by Fox, Kim
Edwin didn’t remember. This was terrifying. He wanted to go back to the woods and sleep under the stars. He wanted to be surrounded by trees instead of concrete and hear the chirping of crickets instead of the murmur of people walking by on their cell phones. This was not his ideal environment.
A couple pushing a baby stroller came dangerously close to him. He closed his eyes and ripped open the top button of his shirt. He was so hot all of a sudden.
“What’s wrong with him?” Sidney asked. “He looks like he’s having a panic attack.”
“He’s not,” Connor said.
“I think he has a brain tumor.”
Connor waved Sidney away. “Will you give us a minute?”
Connor placed his other hand on Edwin’s shoulder and stared at him face to face. His stare was already calming him down. Connor was good at centering him and taking away some of his social anxiety. Edwin certainly had enough to spare. He wished that his boss was coming with him.
“Are you sure you’re okay to go?” Connor asked as low as a whisper.
Edwin swallowed hard and steeled his nerves. He had to go see his mate, Grace. It had been three weeks since the last time they had seen each other. A wonderful night where they got lost in the woods after a kayaking accident. Edwin had saved the city girl from a pack of wolves and then they spent the rest of the night making love under the stars.
“I’ll be okay,” Edwin said, not believing his own words.
“You’ve never been in a city before,” Connor said. Edwin was abandoned by his human parents when he was only ten years old. He phased into his bear in his parent’s house one day. They thought he was possessed by some sort of demon and drove him deep into the woods and released him.
Edwin had spent his whole teenage years and the beginning of his twenties in his bear form. It was only when Connor found him eating out of a dumpster behind a Chinese restaurant a few months ago and offered him a job that he had started to live in his human form. Connor had been rehabilitating him and helping him to live among humans. But he still had a lot to learn. Like how to stop phasing every time a stranger looked at him funny.
Connor pulled out Edwin’s train ticket. “The city is no place for a werebear,” he said, “and definitely no place for your bear.” He leaned in close. “Whatever you do don’t phase.”
“Or you’ll end up with a tranquilizer dart in your neck and wake up in a circus riding a tricycle with a propeller beanie on your head,” Sidney said. “I’d pay good money to see that.”
Connor pushed Sidney away but he was so large that he didn’t budge. “I’m going to sell you to the circus,” he warned. “As a sword swallower.”
“I can’t swallow swords,” Sidney replied.
“Exactly.”
The train chugged down the track and Edwin flinched as it passed them. It was so big and loud. Edwin had fought dominant bears bigger than him and had made packs of wolves whimper before his paws but this was absolutely terrifying. His hands shook and his face twitched as he felt the comforting feeling of his bear surging towards the surface.
A hard slap across his face stopped him mid-phase. His bear slunk back down within. “No phasing,” Connor snapped.
Sidney was shaking his head. “He’s not ready boss.”
“Yes I am,” Edwin spoke up. He wanted to see Grace. He had to see Grace. His bear had been torturing him since she left, begging him to go see his mate. To claim her once again.
Connor studied Edwin’s face and exhaled long and hard. He pulled a picture out of his back pocket and handed it to Edwin.
It was of the six of them: Connor, Edwin, Sidney, Rebecca, Angie and Grace standing in front of the guest house. He rubbed his thumb over Grace’s face, trying to feel her soft skin, her luscious lips. He immediately felt calm and centered.
He could do this. He would do this. For her.
“Okay,” Connor said, stepping to the side. The doors of the train were open and the passengers were already getting on. Connor handed him the ticket. “It’s okay. You’ll be okay.” He seemed to be reassuring himself more than Edwin. “Just get on the train. Remember what I told you.”
Edwin picked up his bag and headed to the train on wobbly knees. He squeezed his ticket in his fingers until the paper crumpled. The train was so big, the surfaces so smooth, the engine so loud. You’ll be okay. Just like Connor said. He pictured Grace’s long blond hair and slender hips. He remembered her smiling and lying in front of him naked.
Remember what Connor said.
He took a deep breath and walked towards the open door. He stopped in front of the man playing guitar with his case open in front of him. There was money inside. Coins and a couple of bills. That must be where we pay. Edwin dropped his ticket in the guitar case and walked up the stairs.
“Hey man!” the guy called out.
Edwin hurried towards a window seat and sat down. He placed his bag on the seat next to him so nobody would sit there.
Sidney was shaking his head with his hand over his eyes as Connor bent over the guitar case.
Connor ran into the train and handed him the ticket. “Wait until the ticket agent asks you for it,” he said.
This was so confusing. Why couldn’t Grace come stay with him in the woods? She had said there were too many mosquitoes and that she just had to show him around New York. She said that she was going to show him the best clubs in the city. Edwin wondered why she wanted to show him so many weapons.
Edwin waved to Connor as he walked back beside Sidney.
“I hope he doesn’t phase,” Connor said. Edwin could hear them from his seat with his enhanced shifter hearing.
“Think he’ll last the trip?” Sidney asked.
