4. Chapter Four

Idon't know exactly when I fell asleep, but I know when I woke up. Something touched my shoulder and made me jump clean out of my chair. I grabbed the broom near my dining room table, whirling around to find the threat, and stopped.

Carey giggled wildly, covering her face. She still looked worn and tired, with dark rings under her eyes, and in desperate need of a shower or bath or whatever eleven-year-olds did.

"Sorry. I've been awake for like an hour and I was getting hungry. And your phone was going off." She pointed to it on the table near my books. I sighed, rubbing my face as she continued to watch me like I was the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen. "My dad says that werewolves are a lot like real wolves. Are werecats like that?"

"I guess," I said, shrugging, trying to play it off. She had made me jump like people often did to their house cats and posted on the internet. I leaned the broom back against the wall and grabbed my phone, trying to act naturally. I called to the magic and it answered, telling me there were no threats on my territory. Good. That meant she wasn't followed, at least not yet. I had no doubt that a wolf or two would eventually show up, but as long as it wasn't a hunting pack, I could handle it. "What do you know about me?"

"He said you moved down here like five years ago. You own the bar below and you don't go anywhere or talk to anyone. He thought you had secrets, but as a werecat, those aren't my business or his." She shrugged. "I was busy learning about my family. He said I would learn more about things like you and the vampires when I was older."

"He's right. They aren't. I'll fill in some general things for you since we're going to be spending some time together." I considered what I should start with and went with the basics. "Werecats are very solitary by nature. We don't play nicely with others. We don't fit in with wolves because we don't play dominance games. We think we're the top predator and that makes us a challenge for werewolf Alphas. We can defeat them, but we don't want to rule because we don't want the community. It leads to chaos, and no one wants chaos." I yawned now, checking my screen.

There were a few texts and the most important were from my lawyer and Harrison, or so the text said. Each contained similar documents, and I sent the documents to my printer so that I could carry them. They were legal proof that Carey was in my care. I opened a browser and checked the news, letting out a long sigh of relief that the news was now reporting that Carey was in safe custody and removed from the danger in the cities.

"What else can you tell me? I've never met anything other than werewolves… and one witch. Well, kind of." She sat down and I eyed her for a moment. There was still a fear in her scent that wouldn't go away, which meant she was very good at hiding it. I wondered if it was because she grew up around monsters, predators. While they might have seen her as a member of their pack, she was still human. Her father, this oh-so-intelligent Alpha, must have taught her to never show that fear and she'd learned well.

"Um." I didn't really know what she wanted to hear. There was a lot I wasn't allowed to say, and she could definitely take back werecat secrets to the werewolves. I wasn't foolish. I didn't think she was spying, but I wasn't going to give her secrets to hold that weren't hers. "Nothing really. There's a lot of similarities between us and the wolves. Full moon makes shifting easier, and many can't resist the Change that night. New moons make it harder and some can't Change at all. You know, why don't you go take a long shower and I'll make us some lunch?" I checked the time. It was eleven in the morning. "Then we can figure out how this is going to work while you're here."

"Here?" She frowned at me and I frowned back.

"Yes. Here."

"You aren't going to go and save my daddy?" The tears were back. "I thought you were supposed to…"

"Protect you. Which means we stay right here. I take care of you. I stop others from taking you. Your father is on a difficult road. He's an Alpha of a werewolf pack. I can't go save him. It's against the Law for my kind to interfere in that way." I knew the reality for her was harsh, but she needed to have it. There was nothing I could do against a wolf that wasn't a direct threat to her. If her father was fighting for his life, it was his fight. Not mine or his daughter's.

"That's not fair…"

"It's been the Law for a long time and it keeps a lot of people safe," I said gently, reaching for her.

She jerked away and stomped towards my bathroom. When the door slammed and I heard the water running, I had a feeling this was going to be a lot more aggravating than it really had the right to be. If this was the attitude I had just signed my life to, I was in for a long ride.

I sat back down and went back to my books, realizing that I had actually finished the night before. That was at least something. I checked my bank accounts from my phone and waited, yawning again as I stretched my legs under the table. I needed to shower and change after her.

When she came out, she was in the same dirty clothes. They weren't terrible, but they weren't good either.

