by Ava Hunt
He told his best friend about his clandestine heart transplant but he wasn’t completely sold on sharing what had happened the night before. Even best friends had limits. And by the way Stan was watching him, he didn’t want to worry him further.
“Yeah, well, Alexa broke up with me through text so I must have overdone it.” It was half a lie.
Stan’s mouth twitched. “That’s harsh.”
“Yeah.” The prickles of anger pinched at his chest. A stirring inside of him made him catch his breath. Was his anger at Alexa a trigger for him to change into a bear? He’d been a frustrated guy for a while after his father died, feeling more helpless than he did the previous night. What was different then all those other times?
“And a little immature,” Stan added.
Toby nodded, agreeing completely. “I’m going to try and talk to her today—”
Stan dropped his fork on the table and sat back against the booth. “Seriously?”
Toby held up a hand. “To give us both closure. It’s not fair that she gets the last word.”
Stan closed one eye, really looking at Toby. “Or are you going to beg her to come back to you?”
Toby rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not going to ask her to come back. “He swallowed a bite of the egg. The bacon grease had mixed with the egg and his stomach trembled. “It’s over.” He dug into his meal, unable to control himself. Just like he had with the rabbit.
Their waitress appeared at the table. “Can I get anything else for y’all?”
Stan pointed to Toby. “I think he could use more food. A trough if at possible.”
Chapter Ten
Stan covered for Toby at work, again. He came up with the excuse to say he had a doctor’s appointment. Toby watched his friend’s car back out of his driveway, lucky to have him in his corner. He needed to take the day to get himself together and then work even harder for the next few weeks to show his worth at the company.
The first thing on his agenda was to talk to Alexa.
After showering and putting on his own clothes that actually fit, he called Alexa. Of course the call went to voicemail. He tried calling her friends. Alexa had used their phones at random points in their relationship and he’d saved the numbers for situations like this.
It took three obvious hang-ups before he reached one, Faye.
“I think she’s staying at Megan’s,” Faye’s shrill voice sounded over the phone.
He waited for Faye to share the location.
She didn’t.
“Can you give me Megan’s address?” Toby pressed.
The girl sighed as if he’d asked her to do a hundred push-ups. “I’ll text it to you.”
“Thank—” The line went dead. Toby looked at his phone. The girl hung up on him. “Thank you,” he said to himself.
The text with the address came up a few seconds later. It was across town. He knew he’d have to battle downtown traffic but thanks to Stan he had all day.
As he was putting away his phone, Estrella’s name popped up on the screen. He clicked the ‘decline’ button. I’ll call you back, Doc. He didn’t need to be clouded by anything right now. Especially her voice. A twinge of guilt squeezed his chest. His relationship with Alexa was barely cold and he was thinking of another woman. He wasn’t that guy. That’s why he needed to be as done with her as she was with him.
On the way to Megan’s, he thought about how everything had come together at the same time. If Alexa had decided to stick with him, he wasn’t sure how to explain the turning into a bear situation. It was one more lie that would be sure to drive a wedge in their relationship. Other than the fact that she was willing to take money from a dying man. The thought made his stomach clench.
He was at a dead stop in traffic when Estrella called again. He declined it again. This time a voicemail came through. He connected with the car’s Bluetooth and listened to the message.
“Toby. This is Dr. Martinez. I’m checking in with you to see how you’re doing. Give me a call back when you get this.” Her normally calm voice was rushed, shaky even.
The cars in front of him moved at a slow crawl, but he needed to concentrate. The doctor could wait.
He reached Megan’s an hour later, not what he expected but he couldn’t lift the cars around him. He smirked, thinking of his bear-self, would he be able to lift a car? He’d certainly be able to walk faster as an animal than battle the congested traffic downtown.
Alexa’s car—that he paid for—sat in the driveway next to what he assumed was Megan’s, a sporty red convertible. Typical chick car.
He knew through conversations that the mansion belonged to Megan’s parents but they were traveling most of the year so it was practically hers. Must be nice. He wondered why these people spoiled their kids like that. Though it was almost the same thing he’d done with Alexa. He gave her anything she wanted. Though that would end today.
He rang the doorbell and waited.
A man in a suit answered the door seconds later. “Can I help you?” He was older, refined even, with his hands clasped behind his back and a straight spine.
“I’m looking for Alexa, Faye said she was staying here.”
The man leaned forward, speaking in a volume above a whisper. “Is she expecting you?”
Shit. “No, but I won’t be long.”
He straightened up again and blinked slowly. “I’m sorry, Sir, but if she isn’t expecting you, I can’t let you inside.”
He pointed into the house with his hand. “Can you bring her here then?”
The man paused before answering. “Stay here, Sir.”
Toby crossed his arms. He didn’t think it would be that difficult to see her. He had called her on the way over and left a message. On a normal day, her phone was permanently attached to her palm, he was sure she got his message. He thought about pushing the older man out of the way and stalking into the house, but the guy was just doing his job. He understood that. Though the wait made him impatient.
