Mate.com was a shifter/human dating site that catered to male shifters and human women. It had been designed by Fate Mountain’s resident tech genius. But Matilda doubted it would do her any good.

After growing up around shifters on Fate Mountain all her life, she’d never met her fated mate. She really didn’t think she had one. Besides that, the absolute last thing she needed was to get into another romantic relationship right now. She had to focus on saving money for college and getting on with her life.

Matilda had a lot of respect for Lily. She’d known her for a long time through her mom, back before Matilda had left town. Her happy relationship with Shane was legendary. But Matilda knew that not everyone got that lucky.

She sighed and looked back down at her newspaper, hoping there would be more jobs the second time she looked. But just like before, there was nothing she was even remotely qualified for.

She chugged down her coffee and finished up the last bites of her apple pie before throwing some cash on the table and booking it out the front door of the cafe. Her crappy old Honda sat in the parking lot like a dirty white eyesore.

Matilda slid behind the wheel of her car and turned the engine on. Gripping the steering wheel, she gritted her teeth, realizing that she really did have no other options besides going back to work for her mom.

She drove across town and parked in front of her mom’s mid-century modern house. Her mom’s cleaning van was parked in the front driveway so Matilda parked on the street. She slid out of the car and trudged up the front walk to her mom’s house. Just as she was about to grip the doorknob, her mom flung open the door.

“Where were you?” her mom asked.

“I was getting a bite to eat and looking for a job in the paper.”

“Matilda. Why are you wasting your time looking in the paper? I can give you shifts right now. You’d be paid by the end of the week.”

“I know, mom. You’ve told me that like a thousand times.”

“Well, I’m reminding you for the thousand and first time. Are you ready to stop being stubborn and get to work?”

Her mom stood in the doorway, tall and curvy with long black hair that only had a tiny dusting of white around her temples. Matilda’s mom had once been considered a great beauty on Fate Mountain.

Most people didn’t understand why such a beautiful woman had settled for a life as a cleaner. But after Matilda’s father left, her mom had been determined to live life on her own terms. That meant running her own business and staying single.

Matilda respected her mom more than anyone, and that was why it was so hard for her to admit her mistakes and accept her mom’s help.

“Okay, okay. You win. I’ll take a job as a cleaning lady. When can I start?”

Chapter 2

James Hill poked the burning coals in his grand stone fireplace with an iron rod and frowned. This fireplace needed to be cleaned out. So did the stack of dishes piling up in the sink. Not to mention the floors, the carpets, his bedsheets, and the toilets.

Since his cleaning lady had quit last week, he hadn’t had anyone to tidy up his estate. He sure as hell wasn’t going to do it himself. He paid other people to do that sort of thing. Besides, he was far too busy. He had a full schedule of brooding, grumping, and trying to stay relatively sane.

The sanity part was something he rarely admitted to even himself. But ever since selling his tech company and moving to Fate Mountain, his grip on reality had been slipping further and further away.

That was another reason he needed a cleaning lady. With at least one other person around the estate every day, he felt a little less on edge, even though he assumed he would prefer to be alone. He’d realized almost as soon as he’d moved into his mansion that he couldn’t be there by himself all the time.

Since the Great War, he’d been having problems. A male shifter of a certain age, who had been drafted into the war ten years ago. James had served his time in the military. After the shifters had helped bring the war to an end, he’d been allowed to go home. But the memories wouldn’t rest while he slept at night.

The kinds of things he’d seen, he still couldn’t fully process. His inner bear certainly couldn’t. The poor beast had been broken beyond repair.

After the war, James had had to sell the multi-billion-dollar company he’d built. Even during his years of service, he hadn’t sold it. It was only when he had come back and tried to run it again that he finally realized he had to let it go.

Sitting in meetings or strategizing with coders drove him to the brink. He couldn’t deal with people being so close to him all the time, asking things, expecting things, looking at him.

Now, he was alone in this mansion and the sickness that had plagued him since the war was only getting worse. Sometimes he honestly believed the mansion was alive.

There had been stories about the mansion being haunted before he’d bought it. As a logical man, he hadn’t believed them. But every day his madness was growing.

At least having the cleaning lady around every day had helped him from spiraling into total insanity. With another person in the house, he could compartmentalize the things he was seeing as delusions. It helped keep him from being taken over by them. Without a cleaning lady around, the delusions were getting worse all the time.

It had been his fault she’d quit. He had to admit that to himself. He wasn’t exactly the easiest person to work for. James wasn’t sorry for his behavior, though. She never should have entered his private rooms without permission. Especially with him in there. He hated his private space to be violated. He’d yelled at her. But he still believed she deserved it.

Nevertheless, he was left with no one to clean up after him, and no one to add normalcy to his life. He wasn’t sure which he needed more.

Tags: Alyse Zaftig Paranormal
Source: readsnovelonline.net