Chapter Nine - Roseanne
“Who the hell is he and why does he have his hand around you?” There was a bottle in his other hand, which was already open.
“I asked you a question and I’m damn well going to get an answer. How did you find me and don’t give me that smirk.” I was angry, but I was afraid at the same time, which made it hard to make the distinction between one and the other.
“I came here to get you back and I’m not leaving without you.” His words were amazingly well put together considering his inebriated state of mind.
“I left for a reason and coming here doesn’t solve anything. If I were you, I would turn around and go back to Montana. There is no place for you in my life anymore. I thought I made myself pretty damn clear the last time you put your hands on me.” I touched my face and I was happy to feel the bruises were slowly fading away.
“You bring it on yourself by constantly arguing with me black is white. I don’t need to be berated by a woman. I get enough of that from my father.” His issues with his father were enough for a therapist’s wet dream come true.
“Blaming your father for everything has always been your go-to move. It’s a vicious cycle where you have this desperate need to lash out at the first person you see. You hide your true face and only allow the ugly side of yourself to come out when you’re in my face. I’m not going to take it anymore. I’m through being your punching bag.” It was as if I was talking to the villain Two-Face from the comic books.
“You are coming with me and I’m not taking no for an answer. Do you have any idea of how embarrassing it is to tell people you are on some kind of sabbatical? They know I’m lying, but they are afraid to say anything.” In his eyes, I was his possession and if he couldn’t have me then nobody could.
“I need you to listen to me very carefully. I left to get away from you. My family misses me, but still, I give you the power to keep me from them. I should call the police and get a restraining order like my parents did. I never thought I would be in the position of seeing some of those horror stories become a part of my life. I always thought it happened to other people.” I was slowly trying my best to finally get it through to his thick skull it was over.
“If you think that you can hide behind him then you are sadly mistaken.” He smashed the bottle and held onto the neck with the sharpened end outstretched in front of him menacingly.
Tom made a grunt and I saw him grab his hand where Jason had slashed him with a shard from the bottle. He turned away from me, bent over at an angle with his back heaving. His shoulders looked bigger than they previously were, but it had to be a trick of the light. Jason took advantage of Tom’s distraction and grabbed my arm.
“I’ve always been the Alpha even when I was on the football field. I have a taxi waiting down the block to take us back to the airport.” He was quite insistent and his grip on my wrist was causing me some concern.
I tried to pull away, but it was an effort in futility. His anger was boiling inside him and he was close to hitting me, I could feel it. I wasn’t going to snivel and cower. I was through being a victim, no matter how much he outweighed me.
“I would seriously consider taking your hands off of her if you know what’s good for you,” Tom growled.
I didn’t want Tom to fight my battles for me. I did notice his voice had changed. It had lowered to a register like he was somehow masking the pain of the cut to his hand. I didn’t want anything to happen to him.
Suddenly, the hand attached to my wrist was no longer there. I turned and saw the two men exchanging a verbal diatribe of obscenities.
Jason pushed him into the wall and began to pummel him with those fists I knew so well. “I’m going to make you pay for getting involved in something that was none of your business. I hope you like eating out of a straw for the next few months.” He was raining blows on the man I had found to be one of the good ones. I wanted to intervene, but my feet were frozen like the earth itself was holding me hostage.
I cringed every time Jason reeled back with his fist poised in the air. He was showing Tom no mercy and then his fist was caught in midair. The sickening crunch of bones breaking had Jason falling to his knees crying like a little girl. His fist was bloody and gnarled.
Jason wasn’t the only one surprised. The sound of clothing ripping and the body of Tom expanding into something otherworldly was hard to wrap my mind around. There was a bear in place of the man. Long jagged claws slashed in the air, I could see them brightly illuminated from the overhead light on the street.
The blood splatter against the brick wall had Jason scrambling backward with a look of terrified wonder on his face. The marks of the claws were clearly defined, burned into his left cheek. He kept pointing and then ran off without saying another word.
The low growl coming from the shadows should have made me hesitant to take a few steps forward. I saw the bear lumber forward and fall once, before gathering enough strength to stand on all four legs.
“Tom… is that you?”
My question was answered by the bear falling flat, but still breathing.
It diminished in size and the bear turned back into a man. His clothes were tattered, with pieces of fabric barely hiding his shame. One piece was strategically hanging over his manhood. I could’ve easily extracted it to get a better look, but I thought it would be in bad taste.
“I’m sorry… you shouldn’t have seen me like that. It’s forbidden.” He tried to stand, but he stumbled.
I took pity on him and helped him the few steps up to my door. His blood was staining my blouse. “I have so many questions, but they can wait until we get you patched up. I’m still not sure what I saw, but my eyes have never lied to me in the past.”
I carefully escorted him down the hallway with my arm around his waist and his over my shoulder. I put him on the bed, but he was reluctant to lie down and close his eyes.
“I don’t know what you… what you want me to say. You have… seen too much and I’m going to catch hell for it.” I backed off and he teetered, threatening to fall flat on his face on the floor.
“Stay there. I’m going get what we need to patch you up. I should have a first aid kit around here somewhere.” I quickly dashed to the bathroom, rummaging underneath the sink until I came across the kit.
It had a layer of dust, which made my nose twitch from my allergies. I went in and stopped in my tracks to see him without a shirt on. His wounds were mostly deep bruises made by Jason’s fist before his transformation. I knelt at his feet and touched the tender spots to see him cringe in discomfort.
To be on the safe side, I wrapped his ribs tightly in bandages and taped them so that there was very little room for him to maneuver. There was a cut underneath his eye, but it was healing quickly without any support of antibiotics.
“I didn’t mean to bring this to your doorstep. I have a pet peeve of men thinking that they can put their hands on a woman. I lost control when I should have learned to turn the other cheek.” He was lambasting himself for his behavior and there was no reason to.
“My life has always been a little crazy. A little more isn’t going to hurt me.”
“I don’t want you to be scared of me. It’s the last thing I want. I can assure you the bear is sleeping soundly and will only emerge when I want it to. It’s a little different during the full moons.” He got off the bed and pulled me to my feet.
I was slightly shell-shocked and even more so when his hands grabbed onto my ass. My eyes widened with surprise and then his lips came closer until we were kissing with wild abandon. The feeling of him squeezing my cheeks and the kiss made my resolve weaken.
I felt one hand gliding to graze his fingernails on the small of my back. We were pressed together, with our lips making short work of any kind of resistance. I feigned innocence, but my body betrayed any kind of discouraging words on the tip of my tongue.
I felt a little overwhelmed and completely bewildered by everything that had transpired during the evening. It had started with my hopes and dreams unfolding before me. The surprise ending of witnessing him manhandling my ex-boyfriend was an unexpected treat. It was also quite an eye-opening experience to see him transform from man to beast in a matter of seconds.
The kiss lasted for well over a minute before he lingered a little bit longer by pulling on my bottom lip with his teeth. I couldn’t seem to get my fill of his body. Those vivid images in my fantasies were something I was never going to tell a soul about. I still couldn’t believe he was kissing me with such passion. It was hard to contain my excitement.
Whatever strength he had, diminished, and he fell onto the bed flat on his back. Looking at him with his shirt wide open gave me obscene ideas of how to mend him back to health.