Everett

The daycare was deceptively calm when I walked in. Molly's assistant, Kyle, had led the way in his SUV. He strode in ahead of me and cleared his throat. Only a few children were in the daycare, as well as three other adults.

Kyle led me to the front desk, where a man was seated. "Hi, Owen. I have fresh blood for you. This is Everett, Felix's mate."

I had a feeling it was going to start feeling like "Felix's mate" was my last name instead of Ibarra. That was okay, though. I wanted people to know my connection to him.

Owen stood up and smiled warmly. I had a theory that you could always pick daycare and kindergarten workers out of a lineup simply based on how they smiled and carried themselves. Everything about Owen was disarming, like he was naturally programmed to put people at ease. "Everett, it's so nice to meet you!" he said, offering me a hand. We shook and he spun around and called, "Tina, Lars, get up here!"

The other two adults in the daycare hurried forward, their auras and demeanors just as disarming as Owen's. "Everett, this is my mate, Tina, and our good friend Lars. Tina and I run the daycare and Lars is our star employee."

"He keeps introducing me like that, hoping I'll sign on to be full-time. I just work part-time."

"Except this month," Tina reminded him. "This month it's all hands on deck." She looked at me and offered me a hand and a warm smile. "I'm so glad you're helping us out, and it's great to meet Felix's mate. His sister and I grew up together."

I eyed her speculatively. Would she have any good Felix stories to tell me? Based on the mischievous glint in her eyes, it seemed like a good bet. "It's great to meet you all, and I'm happy to help."

"Well, Everett, I think you're in good hands here. I'm going to get back to the office. If you need anything, call Molly. She tells me you have her number," Kyle said. He was already on his way out the door, so I nodded and turned back to my new temporary coworkers.

"So, do you have any daycare experience?" Owen asked brightly. He didn't look like he would be upset if I said I didn't, but when I nodded, his eyes lit up.

"Oh, that's fantastic! Let me show you where everything is," Tina said, hooking her arm through mine and tugging me further into the building. She gave me a tour, including where to find changing tables and supplies, child- and adult-sized toilets, snacks and beverages, and toys for children of various ages.

"We don't have as many children here from our own pack as usual just now. A lot of the parents didn't feel comfortable sending their children away from home with the kids from Neruda. After everyone gets settled in, this place is going to be a madhouse. It always goes down like this when we have visitors."

I liked that Tina called them visitors instead of refugees. It seemed a lot more welcoming. I made a mental note to start calling them visitors, too.

"I'll be here as much as possible to help when that happens. My mother will also be here this afternoon and she's happy to stay with us indefinitely to help out. She's been a daycare worker for decades and she's amazing with kids."

Tina smiled an eye-crinkling smile. "Oh, I can't wait to meet her!"

This was one of the best parts of working in a pack daycare center. This was going to be the third one I worked in, and every single time, my coworkers were the brightest, happiest people I knew. Something about this calling drew in that personality type like a magnet.

There had been two guards stationed outside when I arrived this morning, one at the back door and the other at the front. By nine, there were another two guards. One of them kept mobile and the other stationed himself inside the daycare. The reminder that we were facing an unlikely but serious threat had me on edge and I barely resisted the urge to reach out mentally for Felix just to make sure he was alright. Our visitors weren't even here yet. It would set a very bad precedent if I let my panic overtake me so early in their stay.

Tina and I went back to the main playroom, where Lars was dealing with a sobbing toddler. The sound was jarring and I knew it would be a couple of hours before my ears adjusted.

"Since things are kind of slow right now, do you mind if I do some work in the corner over there?"

Tina raised an eyebrow curiously, but she didn't pry. "Of course. You'll know it's time to stop working when you can't hear yourself think anymore." She laughed and I joined in. I thought I could be really happy here in the daycare.

Tina was right.

At ten-thirty, several people entered the daycare at once with strollers and carriers. Between them, there were fourteen children.

I tucked my phone away in my pocket and hurried to help. Since there were Lakota children here too, we weren't allowing any of the Neruda adults to stay. Molly was working on performing extensive background checks into a couple of Neruda members who had volunteered to help with the daycare, but until those background checks cleared, they had to go. Besides, I'd heard that Spencer was hosting a meeting with all of our adult visitors to go over the rules for their stay.

Lars, Tina, Owen, and I had our hands full. The Neruda children integrated into the group almost seamlessly, with a couple of notable exceptions. There were two children who were especially challenging. One, a four-year-old named Branson, was a menace. He smashed block towers, broke dolls, and seemed to enjoy when the other children cried. Lars, who claimed he specialized in troubled children, pulled Branson aside and was talking to him in low tones.

"Everett, I think Griffin here could use a little one-on-one time. Are you up for it?" Tina asked, gesturing helplessly to a two-year-old who wouldn't stop crying. He was another of the Neruda children and tears had streamed down his cheeks even as his pack mates dropped him off. I had watched as he struggled against the hold of the woman who had brought him here, only to collapse on the ground forlornly when he was left alone. When Tina or Owen approached him, his cries only grew louder and more desperate. It was enough to make me wonder what Neruda had been doing to the poor kid.