"No changes?" I asked as kindly as I could. "We can run out and grab you something fresher."

"I have money," she said quickly, running for her bag near the couch. She pulled out the wallet and held it out to me. I took it and flipped it open, my eyebrows trying to crawl off the top of my forehead and leave. She had some serious cash and lines of business cards, all with important phone numbers all over the country.

"Whose wallet is this?" I asked softly, holding it up. I really hope she didn't steal it from another werewolf. There could be tracking in it.

"Mine. Dad and my brothers kept a bag made for me in case anything ever happened…like this. They put that in it with the money and the other stuff so that I had some ways to get ahold of people and find help." She took her phone out of the bag next and I snatched it, making sure it was off. I exhaled again when I realized it was. She grabbed it back, glaring at me. "What was that for?"

"I wanted to make sure no one was going to be able to GPS it," I answered, rubbing my face.

"I'm eleven. I'm not an idiot," she said with a prideful indignation that made me smile for the first time all morning.

"Fine. Good job. I'm going to shower. If you try to leave, I will come out, naked, and drag you in there to watch me. Clear?"

"Crystal," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "Like I would leave. You're all I've got."

"Yeah." I sighed again, walking away from her and heading to my bedroom in the apartment first. I grabbed a clean set of clothes and two extra towels, knowing she must have used the ones I kept in the bathroom. As I walked into the bathroom, I caught a glimpse of her making herself some cereal and let that ease me. She wouldn't run—hopefully. I didn't know why I was suspicious of it. It would be the stupidest thing she could do, but she was eleven, so stupid to me probably didn't seem so stupid to her. She was obviously angry that I wasn't going to go out and save her father and brothers, and that was a concern. Her father should have also explained that point when it came to werecats and their Duty to the other supernatural species and the humans of the world. The Law tied my hands, and it was for good reason.

I showered quickly, not giving myself the time to just enjoy the hot water pouring over me. I kept an ear open for her moving around in the apartment but no one was below and she never tried to leave, which was good.

When I stepped out, I was greeted by my reflection and it reminded me why I was doing this. My gold feline eyes were still there, the only marker that I was anything but human. Here I was, thirty-six, looking twenty-six, a werecat and beholden to rules and a lifestyle I didn't have any say in.

When I was human, I hated my brown curls because they were so normal. Now I loved them for that. I had a soft face which many took as me being a soft girl, but they couldn't be further from the truth. My body told a similar story. It wasn't cut or lean, but it didn't carry much excess fat either. It refused to put on any more weight, and I ate a lot to keep my calories up. As I kept staring at myself, my pupils constricted into the feline slits seemingly on their own, but it was probably my own anxiety over what I'd just gotten pulled into. I would need to wear sunglasses to make sure no one saw that outside, since I hadn't been able to convince them to go back to my hazel.

"Fuck me," I groaned softly, finishing up by brushing my teeth and pulling my hair back into a ponytail. I dried off and dressed, walking out into my living room, finding Carey immediately and watching her play on my computer. There wasn't anything there for her to find, so I wasn't sure how to react to the violation of privacy. I could stomp over and slam it closed. I could ignore it and let her know it was okay, even if I didn't feel that way. I wasn't good with children and it was becoming more obvious every second I stood there. She finally looked up and closed the laptop on her own.

"I was just wanted to…I don't know. I wasn't doing anything." With a shrug, she stood up and left my chair, going to another and crossed her arms, seeming smaller every second.

"You're fine. I have a few games on there if you want to kill the time, but maybe we should get you some clean clothes first. The best thing here is a Walmart, but it'll have what you need." I didn't know what sort of lifestyle this girl was used to and I didn't want to make any assumptions.

"Yeah, thanks." She stood up and grabbed her bag as we walked out. I led her out the back of my bar to my hatchback and held the door open for her. The strong shell of curiosity had obviously faded and now I was stuck with a somewhat sad little girl. Not that I could blame her. She was in a rough spot and one that I had the utmost sympathy for.

"So…" I had no idea what I was doing with an eleven-year-old. If her father was alive, I hoped he realized he sent her to possibly the worst werecat he could find for this sort of thing. I might have been the closest one to his pack, but I wasn't good with kids.

