Chapter 38: Chapter 37 - Nat

Saturday 19 December

~*Nat’s POV*~

Blinking, I sat on Bells’ bed, stunned into silence.

Had he just said that he loved me?

I brought my fingers to my lips and tuned out the squelching sounds, only closing my eyes when the shimmering effect grew too much for me to take in such a small, enclosed space. I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on in front of me, as Bells’ words swirled around and around in my head.

Minutes must have passed, because it wasn’t until a snout prodded my knee that I opened my eyes and brought my focus back to reality.

My eyes followed the black nose back to an enormous black head, his ears twitching nervously. He was sitting on his haunches in front of me, observing me with Bells’ gorgeous copper eyes.

“Hi Wyatt.” I smiled and reached out my hand to scratch him on the top of his head. “Nice to finally meet you.”

Wyatt’s tail started wagging, and his jaw dropped open to let his tongue loll out of his mouth. He snuffled softly, before nuzzling his snout into my knee again.

“You want me to get off the bed?” I tilted my head at him. Where was he going with this?

Wyatt lifted his head and nodded. He stood up and took two careful steps back from where he had been sitting.

“Okay.” I shrugged. I didn’t know what he planned on doing, but I’d play along. I lifted myself off the bed and took a step forward.

His tail continued its quiet whooshing as he watched me, then he stepped forward and leaned his entire body into my side, nearly toppling me from the pressure he was exerting. His head found my hand that I’d dropped when I stood up, and he nuzzled it.

“You want me to pet you?”

A low rumble erupted from his chest. He ran his body against my side, much like a cat would; his tail playfully wrapping its way around my waist.

I laughed. “Fair enough.” I ran my hands through his rough fur that stood out every which way, much like Bells’ own hair did. As I did, the rumbles got louder and louder. I couldn’t stop my smile from spreading. It seemed Wyatt was just as forward as Bells was.

He sat down in front of me, still leaning heavily against my front. I stood still, idly moving my fingers around his head and in between his ears and scratching his shoulders. He let out a long huff that I would have sworn was akin to a sigh of happiness.

For some reason, I looked at the TV, which was still turned on and frozen on the gold-on-black title card of Star Wars. The clock on the disc player let me know it was nearly twelve-thirty AM. I gulped. I hadn’t realised how late it was.

“Um, Wyatt?”

His head turned up to face me, his tongue still lolling out of his mouth in contentment.

“It’s late. Can you bring Bells back? I need to say goodnight to him.”

His tongue retracted, and he closed his mouth. He growled and shook his head.

Uh oh.

“You won’t switch back to Bells?”

He tilted his head at me, one of his ears twitching.

“Or you don’t want me to say goodnight?”

He yapped.

“Wyatt, I need to get back to my apartment, and I want to see Bells before I go.”

He lowered his body onto the ground, grumbling at me.

I frowned. This wasn’t what Bells had said was going to happen. He said he’d be back in a couple of minutes, but now Wyatt wasn’t relinquishing control back to Bells. I didn’t know what to do.

“Okay then, if you won’t bring Bells back, then I’ll let you be.” I took a step away from Wyatt towards the bedroom door.

He whined, then paced to the door ahead of me, blocking my exit. He sat on his haunches and watched me, tilting his head to one side.

You’ve got to be kidding me. “Come on, Wyatt. You can’t keep me prisoner.”

Wyatt whined again, longer this time. He settled his head down onto his front legs, but didn’t shift from his position.

I took a step to the left to go around him, but he immediately raised his head and shifted in front of me. I stopped and stared at him, pursing my lips, then took two steps to the right to try the other way. He shifted again, settling himself in my way, not letting me pass.

Exasperated, I placed my hands on my hips. “This isn’t funny, Wyatt. Let me through.”

He growled at me; not in a menacing way, more of a ‘not on your life’ disagreeable way.

Wonderful.

It suddenly dawned on me that I was completely alone in the apartment. I hadn’t heard Tatum come home yet, so there was no one that I could call out to.

I sighed. I was going to have to call Cody for help. She was not going to be happy.

I pulled my mobile out of my back pocket and unlocked it. Just as I was getting into the directory to get her number, my phone was plucked out of my hands by a careful set of teeth and thrown out into the lounge.

“Hey! What the fuck, Wyatt?!”

He resumed his seated position at the door and tilted his head at me again.

“That’s not funny!”

He huffed at me.

“I can’t believe I’m having an argument with a dog.”

Wyatt narrowed his eyes at that and growled menacingly.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Do you not like being called a dog?” I asked sarcastically.

He huffed again.

