Page 9 of The World She Never Knew Existed

Jamie simply grinned at her.

Later that day, one of the customers, an older woman, said, “Welcome to Ivy Springs. We don’t get too many people who want to move here, because of the legend and all.”

Confused, Clara merely smiled at the woman and gave her a caramel mocha and a danish.

After she left, Clara asked Jamie, “The woman said that people don’t want to move to Ivy Springs because of the legend. What legend?”

“I was wondering whether you knew about that,” Jamie said.

“I don’t. Would you mind enlightening me?” Clara asked.

“A long, long time ago, mundane humans and shifters lived together in harmony. The humans knew about the shifters, but had a live and let live attitude. However, the billionaire who owned the majority of the town, including the area where the resort was, didn’t like the shifters for whatever reason. His hatred was made worse when his eldest daughter, who he loved more than anything else in the world, fell in love with the dragon king’s son. He threatened them, trying to make them break up. However, she refused to break up with him. A war broke out between the mundane humans and the shifters.”

Clara listened intently to the story.

“The dragon king didn’t like the idea of all of the shifters and humans getting hurt. He worked with some witches to create a world just for shifters. The witches made the portal of the shifter world invisible to regular humans. Only shifters can see it. A lot of the shifters moved to this world, including the dragon king and his son. His son was so in love with the billionaire’s daughter that he brought her along, even though she was human.”

“I bet that went over well,” Clara said.

“It didn’t. However, the dragon king accepted the human because she was carrying the dragon king’s bloodline,” Jamie said. “The billionaire was so angry that he threatened to kill every single shifter in Ivy Springs and the surrounding area.

“Did she ever try to go back to the human world and be reunited with her father?”

Jamie shook her head and said, “No. She never wanted to, because she was so in love with her lover. Plus, once a human or shifter goes into the shifter world, they can never leave again.”

“What are shifters?” Clara asked.

“Shifters are humans who can shift into different animal forms. Bear shifters are humans who can shift into bear forms. Wolf shifters change into wolves,” Jamie said.

“They can’t be real,” Clara said.

“I assure you that shifters really do exist,” Jamie said. “The Faisons, who run the big resort, are direct descendants of the billionaire. The worst kept secret in town is that they hate the shifters as much as their ancestor did.”

Clara wondered what she had gotten herself into by moving into a town that was embroiled in a supernatural war.

I guess it’s a little too late to be worried about that,she thought.

She shook her head and said, “I guess I’ll just run my business, keep to myself, and not get involved in any of the town’s politics.”

Jamie simply smiled at her, and Clara felt as though she were a little kid who had just gotten her head patted by a condescending adult.

4

Dillon

Dillon was glad when the last customer of the day finished buying her items and left. She was a tourist and had wanted to inspect every last trinket that Dillon had to offer. Normally, he wouldn’t mind, but he had people coming in for a meeting.

Daniel, Jesse, and several other people began to trickle into the store and into the backroom. He had a table set up in the back, complete with some poker chips and a deck of cards. Although he never expected anyone else, besides the security team, to show up, it was always good to be prepared, just in case.

Brent, who was the bartender at the Faisons’ resort, had managed to get the night off. Usually, Friday nights were the busiest times and he had to work, but he had lucked out when management made the schedule.

Once all six of the people were present, Dillon said, “How are things going?”

They all understood that he wasn’t asking about their personal lives.

“Daniel and I have been patrolling the woods as much as we can,” Jesse said. “There have been a couple of hunters lurking about, but they don’t seem to have a specific area that they are looking at. They seem to be all over the place.”

“That’s a good thing,” Dillon said.

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