Bear With Me (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance) Read online

  Before I finished, she had already fished a bunch of wires out of the bag and was at work hooking it all up.

  “She’s lost to the world until bedtime,” Rex said, turning my face toward his with his index finger crooked under my chin. “You’ve made that little girl happier than I’ve ever seen her.” He watched my face for a moment, studying me. “I want to remember what you look like, right now. As happy as you made her, I’m pretty sure she did the exact same thing to you.”

  As weird as it was for me to admit it, yeah, she actually had. Just to see someone able to be that happy, it sorta made me feel the same. But then again, being this close to Rex made me feel some particular things too.

  I looked back over to Leena, but just like before, she was buried in a pile of wires, adjusting things and keeping busy. “Want to go talk?” Rex said, reaching out a hand to pull me up. “I think she’s probably going to be distracted for a while.

  “Do you actually mean talk talk?” I asked and then immediately blushed.

  Playfully, Rex shrugged.

  If the journey that led to right then was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, the decision to follow him wherever he was taking me? Probably the easiest.

  -17-

  Lilah

  I was starting to get antsy.

  Okay, “starting” might be a little bit of an understatement. There was dealing with my feelings for Rex and that whole crazy thing, and then there was the other thing on my mind.

  Since that weird storm, and Winter disappearing, no one had seen her. She called Dezzy a couple of times right after she left us hanging and then once the next day. Since, though, it had been four days, and no one had heard a word from her.

  Not until she showed up at my door.

  I was getting ready for another night at jail when I heard a tentative, almost pitiful knock on my apartment door. When I opened it, what should I see except a very dejected, very lost looking little unicorn?

  “Winter?” I asked. “What are you doing here?”

  “Hey,” she said, her voice even more spaced out and confused sounding than usual, and that was saying something. “What’s up?”

  A little context: Winter had never been to my apartment, except one time after the senior party when she drank a whole lot of Razzmatazz. I never did figure out how my sister and her friends got in, nor how they decided that drinking an entire bottle of raspberry liqueur was a good idea, but the rainbows Winter made that night were about the funniest, loopiest things in the world.

  Also, I was a little confused about her half-present horn. Normally she kept that thing hidden unless she was really in a special mood, but there it was, standing out straight and proud.

  “Winter? You in there?” I asked, reaching out and tapping her shoulder. “You feeling okay?”

  She just stared at me, wide-eyed and obviously scared, but of what? Did this have something to do with her mysterious vanishing act? She just kept right on staring.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. “Winter?”

  A second later, she shook her head and then refocused her eyes, like I’d startled her somehow. “Oh, hey Lilah,” she said. “What’s up?”

  As much as I like talking to broken record players, this is getting old – and weird – really fast.

  “You showed up at my doorstep,” I told her. “And also it’s almost nine at night. Do you know where you are?”

  “No, not really.”

  The funny thing is, she didn’t seem particularly upset or perturbed by not knowing where she was.

  “Does this happen to you a lot?” I asked. “Showing up places where you don’t remember going, I mean.” I waited a second before changing my mind. “Actually, never mind. That’s sort of your business. Do you... need a doctor?”

  “Do I?” she tilted her head to the left and kind of squinted when she asked. “I’m not sick, I don’t think.”

  Suddenly, she started wavering back and forth, and the color drained out of her face. She’s always pale, but she went white as a sheet. I managed to get an arm underneath her and catch her before she fell, but barely.

  Once we were safely inside, and I dumped Winter unceremoniously onto the couch, I had a second to process what was going on. “You’re a lot heavier than you look,” I said, rubbing my back. There was a bit of a hitch in it where I twisted around to catch her, but nothing anywhere near as bad as she looked.

  “Thanks,” she said, her voice completely void of emotion. “So, what’s up?”

  “Winter! You came to my house and then proceeded to just about keel over on my front porch. And now you keep asking me what’s up like I called you.” I was starting to get exasperated, but there wasn’t much to be done about it. She was here and obviously not really in her own head.