The door flung open, Alexa was in a skimpy bikini. She’d probably been lounging by the pool all morning. “What do you want?”
Hi to you too. Anger flared inside him. “You broke up with me over text? Come on, are we in high school?”
She pursed her pink, glossy lips. “I didn’t want to see you in case you wanted to attack me again.”
Her friend, Megan, poked her head out from behind the door. Toby ignored her. He wasn’t going to have people think he hurt women on purpose. “It was an accident.” He indicated her arm that—thankfully—showed no sign of the red streaks.
She clasped a hand over her arm. “This has been over for a long time.”
“Are you kidding me? We only had one fight.”
“Babe!” a guy called from inside the house.
Megan’s head whipped around and Alexa’s body stiffened. A blond guy wearing nothing but bathing suit shorts entered the foyer. His arms hovered around his sides like he was carrying something between them. He’d seen guys like that at the gym, their arms were so big they couldn’t even put them down properly. He came up beside Alexa and slid a hand around her waist, pulling her closer to him.
The guys green eyes met Toby’s. “Hey man, I’m Mark. Who’re you?”
Toby pressed his lips together and his gaze darted from Mark’s hand on Alexa’s waist to her eyes.
“This—this is Toby,” she said.
Mark’s smiling eyes turned cold and he pushed Alexa behind him. “You’re her ex? The one who came after her?”
Toby held his hands in front of him. “Alexa, stop lying. You know that’s not what happened.” He was furious that she was telling everyone ridiculous lies. Probably to cover her ass, knowing she was the one in the wrong about the whole situation.
Alexa’s eyes were wide, for the first time Toby saw actual fear in them.
Mark turned to her. “Is that true, babe?”
Alexa’s hand was tiny against his chest. “Mark, honey, I’ll be in in a m
inute. Let me handle this.”
Mark held two fingers out, bringing them to his eyes then back to Toby. “I’m watching you, man.”
I’m terrified. He wondered how Mark would feel if Toby was able to control his changing into a bear. Would Mark be so confident?
Alexa closed the door behind her and stepped onto the stoop.
Toby clenched his jaw. “You’re seeing someone. That’s what this was all about?”
She scoffed. “We’ve been seeing each other for a while.”
Toby tugged at his hair. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Alexa crossed her arms. “I was going to tell you. Then you were in the hospital. What kind of person would I be if I left you then?”
His hands fisted at his sides. “You were a shitty person after the hospital. I would have preferred you were honest with me and saved me the trouble of trying to figure out how to fix us.”
Alexa shook her head. “We’ve been over for a long time.”
“How so?”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. You worked a lot.”
It was a flimsy excuse. She somehow didn’t want to be in a relationship with him and was grasping at straws. “How else was I supposed to support the both of us?”
She bit her lip. “I don’t know.”
“And you never said anything. You just go out and get a replacement.” Something dawned on him. “Were you going to those places that you charged on my credit card with him?”
She shrugged. “Sometimes.”
“God dammit, Alexa!” Toby kicked the ground with the toe of his sneaker. The impact sent a sharp jolt through him, waking him up from the nightmare that was Alexa.
“Whatever, this is over,” she said, waving at hand at the air between them.
“Damn right it is.” Toby clenched his fist around his keys, drawing blood. He took the steps down to the driveway, adrenaline coursing through his veins. I can’t believe this.
“What about my car?” she called to him.
He didn’t want to deal with her ever again. “Keep it!”
Chapter Eleven
Toby’s body was buzzing when he left the mansion. He ended up at home again, not wanting anyone from work to see him out and about. Stan had done him a favor, the least he could do was keep to himself for the rest of the day. His plan had backfired when he entered his home and was reminded of Alexa. He even smelled the imprint of her perfume and shampoo. He opened all of the windows, needing to air out the space. He went into the bedroom and opened the closet doors. Where Alexa’s clothes had taken up all the space, three-quarters of it was empty.
“Son of a bitch.” She planned all of this. He went into the bathroom and all of her stuff was gone from there too.
He let out a frustrated groan and decided he needed a distraction. He looked into the mirror, seeing a frazzled man looking back at him and figured out what to do.
He grabbed his laptop and fell against the over-sized pillows on his couch. The leather stuck to his skin as the temperature rose in the room, the air conditioner battling with the heat from outside. The scent of the outdoors calmed him. He’d be fine.
He opened a search engine and his hands hovered over the keyboard. What was he going to write?
He tried “man changing into bear” and came up with strange videos and fictional stories. He watched a few videos which were bogus and a waste of time. He scrolled through pages of information until he understood that he was using the wrong search terms. The word “shifter” had come up more times than not.
After a few clicks he avoided the romance novels with chiseled men on the covers. Instead he clicked through to article-type websites. He found a lot of information on wolf shifters but apparently the idea carried over to other animals as well.
The origins of werewolves and the like were based in fantasy and magic. Nothing magical had happened to him that he knew of. He felt silly reading about shifters and diverted his research to bears in general.
