“Thanks.”
Phillipe went into the room. Brigid was lying propped up in the bed. There was a book closed next to her leg, probably what she’d been reading when Michelle had arrived. She was pale, except for the purple beneath her eyes, and there was an IV hooked up to her arm. He tried to smile at her but worry stole it from his face.
“Hey,” he said softly.
“Hi.”
He settled awkwardly in the chair. “So, uh, how are you feeling?”
“Like I got hit by a freight train.”
He grimaced.
“No, it’s probably not that bad, but I’m tired and stiff and my head feels like it’s full of cotton balls. And my side hurts. I didn’t think they’d get me in for the biopsy tonight.”
“I can come back tomorrow. I just – you weren’t at the pack hall and I was worried. But you’re here and okay so I can come back another time.” He started to get up.
“Phillipe, sit. It’s okay.”
He nodded and sank back into the chair.
“Michelle told me what happened. Is everyone all right?”
“A few people got taken to the hospital, I don’t know how many, but it didn’t sound like anything major.”
“They won’t leave us alone, will they?”
“Doesn’t look that way.”
“Are you all right?”
“I am now.”
She blushed and looked away. “Phillipe, I …”
“I’m sorry. Look, I know you said you didn’t want an apology, but it’s true and it needs to be said. I should have gotten out of the car, should have stopped them from hurting you. I just …I messed up. I understand if it’s too big a fuck up for you to forgive me.”
“I know you feel bad. I just really need to know why. Why would you assume I was cheating on you?”
“Because you wouldn’t be the first. I’m nothing. A bouncer at a sleazy club. A werebear. A monster. I make a good fling, a temporary ‘fun time’ until something better comes along. Or until they get tired of trying to fix me.”
“Did you tell all your girlfriends about your shifting?”
“No. None of them knew.”
“Then who told you that you were a monster?”
“My parents.”
That made her stop. She stared at him, the disbelief evident in her wide eyes. “Your parents?”
He nodded.
“But, you’re a werebear.”
“Trust me, you don’t need to tell me twice.”
“Shifters are born, not turned. There is no way to become a shifter unless you’re born a shifter.”
“I know.”
“So..?”
“So why do my parents think I’m a monster?”
She nodded.
“They’re not werebears. Neither of them.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Genetics are a funny thing. Turns out there were werebears somewhere in each of their families, a few generations back. Human kids married straight humans and no werebears were born and everyone thought that was the end of it. But enough people with werebears in their genetics somewhere must have married each other along the way because both my parents had the recessive werebear gene and by some miracle I was born a werebear.”
“Shit. Do you think there could be others?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know that there’s a way to check. The werebear gene is dormant until puberty. As far as I know there’s no way to tell the difference between a recessive ‘carrier’ and someone who will shift when they turn twelve.”
“But, did they know there was a chance? I mean, if your grandparents or …”
“No. They didn’t know. They didn’t expect it.”
“What happened?”
“The first time?”
She nodded.
“They shut me up in the basement with all the raw meat they could find. I stayed down there for four days. I would shift at night and turn back in the morning, but they wouldn’t let me out until I went a whole night without shifting. During that month, they built a cage and when the full moon came around again they locked me in it.”
“What?” It was his turn to nod. “How did you end up in the clan then?”
“And not dead in a shootout with police or something? I lived next door to your family. You would have been six or seven when this happened. I’m not surprised you didn’t know about it. Your dad was talking to my dad and something my dad said made your dad suspicious, so he called Remy’s dad and they came over to talk. They figured out pretty quick what I was and Remy’s dad came every full moon to pick me up and take me to the clan warehouse. Brock’s dad had this trust fund for the clan so I got a beat-up car as soon as I had a drivers’ license, so I could drive myself for full moons. And Remy’s dad helped me move out a few months before I turned eighteen.”
“But, things should have been okay once your parents weren’t at risk anymore.”
“Yeah, you’d think so. They took me to their pastor and tried to have him pray the bear out of me. They kept trying to convince me to stay home in the cage where they could pray over me instead of going to the warehouse. They still think they can save me from this curse.”
“But this isn’t magic. It’s genetics. There’s no cure. It’s not a disease or a curse.”
“You know that. Anyone who grows up with shifters knows that. Somewhere along the generations my family got into this conservative church and they don’t know that, or don’t want to know it. They think I’m damned as long as I keep shifting every month.”
“Shit. Phillipe, I never knew. My dad never said a word about it.”
He shrugged. “I don’t like to talk about it. Remy knew, and I’m sure Brock has some idea, but the rest of my clan didn’t know.”
“You could have told me.”
“Like you told me about the needles and whatever this is?”
When she blushed, it stood out like bad makeup on her pale skin.
“I guess we both had secrets.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to push, that’s a lot of sharing for one day already, but what did that have to do with me?”