  “Oh yeah,” she said. “I guess I did. Listen Lilah, I’m kinda... can I have some water? I don’t feel so hot.”

  On the way to the kitchen, I let Cooper know I’d be late, that something was going on with a friend. He told me no one had come in and so to take my time. But then he left a cryptic hint floating in the air that maybe I’d want to show up at some point tonight though, because there was something I’d want to see.

  I couldn’t figure out what it was that I was supposed to be so fascinated about, but I had a dopey, mopey unicorn sitting on my couch... shooting blue rainbows.

  I’m not even kidding. It was the saddest damn thing I’ve ever seen in my life, and that counts hungry puppies.

  By the time I got back to her with the water, Winter was starting to get some color back, but not very much and not very quickly. I handed her the glass, and she drank the whole thing in about six gulps. Half of it, maybe more, ran down her face and soaked into her shirt.

  Holy ass, that’s the same shirt she was wearing when I took them to class on that day with the storm.

  “Winter?” I asked. “What’s up with that shirt? Why are you still wearing it?”

  “What do you mean?” she asked. “When was I supposed to change?”

  Slowly, something dawned on me. “What day is it?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “Monday. Why are you looking at me like there’s a tarantula on my head? Also, I don’t know what’s wrong with my rainbows but it’s really starting to get me down.” Another violet, blue, purple and lavender arc came out of her fingertips.

  “Winter, uh...” I stopped just short of telling her she’d been somewhere for four days.

  “What?” she asked. “Why am I here, anyway? Did I drive?”

  I squinted at her, shaking my head. “You don’t have a car. Or, as far as I’m aware, a driver’s license. That’s why I took you to school Mon—that’s why I took you to school.”

  “Wait a minute,” she said. “Wasn’t it raining earlier? And how did I get here?”

  Waving my hand at her to be quiet, I went to the front door, opened it and looked out just in time to see a black SUV with very darkly tinted windows pull out of my apartment building’s parking lot. There were only four people living in this building, and none of them drove anything like that.

  I had a feeling how she got here, but at the same time, I didn’t know how she got here.

  “Do you remember anything from the last... six hours?” I asked. If it had been Monday, six hours would make sense for a timetable.

  “Sure,” she said, starting to perk up. “We went to class, with the storm and everything. And then at some point, Professor Graves told me to see him after class. It was something about registration. Anyway, I went and did that, and then I had to go up to his office to fill out some papers.”

  I was just sitting there shaking my head slowly from side to side. “You... you really don’t know?”

  “Know what?”

  “Winter,” I said, “it’s Friday, and it’s almost nine. You’ve been missing the whole week. Except, you called Dezzy on Tuesday so we figured you were just off on one of your adventures. Except...”

  “Holy shit,” she sai
d. “But how is that possible? How can I just have blacked out for a week? Has anyone been looking for me?”

  I shook my head. “We figured you were off camping somewhere, like you do, with no phone service. Nobody really started worrying until yesterday when you missed class. I think Dezzy tried to call you today, and she said your phone rang, so we just figured—”

  Winter fished the phone out of her pocket and blushed deeply. “Holy shit,” she said, flipping her finger across the screen over and over. “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, Lilah, look at this.”

  She held the phone out to me, her hand trembling so badly she dropped it on the couch. Nothing but page after page, at least a hundred calls, probably more, of her dailing out to everyone in the phone book. She called Dezzy, Mitzi, her parents, even me – and we’re not exactly close – but none of the calls connected, except the one she placed at ten forty-six, Tuesday morning.

  “This is the one where you must’ve talked to Dez,” I said.

  “But,” poor Winter’s fingers were shaking so badly that I wrapped an arm around her to try and calm her nerves. “But how is this possible? What happened to me?”

  Tears ran down her face, making tracks in the makeup and skin oil that had collected. I shook my head again. “I don’t know honey,” I said. “You have no idea how you got here?”

  The poor thing was curled up with her head up under my chin, trembling like a sick baby.

