AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’s your right. Things sometimes don’t work. It doesn’t need a lot of explaining. You want to move forward and not keep getting held back. I think that’s admirable.”
She grinned at him unexpectedly. “I’m sorry, I’m not used to hanging out with someone who doesn’t use a filter. I’ve spent too many days isolated in a tiny cabin with my sister. You’re refreshing.”
He wanted to be refreshing for her. He wanted to be a whole lot more than that.
There was the briefest span of time where he felt like she’d lean in close and maybe discreetly put her hand on his knee. Maybe lean in closer and taste his lips. He could be refreshing for her in so many ways. She’d no doubt taste like—
Bang! Crash!
Something exploded in the background. It trigged a violent buzzing in his head, a pounding at his temples, and a wild prickling under his skin. He knew what that feeling was. His eyes whipped wildly around, trying to locate the source of the noise. It didn’t sound like someone had dropped something. It sounded like windows being shot out. A car crashing into the building. Something disastrous and awful happening. His heart raced hard. The adrenaline he’d felt a few minutes ago was nothing compared to the painful ratcheting up of his pulse.
He saw nothing, but his vision was dimming. Clouding up. The prickling under his skin was something he couldn’t fight. He was losing a battle against the bear. The bear wanted to come out.
Tavish couldn’t sit there and sweat it out. That wasn’t going to work. He wasn’t just fighting a battle, he was straight up losing. Panic and fear hit him like a black cloud, dimming his vision further.
He shot up from the table, shoving his way out of the booth. He had to get out of here. It was too loud. Too many people. Too many smells. But it was mainly the people. If the bear came out, they would all see it. It would be the worst disaster that could ever happen. Why now? Why fucking now?
He clawed a hand over his eyes and his fingers came away soaked. He was drenched in sweat.
“Tavish?” January was freaked out. She put out a hand to him. He was standing there, panting like a wild man. “What—”
He whirled and took off, pushing through the crowded restaurant as fast as he could go. He nearly took out a stunned waitress, but she dodged to the side, and he raced past her. He burst out the front glass door, which was still perfectly intact. No one had driven a car through the building. No one had shot anything.
All he could do was search the area wildly. Why hadn’t he come prepared for something like this to happen? Why didn’t he have an emergency plan, an escape route, an alley memorized or somewhere dark and quiet? Right. Because things like this didn’t happen to him. His bear didn’t just break out like this.
It was going to break out. He was going to shift and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Frantic, he raced down the sidewalk, using all the energy he had, clinging to the shards of self-control splintering and breaking up inside him. He fractured harder with every step. The plates that held him together were being ripped apart to create an entirely new universe. One that wasn’t human in form.
Whipping his head from side to side, Tavish could only run and search with what little vision he had left. It was turning into a tunnel, the black settling in hard around the edges. The smells assaulted him from every direction, more acute than they should have been. The noises were louder, horns honking, the sound of engines, people talking from blocks away.
God, it was happening. He had a minute, maybe two at most.
He had to find somewhere where no one would see him. Sure, a bear could run through the city. It wasn’t unheard of. At best he’d probably get tranquilized and relocated. Or fucking put down—that was the worst-case scenario. But even worse than that was anyone witnessing the shift when it happened. Recording it. Getting evidence that other people would see and very likely believe, even though a video could easily be edited and doctored to look like anything. If even one person believed it, they could all be in trouble.
The kind of trouble that could be the start of the end of everything.
Chapter 8
January
January had turned her entire life upside down on her own terms when she’d divorced. No one had seen it coming but her, so for her, things weren’t so inside out, and she wasn’t so blindsided like her family. She was getting a small taste of that when Tavish stood up like the grim fucking reaper had just appeared over her shoulder, gone white as death itself, and then turned and ran out the front door.
One minute, she was thinking about how attractive he was and how she was happy she’d agreed to the date, because Tavish was soelectrifying, and the next, Tavish wasn’t even there. She was left shocked, staring at an empty space, still aching to close the distance between them, which was currently impossible.
It lasted for only a few seconds. She tore a fifty out of her purse and slapped it on the table for the trouble of everyone involved and careened through the restaurant much the same way Tavish had, barely clearing tables and people and bursting out the door.
There were very few men who looked like Tavish. Not many professional athletes or wrestlers or six foot five or so broad and muscly dudes walking around taking up the whole sidewalk—taking up all the oxygen in the city, drawing her attention and holding it like they were the world.
It might have just been his shadow, but it was enough. She took a hard left, the cold air hitting her skin and cooling down the inferno bubbling inside. Was she angry? Shocked? Astounded? Curious? Confused?
A small dose of wariness closed in on her, puncturing her lungs like metal shards and making it hard to breathe as she ran. Tavish didn’t seem like the kind of person who would just get up and leave. Had something scared him? Something was off.
What if he was involved in something terrible? Something illegal? What if he was running from someone that he’d seen in the restaurant? Was he the kind of man who would put her in danger? She didn’t think so, but what did she know?
She charged towards the alley anyway, a storm of her own.
She wasn’t fearless, bold, or brave. She didn’t think if someone was messing with Tavish she’d be enough to take them on by herself, but at least she could call for help. Her good judgement told her to stay well away from that alley, but she rounded the bend anyway.
