7. Harper

CHAPTER SEVEN

HARPER

I finished my work and went to pick Ari up from daycare. I managed to get out on time today and had Kristen drive us.

She waited in the car as I went in. There were still a few kids milling around when I got there, and I was glad I wasn't the last to pick up.

"Hello," one of the teachers said. "Aria, your mom is here."

She lit up when she saw me. "Mom!" said, jumping from the rug and running over to me. "I thought Nanna was coming."

"I got off a bit early. Come on, let's get your bag."

As I walked to get her bag with her, her teacher stopped me. "Actually, would you mind stopping by the office quickly? The director wanted to have a word."

My brows pinched in confusion, but I didn't want to alarm Ari. "I'll be right back," I told her as I walked back to the main office.

When I knocked on the door, I was greeted with a, "come in."

I stepped through the door, and the manager, Mrs. Adams, looked at me kindly. She was an older woman with a kind face. She gave us our tour on the first day here, and I picked this place because she seemed so passionate about it.

"Ms. Maloy," she said. "Have a seat."

I took the one across from her. "Is everything alright?" I asked.

"Everything is fine," she assured me. "Aria is doing great," she affirmed. "She's great with her classmates and excels in her academics."

I waited. "So why am I here?"

Mrs. Adams took a breath. "I don't mean to intrude, but do you know anything about Ari's father?"

Her question struck me as odd. "Uh, not a lot. We didn't know each other for long." A single night was a better way to put it, but same difference.

"Well, Aria has been acting a bit odd. Nothing alarming, but sudden bursts of exhaustion before moments of being hyper. It's not odd for a young child, but today, we noticed…other symptoms."

"What other symptoms?" Was Ari sick?

"Today she grew…ears."

I blinked. "Ears?"

" Wolf ears, to be exact," she clarified. "It only happened for a few minutes, but I saw it for myself when her teacher called me. Have you considered her father could have been a shifter?"

I was stunned into silence. "I-I don't think so." I didn't know any shifters in college, but it wasn't something people always talked about.

"Unless there's some wolf in your family, I would consider it. Are you in contact with him or his pack?"

I shook my head. How could this be happening? I didn't know the first thing about raising a shifter.

"Here." She scribbled some words on a sticky note. "This is a clinic up in Enski Mountain. They should be able to help you, and they take walk-ins on Saturdays."

I took the card with shaky hands. I guess I would need to pay them a visit. I wasn't sure what this would mean going forward, but I needed to make sure Aria had all the care she needed.

"Thank you for letting me know," I said.

"Of course. I'm not sure how much you know about shifters, but their first few months of shifting can be a bit…unpredictable. We would still love to welcome Ari here, but she needs to be in control of her shifting first. I hope you understand. Our teachers here aren't equipped to help her shift back, and we don't want anything to happen in the process."

"I understand," I said, and I did. I didn't know how I was going to handle it either. "Thank you," I said before going back to pick up Ari. She was already in her coat as her teacher smiled at me earnestly, which made me feel a bit better. I was sure it was a fright to see a child change like that.

"Have a great night" he said as we left.

When we got to the car I sat there for a moment, just staring at the wheel. What was I going to do?

"Are you okay?" Ari asked.

I shook my head and smiled when I looked at her. "I'm okay. I'm just tired."

"Me too," she said with a dramatic sigh.

I turned the car on and started our journey home. "Yeah? Long day?"

"Yes," she said. "We had to cut shapes and write our name a bunch."

"That does sound tiring," I told her, though to me, it sounded like a walk in the park. I was sure when I was that age, I would find that exhausting as well.

"Oh, and I felt weird."

I paused. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know. Sometimes, my body feels weird, like it wants to explode or something but doesn't know how. But that's silly."

"Yeah, very silly."

Fuck.

That weekend came, and I drove Aria up to Enski Mountain to check out the clinic. The drive up was very scenic, with trees everywhere changing to fall colors. Aria talked about a project with the leaves they were doing at school the entire way up.

I was able to take my sick days for the rest of the week, plus I talked to my boss and took some time off from work going forward. If she really was shifting sporadically, there wasn't a daycare I could send her to that I knew of, so I had no one to watch her. While my parents could watch her for a little while after daycare, they weren't able to watch her all day.

I had two weeks' worth of vacation time, and when I told my boss Aria was sick, she was more understanding than normal. Though she wasn't really sick, I didn't have the full story yet, so I wasn't ready to tell my boss.

I knew I was a talker, but that girl could yap more than I thought possible. We pulled up to the clinic sooner than I'd have liked. It was a small white building that looked newly renovated. There were only a few cars in the parking lot, but I wanted to get here as early as possible to get her seen.

I got out of the car and helped her unbuckle from her car seat before we walked in.

"Mom, I don't really like the doctor," she said.

I huffed a slight laugh. I didn't like this either, but I needed to put on a brave face for her. "I know, but this will be just a quick check-up." At least, I hoped. I'd tried to do some research, but I couldn't find much information on how they found out kids were shifters, only how to raise one, and a lot of the resources only helped if you also shifted. I was just a human, so how was I supposed to teach her these things? It did, however, confirm some of her behaviors: the strange bouts of tired and hyper, the ears.

I also tried to look up her father. Though I didn't want anything to do with him, I thought if I could track him down, he could give me answers. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember his name. I checked the roster of the other colleges around there, flipping through photo after photo with no luck.

So, here we were, hoping for answers. We were greeted with a fresh, clean lobby that looked like any other doctor's office. We went to the desk and got checked in.

We sat down while I filled out the paperwork and Aria played with some of the toys in the corner. When it asked the reason for the visit I wasn't sure what to put so I just wrote ‘child is experiencing symptoms of shifting.' I listed the symptoms below, along with the rest of her medical history.

When I took it up, the nurse gave it a once over then looked back at me. "Are you…human?"

I nodded.

"I see." She made some notes, her face totally blank. "If you'd like to sit down, someone will be with you shortly."

I thanked her and went back to Aria, who was playing with one of those wire block toys. It sounded like she was pretending they were trains that could fly, but I was never truly sure what she was thinking.

We waited for what felt like forever before a voice I recognized called, "Aria Maloy."

My heart leaped to my throat as I found myself eye-to-eye with Jasper.