He glared back down at the paper. Suddenly, one of the symbols made sense. “Two!” He pointed to the printed digit. “That’s the number two. Seven. Nine.” He was reading. The numbers at least.
“Yes. That’s part of the phone number.”
He looked up to the smaller metal thing on his dresser. “My phone.”
She grabbed it and handed it to him. “Do you want me to dial?”
“No.” He understood what he was doing. He could match the numbers on the paper and on his phone now. His fingers fumbled, but he managed it, and soon a thin female voice came through the device, barely heard because the phone remained in his palm in his lap.
“Simon! You’re back! Want your usual?”
He swallowed and nodded. Then he remembered to use his voice. “Yes.”
“I’ll be out there in a half hour,” the voice answered.
“No!” Alyssa said loudly. “We’ll pick it up.”
A pause and then a chuckle. “Got a girl this time? That’s new.”
It wasn’t protocol and he didn’t like it. But he didn’t have the wherewithal to argue. He never understood why communication was so easy early after a shift back to human but then seemed to abandon him as he brought other functions online. Like reading and manipulating an iPhone. Eventually it would all settle into place. The process usually took anywhere from a day to a week. But right now, he was swimming upstream.
“I want meat,” he said.
“Yeah, I know. Fifteen minutes.”
He thumbed off the phone. What was next on the list? His gaze rose to the device on his dresser. He pushed Alyssa aside as he stood up to grab it. She moved easily, her expression in the mirror somber.
“Laptop is the next step in this protocol?” she asked.
“Yes. To help with the reading.”
“Got it. You can do it in the car.”
He turned to look at her and saw that she arched a brow at him. That look was a challenge, clear as day and the bear in him bristled, wanting to fight because that’s what his bear did. But he was shifting back to human, so he did the opposite. He nodded and echoed her words, “I can do it in the car.”
“Great. Where’s your go bag?”
He frowned, taking a moment to process her words. And in that time, she rolled her eyes.
“Don’t blank stare me. I know you have one, and I’ll bet it’s…” She snapped her fingers. “Front door closet.”
She turned and tripped lightly down the stairs. He followed, his laptop in one hand, his phone in the other. She was ahead of him, pulling out a black duffel from his closet. She grinned at him, the look triumphant as she slung the pack over one shoulder. Then she pulled open the front door and gestured to her car.
“Come on. Food is waiting.”
He took a step, but stopped. “The protocol keeps everyone safe,” he said. “I am not at my best now and that is not safe.”
She frowned and he was pleased to see that she took his words seriously. Good. It was dangerous to upset a grizzly bear, and he was only 51 percent human right then. Though his higher thought processes were coming on strong, it would take a couple hours at least before he could reliably control his primal instincts. The animal still had a strong grip on his body and it was aiming his feet toward the woods. Go back out to the woods and—
“Oh no, you don’t. We’re getting in the car.”
This was why he got delivery. Because once the scent and sight of the woods hit his body, the grizzly surged forward. It wanted to be back out there. It wanted—
An arm gripped him tight and hauled him around. He was already snarling, showing his teeth at the woman before her.
“Damn it! Get it together!” she snapped.
He was trying. But she had interrupted his protocol. This wasn’t going to work—