Connor shook his head. “I don’t think he’ll last the train ride.”
two
“Alfred where are the keys to my Porsche?” Grace asked as she tore through the drawers of the antique hutch in the lobby of her father’s mansion.
The head butler for the Briggs family, Alfred, walked over with his back straight and his chin in the air. Grace swore that his back was made of metal and incapable of bending.
“With the others Miss Briggs.” He slid open the thin top drawer. There were about twenty or so keys, most of them with Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bentley and Rolls Royce logos carved into them.
Grace snatched the Porsche key, an Easter present from her Dad, and headed for the door.
“Ci Ci,” her Dad called out as she was about to leave.
She stopped in her tracks. “Yes Daddy?”
“Are you off to pick up your new friend?” he asked. He was wearing a three piece suit even though it was a Sunday afternoon. He was rarely seen in regular clothes.
“Boyfriend,” she corrected.
He smiled tightly. “Well you are aware that this week will be an important week for our family?”
Grace nodded. Of course she knew. He had been talking about this moment since Grace was in diapers. He was going to announce that he was running as a candidate in the next Presidential election. It was all that he ever talked about.
“I hope that this Edmund-”
“Edwin.”
He forced a smile. “This Edwin is worthy of our family.”
Grace gulped. She had strong feelings for Edwin but he was definitely rough around the edges. Changing into a brown bear at the most inappropriate times for instance.
“It is highly important that nothing goes wrong this week,” he said, turning towards the mirror and combing his already perfect hair. “You have a duty to this family and I hope that you will uphold it.”
“He’s great Daddy,” she said, suddenly feeling nauseous. “You’ll love him.”
“It’s not me that I’m worried about,” he said, placing his comb back in the inner pocket of his coat. “It’s the press. Our family has to look perfect. I do wish that you would reconsider a courtship with Devon. He has a strong family name that has included numerous Senators and Governors throughout t
he years. Devon could even run for President one day and you could be the first lady. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
For who? Grace hated politics. And she was in the wrong family for someone who hated politics.
“I don’t like him,” she said. Devon was always talking about himself. He was almost as self absorbed as her father.
He straightened his jacket. “Sometimes we have to make sacrifices for the good of the family. To keep the honor in the family name.”
Grace squeezed the key in her hand and bolted out the door. She had been hearing that speech for years. Her family always had to look perfect. She always had to watch what she said, watch what she wore, watch who she was friends with. If it wasn’t her Dad watching over her than it was his staff. His endless team of assistants, secretaries and pages were always watching her every move and reporting back to her Dad.
But the worst among them was the head butler Alfred. Grace swore that his life’s mission was to catch her doing what she wasn’t supposed to.
Alfred claimed that he was from Britain. Part of the old class of butlers trained to serve the royalty. Grace was convinced that he was an American from San Diego. She had seen an old, San Diego, driver’s license, with his picture on it complete with hat head and blood shot eyes, when she was playing in his room as a kid. He denied it of course but Grace wasn’t convinced. Grace’s friend Angie was always trying to get Alfred to admit his true heritage. It was a little game between them. A game that Alfred despised.
Alfred followed her out. “I trust that you’ll follow your Papa’s advice,” he said in a thick British accent, as Grace hurried to the car. “This is a key moment for the Briggs family. Perhaps this is not the best time to have random blokes running around the estate.”
But it had to be this week. It was the only time that Edwin could get some time off from the busy summer period at the kayaking excursion place where he worked. Grace had nothing for the week either. She organized charity dinners from time to time but she had nothing on the horizon.
Grace opened the door. “Last time I checked you worked for the Briggs family.” She glared at Alfred over the door of her Porsche.
He ran his fingers over his thin, black mustache. “I work for your father,” he said, standing as straight as the stick up his ass. “And rest assured that I will be watching this Edwin very closely.”
Edwin’s bear was squeezed into the bathroom stall at Grand Central Station in New York City. He had made it through the whole train ride without phasing but New York was a whole other beast.
There were people everywhere and there were so many strange noises and unfamiliar smells. He lasted exactly thirty seven seconds before he started to shake. His bear was surging to the surface and Connor wasn’t there to stop him.
Luckily there was a bathroom nearby and he ran inside. There was a woman by the sink that gave him a dirty look as he ran into the stall and closed the door. He pulled off his clothes as his body began to transform.
Now he was stuck in the ladies’ bathroom in his bear form, squeezed into a stall. He ran through his options as his bear sniffed the roll of toilet paper.
Edwin tried to calm himself. He tried to ignore all of the outside noises and stimulation and focus on Connor’s encouraging words. When that didn’t work he thought of Grace’s beautiful face. If he wanted to see it again he would have to reel in his bear.
The door of the bathroom opened and a woman screamed. Edwin heard footsteps running away as the door swung closed.
This was no place for his bear.
He focused all of his energy to pull in his bear and push his human form to the surface. His bear grunted and whined as Edwin pushed forward. His body began to shrink as pain sliced through him and his human self took over.
He was about to open the stall door when he realized that he was naked. Connor had warned him about being nude in public. Apparently people get mad when men walk around with no clothes on. Edwin shook his head as he pulled up his pants. Humans had the weirdest customs.
