He nodded but he didn’t move. Damn it, he might remember how to answer the phone, but he couldn’t read to figure out how to get his messages.
“I got it.” She went back into her office and again, he followed her. “What’s your phone code?”
Numbers he could remember, so he told her and within a moment, she was scrolling through his messages.
“Do you want the oldest or the newest?” Then before he could answer, she snorted. “They’re both from a guy named Carl. I’m guessing he’s that alpha you mentioned. He’s left about a dozen?—”
“Call him back.”
Carl Carman was his alpha, or had been his alpha before he’d killed Nanook and taken over the Griz. Either way, Carl should have been his first phone call after he woke up. And after his fight with Nanook. And maybe first thing this morning. So it was no surprise when the man came on the phone practically vibrating with fury. Alyssa had put him on speaker, so Carl’s voice filled the space with booming threat.
“What the hell, Simon! What the hell are you doing?”
“Hello, Carl,” Simon said, his voice deepening at the sound of aggression. He deserved it, he knew, but that didn’t stop his grizzly from growling deep inside him. “I’ve been busy.”
“Busy? Busy taking over Detroit?”
“Yes.” And fighting Vic and making love with Alyssa. And a host of other things that flashed through his mind.
“Don’t you think you should have talked to me first?”
“There wasn’t time. Nanook was trying to murder a cop. It was the only way to…” Keep Alyssa alive. “To calm things down.”
“Violent overthrows don’t usually quiet things down.”
“It has for the moment.” He hoped.
“Fine. You calling about the Detroit Flu? I’ve been watching the news and that video from the hospital looks awful familiar.”
Simon frowned. “I haven’t seen?—”
“I have,” Alyssa interrupted. “It was someone changing. Just like Vic.”
“Who’s that?” Carl abruptly demanded. “Identify yourself!”
“She’s my assistant,” Simon said, a growl coming through his tone loud and clear. He did not like anyone talking to Alyssa with anything but respect.
“Assistant? Just how long have you been in Detroit? You’re supposed to check in with me once a month, and it’s been?—”
“Ten months. Yes, I know.”
“Ten fucking months! What the hell were you doing?”
Simon thought about lying. The last thing he wanted to admit to anyone was that he’d been a bear all those months. That amount of animal time was unheard of. Anyone who lasted that long stayed furry. The fact that he’d come back was both unusual and grounds for a deeper inspection into his psyche. Humans didn’t live wild without going native…and crazy. In fact, if Alyssa hadn’t shot him, if it hadn’t been a matter of survival, he probably wouldn’t have ever come back to human. Which meant that it would have been Carl’s job to hunt him and kill him.
“Simon? Don’t you dare?—”
“I was grizzly. The whole time.”
Carl’s curses echoed long and loud through the phone. “You can’t do that, Simon.”
“I certainly can’t now. I’m alpha of the Griz.”
“Yeah, lucky you,” Carl drawled, clearly not sympathetic. “So if you’re alpha now, you’ve got to deal with the Detroit Flu. I saw that video on the news. We had people changing like that. They were kidnapped and injected with some bad shit. Most died, but a few changed. Like what was on that video.”
Simon’s head snapped up. “They were kidnapped?”
“Yeah. We’ve got a serum. It’s not a cure, but it slows down the process. Enough for someone to adjust. But you’ve got to stop whoever is injecting people with that shit.”
