Taming the Beast

“Why are you here, Tim? And why did you bring all of your cousins?”

“We are here to take you home. I heard you were shacked up with this guy, but I didn’t believe it. I had to see it with my own eyes. Now get your things. We’re leaving.”

“I told you it was over,” Matilda said, backing up the stairs.

James felt rage boiling in his gut and he reached out to stop the young man who tried to step into the front hall.

“I don’t believe I invited you inside. The young lady said it is over. She is now under my protection. You will be leaving now. Goodbye.”

James pushed Tim with just enough strength to give the kid the message. The goons behind him frowned and crossed their arms, narrowing their eyebrows at James. He didn’t care. His grizzly was about to lose it, and he was still dressed in his bathrobe and slippers.

He didn’t have patience for this kind of crap this early in the morning. He tried to push the door closed, but Tim’s cousins prevented him from doing it.

The six men stepped forward and pushed into the foyer. James’s grizzly was barely constrained, and he could hear Matilda screaming for the intruders to go away. James growled and gritted his teeth, his grizzly starting to break through. His nails grew long at his fingertips and his canine teeth distended in his mouth. The sound of his growl grew in strength and the men gasped and stared at him.

“You didn’t tell us he was a shifter,” one of the men said.

“What difference does it make? Look at this guy. He’s pathetic,” Tim said.

With that, James lost it. The last thing he heard was the sound of Matilda telling Tim to go to hell. James’s grizzly ripped through his flesh, annihilating his human form in a flash of fur and bone. He landed in the foyer on his huge paws. His body barely had enough room to move, even in the wide space. The men drew their weapons and pointed them at James.

The grizzly reared up on his back legs, reaching to his full height. His head brushed the crystal chandelier above the foyer as a roar ripped from his lungs.

The men were so frightened, one of them shot while the others scurried out of the mansion. The bullet hit James in the shoulder, but he barely felt it. He landed on all fours and readied himself for the charge.

Blood seeped down his foreleg as he began to barrel toward the intruders. Tim was trying to reach Matilda who had fallen down on the stairs and was backing away on her hands and feet. James pivoted toward Tim and bit into the scoundrel’s leg, crunching hard, his teeth slicing into bone. Tim screamed and Matilda covered her ears.

The taste of Tim’s blood on his lips broke something inside him. He had to protect Matilda. The rage of his inner grizzly drove him to destroy the intruder.

More screams came from outside and Matilda begged him to stop. He heard her voice, deep behind the crazed mind of his grizzly. Somehow, now that he had something worth fighting for, James was able to regain control of his beast.

He let go and backed away from the wounded ex-boyfriend. The giant grizzly turned to the front door toward the sound of screaming. He and Matilda arrived outside just in time to see the statues that lined the front walk no longer standing upon their pedestals, and throwing pinecones and stones at the intruders.

The men jumped into their car and drove away, leaving Tim behind, bleeding on the foyer floor. James was so startled by sight of the statues being fully animated right in front of his face that he snapped out of his grizzly form and was left naked and bloodied on the cold concrete walkway. Matilda made a startled sound beside him, and he looked down at her. Her hands were on her lips. Her eyes were wide.

“Are you seeing this?” he asked. Just to make sure.

“Oh yes, I’m seeing this.”

“Who are you?” James demanded.

But the statues silently climbed back on their pedestals and took their stony-faced positions once again.

Tim wailed from inside the mansion. James and Matilda hurried back to the house to deal with the mess. While James got dressed, Matilda called 911. It didn’t take long for the Fate Mountain Bear Patrol to arrive and take Tim away. The entire time the police were there, Tim raved about the statues. James told the police that he and his friends had come to the estate on drugs and had been hallucinating the whole time.

“Thank you for the help Commander Morris,” James said as the chief of police walked back to his patrol car.

When the police were gone, James and Matilda slowly walked through the house, examining every object either of them had ever seen move. They were both determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. With her helping him, James believed that he would finally find answers.

Ever since Matilda had come into his life, he had been confronted with his own flaws in a way that made him wake up to the world once again. She had also helped him see that he wasn’t quite as broken as he had believed himself to be. And those things together were helping him heal in a way he had never expected. Maybe he could be whole again. Maybe he could finally have hope.

When they didn’t find anything, Matilda and James walked back into his bedroom and sat on his big leather couch. They looked up at the cuckoo clock that James had seen looking at him more often than not, and held each other.

They hadn’t found any clues and none of the objects had moved or communicated with them. Part of him was beginning to believe maybe it really was an illusion. He had thought himself mad for so long, it was difficult to get over the habit.

Then it happened.

The clock slowly opened its eyes and looked at them. Matilda sat up straight, stiffening beside him. He glanced at her and she was blinking her eyes repeatedly, staring at the clock.