“Well, tough shit, Wyatt! I don’t enjoy having my phone taken from me and being blocked from leaving!”

He lowered himself onto the floor again, his eyes not leaving mine.

“For fuck’s sake. You can’t keep me prisoner here forever.”

No response. Not even a flick of his ear.

“You know Tatum will come home eventually and get me out of here, right?”

No response again.

“I have an appointment with Auden tomorrow that I can’t miss. You know that, yeah? You can’t keep me from that.”

He huffed. At least I got a response that time.

I sighed. “Fine. If you won’t move, I’m going to get back on the bed and go to sleep.”

Wyatt twitched his ears at that, but didn’t move.

“And don’t think I’m going to keep talking to you. I’m going to ignore you until you shift back to Bells.”

Again, there was no response at all. His eyes followed me as I got back on the bed. I picked up the remote that was still lying on the bed where we’d left it when an idea popped into my head.

“Bells is going to be so angry with you when he finds out I watched Star Wars without him. You may as well just shift back.”

He sniffed but didn’t move.

I shrugged. “Okay then. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I pressed play on the remote and scrolling text filled the screen. Grabbing a pillow from the head of the bed, I settled myself by lying on my stomach with the pillow under my chin, my feet at the bedhead.

I let the movie run, but I must have drifted off to sleep. The next thing I knew, I felt the bed shift as Wyatt got up and settled himself behind me, his fur tickling my feet and left arm. I must have been more tired than I thought, as I drifted immediately back to sleep again.