As he read, the connection to everything he’d been feeling made sense. His senses were heightened, even when he was in his normal human body. He felt a kinship to the animal and wanted to know more and more about them. He read until his vision was blurry.
He checked his phone and was surprised to see it was late in the afternoon. But what surprised him more was the five messages and ten missed calls from Estrella. He knew she’d called that morning. He had clicked the vibration setting on when he left Alexa, not wanting to speak with anyone for a while.
Opening the voicemail, he listened to the last message which came in an hour ago.
“Toby, please call me back as soon as you get this.” The Doc’s voice was chopped between quick breaths as if she’d been running.
He looked at his phone, wondering why the Doc was so interested in speaking with him. Was there something about his heart that caused her alarm?
He pressed her number and she picked up on the first ring. “Toby?”
“Yeah, Doc. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I want to know if you’re okay.”
Well I turned into a bear last night, Doc. Apparently I’m a shifter of some sort. Yeah, right. She’d probably refer him to a different type of doctor if he admitted that. “I’m fit as a fiddle. Are you sure you’re okay? You sounded frantic on that last message.”
She sighed on the other end of the line. “I’ve been busy today. I hope you don’t mind—” then she rattled off a series of questions; was he eating, was he tired, etcetera.
Toby formed each response carefully, only giving straight answers. He feared he’d give up warning flags of something awry if he spoke too much. Though when her questions were leading, he was the one to become frantic and a little suspicious.
“Have you noticed any changes in your body?” she asked.
“Not that I know of. What would you be referring to?”
“You mentioned previously about you not being able to see your scar. Sometimes medications have side effects. I’d like to keep track of those in your file.”
He searched for anything he could give her. Growing fur and changing into an animal definitely would not qualify.
“You can trust me, Toby,” she said. “I only want what’s best for you.”
What was best for him was to keep this strange new part of him a secret from everyone. “I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.”
“That’s good,” she said and he heard her smile over the line. “I apologize for alarming you. When I don’t hear back from patients, I tend to think the worst.”
He hesitated, not wanting to end the conversation just yet. “Is there any reason for me to worry?”
“Not at all,” she said.
It might have been his lack of restful sleep or the need to put Alexa behind him, but he was feeling bold. “Hey Doc—Estrella. Do you want to get a drink sometime?”
A pregnant paused stretched on the other line. Toby pressed his lips together, willing her to say yes.
“Um, sure?” her answer was a question, but it was in agreement.
Toby grinned. “I’ll be in touch during a more reasonable hour. You should get some rest.”
“You too.”
“Goodnight, Estrella.”
“Night.”
A silence fell on their conversation though neither hung up. Toby smiled, his cheek pressing against the phone. A small, click concluded their conversation. He wasn’t sure why, but their conversation had made his entire day.
#
When Toby managed to get to sleep that night, he fell into a vivid dream.
He wandered through the same woods that he had been as a bear the other night. Colorful wisps of air, looking like the Aurora Borealis but moving in front of him instead of in the sky. He wasn’t surprised to see his large brown paws propelling him forward. He reveled in the feeling of being a bear again. He followed the wisps, each color representing a different scent. He followed the orange one, somehow knowing that was the right
thing to do.
He approached a tree. It was the same one he saw the other night with the claw marks. He came closer to the tree and lifted his paw, tracing the marks with his own claws. He pressed his nose against the bark and inhaled. An explosion of scents tickled his nose. He could pick apart at least ten different scents, though they all had the same underlying commonality. A sweet smell, almost like honey, and something else that he couldn’t put his finger on.
A twig snapped nearby and Toby stood on his hind legs, sniffing the air.
A man came out from behind a tree, his head tilted down and his hands in front of him. Toby stiffened but understood the man was showing him he meant no harm. After a moment, the man lifted his head and Toby recognized him as Cal. A lighter shade of orange wisp connected the tree to Cal.
“What are you doing here?” Toby grunted to him.
Cal pressed a finger to his lips and then moved it to his chest, pointing at his heart.
Shuffling movement made Toby’s ears perk up. He dropped to all fours, scanning the influx of bears that surrounded him. He turned in a circle, knowing he couldn’t defend himself against all of them. They moved in unison but stayed at a distance. It appeared they weren’t there to fight him. Then why were they there? How did they know he would be there?
Something touched his fur and he swatted at it. Cal was already out of the way before Toby finished the swipe.
Cal’s mouth moved but Toby couldn’t hear him, it was as if Cal was speaking under water. He narrowed his eyes, trying to read his lips but the attempt was futile.
Every shade of orange filled the space between him and the other bears, the wisps moved as if they were alive. The color pulsed around him faster and faster. Cal reached out to Toby, his alarmed expression setting his nerves on high alert.
Then the world turned black.
Toby awoke breathless and sweaty. He laid on the top of his bed completely naked. He sat up quickly. Had it happened again? He looked for torn clothes but slowly remembered that he’d been so tired he stripped before going into bed. He scooted to the edge of the mattress and rubbed his face. He had been asleep for almost eight hours but felt as if he only slept two. Today is going to be rough, he thought.