Chapter Five
Tye
Tye shrugged his clothes off once he entered his apartment, and immediately shifted. The worst apart about going through medical school was that he couldn’t be in his bear form very often. He gave himself a shake all over ridding himself of all the restrictions of his human body. It had taken him forever to find an apartment that was large enough for him in his Kodiak form. He was large as a man, but his bear stood around 8 foot 9 inches tall, and if he had to guess he weighed somewhere around a thousand pounds. He walked around his giant living room complete with mandatory cathedral ceilings, and then slumped himself on the floor, and stretched and rolled around.
It had been a couple days since he had run into Melanie, and he hadn’t been able to get her off of his mind. His bear was anxious he wanted to be around her and make sure she was okay. Tye had no way of getting a hold of her or finding out where she lived so he had been going down to the coffee shop. The people there probably thought he had a real coffee addiction since he had been there a couple times a day in hopes of bumping into her again. At this rate he’d be broke, and have a serious anxiety issue from all the caffeine.
Just being in his bear form made him feel at ease. He needed to run, and hunt to help calm himself. He shifted back to his human form and decided to pack his bags, and go home for a few days before the internship started. It would be a while before he’d have an opportunity to break away, and he knew his bear would be like a caged animal if he didn’t take this opportunity now. He wasn’t that far away from his Haven, but the crazy schedule of an internship he knew it would be rare he could go home. Maybe there would be some fights open so he could burn off some steam.
The leader of the Haven didn’t like the fights that the local bar set up, but he couldn’t stop them he knew that the Shifters needed a safe place to handle their aggression. They never fought to the death, and usually the wounds were easily healed without a healer being required. Tye had fought in them some, but he had never been an overly hostile bear. He had fought in them more since joining the human world because they made him feel so shy and clumsy; two things he normally was not and his bear didn’t like the feeling either. It helped him reassert himself and get his confidence back up.
The drive over was beautiful with the fall foliage coming on, and leaves were falling along the little highway that wound around the mountains. The holidays were right around the corner which meant winter was coming. Every bear loved winter, and Tye was no different. He couldn’t wait for the first snow fall. He just hoped he wouldn’t be so busy at the internship that he could sneak away to enjoy it. Finally, the gates of his town came into view. He hated the gates because it seemed like a cage, but the humans knew if the Shifters wanted to knock them down and insert themselves into society they could. The Shifters didn’t want any conflict though and preferred to stay to themselves within their own clans anyways. Humans were jumpy creatures, and didn’t take too well to seeing a lion or bear casually walking down the street.
His mom, Sharon, was waiting on the front porch of their ranch style house when he pulled up.
“Tye, what are you doing home baby?”
“I have a few days until my internship, and I wanted to get away. It might be a while before I get to stretch my legs again.”
“I worry about you cooped up in that city. The bad air, the bad food. Come in, I just got a shipment of that honey you like. I’ll make you some toast with it.”
“You’re the best ma, but the sandwiches in the city are amazing.”
His mom gave a disapproving huff before turning back into the house.
Tye had a passion for honey, but it couldn’t just be any honey. There was a small bee farm in West Virginia called Thistle Dew Farm, and they made the best pure honey in the world. Tye had loved it since he was a boy, and had grown to not be able to tolerate any other honey except it. His mom took to ordering it by the case load online. He currently had two cases of it at his apartment, one bottle in his car, and soon he would also have one in his locker at the hospital.
His little brother, Jake, and his dad, Logan, were in the back yard wrestling which already had Tye itching to ditch his human form. They both shifted when he came outside and ran to greet him, completely oblivious to their nakedness.
“Son, I’m so glad you’re home. Are you back home for good” His dad was proud of him for pursuing his dream, but he worried about him out in the human city. The humans could be quick to violence against Shifters.
“No dad, I’m just here for a few days before it starts. I needed to get out of the city for a bit.”
“I’m fighting tonight down at the Brew, you should come.” Tye’s little brother was practically still a cub, but he was getting ready to go through his change, which humans would refer to as puberty. It was quite intense for a Shifter, and that most of them fought regularly to help keep themselves in check.
“Yeah I’ll come along. I’d like to get a fight in myself.”
“You boys shouldn’t be down there fighting. I don’t like it one bit,” Sharon said.
“Oh sweetheart we’re the biggest things around here, the boys are fine. If you want to worry, you should worry about the other Shifters they go up against,” Logan said.
His mom swatted her hand at them as she turned to go back inside. As a she-bear she herself was gigantic, but she didn’t fight for sport. Beware anything that threatened her family, though.
“Who are you fighting tonight, Jake?”
“I’m fighting Wiley from up the road. I think we’ll be pretty well suited for each other. He’s a good dude, I like his family.”
“You got to be careful of those lions. They’re quick, and clever.”
“Well I outweigh him by a lot. I can take him.”
“Well let’s be sure of it.” Tye said as he shed his clothes and shifted.
* * *
Later that night Tye and his brother made their way over to the Brew, Tye caught a familiar scent. He paused and raised his nose up a little and let his bear take over his scent. Surely he was mistaken at the smell. Jake stopped and gave him a funny look before tugging him inside the bar. Once he was inside he was almost positive it was her. His bear was positive it was her as he frantically searched through the packed bar. He ran into the edge of a table as he tried to hurry by it, it ended up completely over turning causing all the eyes to float to him for a minute.
This is starting out well! Tye thought as he righted the table and chairs.
“I kind of assumed that you Shifters would make your buildings bear accommodating, but I can see you’re still flinging poor defenseless objects about,” a familiar voice said.
All the air left his lungs and then filled with Melanie’s beautiful scent. He turned around and found her wearing a pair of low riding jeans, and a black form fitting shirt. The fabric clung in all the right places, and he immediately wanted to throw her over his shoulder and get her out of there. He didn’t like the other Shifters looking at her. Before he could stop it a growl rose up in his throat. Melanie took a step back. His eyes snapped back to her. He hadn’t meant to scare her. He was making a mess of this. He looked like a clumsy idiot one minute, and a crazed animal the next. “What are you doing here?”
“Well some of the girls I use to room with come here every now and then, so I decided to tag along. I hope that’s okay. I guess I should have tried to contact you first. ”
He smiled then because he knew she was here to see him.
“Can I buy you a beer?”
“I’m not much of a beer drinker, but if they have a Red’s Apple Ale back there I could be persuaded.” Her eyes had a twinkle to them, and he liked how carefree she seemed here. He took her hand and led her over to the bar. It wasn’t uncommon for humans to come to some of the bars in Haven, but he couldn’t believe Melanie had. Most of the humans that came over were there because they wanted to hook up with a Shifter and see if the rumors were true. Shifter gossips called it going on safari. Once they did a lot of them decided they didn’t want to go back to humans. Shifters mated for life, and once they found their mate and made their claim casual sex was a thing of the past. Before that happened though it was fair game. They were part animal so it was only natural that their animal instincts would push them to seek some sort of release; some of them fought, others had sex, most did both.