  “The first thing I remember is you opening the door. I’m sorry, I’m so, so, so sorry.” She just started sobbing, uncontrollably, and clutching my arm. “I can’t... It was just Graves and then I showed up here. Did you see anything?”

  “No,” I said, smoothing her hair and lying. “We’ll figure out what’s going on though, I promise.”

  “How?”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I work at the police station, I can pull some strings. But something is going on and it’s not right. You stay here, okay?”

  I pulled my keychain out, and took the house key off. “Lock the door as soon as I leave, and stay away from the windows.”

  “Windows?” she asked. “Why?”

  I shrugged. “Seems like a good safety tip. But I’m going to go to the courthouse and I’ll have a couple hyenas check on you, okay? I’ll call Dezzy and let her know you’re here and you’re relatively okay, so don’t open the door for anyone except either the police, or Dezzy, all right?”

  I hated leaving her there, shaking and crying, but there was nothing else to do. If we were ever going to get to the bottom of what happened, I couldn’t sit around comforting her all night.

  “Dez?” I was in my car, and she picked up on the first ring.

  “Oh hey sis, what’s up?” she asked.

  “Don’t ask what’s up,” I mumbled. “Listen, Winter is at my apartment and—”

  “She’s what? She doesn’t even know where you live, how did she get there?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. She doesn’t know and neither do I. But until we figure out what’s going on, I want you to go over and keep her company, all right? She’s... she’s really fucked up. Not physically,” I said, catching myself. “But she’s terrified. She didn’t realize it wasn’t still Monday until I told her. That kind of fucked up.”

  “Jesus,” Dezzy said, obviously worried. “Okay, I can do that. She’s just in your apartment?”

  “Yeah, I left her with the key and made sure she locked all the doors and windows and everything. I think something crazy is going on, especially because the last thing she remembers is going to talk to Graves and then showing up at my front door.”

  “Jesus,” Dezzy said again. “What happened?”

  I shook my head, like she could somehow see me doing it. “I don’t know, but I’m going to try and find out. There was some crazy shit going on in my head during that class, but I just figured I was tired or reeling from barely sleeping or something. I had no idea that it might be...”

  “What? What are you getting at, Lyle?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure. Hey, what was that witch doctor’s name? Does he have a phone?”

  Dezzy made a clicking sound with her teeth. “Jenga Cranston? He runs that clinic in the middle of town I don’t know if he has a phone, but I do know he’s got a zombie.”

  *

  It took all of four minutes to check in with Cooper at the jail and get him to send a patrol over to check on Winter and my sister, both of whom were just fine, although apparently they were standing a little too close to the window and had to be warned about that.

  But, I’ve never in my life experienced anything like walking into the middle of Jenga Cranston’s bizarre little clinic – if you can really call it that.

  I was surprised to see the neon OPEN sign still lit when I drove past it, but I was thankful all the same.

  Parking in the car, I immediately caught a bizarre combination of smells as soon as I stuck my head out my car door and started toward the free-standing building. The first one I recognized was patchouli, and the second was lilac.

  The third was... far less appetizing than either of them.

  As I approached the building, a very large and very old-looking face stared down at me and pushed open the door.

  “Hello,” it stated slowly. “Welcome.” The voice that came out of the beast was so deep and rumbling that it took me by surprise, although it made perfect sense, judging from the thing’s size.

  “Oh, uh, hi,” I stammered.

  “To. Jenga’s.”

  “Jenga’s, yes, very good, thanks,” I said.

  “Medical.”

  That time, I was getting the hang of it, and just waited.

  “Clinic.”

  I hung on a second to see if the huge, and oddly lilac-smelling creature in front of me was going to say anything else, but he just stood there, smiling.

  And when I say “smiling” I mean with the broadest, most ridiculous grin I’ve ever seen.

  “Good,” I said. “I, uh, thank you!” And went to step around it.

  An outstretched arm caught me by surprise. “Appoint...ment?”