"Why do the Laws say you can't help?" she asked, and I could hear the sadness. Hopelessness and sorrow. She had really thought that I would help her dad. "I'm human, so I'm not taught a lot. Dad says if I decide to try and be Changed, I'll learn a lot more, but I'm too young to consider that, and now this…"

"The Laws," I said softly, staring out into the bright sun. I grabbed my glasses from the center console and slid them on. I didn't want to consider her being Changed one day. It wasn't my business, and I knew she was now seeing realities of her world that she thought would never touch her. Children thought their parents were indestructible. The shattering of that belief was something that shook everyone eventually. "Over eight hundred years ago, there was a very big and very deadly war between werewolves and werecats. I don't really know the why, but because of it, humans were starting to notice we existed and were not just scary stories. They started hunting all of us. Vampires, fae, witches. They were all caught in the crossfire too. They forced werecats and werewolves to sit at the same table and talk. The werewolves aren't as strong as werecats, but my kind were being driven to extinction. We wouldn't give up until one of our most ancient werecats forced us into the peace talks to save us.

"Well, the sides all sat down and we made the Law. The witches and fae used their magic to make the Law binding. Now, I'm really young. I've been a werecat for less time than you've been alive, so this is all secondhand." I stopped for a second, glancing at her. She just nodded, accepting that I might have some of this wrong. I didn't think I did. Hasan was ancient, and the likelihood he got anything wrong was low. It helped he was there when it happened. "The end agreement was simple. If we wanted the wolves to stop hunting us because we started the war, then we needed to give them something back. We're viciously protective over something we consider ours, and they used that. Now, we're not allowed to meddle in werewolf politics. We must also uphold the Duty to protect any human at threat through no fault of their own from supernatural species. It doesn't matter the threat; it doesn't matter the human. If a human approaches a werecat and gives me the ritual request for me to defend them, I do." I sighed.

"Do you know how the war started? I mean, you just said werecats did it…"

"No. No one has ever told me exactly how the war began, only the Laws we were left with. And the Laws aren't just for werewolves and werecats. The other big species all sat down as well, or sent representatives for the collective. Like the fae. There are hundreds of types of fae, but we look at them like a collective. There's Laws covering everyone." I shrugged. "There you have it. The Laws. Do you see why I can't help your father? I'm sure he's a nice man." Not really, but I knew I needed to make her feel good. "I just can't break an eight hundred year peace for one werewolf. I can't do it."

"I understand," she whispered, pulling her legs up to her chest.

The drive to Walmart was a short one and I got out before her, scanning the parking lot. There were no other supernaturals in my territory, no other predators that needed to be handled, but my own instincts drove me to even look at humans as possible threats. That wasn't a bad thing either. Every supernatural species employed humans. Normally it was for simple tasks like accountants and lawyers if the supernatural didn't have those skills or the time, but sometimes it was for dirty business.

Dirty business like capturing a little girl to use as a hostage, or worse.

"Come on, Carey," I said, thumping the hood of my hatchback as I walked around to her side. I got the door for her and closed it behind her, playing the perfect bodyguard. "What kind of style do you have? Anything in particular? We can also pick up some groceries—"

"You don't need to try and be my friend," she mumbled.

"You think I'm trying to be your friend?" I began to chuckle and it broke into a full out laugh as we walked across the parking lot. "Eleven-year-olds are not my friends. I'm trying to make this easier on you. There's no reason for you to starve while under my protection. There's no reason for you to do anything except hope your father is going to show up, okay?" I looked down at her, suddenly sad for her again. "Let me try to do this for you. You aren't the only person out of your comfort zone here."

"My dad might be dead," she muttered, crossing her arms as we walked. "He might be dead. My brothers might be dead, and…"

I saw the tears come and reached out for her, wrapping an arm over her shoulder. Gently, I pulled her to me and let her hide her face in my side as we walked. It was all I could do.

Grabbing a cart, I took us to her section for clothing first and waved over it. "Pick enough out for a week," I ordered gently. "This shouldn't last too much longer than that." I hoped, anyway.

She did as I asked, going to the racks and just taking things off, her eyes lacking any sort of spark of light. There wasn't anything I could do about that, no matter how much I wanted to. Seeing her, all I wanted was to go to the city and find her father and deposit him at her feet. I wanted to find the wolves that ripped this family apart and left this girl in my care, alone, possibly forever.

