Chapter Four
Melanie
Melanie kept telling herself the only reason she was having coffee with Tye was because he owed her one. She was just being polite. She had to keep ignoring the fact that she was enjoying his company. Enjoying it like she hadn’t with any of the dates she’d been on recently. Not that she dated much when you’re in med school, you don’t have time for dating. Her dad refused to allow her to say no to the men he pushed on her though.
Tye was completely comfortable with who he was, and didn’t try to impress her with money or success. He was genuinely interested in her, and laughed when she made a joke. His laugh was a big booming sound that made her insides warm. She really needed to get away from him now, and find a way to squash all the butterflies that were swarming in her belly.
“Melanie, I’m glad that you are ok being in public with me.”
She raised an eyebrow at his comment. It wasn’t so much what he said, but the way he worded it struck her as having an underlying meaning.
“Well you owed me a coffee, you also owe me a dress too if dry cleaning doesn’t get these coffee stains out.”
“Send me a bill. I’d be happy to replace your dress. Of course, with our internship salary, it might be a decade before it gets replaced. Fashion will probably completely change by then, come to think of it.”
“Can I see you shift?” She immediately blushed with her question. It just popped in her mind and a second later was on her lips. She really wanted to see him shift though. He was a such a big man she couldn’t imagine how big a bear he would be.
He coughed into his coffee cup. “I can’t really Shift here, Melanie. Things would get…complicated. Quickly. People would call the cops, who wouldn’t be able to tell if I was some dangerous animal or a Shifter or whatever.”
“What? You’re not an animal. You’re a person, they can’t put you down or tase you.” She was absolutely shocked by his response. Surely it wasn’t really like that.
“Ah, but you forget I am an animal, at least a part of me is. There’s Tye, and then there’s my Kodiak Bear counterpart.”
“You don’t seem very animalistic to me right now though.”
“That’s because I’ve learned to live with my bear, we’re very in sync, but he’s there. There are things about me that are my bear that you can’t see. Like my sense of smell, and my hearing.”
“Well, maybe another time then. I need to get home. My dad will be waiting to be disappointed that I got into the internship.”
“He’ll be disappointed? I thought you said he was a doctor. I don’t get it.”
“No, if I was a son he’d be thrilled. But he didn’t get a son. He’d like to see me married off to one of his rich buddy’s sons. In his mind I belong in the home cooking, cleaning and reproducing, not in the medical field. He thinks it’s too stressful.”
She could see that Tye was really bothered by her father’s treatment of her. His eyes had darkened just a shade, and his brows had pinched together. His face quickly changed into a giant warm smile that had those stupid butterflies beating themselves senseless in her stomach.
“Well, I’m glad he had a daughter, and in the medical field otherwise I would have never met you.”
“Tye, we just met and you seem like a great guy, but…”
“There’s always a but.”
“I’m serious about this internship. I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to work my ass off and that’s it.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah, that’s it. I need this. I need it more than I need friends or anything else.” She sighed. “I’ve been told that I’m not a nice person.”
“You seem nice enough to me.”
“Once this internship starts we’re all going to be gunning for Chief Resident, and I’m going to get it. You will be one of the few in my way. I’ll climb right up your back to get where I’m going.”
“I have a very large back. You’d better wear different shoes.” He made the comment while he glanced down at her nude pumps. Not her typical shoe, today was a special occasion though.
She got up and threw her empty cup away, and headed to the door. Tye was right behind her, and held the door open for her. She turned to thank him, and about smacked right into him. Her head came to his collarbone, giving her a very up close view of his incredibly masculine chest. She looked up, and saw that his golden eyes were slightly glowing at her. She desperately wanted to lean up and kiss him to feel how his gorgeously shaped lips would feel against her thin ones. He could probably kiss her into next week. She cleared her throat which currently felt like the damn butterflies were trying to crawl out of right now, and took a step back.
“I guess I’ll see you in a week then, Tye.” She extended her hand to him.
“Surely you know that us bears are huggers.” Before she understood his meaning he wrapped her up in a literal bear hug. She fit snug against his body, and his big arms enclosed her safely there. She had never felt so warm, safe, and turned on all at the same time. Maybe Shifters have some weird magic that they can cast over humans to make them so drawn to them. Melanie had to be under some sort of spell because she had never had feelings like this for a man let alone someone she’s just met. He released her, gave her sexy as hell smile and a wink then strolled off in the opposite direction from her apartment.
She watched him retreat like an idiot before snapping out of it and high tailing it back to her apartment. She spent most of the evening trying to keep herself busy so she wouldn’t think about Tye, and also ignoring her dad’s calls. She knew he would make her feel bad about getting into the internship, and she just wasn’t mentally prepared for that. She also kept wondering what Tye looked like as a bear. A Kodiak bear at that. She didn’t know much about bears, but those were huge.
She had heard once when she was in undergrad, that some of the girls would go over to the local Haven bar. Back then she had no desire to go, but now she was curious. Shifters had always been treated like second class citizens. They were segregated completely off from the human societies, but after meeting Tye she couldn’t understand why. She knew that not all Shifters would be like Tye, but not all humans were either and they got to do what they wanted and go where they please.
She pulled out her laptop and decided to do some research on Shifters. She told herself it was just simply because he was going up against her in the internship, but she knew it was more than that. Tye had gotten under her skin, and affected her unlike any man had ever been able to. She had always prided herself in arming herself with knowledge and this was no different. She needed to know all she could about Shifters.