Chapter 13: Chapter 13

Beck

Over the next week Misty kept her distance, but she seemed to be scrutinizing my every move. But every evening as she ventured into the interface that was Creedon’s business, she asked me questions. Sometimes it was about Adelaide and what I thought about wolves in general, other times she asked questions about about shifters an things of that nature. Other days, she asked about me; I always kept things vague, but I felt like a fraud doing so. That was what confused me, I wasn’t used to my charges being interested. None of the questions were prominently probing, just random curiosity. Did I have siblings? What kind of music did I like? Where did I grow up? I had to come to terms with the fact I wasn’t dealing with a woman locked in survival mode; at least not the type I was used to. I was being analyzed by one that had seen the ugly side of shifters, a woman dead set on understanding things about me that I wasn’t used to. One who was trying not to hold her past experiences against me. As I fumbled, awkwardly navigating through her way of trying to get to know me. I found it strangely refreshing. I found myself asking her questions about herself, not out of politeness, but because I was truly interested, she intrigued me, and I found those moments as she tilled away at her keyboard and conversed soothed the bear in me.

She was the middle child of five. Four girls and a boy who was her parent’s golden child and had passed away in an accident. When I asked about Cricket’s father she sighed, just stating that it had been her worst decision in life, but she would never change it, because Cricket was everything and she had Adelaide to thank for that. I didn’t know the same Adelaide she was referring too. I only knew the broken woman I had miraculously run into on the streets. However, through Misty’s and Cricket’s view of her, they painted a picture of a woman with backbone and loyalty, one who loved them deeply and purely. To them she was more than just a person. She was family, a vital member of their existence. It caused me to think back on my other charges and wonder who else by saving them I had effected. How my endeavor to redeem myself in the name of the one person I cherished and had miserably failed, may have affected others. Then I would find myself thinking about Adelaide. I couldn’t change the fact that Adelaide’s mate was a douchebag of an Alpha, that he refused to release her from his grasp. What I could do, however, was make sure that with Misty’s help we made his life a living hell. She insisted it was simply a matter of time before we could take action. Something about laying in wait long enough that the programming considered her a part of its infrastructure. She would need to move carefully until she located the credentials that would gain her access to whatever we would need. I just trusted her process. It was clear after the first week of watching him, there was no physical way in, without some tech savvy interference.

Cricket though, I found myself completely softening for. She was a surge of energy and inquisitiveness. Her curiosity and antics constantly forcing a smile out of my glum mug. She wanted to know all about being a bear, all about other shifters. Her questions were random and spontaneous. Sometimes catching me off guard at their outlandishness. “Do all bears like sweets as much as you do, papá oso?” she teased me after a trip down to Valentina’s store where we returned with a bunch of sweet treats. I just laughed as Misty folded her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at me for my poor influence on her daughter before dinner.

I had decided that the cub needed a guardian. I didn’t say it out loud but Cricket had become a surprisingly rejuvenating layer to my existence. She asked questions, I gave her answers. The little girl wanted to understand who and what she was, connect with that part of herself, things her mother unfortunately couldn’t teach her.

A few weeks had passed before Misty’s computer went haywire alerting to something while she was downstairs. I was mid warming up some leftover meat to make into a taco when the beeping had me rushing downstairs mid-morning which was rush hour for the store below the apartments.

I found her squinting at her phone as her hands went through the motions of building orders, clearly she was aware and managing things on a level I didn’t understand. She cursed, glancing at the orders, her hands still moving as she prepared them and glanced back at her phone. Was this alarm serious? She didn’t seem to be worried, I stepped back observing her, my senses honed in. She said something to the woman beside her, who just nodded as she put her earpiece in her ear, after removing her gloves and made a few taps on her phone as she walked away.