I couldn't even ask for updates, though. It would appear to be meddling. I couldn't find out anything for her, and I didn't feel comfortable with giving her a cellphone and having her talk to anyone. She needed to stay clear of everything too if this was going to be safe.

I should have paid more attention to my surroundings, but I jumped when someone came up behind me and began talking.

"Family emergency?" he said softly.

My heart wanted to climb out of my chest and go on vacation. I turned quickly to find Joey, his eyebrows raised. He looked slowly around me at Carey, his eyebrows going further up.

"Yes." I didn't have really much else to say. Well, except one thing. "I'm not a werewolf."

"That's getting hard to believe," he replied quietly.

"She's not a werewolf," Carey said, dumping more shirts into the cart. "I would know."

He eyed the little girl, looking back at me when she walked back to the racks, hopefully picking out jeans now.

"Don't ask questions with answers I can't give you," I warned. Maybe coming out into public wasn't the best idea, but she needed the clothing and there was no evidence that anyone would come out to Jacksonville to take her, not yet. Hopefully the wolves would be too busy fighting amongst themselves to cause any trouble for them. It was really all I had so far as a plan. "But I can tell you this is legal and calling the human police will just cause more problems for everyone involved."

"Ok." He shrugged and started to walk away. I sniffed the air, tasting its particular flavor as he walked farther away. He didn't trust what I had to say, but I didn't smell anything to worry about.

"Fuck," I muttered, then closed my eyes for just a second. I was cursing a lot in front of a kid. I needed to quit, but it had been a long time since I had to worry about who heard my mouth. I owned a bar, damn it.

I opened my eyes again to find Carey right in front of me. She was watching me carefully, frowning. She was an odd child, or maybe I was an odd adult and knew nothing about eleven-year-olds. I had no idea which was right, but something about whatever we were was odd. Maybe it was the whole ‘sworn to protect and maybe die for her' thing.

"You okay?" she asked, that frown never leaving.

"It's not a problem you need to worry about," I answered, giving her a tight smile. She didn't need to worry or care about how I would probably need to pick up and move after this. I was always careful about who and what I was. This was exposing me as anything but human. Sure, the annoying question about being a werewolf would probably happen anywhere, but my lack of oddness had kept suspicion at bay.

After this, nothing would be the same. They're all going to know I'm a freak, if not a monster.

"So, you want to pick up some food, too?" she asked, kicking one of her feet, looking as uncomfortable as I felt.

"Yeah— hey, do you play video games?" I wanted to find something to help pass the time and I personally loved them, but I didn't think Carey would be interested in anything I played.

"Yeah! I don't get to play them that often since my dad limits my screen time. Can we get some games?" Her face lit up into a real smile for the first time since I had met her. All I could do was nod, enjoying how lovely her eyes were when she was happy. They didn't seem so grey-blue anymore, instead looking more like the summer sky.

I ruffled her hair, smiling back. "Come on. I own a Switch and you can get some games for it."

"You own a Switch?" Her jaw dropped and I couldn't hold back a laugh anymore.

"Yeah, though I never use it. I use my PC for everything." I started pushing the cart, keeping her next to me.

We hit up the electronics section and then I let her pick out a lot of junk food and snacks. I knew I needed to feed her real food, but I was already stocked up on everything I needed for a couple weeks. If I could treat her with a mini vacation during the mess her family and life had become, I would.

She was happier when we were back at the bar. Together, we managed to get everything upstairs and she changed into cleaner clothing. I kept her old, dirty, and torn things, putting them in a plastic bag. I didn't know why I wanted to keep them safe, but the urge was there so I followed it.

As I cooked dinner later that night, I figured things would be great for the week. Her father, no matter what happened to him, raised a good kid and she would be fine in the end. I just had to keep her distracted and happy.

That was, until my magic screamed at me. I gasped, dropping the wooden spoon I had been using to stir the chili I was whipping up. My chest tightened as I closed my eyes and focused, trying to decipher what my magic was telling me.

"Wolves," I whispered, knowing she couldn't hear me. Then I snarled loud enough that she jumped. "Wolves are coming."