“He tried once before,” Clarence said. “When I was younger and threatened to tell everyone about Pras in an effort to corral his violence.”
“Everything okay out here, folks?” Philip McCoy walked up, a bear cub chasing on his heels, darting back and forth to bite the back of his work boot.
“Yeah. Just explaining some stuff, Philip,” Medwin said.
“Medwin, Bree,” Philip tipped his hat to the civilized amongst us. “Diamond, if you’re going to the moving party, I think you might want to get going. They can use those alpha dragon arms of yours to carry stuff into the moving truck.”
I knew a dismissal when I heard it. Part of me wanted to stand my ground, but the farm was more his territory than it would ever be mine. Instead, I took Bree’s hand and headed toward the rental car.
Chapter 3
Vatten Toller
Canton Valley Farm
I waited until the enraged dragoness left before I loped through the grass to introduce myself. Canton had warned me over the phone that his farm was larger than he could explain. I’d spotted a few rabbit shifters on my walk across his acreage but none of them looked as if they were expecting me and from the way the cowboy bear looked over his shoulder at me neither did he. Both of the dragons who remained with him ducked back down inside the rabbit hole as if I’d come to eat them.
The bear stared me down for a minute as if deciding whether I was a dog or a shifter. In the end he frowned at me and scooped up the cub who was chewing on his boot.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
I shifted into my human form, sitting on my ass in the grass because I didn’t particularly want to be bitten by a bear this morning. Sure, I navigated the polar bear communities I helped out in just fine, but I didn’t know this bear.
“Canton is expecting me. I’m here to train Gooseberry,” I said.
“Who in tarnation is Gooseberry?” he asked and the cub in his arms threw his head back as if he were laughing.
“Canton’s new puppy,” I said, wondering if I should ask this man who he was. Canton said if I beat him to the farm to find Philip. Said he’d be the only one in a cowboy hat but now I wondered if I found the wrong bear since he didn’t seem to know what I was speaking about.
“You’re Philip, right?” I asked him.
He nodded, held up a finger, and cocked his head to the side. He nodded and sighed as if he was listening to a voice only he heard.
“He won’t be back until tomorrow. The dog got ahold of some chocolate. He didn’t say how, but they took him to the vet. He ate chocolate. Wait…” Philip frowned. “Nope. Not even going to ask.”
“I can eat chocolate,” I sighed. It was my second least favorite question I was asked about being a dog shifter. My absolute least favorite was being asked if my alpha would take me for walks on a leash when I met him.
“I’m not usually an ass,” Philip said. “Well, that’s not true but I’ve gotten better at hiding it over the years. Canton’s not here and he won’t be back until tomorrow. He said he was puttin’ you in cabin three. I’ll show you where to go but then I got things to do. We have a party today. Someone’s movin’ in. Plus we have so much dragon bullshit going on that the farm will be fertilized for the next century.”
“Anything I should be concerned about?” I asked as Philip started leading the way.
“I wouldn’t get involved if I were you,” he waved me off. “Wait. Do you see spirits?”
“Not usually. I have a time or two during rituals. I’m part of a polar bear hunting guild.”
That stopped him in his tracks. He turned to look at me. His eyes raked up and down me. For a moment, I thought he might proposition me.
“Which of your parents is the polar bear?” he asked.
“Good nose,” I chuckled. “My carrier. He met my sire because he was pinned down by some non-shifters who thought they could make him a ‘working dog.’ That didn’t happen but my carrier turned them into fertilizer.”
“Sounds about right,” Philip nodded. “We don’t get a lot of polar bear shifters this far down.”
“Eh, it’s not my carrier Canton knew. My grandpa on my sire’s side started off in the Other World and eventually shifted when he came over here. Got tired of being man’s best friend and all of that I guess,” I shrugged as a row of neat little log cabins came into sight.
“They look old fashioned but they have all the modern stuff. We built them a few years ago when Canton was trying to be friendlier. That’s his MO. Not mine. This is cabin three. What sort of rituals do you do with polar bears up there?”
“It’s been a while but mostly laying trespassers to rest. Not in the ‘Rawr! We’re gonna eat you!’ sort of way but in the laying their spirits to rest sort of way. A lot of the bears up north don’t ask questions about trespassers. I’m one of them at least by scentbut folks who stumble in during mating season or cub season get eaten a lot,” I shrugged.
