Bear My Babies

Chapter 7

Melissa realized when she saw Nathaniel’s truck that she hadn’t even mentioned him to Thomas. Well, this was going to be interesting, she thought as her stomach flipped. They’d been having such a good time, she hadn’t really wanted to. Now he was going to get to see the crazy first hand, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for it.

He wasn’t outside when she stepped out of the car, so that meant he was waiting outside of her apartment door. Just perfect. Thomas was talking about dating one of New York’s royalty, and now he was going to come face-to-face with her dating standard. She wondered if she should have Thomas walk her in or if she should ditch him before they walked into crazy town. Nathaniel would get himself killed trying to fight the were-bear, and him seeing her with another man would put him in a getting killed kind of mood.

As they walked toward the front of her building, she found herself slowing down. Thomas noticed and put a hand out, touching her arm.

“What’s going on?”

“My ex-husband is kind of a huge di*k. His truck is over there, so he’s around here somewhere and you’re about to meet him. I hate admitting that he’s always been one, but he’s been almost unbearable since we started the divorce proceedings. Maybe you should just go. He still…”

She didn’t get the next word out because she saw him running at them full speed with a crazy look in his eye bellowing, “Get away from her. That’s my wife.”

His hand swung around without any real direction and Melissa screeched as Thomas caught it quickly in front of his face and it cracked loudly. Nathaniel yelled something as his face contorted in pain, but there was just a ringing in her ears blocking his words. She was going to watch her idiot ex get killed because he didn’t know what he was up against. What an amazing ending to her night.

It was a very drunk Nathaniel that tried to hit Thomas again. The smell of alcohol assaulted her nose. She wished he would have learned from the first time he’d almost broken his hand swinging at Thomas, but no, the fact that he would even try again stunned Melissa. Her chest tightened and she started breathing heavily not really getting much air to her lungs. This was not happening. Not right now.

“Listen, buddy, you need to calm down. You can keep trying to hit me, but you’re not going to get a punch in, I guarantee it. I don’t really want to hurt you if I don’t have to,” Thomas was saying as Melissa tried to pull air into her constricted lungs.

Nathaniel let out a scary laugh and ran at him again. This time Thomas put him on the ground and held him down by his neck. It would have been funny if Melissa wasn’t in the middle of a panic attack. Nathaniel tried to get up, still fighting strength he couldn’t possibly defeat.

“Nathaniel, just stop fighting. What are you even doing here?” Melissa wheezed, finally finding her voice and tried to figure out how she could take control of the situation. There were people watching now, so of course, someone probably called the police. This was her nightmare.

“Are you going to calm down?” Thomas asked. He was so calm and hadn’t even broken a sweat as he held Nathaniel down without any effort.

Nathaniel nodded so he let him up, and when Thomas turned around to see if Melissa was okay, he leaped onto his back. Not wanting to miss a chance at taking Thomas down with his back turned, Melissa saw a gleam and realized Nathaniel had a knife. The tightness in her chest and ringing in her ears came back as she yelled to let Thomas know.

She didn’t have to worry about Thomas though, he flipped Nathaniel over his shoulder and back onto the ground like he weighed nothing. Melissa was having a hard time breathing again, but this time Nathaniel stayed down. The knife in his hand hung limply at his side.  He’d exhausted himself and when Thomas let him off the ground again, he backed up to his truck he spoke hoarsely, glaring at them.

“This isn’t over.”

Melissa didn’t say anything as she watched the truck drive away, making sure that this time he really was done with the fight. As soon as the tires squealed down the road, Melissa ran from Thomas, wanting to put as much distance between them as she could. She darted across the sidewalk and into her building. If she hurried, she could get to her apartment before he saw where she went. She wasn’t in the frame of mind to talk to him. She was so embarrassed about Nathaniel’s behavior she just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Why did it have to be tonight?

Of course, he was too fast. He was a were-bear for crying out loud. As she was fumbling to get her key in the door, he came up behind her, caging her in between the door and his hard body. Ignoring him, she flung the door open and went inside, still hyperventilating except now she was also crying. This night was getting even worse than she thought it could. Her chest constricted painfully and every ounce of oxygen she pulled in was with pure determination on her part.

“You need to try and calm down Melissa, it’s over now.”

He thought she was over-reacting. She could hear the condescension in his voice. Nobody understood the inability to stop her anxiety when it took her this far. Damn it, Nathaniel always gave her panic attacks. It was like just being near him and his over bearing ways triggered them. She attempted to get her breath taking large gasps, but nothing seemed to help. Black spots dotted her vision, alerting her that she was about to pass out.