Chapter Thirteen
Tye
Tye didn’t return to the internship. Instead he cleared out his apartment, and found a place back in his Haven. The internship looked good on a resume, but he wasn’t sure he could face Melanie after Thanksgiving. He wondered how she felt about him not returning. It had been almost a month since she would have gone back.
He tried not to think about her, and move on with his life. He still had his boards to study for, and he was shadowing a local family doctor at a nearby town. He was so glad he came home. He loved the family practice he was working at, and was hoping to one day open his own. He loved having his fellow Shifters all around so he didn’t have to constantly fumble about.
He just wished that Melanie was with him. He wanted her to want to be with him. Christmas was in a couple of days, and he desperately wished he could give her the gift he bought her. He wanted to kiss her, and hold her in his arms so he could inhale her scent.
A knock sounded at his door that brought him out of his depressing thoughts.
“Hey Tye! It’s Jake.”
Tye opened the door for his baby brother. Jake was probably one of the biggest reasons Tye had moved home. Jake was just a couple years younger, but he was the wild child. He was constantly getting in to trouble, and giving their parents grey hair.
“What’s up man?”
“Nothing. I was just stopping by. I wanted to see if you were going to the fights tonight?”
“I hadn’t planned on it.” Tye thought for a second. He hadn’t needed to fight that much lately since he wasn’t constantly cooped up in the human cities. However, his bear was restless without Melanie so he had, had to go and fight a couple times.
“Come on man. I’m fighting Bunner tonight, and I really want you to come. I hear there’s a new jaguar in town looking for a fight too.” Tye perked up at the mention of a new jaguar. He figured it was Ethan, but he wanted to be sure. Maybe he had been around Melanie, and could give Tye some insider information.
“Yeah I’ll come down. When are you headed that way?”
“Well if you wanna grab something to eat first we could go ahead down.”
“Mable’s Diner?” Tye loved the small local diner just outside of the Haven that allowed Shifters inside. Everything was homemade, and the portions were big enough to fill up even the hungriest Kodiak bear.
“I suppose. You love that place man. If you ever quit going there, she’s going to have to close down.”
Tye laughed, and ran off to change clothes. He also wanted to grab a bottle of his Thistledew Farm honey. He could pour about half a bottle over Maple’s fresh biscuits, and forget about his troubles for a bit.
The brothers made quick work of their dinner, and headed over to the Brew. Jake took off once he saw that Bunner was there too so they could get a ring. Jake was arrogant, and so was the Bunner kid so Tye figured they’d end up being pretty evenly matched.
Tye kept moving through the crowds looking for Ethan. He wasn’t sure why he was so anxious to find him. Melanie had showed nothing but disdain for the idea of being with Ethan, but Tye had to be sure. His bear was getting more and more anxious as the crowd thickened, and more Shifters fought. By the time he finally found Ethan his bear was itching for someone to piss him off.
“Ethan. Glad to see you finally decided to join your own kind.”
“Tye. Hey man it’s good to see you. Melanie said this was your Haven so I was hoping to find you here.”
“Melanie?”
“She’s not here. I called her to see if she could help me get in touch with you, and she said she hadn’t seen you but figured you were here.”
“I see. So what can I do for you.”
“Well after you bailed on Thanksgiving my dad told me about my real parents. The real story, and I took off not long after. I’m just kind of trying to adjust to all of this, and thought I’d do better in a Haven. I’ve always known I was a Shifter, but I guess I just thought I was different. I just want to be myself now, and not have to feel like an outsider all the time.”
“And you’re hoping that you can crash mine since we’ve been introduced.”
“Kinda.” Tye could tell Ethan wanted to say more. He blushed a little, and was having trouble meeting Tye’s gaze.
“You also need a place to crash too don’t you?”
Ethan chirped up at that. “Please?”
“I supposed. One condition. How is Melanie doing?”
“I’m not sure we haven’t stayed in touch since Thanksgiving other than me calling her the other day. Her mom is worried about her though. She sounded pretty rough on the phone too. You guys break up?”
“Yeah something like that.”