“My own parents rejected me when I was twelve years old. I have never belonged. You cheating on me, or leaving me, was inevitable, and not because you’re a bad person, but because everyone rejects me. Maybe I do it to myself. I don’t have friends, except Patrick. I don’t like people getting close because I know they’ll leave. Maybe that encourages them to leave, I don’t know.”
“So you were waiting for me to break up with you the entire time we were dating?”
“Maybe not the entire time, but nearly. They ‘hey, this is really nice’ doesn’t last long for me.”
“But you still loaned me all that money.”
He shrugged. “Since we’re being honest, that’s when things started getting rough in my head. You had these mysterious phone calls and then you needed the money, and I saw the used needle in the garbage the one day.”
“And you thought the worst.”
“I’m sorry. I should have just asked but you didn’t want to talk about it, you had this whole ‘no questions asked’ vibe. It’s stupid. I should have asked. This whole thing would have been avoided if I had just asked you about the damn bottle when I saw it. I just thought you’d lie about it and I didn’t want you to lie to me.”
“Why did you think I would lie?”
“I work at a club, Bree. I know a lot of junkies. Junkies lie. They ask for money and it’s always for a good reason, never for the drugs. But it’s a lie, you know it’s a lie, it’s always about the drugs. I just thought, with Patrick being so messed up, that why wouldn’t you be on drugs?”
“Patrick is messed up?”
“You’ve never noticed? He’s the black sheep of your family and your parents make it pretty clear he’s not living up to expectations. That’s why… no, nothing.”
“Hey. If we’re going to patch things up there can’t be any secrets.”
“I know, but it’s not my secret to tell.” It was only half true but he didn’t want to tell her he’d been ready to run halfway across the country, not when they were so close to putting things back together between them.
The day of their fight, he’d been ready to walk away. Now he was able to admit to himself just how much he’d missed her this last little while. Now he wasn’t sure he could walk away from her if he tried. If she told him to, that would be different, but if she was willing to try, he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Okay. I can respect that. Well, now you know my secret, and I know yours.”
“Yeah. So what happens now?”
“I don’t know. Right now I have to focus on getting better and finishing school and somehow paying for all of this.”
Michelle stuck her head in. “We’ve worn out our welcome.”
“That’s okay,” Phillipe said. “You should rest, Bree. I know I need to sleep. It’s been a hell of a night.”
“Yeah. Hey, I have a meeting with the doctors at ten. If you come by after that, I can fill you in. If you’d like.”
“I don’t work until six so that will work.”
“Okay. Good night, Phil.”
“Night, Bree.”
Chapter 14
Brigid was tired when the nurse came in with her breakfast tray, but she sat up and ate anyways. The food helped. A nurse came in and helped her get her IV stand to the bathroom so she could wash up, then helped her back to bed. She dozed until just before ten when her parents showed up.
She heard them talking softly and opened her eyes. “Hey.”
“Oh, we’re sorry, we didn’t mean to wake you,” Katherine said.
“It’s fine, I wasn’t really sleeping.”
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine. I’ve been tucked in here, all safe and cozy. How are you guys doing? Michelle filled me in last night.”
“I’m surprised they let her in that late.”
“Me too, but I was still up. What happened?”
“A full-on attack. Julie is devastated. Her boyfriend, that Victor fellow, he was with the Human Order all along. He was babysitting with her. When I think about what he could have done…”
Christopher put a hand on his wife’s arm to comfort her. “But he didn’t. Everything worked out in the end. And he wasn’t the only one. There were a few others who were dating members of the Human Order without realizing it. They were making a huge effort to learn as much about us as they could.”
“Wow. I guess things are going to be changing at the pack hall now.”
“I don’t know. It would be sad to close our doors to the extended family, but pack safety has to come first. Louis will have to make some sort of decision, I guess.”
Dr. Singh knocked on the open door as she came in. “You’re up. Good morning. I’m not interrupting, am I?”
“No, we can talk about this later,” Brigid said. “Come in. We’re waiting to hear about the test results.”
“Well, we might have to run more tests.” She flipped through the pages on the clipboard. “We’re getting some strange readings. Your body is no longer reacting to the medication like normal and we’re not sure why. The biopsy came back negative for cancer, but there is something serious going on.”
Brigid took a deep breath and then said, “Could it be because I’m a werewolf.”
Dr. Singh just stared at her.
“My family doctor already knows, so I didn’t think to mention it.”
“Well, I’m not sure it would matter. You were born a werewolf.”
Brigid was impressed with the doctor’s ability to take this new information in stride. “Yes, I was born a werewolf, but we didn’t know if I would shift or not until after the diagnosis.”
“Hmm. Okay, hold on.” She pulled her phone off her belt and sent out a few messages. “While we wait on that, I’m going to check your vitals and such. Do any of you have any questions so far?”
Everyone shook their heads, no. Dr. Singh checked Brigid’s pulse and blood pressure, making notes on the chart. “Looks like you’ve stabilized nicely. I think we can take you off the IV today. But until we know …” Her phone beeped. “Hold on.” She read the message and nodded. “There’s a chance that your body is absorbing the medication faster than a human body would. Being a shifter, does that raise your metabolism?”