  “Oh,” I said. “No, sorry, I don’t. One of my friends was in some trouble and I was wondering if Jenga... er, if Mr. Cranston could—”

  “Doctor.”

  “Right,” I said. “Yeah, doctor. I was wondering if Doctor Cranston could—”

  From the back of the building, someone coughed, and a bunch of glass rattled. Then, a man with a very long beard emerged wearing only a grass skirt and a Hawaiian shirt. His beard was incredibly long, incredibly thick, and there were all sorts of things – chicken feet, bones, and I even think I saw a domino – tied up in the braids.

  “Oh!” he said, shambling out through a beaded curtain. “Hello there, young lady.”

  “She... just... arrived,” the giant golem – or whatever – said.

  Jenga gave him a playful shove. “Thanks, Atlas,” he said. Air whistled through his front teeth every time he spoke. “I ain’t so blind and deaf as to think she’s been here all evening. At least I hope.”

  He turned toward me. “You ain’t been here all evening have you? I might be rude sometimes but I don’t think I’m that bad.”

  “No, sir,” I said, trying not to laugh. “Just came in, I had a friend... er... what is he doing?”

  The creature that Jenga called Atlas had shuffled over to me and was acting alarmingly like a puppy. At first I held my breath, more out of fear that anything green and walking and stitched together was going to smell like ripe hell than anything else.

  To my surprise, the only thing that hit my nose was... lilac?

  “He likes you, if’n you were wonderin’ what he was doing,” Jenga said. His beard jingled, the trinkets and bones and whatever else clattering together with every word he spoke. “Although, being honest with you, I’ve never seen him take such a shining to a girl before. Wonder if it’s finally time to stitch him up a girlfriend?”

&
nbsp; The thought sent a shiver through me, but then I turned and looked at Atlas’s comically large – and slightly different sized – puppy dog eyes, and I kinda wanted to take him home with me.

  “Atlas!” Jenga said as the giant started to stroke my hair. “She don’t want that. She’s bein’ nice enough to not have me stop you, but I’m sure that she don’t want you rubbin’ on her. Ain’t that right – I don’t think I caught your name.”

  “Oh, I’m Lilah. Jorgenson. My dad’s one of the hyena lieutenants.”

  “Uh huh,” Jenga said, swatting Atlas’s hand. “But you ain’t. A hyena I mean. Never seen one with eyes like yours, nor that dashing swipe a’white in your hair. Raccoon?”

  He cocked one of his eyebrows, which sent his massive beard jingling and jangling again.

  Before I could respond, he continued. “Beggin’ your pardon. I shouldn’t be prying into your business like that. I just can’t help it sometimes. People’s stories, they just captivate me.”

  “No, not at all, I don’t mind. Yeah, I was adopted. I was a pretty troubled kid, I guess.” I was just happily chatting away, admitting all the problems I had in the world to this total stranger. Something had definitely changed from mild, defensive, almost spiky Lilah. “Anyway, I don’t want to waste your time.”

  “Not a’tall,” he said. “I was just catching up on Days. Did you know Bo and Hope are still around? I mean, Bo don’t come on screen anymore. Something about the actor taking off, and then somethin’ else about Alzheimers? I’ll tell you what, I might live in a house with a zombie for a best friend, but some things are too much even for me to keep up with.”

  He smiled broadly and stared at me, like he was waiting for me to say something.

  I nodded, slowly.

  Atlas pawed my hair again, until Jenga slapped his hand, but never stopped studying my face.

  “I... never really watched Days,” I said. “I’m more of a General Hospital girl.”

  “Oh! Luke and Laura! You betcha, that’s a great one. You know, I’m willin’ to bet that Luke and Laura was the only thing on that show what people cared about.”

  He kept rattling off facts about the soaps which could have all been made up for all I know. I gotta be honest, the only time I watched either show was whenever my mom had them on. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to stop him. I guess he didn’t have many people to talk to, although he seemed pretty happy with his zombie buddy, who kept petting my head.