The melon slid over her tongue and she bit the fruit with her perfect white teeth. As she chewed the cantaloupe, she closed her eyes and let out a little moan.
“That’s so good,” she said.
“If you think that’s good just wait until you’ve had the rest,” he said with a smile.
“I can’t wait.”
James continued fixing up his breakfast and when he was done he had freshly prepared waffles with sliced melon and maple syrup. Scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese and shallots, and extra slices of crispy bacon. He set it all down at the table in the breakfast nook. He and Matilda sat in their fuzzy red flannel robes sipping coffee and orange juice while eating their delicious breakfast. Matilda gushed over nearly every bite, as if she had barely ever eaten before.
“Everything is happening so fast with us and I feel as if we have a tremendous connection now,” James said, shoving a piece of bacon in his mouth.
“I feel it too,” she said.
“But we never had the chance to get to know each other that well before. Why are you on Fate Mountain cleaning houses?”
“I’m trying to save money for college. I spent the last two years in the valley working for my boyfriend’s family at a meatpacking plant. It was really horrible work, and I never ended up saving any money. Then I broke up with my boyfriend and had to move back home and work for my mother.”
“What happened with the boyfriend?” James said darkly, his voice growing thick.
“He was terrible. He treated me like crap, cheated on me, and stole my money. I had to put an end to it. I was ashamed to come home because I had nothing to show for the last two years, but I couldn’t go on that way.”
“I’m proud of you.”
“Plus, I think Tim’s family was involved in some shady activity.”
“Shady activity?”
“I don’t know exactly what, but it was part of the reason that I left him in the first place.”
“Well, that’s all over. Now that we’re together, I can protect you. And you can help me,” he said, looking up at a candlestick on a counter across the room.
It was not currently moving, but James knew it was just a matter of time before he saw it again.
“James, I think you’re blowing this all out of proportion. If we’re both seeing the objects move, it can’t possibly be inside your head.”
“We have to find out.”
“Maybe we should just move,” she said, taking another sip of coffee.
Moving had not occurred to James. He had believed that no matter what he did, his growing madness would follow him anywhere he went. He finished his breakfast and for the first time in as long as he could remember, he cleared the table, straightened up the kitchen, and washed the dishes. Matilda watched him with surprise before giggling and hurrying up to the bedroom to change.
When he was finished cleaning up the kitchen, he walked through the house and glanced out the window, looking out onto the front drive. At that moment he saw two black SUVs pulling up into his driveway. He had never seen these cars before and was not expecting any visitors or deliveries. He walked toward the window and stared out at the men who climbed from the car. They were all wearing black suits with a gold stripe down the arms.
Matilda came running down the stairs in a fresh outfit with her hair still wet.
“It’s him,” she gasped, clutching her chest. “Why is he here?”
“I’m about to find out,” James said with a growl.
There was a knock at the door and James flung it open.
“Can I help you?”
A young man with sharp features and a tall, slim build peered through the door and up the stairs at Matilda. She stood gawking at the visitors.
“Why are you barefoot and why is your hair wet? Are you screwing this guy?”
“Why are you here, Tim? And why did you bring all of your cousins?”
“We are here to take you home. I heard you were shacked up with this guy, but I didn’t believe it. I had to see it with my own eyes. Now get your things. We’re leaving.”
“I told you it was over,” Matilda said, backing up the stairs.
James felt rage boiling in his gut and he reached out to stop the young man who tried to step into the front hall.
“I don’t believe I invited you inside. The young lady said it is over. She is now under my protection. You will be leaving now. Goodbye.”
James pushed Tim with just enough strength to give the kid the message. The goons behind him frowned and crossed their arms, narrowing their eyebrows at James. He didn’t care. His grizzly was about to lose it, and he was still dressed in his bathrobe and slippers.
He didn’t have patience for this kind of crap this early in the morning. He tried to push the door closed, but Tim’s cousins prevented him from doing it.
The six men stepped forward and pushed into the foyer. James’s grizzly was barely constrained, and he could hear Matilda screaming for the intruders to go away. James growled and gritted his teeth, his grizzly starting to break through. His nails grew long at his fingertips and his canine teeth distended in his mouth. The sound of his growl grew in strength and the men gasped and stared at him.
“You didn’t tell us he was a shifter,” one of the men said.
“What difference does it make? Look at this guy. He’s pathetic,” Tim said.
With that, James lost it. The last thing he heard was the sound of Matilda telling Tim to go to hell. James’s grizzly ripped through his flesh, annihilating his human form in a flash of fur and bone. He landed in the foyer on his huge paws. His body barely had enough room to move, even in the wide space. The men drew their weapons and pointed them at James.
The grizzly reared up on his back legs, reaching to his full height. His head brushed the crystal chandelier above the foyer as a roar ripped from his lungs.
The men were so frightened, one of them shot while the others scurried out of the mansion. The bullet hit James in the shoulder, but he barely felt it. He landed on all fours and readied himself for the charge.