Brigid nodded.
“Then this is likely the case. When you were twelve it wasn’t a big difference, but as you got older the gap between what you needed and what you were taking was likely growing. As long as you took your shots on time you kept the shortage within a reasonable amount. But because you started missing shots, that shortage grew until it was a major deficiency.”
“So, what does that mean?”
“It means you’ll need a higher dose. Right now your levels are stable. I’d like you to go to your doctor once every two weeks for the next few months to receive your shots from him. You’re seeing Dr. Golding, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I’ll send him all the tests and charts and he’ll work with you until you’re in a proper holding pattern again, and then you can start doing your shots at home. I’d also like you to come in once every other month for the next year to see me. I’d just like to run some tests. Dealing with Shifters and modern medicine is still relatively uncharted territory. With your permission, I’d like to use your data to write a paper on it. You’ll be kept anonymous, of course.”
“Uh, sure. But I can’t afford all the tests and appointments.”
“Oh, well, I can write off the ones with me as research costs. You’re a subject of a study, so you don’t pay. I might be able to get you some funding for the shots from that too, but don’t expect much. We’re all running short of funds these days.”
“Any little bit helps,” Katherine says. “My husband’s insurance at work just kicked Brigid from his plan, which is what started this in the first place.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Like I said, I want to get that IV out of you today. I’m hoping you’ll be home in time for dinner.”
“Thanks, Dr. Singh.”
The doctor accepted Brigid’s outstretched hand, then shook hands with her parents as well. “I’m just glad this had a happy ending. I’ll stop in with the discharge papers in a few hours. A nurse will be along shortly to help you with that IV.”
When the doctor was gone, she added, “And Phil will be here soon to talk.”
“Oh, well then, I guess we should get going,” Katherine said. She grabbed her purse.
“Hold on,” said Christopher. “I want to talk to him, too.”
“Now honey, Brigid is an adult.”
“I still want to say a few things to him.”
Brigid rolled her eyes and grabbed her phone from the bedside table. Be warned. My father wants words with you.
Phillipe’s phone buzzed as he was parking the car in a much busier visitor’s lot. He pulled it out and read Brigid’s message, then replied, Thanks for the warning.
When he got up to the room, he was all smiles and greeted Brigid’s parents with a smile and a handshake. “How’s Michelle this morning?” he asked. “She was holding up all right yesterday, but I know, soon as that adrenaline kicks out and you have time to think, things can get rough.”
“She called in sick to work and she was sleeping when we left home,” Katherine said. “I’m going to get a coffee.” She poked her husband in the ribs on her way by. “It’s nice to see you, Phillipe.”
“My wife thinks I’m going to lecture you,” Christopher said. “I wanted to thank you. I remember when you were a scrawny thing, half starved for food and attention. I should have taken you in then.”
“You got me to the right people. Remy’s dad put a stop to the abuse and he’d have pulled me out of there if they had tried starving me or beating me again.”
“I know he would have. I was glad you and Patrick kept in touch, even if
you both seemed a little lost. Now I’m twice as glad. If you hadn’t been with Patrick when the attack happened …” He gave his head a shake. “I was here. I came to answer questions because Brigid was unconscious. I told Michelle and Katherine to go to the meeting and not to worry. I should have been there to protect them. Thank you. Thank you for caring enough about me and mine to do something.”
“You saved me once, the pack saved our asses once, really, it was the least I could do.”
Christopher held out his hand and Phillipe accepted it gladly. “Whatever happens between the two of you, you will always be welcome in my home.”
“Thank you.”
“Now I’d better get a coffee and let my wife berate me for being overbearing.”
When they were alone again. Phillipe said, “I thought that was going to be a lot louder.”
“Me too. honestly.”
There was a knock at the door. “Morning!” said the cheery nurse. “I’m here to take the IV out.”
“Oh, yes please,” Brigid said.
Phillipe sat back out of the way while the nurse worked. When she left, Brigid stretched and said, “That feels so much better.”
“I guess you’re on the mend.”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, you’re supposed to sound excited about that.”
“Turns out it’s connected to my raised metabolism. I’m going to need higher dosages of the different medications I take, and more often too. Plus, the ambulance ride, and the stay in the hospital. I might have to take a year off from school.”
“You’re so close to finishing your degree.”
“I know. But my dad’s insurance won’t cover me anymore.”
“We’ll figure something out.”
“We?”
“You. You’ll figure something out.”
“No, it’s okay. I think I’d like it if you were there to help me through this.”
He scooted the chair closer and held her hand. “Look, there’s a lot of years of messed up shit in my head, and it’s not going to go away overnight. I’ve learned that people are going to reject me or kick me out and it’s only a matter of time. I can’t promise I won’t jump to that conclusion about you, but I will try to tell you. I’ll try to ask questions instead of making assumptions.”
Phillipe Page 14