoying to constantly be around other bears. There’s not enough space for everyone down there and it’s very traditional.”

“If our children wanted to move away when they’re grown, it would be hard to do,” Olga said. “It’s hard to homeschool properly down there and the school is very traditional and very focused on bear culture. It’s not a great preparation for the outside world.”

“Did you ever consider moving away and living elsewhere?” Samantha asked.

“How do you think I met Chancy?” Olga asked. “It wasn’t in this town. When I met her, she was too scared to venture outside of the house, let alone the town.”

“I was,” Chancy admitted. “My family had moved and I didn’t know anyone. My friends hosted a party at my house and she was there.”

“How did you end up in Canada?” Samantha asked.

“Well, after me and my friends really failed at the peace process,” Olga said. “I skipped town and was headed to Alaska when I stopped into a bear-friendly town and got invited to a party. After meeting her, Alaska didn’t seem that important after all.”

“That’s really sweet,” Samantha said. “How did you go about the peace process?”

“The wrong way,” Olga said.

Samantha frowned. She wanted to know if there were any mistakes that she needed to avoid.

“They talked to the leaders and the wolves who were working with them didn’t,” Chancy said. “It was embarrassing to go to negotiate and find out that there weren’t leaders from the other side there. The bears were insulted and the wolves were—”

“Those we were working with were cast out of the pack,” Olga said. “Pack is very important for them. We didn’t keep in touch, but I ran into a few on my way to Canada. They weren’t doing well then.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Samantha said. After that, the conversation turned to more mundane things. Apparently, it wasn’t uncommon for the women in the bear clan to band together to raise their children. It was rather focused on motherhood and this was seen as the ultimate way to raise a family. However, the men were still important. Straight couples did exist. It wasn’t like the terns, where lesbians outnumbered other couplings.

But it was treated well. Single mothers were the most common. Though it was hard to call it that when the mothers would live with their mothers and often the houses housed entire generations of women, all caring for their children. Things were very close.

However, the bears had to take care not to live like this, too close to each other. It turned out that that could be mistaken for a stronghold. There was a large amount of old Victorian homes in the center of town and these were owned by large shifter families.

The closest thing to a truce had been when a wolf family and bear family lived on opposite ends of the row and stayed there for many generations. The wolves had moved out years ago, though the property was still in the family. Samantha resolved to look into that as well. It seemed like both shifter clans had an interest in the peace process. It seemed like they were being forced to the edges of the town by their own fear of seeming like they were taking over the town and thus inviting attack.

When it was nine, Chancy stared yawning and Samantha got up to leave.

It was then that the phrase “mother bear” gained a new meaning for Samantha.

“You shouldn’t,” Chancy said. “It’s so dark out here, you should stay the night.”

Samantha was absolutely horrified by the idea. She knew that the kids would be rambunctious in the morning and she had no desire to experience that herself. There was a reason that she didn’t have any children of her own. There had been those who would marry her, but Samantha put her research and ambitions ahead of them. She didn’t want to be tied down to children and have to balance work and a home-life in a way that her male colleagues never seemed to do.

“That’s okay,” Samantha said, grabbing her coat. “I have a hotel in the city. It’s a short walk, really.”

Olga and Chancy hovered over her as she got up and went to the door.

“Are you sure?” Olga asked her. She looked worried. “It’s a long walk and it’s gotten dark.”

“I’ll be fine,” Samantha said opening the door. “Really. What’s even out there?”

Olga and Chancy looked at each other. That didn’t make Samantha feel better.

“I’ll be off now,” Samantha said, stepping out on to the porch. She wondered if she dared to venture into one of the shifter-populated bars tonight. After all this home life, she needed to have some fun. Though she’d probably be better off looking in the human bars. She’d never found shifter men all that attractive. Who wants to sleep with half a dog?

Definitely time to hit the bar. Maybe she’d play it safe and got to the hotel bar. But if she went to the shifter one she could write off those drinks. After all, she would be doing research.

“Are you sure you don’t want us to call you a cab?” Olga said, breaking Samantha out of her thoughts. Olga looked out at the street. The small simple houses were lit up by street lamps. Light leaked out of the windows. It looked like a fairytale. What could possibly be scary out there?

“Really,” Samantha said. “I’ll be fine. It’s just a quick walk.”

“Oh, but you’re new here,” Chancy said. “It’s actually really easy to get lost and turned around in this town.”