Blood seeped down his foreleg as he began to barrel toward the intruders. Tim was trying to reach Matilda who had fallen down on the stairs and was backing away on her hands and feet. James pivoted toward Tim and bit into the scoundrel’s leg, crunching hard, his teeth slicing into bone. Tim screamed and Matilda covered her ears.
The taste of Tim’s blood on his lips broke something inside him. He had to protect Matilda. The rage of his inner grizzly drove him to destroy the intruder.
More screams came from outside and Matilda begged him to stop. He heard her voice, deep behind the crazed mind of his grizzly. Somehow, now that he had something worth fighting for, James was able to regain control of his beast.
He let go and backed away from the wounded ex-boyfriend. The giant grizzly turned to the front door toward the sound of screaming. He and Matilda arrived outside just in time to see the statues that lined the front walk no longer standing upon their pedestals, and throwing pinecones and stones at the intruders.
The men jumped into their car and drove away, leaving Tim behind, bleeding on the foyer floor. James was so startled by sight of the statues being fully animated right in front of his face that he snapped out of his grizzly form and was left naked and bloodied on the cold concrete walkway. Matilda made a startled sound beside him, and he looked down at her. Her hands were on her lips. Her eyes were wide.
“Are you seeing this?” he asked. Just to make sure.
“Oh yes, I’m seeing this.”
“Who are you?” James demanded.
But the statues silently climbed back on their pedestals and took their stony-faced positions once again.
Tim wailed from inside the mansion. James and Matilda hurried back to the house to deal with the mess. While James got dressed, Matilda called 911. It didn’t take long for the Fate Mountain Bear Patrol to arrive and take Tim away. The entire time the police were there, Tim raved about the statues. James to
ld the police that he and his friends had come to the estate on drugs and had been hallucinating the whole time.
“Thank you for the help Commander Morris,” James said as the chief of police walked back to his patrol car.
When the police were gone, James and Matilda slowly walked through the house, examining every object either of them had ever seen move. They were both determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. With her helping him, James believed that he would finally find answers.
Ever since Matilda had come into his life, he had been confronted with his own flaws in a way that made him wake up to the world once again. She had also helped him see that he wasn’t quite as broken as he had believed himself to be. And those things together were helping him heal in a way he had never expected. Maybe he could be whole again. Maybe he could finally have hope.
When they didn’t find anything, Matilda and James walked back into his bedroom and sat on his big leather couch. They looked up at the cuckoo clock that James had seen looking at him more often than not, and held each other.
They hadn’t found any clues and none of the objects had moved or communicated with them. Part of him was beginning to believe maybe it really was an illusion. He had thought himself mad for so long, it was difficult to get over the habit.
Then it happened.
The clock slowly opened its eyes and looked at them. Matilda sat up straight, stiffening beside him. He glanced at her and she was blinking her eyes repeatedly, staring at the clock.
“You see that, right?”
“Of course I do.”
“Just checking,” James said.
“Who are you?” Matilda asked the clock.
“I am Clockworth,” the cuckoo clock said. “And I am the guardian of this estate.”
“How is this possible?” James demanded.
“Long ago, a gifted mage lived in this mansion. He enchanted many of the objects here. After he was killed, no one was left who knew about us. Over the years, we’ve tried to communicate. We were created to be helpers to man. We wanted to help you, but we saw that it only bothers you, just like everyone else who has lived here over the years.”
“This place was a steal, fully furnished and everything,” James said.
“They always said this place was haunted when I was a kid, and now I understand why.”
“Maybe it is haunted, in a manner of speaking,” Clockworth said. “But all we want is to help and to have a good conversation.”
“Can you teach me about magic?” Matilda said with awe in her voice. She looked up at James with stars in her eyes.
“Of course.”
“I could happily study these objects for the rest of my life, James. I always wanted to be an archaeologist.”
It filled James’s heart with gladness to hear those words.
“Does that mean you don’t want to go to college anymore?”
“I no longer see the point.”
“We can help with a great many things,” Clockworth said. “Not just instructions on magic.”
“There’s a lot to do around here,” Matilda said, tapping her lip. “My beast is a bit of a slob.”
She giggled and kissed James’s cheek.
“Of course!” Clockworth said. “We can clean the house for you.”
“You can do that?” James asked.
“Yes, it’s easy.”
“Fantastic. You can start on the downstairs bathroom,” Matilda said with joy in her voice.
At that, several objects jumped down from the shelves and off the walls and hurried out of the bedroom. James could hear clattering all throughout the house as they began to clean the downstairs bathroom.
“Can you believe it?!” Matilda said, gripping James’s arm in excitement.
“I can’t.”
“All this time, you had all the help you needed to clean the house.”
“This is good news,” he said taking her in his arms. “I have much bigger plans for you.”
James kissed Matilda deeply as she giggled and wiggled in his arms. The feeling of her curves under his hands made him rigid with desire. As he climbed over her on the couch and rested between her warm thighs, he knew the best things in life were yet to come.
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