Page 1 of Sasquatch's Claiming

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This is weird.

An eerie shiver ran down Bernadette’s spine as she walked home from the bus stop. It was like she was being watched. This wasn’t the first time she had felt this way. For as long as she could remember, she had this sense of foreboding. Her parents had always taught her to be cautious, always look over her shoulder, but lately this sense of trepidation and danger had amplified. She’d been having this sensation for months. All her life she’d lived in the north, but since moving to Thunder Bay a couple of months ago, there was just something about this place she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

Like there was something just out there, hiding behind a veil of obscurity and if she just reached out, she would find it.

The thing was, when her family would come to Thunder Bay from Atikokan, when she was a kid, she felt that way too. It had gotten stronger since she moved under duress. She believed there was a deep-rooted old magic in the air. Since she’d started work at the hospital, something was not right. And she felt uneasy since her parents died in that suspicious car crash, the night after she moved to the city. She didn’t know what she wasuncertain of. What shewascertain was all this really geared up the night she went down to the lakefront, to that tavern by the docks.

The night she remembered nothing about and the night the very erotic dreams started. Heat flushed through her as she thought of those dreams. It was an instant arousal blossoming through her life, like an awakening almost.

A twig snapped in the bushes and she almost jumped out of her skin. She quickened her pace to get back to her apartment, where she could lock the door and be safe. Well, sort of safe. She darted up the flight of stairs, unlocked her door and ran inside. Once she was inside with the locks on, she let out a deep breath, and with her back against the door, she slid down to the floor. Her heart was still racing.

What is happening to me?

That was the question she kept asking herself over and over. There was a little part of her that wanted to go back to Atikokan and back to normalcy, but there was none of that in her old home town. Her parents were both gone, killed in that accident. The only family she had left, she didn’t want to see.

She had an uncle who tried to take a little bit too much from her, but she fought back and moved here. There was a restraining order against him, but sadly, that didn’t mean anything.

When she left Atikokan after the sale of her childhood home, she had her mail forwarded to a friend in Goderich, who sent it to her. Her uncle wouldn’t be able to find her. At least that was her hope. She couldn’t help but wonder if that’s why she was on edge. Had her uncle found her?

Her parents hated him too, yet they did nothing to keep him away. No matter how many times they moved, he came around and they let him.

“When they’re gone, you’re mine, Bernadette,” her uncle hissed against her ear as he pinned her against the wall.

“I’ll never let you touch me.” She spat in his face and kneed him hard in the balls.

He doubled over in pain. “Just you wait. You’re mine. Never forget that,” he shouted. “I’ll hunt you forever and when I have you, I’ll show you the true meaning of pain.”

She’d told her parents and they went that night to file a police report for her. She was then packed up and sent to Thunder Bay to be safe. After her parents dropped her off at this apartment, they drove home—and died.

The police said it was a moose, but Bernadette had a hard time believing that.

Her phone rang, startling her, making her heart almost jump out from her chest.

“Hello?” she answered.

“Just making sure you got home okay. You seemed distracted,” her coworker Janice said.

Janice had been there with her at the bar that night. She didn’t know what had happened to her, only that Bernadette had disappeared on the dance floor and then Janice had found her at her apartment at midnight. Just sitting in her living room and staring at the wall.

Janice had been so worried Bernadette been roofied, but there were no toxins in her bloodstream. There had been nothing. The only thing Bernadette could logic out in her mind was the grief of her losing her parents and she’d blacked out. Of course, it could be delayed grief.

She’d been in fight-or-flight since they’d died.

“A lot on my mind,” Bernadette replied. “I appreciate you checking in on me.”

“I’m going to put an air tag on you soon,” Janice teased. “You didn’t respond to my texts.”

“Sorry. I am home and I’m safe. No weird stuff. I swear.”

Which was a lie.

“Okay. Well, try and take it easy this weekend,” Janice said gently.

“I will. See you Monday.”

Bernadette ended the call and took another deep breath, closing her eyes, but when she did that, she saw warm, amber eyes staring at her from behind a thick, protruding brow. Instantly, she could feel warm, comforting, furry arms around her. The face that haunted her dreams. The one that made her feel safe.