Rivals: Episode One Page 6
I was getting her back. That part I knew. The moment I imprinted on her, I vowed I would do anything to keep her safe. Even though I really only knew her less than a week in human time, in shifter time it felt like we had never been apart. Like she was always on the periphery, ready to enter center stage and demand my attention.
“Shit man!” someone exclaimed. I turned and saw a homeless man, his light brown jacket covered in dirt and smears, jumping up from his cardboard sanctuary. “Fuck! What the fuck man?!” The homeless man looked at me with wide, blood-shot eyes and a head of tangled, matted hair. “The fuck are you doing here naked, man?!”
I looked down, not even realizing that my clothes had ripped off. I normally took off my shorts and shirt before a shift just to make sure I had something to change back into after, but this time I was taken so off guard that there was no time to undress and neatly pile my clothes in a corner.
So here I was, in the middle of an alley with a homeless man staring straight at my dick while police sirens screeched out from the streets surrounding us.
“Rough night,” I said, not wanting to engage with the man any further. I needed to find some sort of shelter and get the fuck off the streets before I was arrested for public indecency and then linked back to the attack at the bar. I racked my brain, going through my mental rolodex of contacts as I tried to remember who lived close by and wouldn’t ask many questions if I showed up at their door butt naked.
The sirens were getting closer and the homeless man was looking more and more unstable. He shifted from foot to foot and looked unsure as to what my next move was going to be. I looked to the left and noticed the red and blue lights from the cop cars were getting brighter and brighter. If I didn’t move now, they would be on me in minutes.
I took off in a run towards the right. The homeless man dived out of my way with a grunt. Small rocks cut at the soles of my feet but I kept running, oblivious to the pain. The street behind the alley was much more quiet and opened up into a sleeping residential neighborhood, with small three story beach houses that served as separate apartments on each floor. A large German Shepherd barked from behind a chain link fence as I ran down the sidewalk.
Rick!
I felt like I had just won the lottery. I remembered this street. This was where Rick lived, one of the contractors that worked for me and that also knew my secret. The only reason he knew was because he was a shifter too. I saw him transform one night when he had thought no one was looking. Before I knew it, a leopard was creeping into the alley behind the office and climbing up the fire escapes to travel across the rooftops. It was a risky move, and clearly one that wasn’t too discrete since I had seen him, but sometimes a shifter just needed to shift. It was an unexplainable pressure built up underneath our human forms. A lot of us waited for the privacy of our own homes. Others take monthly camping trips or vacations to locales that are natural habitats for their species. But a few liked taking the risk of doing it in public, creeping through the shadows and hoping they don’t get caught. Some do get caught though. Those are the ones you see on the news with the reporters talking about an eccentric pet owner who lost their cougar or a tiger breaking out of the local zoo and found in the middle of a sleepy Texas town.
Rick lived in a well-taken care of beach-house. It’s light blue paint wasn’t chipped, unlike the two buildings bordering it. The front yard was maintained with a small patch of thriving green grass bordering a cracked cement pathway up to the front door. I threw the squeaky gate open and hurried up the pathway.
That was when I heard tires screeching as a cop made a tight turn onto the same street I was standing on. The huge bright white spotlight was scanning the streets, jumping methodically from one house to the next as the cop drove closer and closer to where I stood.
“Fuck,” I said. I knocked, fast and hard.
He was getting closer. My fists banged on the door now. My heart was pumping at a hundred miles per hour. My bear roared inside me as the cop drove closer and closer. The door strained against my knocks now.
And then I heard a lock click open.
“Gaige?” answered a confused and half-asleep Rick. His thick brown hair in a mess as he stood in just his plaid boxers, his furry eyebrows scrunched in confusion, his eyes clouded with sleep.
I didn’t have time to explain. I pushed him aside and closed the door behind me, locking it immediately. Almost seconds later, the bright light broke through his closed curtains, shining underneath the door and through the windows.
Rick looked at me and back at the door, putting two and two together.
“Let me get you some clothes.” He turned and walked through the dark living room towards his bedroom. I fell back against the door, taking deep breaths and calming down the bear just underneath my skin. Adrenaline made the urges to shift stronger, but the danger was getting further and further away. I was safe, for now at least.
_______
More by M.G.
Seasons One - Rivals
Episode One
Episode Two
Episode Three
Season Two - Rivals
T.B.W.
Season One - Deep
T.B.W.
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