It was strange and ridiculous but Edwin would do whatever he had to in order to fit in this week so that he could be with Grace. He just didn’t always know what he had to do to fit in.
He put all of his clothes back on and stepped out of the bathroom. A woman with fear plastered all over her white face pointed at the bathroom door with her finger.
“In there! There’s a bear in there,” she screamed to two security guards who were strolling over and looking at her funny.
They casually walked into the bathroom with their hands on their belts. “There’s a bear in the bathroom,” she explained to the strangers passing by. They hurried away from her.
Hands grabbed Edwin and covered his eyes from behind. His bear sprung forward, dangerously close to the surface. “Guess who?” a familiar voice said, as he began to shake.
He exhaled and relaxed. It was Grace. His bear slid back down inside him.
She jumped in front of him and gave him a big hug. “It’s so great to see you,” she said, with a smile.
His heart thumped. He couldn’t breathe. He forgot how stunning she was. How her lips made his pulse speed up.
Grace turned as the door of the bathroom opened and the two security guards stepped out smirking. “Nothing in there lady,” the bigger one said.
The lady’s mouth dropped. “But…I saw him…”
The younger security guard with the beard chuckled. “Lay off the drugs,” he said, as they walked away.
The woman looked at Edwin and Grace with wide blue eyes. “But I saw a bear,” she repeated. “In the stall.” She opened the door slowly and looked around inside.
Grace smiled, placing her hand on his chest. “Did you have something to do with that?” she asked in a whisper.
Edwin couldn’t lie to her. “There’s so many people here. I got nervous.”
Grace looked around with her nose scrunched in the air. “This place stinks,” she said. “Let’s go home.”
Grace put the key in the ignition as Edwin looked around the inside of her Porsche.
“It’s so small,” he said, bumping his elbow into the car door. His knees grazed the glove compartment. “Why did you get one so small?”
Grace turned the key and the V10 engine roared to life. This was a four hundred and fifty thousand dollar, limited edition car. Her Dad had it specially made and shipped over from Italy.
“This is a 2007 Carrera GT,” she said, turning down the radio. She ran her hand over the hand carved wooden dashboard. “This is one of the finest automobiles on the planet.”
He looked around the inside of the car with narrow eyes. “I hate it.”
“Would you rather walk?” she asked.
“Can we?”
Laughter burst from her lips. “No,” she said. She leaned over and kissed him. He was so hot, even with his clothes on.
Grace had thought about their night together for three weeks. It felt like their bodies had been melded together. Like they were built for each other. She was looking forward to doing it again.
His tongue tickled hers as their lips caressed each other. She placed her hand on his hard chest and ran her fingers over the defined lines of his pecs. His chest began to vibrate as the car filled with loud purring.
She pulled her mouth away and licked her lips. “You can’t be doing that around my family,” she said. “Especially my Dad.”
“Can’t I just be myself?” he asked.
“No,” she replied.
He broke eye contact, looking ashamed.
Grace felt bad but she couldn’t let her Dad down. Not this week. She couldn’t be the one to bring shame to her proud family name.
“My Dad is going to announce that he’s running for President tomorrow,” she said. “You can’t be growling or phasing into a bear in front of the TV cameras.”
He swallowed hard as he played with his hands in his lap.
“It will be fine,” she said, leaning back in. “I know you can
do it.” She kissed his bottom lip and brushed her breasts against his arm. Her nipples hardened under her bra. This was going to be a fun week.
He kissed her back, full of passion. It seemed that he missed her as much as she missed him. He slid his hand up her shirt and felt her breast.
Grace reached over, turned the car off and slid the key out. They were going to be here for a while.
Edwin had never seen such a large house. He didn’t even realize that such a thing existed.
“How many people live here?” he asked, looking up at the giant columns in front of the door. They were thicker than some of the biggest trees in the forest back home.
“Just me, my Dad and my stepmom,” she said, closing the door of her car.
Three people for all of this space? Why would anyone need so much? All that Edwin needed, hell all that he wanted, was a forest to wander around in. He had no need for possessions. He always lost them anyways when he phased into his bear. His bear never took them with him.
A young man in a suit with red hair ran over and took the keys from Grace. He jumped in the car and turned it on.
Edwin stepped forward. This man was stealing Grace’s car.
Grace grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the door. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“Your car,” he said, as it took off down the long rounded driveway.
“Oh that’s just Matt. He’s just going to park it.”
He stared at the car in confusion as it disappeared around the house. I have so much to learn.
A man in a black suit, with a thin mustache, stood beside the door with his chin in the air. He looked past them, holding one arm behind his back.
It was time to make a good impression on Grace’s dad. He ran up the rest of the stairs, practicing the words that Connor taught him, and wrapped his arms around the man.
“So nice to meet you Mr. Senator,” he said, giving him a strong hug.
The man’s body went stiff in his arms.
Grace was bent over laughing.
“Get this man off me,” he shouted. He had a strange way of talking.