I can’t even remember if the movie was still playing.

~~~

Slowly, I could feel my consciousness come back online. Light was streaming through the window and was slowly making its way across my face. The light hadn’t hit my eyes yet, so I had at least a few more minutes before I had to move.

I lay there, thinking about my day ahead. I had my catchup with Auden later, and Bells and I had discussed going out again tonight.

Bells.

Oh… Shit…

My eyes immediately snapped open, taking in my surroundings. I was still in Bells’ room, all the furniture still off to the side, just the way we had left it last night before Bells had shifted into Wyatt.

Wyatt.

Oh, double shit with a cherry on top…

For the first time, I realised I had draped my arm over, and snuggled into, something.

Something not furry.

Something decidedly muscular and human-like.

“I can feel you analysing things, Nat.”

Bells’ voice echoed around the otherwise quiet room. I shifted my eyes up to see Bells with his eyes still closed and a content smile on his face.

“You’re back.”

He laughed, then opened his eyes to find mine. “Sorry about last night. Wyatt wanted to spend more time with you and refused to shift back, no matter how much I begged him to.”

He leaned down and kissed me, long and slow. “Did you have a good sleep?”

I gave him a kiss back, before I realised. “Oh, my God. I did, I totally did.” I pulled back from him in shock.

He grinned at me. “Why do you sound so surprised by that?”

“Because I haven’t slept through the night at all since I arrived in Matlock.” My mouth dropped open as I thought about it. “Did I wake you up last night at all?”

“Nope. Should you have?”

“Every night I’ve been in Matlock, I’ve woken myself up screaming.”

The grin dropped from his face. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. Ask Cody. She has to deal with it, although I’m sure she’s used to it by now.”

“Bloody hell, Nat. How have you been functioning with such disrupted sleep?”

I let out a scornful chuckle. “I haven’t been. That’s why I injured my ankle last week. Lack of decent sleep will do that to a person.”

He brought a hand up to my cheek to caress it. “I’m so sorry, Nat. I had no idea.”

“You weren’t meant to, Bells. There was no need for anyone to know about it except for Cody and Auden.” I paused and thought about it. “I guess you could count Jackie in that as well, seeing as I spent a few nights in the same apartment as him, but I’m not sure he’d be happy for me to include him.”

“But you slept through last night.”

I nodded. “I did, and I have no idea why.” Bringing my hand up from lying across his torso, I laid it on his upper chest, then rested my chin on top. “Maybe you’re my lucky charm.” I grinned.

He laughed. “Maybe.” He bent down again to kiss me. His hands wrapped around me, bringing me in closer. I let myself go, kissing him back with an unrestrained joy I couldn’t remember feeling before.

Bells rolled us over, so I was on my back. He settled himself over the top of me, cradling my face with one hand, lifting his full weight off me with the other. He kissed me with a furious urgency I hadn’t experienced from him before. I returned his kiss with every demand he made, and more.

I lightly drifted my hands down his back, his body trembling under my touch. He moaned as one of my hands wandered even further south, meeting no resistance.

I pulled back from his kisses but left my hands where they were.

“Um, Bells?”

“Mm…?” He continued to pepper me with light kisses on my cheeks, my chin, basically anywhere on my face away from my lips so I could talk.

“You don’t have any pants on.”

He froze, his lips still pressed against my cheek. “What?” His lips moved against my skin.

“No pants.” I gave his butt a gentle squeeze. Now that I was concentrating on our positions, I could feel his hard length probing my still very much clothed body.

He pulled back from me slowly. “Uh…” A look of guilt crossed his face.

“You need a minute?” I grinned up at him, my hand still resting on his firm butt cheek.

“I need more than a minute, Nat. I need a cold fucking shower.”

I laughed. I smacked him on the cheek that I had just moments ago been caressing and manoeuvred my way out from under him.

I turned away from him to allow him some privacy and felt the mattress shift as he bolted off it and headed for the towel that had been discarded last night, still sitting on the floor.

“I’m covered now, but can you give me a minute?” he asked as he ran for the ensuite.

“Of course.” I could barely stop the giggles escaping, but I honestly tried my best.

I laid back on the bed, stretching my arms in contentment. I couldn’t believe I had slept through the night. Were my nightmares finally at an end? Had they come to a natural conclusion? Or was Bells truly my lucky charm and been my dreamcatcher for the night? I guess only tonight’s sleep would confirm things.

For right now, though, I was revelling in the fact that I wasn’t feeling tired. Like at all. Was this how everyone else felt? Damn, I’d been missing out something fierce.

I let my grin linger. Today was a good day.

I heard the apartment front door open, and the footsteps that entered the kitchen and lounge area. I tracked them through the apartment, then pause somewhere about halfway between Bells and Tatum’s bedroom doors.

“Hey, Bells! Why is there a phone in the middle of the lounge-room?” Tatum’s voice rang throughout the apartment.

I groaned quietly and slapped a hand to my forehead. I’d forgotten about that.

“Bells?!” Tatum’s footsteps gained on Bells’ open bedroom door and stopped just on the other side of the door frame.

I sat up, knowing that even if Tatum didn’t come into Bells’ bedroom, he could still see in.

“Bells? You in there?” Tatum knocked on the doorframe, still not peeking in. I guess he must have walked in on Bells plenty of times in the past and knew to err on the side of caution.

“Yeah, I’m here. Gimme a sec?” Bells called out from his ensuite.

“Right-o.” I heard his footsteps fade away from Bells’ door, just as Bells emerged, now wearing what he had on last night.

I raised an eyebrow in question at him.

He grinned at me. “I figured you wouldn’t want to wait for me to have a shower, so I chucked these on again. Saves me from going hunting for new clothes.” He looked around the mess of his room and sighed.

“You want help to put all of this back together?”

“Nah. You said last night that you have a meeting with Auden today, right?”

“You heard that?” I was going to ask him about how he could remember something when Wyatt had control of his body, when I suddenly realised what he’d just said. “Oh, shit… What’s the time?” I frantically looked around at the clock on his disc player. “Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no!” I darted for the door.

“What?” Bells followed hot on my heels out the bedroom door to see me looking around frantically for my phone.

“I’m running so late! I need to go!” I searched the floor where I knew Wyatt had thrown it. “Where’s my goddamn phone??”

“You mean this?” Tatum was sitting at the kitchen bench holding my phone in his fingers, waving it for me to see, an enormous grin on his face. “This is yours?”

“Yes!” I dashed forward, sprinting over the couch to get to it, only for Tatum to hold it out of my reach. I tried to grab it from his outstretched hand, but it was no use. Even though he had no height advantage, he could still elbow me far enough out of the way that he could keep control of it.

“Now, now, Nat,” Tatum taunted. “Care to share what you were doing here last night?”

“Give me the phone, Tatum,” I growled.

“Answer the question, Nat,” Tatum replied with an evil grin.

“Give her the phone, Tate,” said Bells from across the room, not wanting to get too involved in Tatum and I’s wrestling match.

I had had enough of these games. I was running seriously late and needed to get my phone and leave, so I did the only thing I could think of doing under the circumstances.

I punched Tatum in the stomach, forcing every bit of air out of his system that I could get.

“Oof!” He started gasping, trying to get air back into his body. He dropped my phone on the kitchen bench as he doubled over.

“Thank… You!” I grabbed the phone and flew to the door. As I unlocked it, I called out behind me, “Bells? I’ll message you later, okay?”

“Sure, Nat. Speak to you soon.” I heard the laughter in his response, just as I shut the door behind me and fled to my apartment to shower and change.

What a way to ruin a perfectly good start to the day.