I looked around the chaos that was the playroom and shook my head at Tina. "I can't just leave you and Owen to deal with this on your own," I said.

Tina waved this off with a forced smile. "Trust me when I say we've handled worse. We work well together, and I can't let that wee one keep crying. I think he's starting to run out of tears, but he keeps sobbing anyway. It's breaking my heart. Please, Everett."

I looked down at Griffin and my heart clenched in sympathy. Tina was right, this child was in need. I approached him slowly, since a fast approach definitely wouldn't work. When I thought he would be able to hear me, I said, "Griffin?"

Griffin kept clutching at his face and crying.

"Shh, it's okay, Griffin," I said as soothingly as I could. I crouched down beside the boy, making myself as small as possible. I needed Griffin to see that I wasn't a threat, and towering over him would achieve the opposite. I kept shushing and inching my way to Griffin, moving and pausing on instinct. It took a long time, but eventually I was next to him and he was staring up at me with big, tear-filled eyes.

"Hi, Griffin," I said. When he kept staring, I sat down next to him and said, "That's okay. We don't have to talk."

Griffin and I sat together for a long time. Tears still rolled down his chubby cheeks and his eyes were still fixed on me, like he was waiting for something. I didn't know what he expected me to do, but based on his reaction to being near people in general, it couldn't be good. Rather than risk making a wrong move, I kept still and silent and merely gazed back at the small boy.

Slowly, the tears subsided and he was left hiccupping. It made me smile a little, and Griffin smiled back. Acting on another instinct, I slowly reached my hands toward him and waited, my heart pounding in my chest. If I had misread the situation, I might have just shattered the small amount of trust that had built up between us. That isn't what happened, though. Griffin reached his arms out toward me as another fat tear rolled down his cheek. Tears filled my own eyes as he let me pick him up and hug him to my chest.

"There, now, this isn't so bad, is it?" I asked softly. I looked around the room and sighed. If I were a scared toddler, I wouldn't calm down in this madhouse. I stroked a hand through the boy's soft blond curls as I made my way carefully through the room. We ended up in the little kitchen area, where we were still in full view of the indoor guard but where it was a little quieter.

"Want to tell me what's wrong?" I asked. I eased Griffin away from me, but his chubby little toddler arms were wrapped around my neck with all his strength. The crying started again and I clutched him back against my chest, rubbing at his back. "It's okay," I told him. I could feel his small body shuddering against me as he cried with his whole body. What had happened to this kid? My arms tightened around him like steel bands – not tightly enough to squish him, but tightly enough that I felt confident no one could wrest him from me.

I didn't know how good Griffin's grasp of language was, but he didn't say a word to me over the next couple of hours. He also didn't let me go until I sat down and set animal crackers and juice in front of him. Then Griffin reached out for them eagerly. I lifted Griffin up and tried to set him down on the tiny chair I'd been crouched next to, but as soon as he realized I was trying to leave, he started screaming.

I scooped Griffin up into my arms again and hugged him tightly. "Okay, I won't go anywhere," I said to him. It was a promise with an expiration time, but that was okay. His people would come for him later in the afternoon and he would forget all about me. I had seen this kind of anxiety before. Griffin had glommed onto me because I had established a connection to him in this unfamiliar place. By tonight, I wouldn't even be a distant memory. The thought made me sad, but at least I could make today better for him.

I sat down next to the child-sized table with Griffin on my lap while he ate his snack. By the end of snack time, I had juice dribbled across my jeans and crumbs in the creases of my clothing – not to mention how sticky Griffin had somehow gotten – but he was relaxed against me and didn't even seem to mind the other children around him.

Owen came over with a child on each hip and smiled down at me. "I see you've made a friend."

I brushed my fingers through Griffin's curls and couldn't help smiling back. "Yeah, Griffin and I are like this," I said, holding up two entwined fingers. "Sorry I haven't been able to help more."

Owen set the kids he was carrying down and waved off my apology. "No, you're a huge help. If you hadn't been here, we would have only had two and a half caretakers – since one of us would have had him on our hip all day instead of you. Imagine trying to run this place with two and a half caretakers."

I looked around and let the horror of that take me. "You're right. You guys owe me big," I said, grinning so he would know I wasn't being serious.

But Owen just nodded. "We all really appreciate you coming out – especially that little guy on your lap, I think. Can I get you anything?"

I looked down at Griffin, who was snuggled in my arms, watching the kids play around us. "No, I'm good."

--

I had just finished changing Griffin's training underpants when I heard my mother's voice. I got Griffin's pants back on in a hurry and swooped him up into my arms quicker than before, forgetting to be gentle in my enthusiasm. Griffin squealed and I froze, horror-struck at the thought of having scared him, but then he giggled and said, "Again!"

I had honestly started to wonder whether Griffin ever spoke or whether he had some kind of verbal disability, so hearing that word was exhilarating. I dropped into a crouch quickly, keeping a firm grip on Griffin as he dropped with me. He squealed again and laughed. "Again!" he cried.

I was laughing now, too, and I stood up before swinging Griffin away from me and back. He laughed madly and kicked his feet in mirth.

"That's my boy," my mom said, appearing in the doorway.

"Mom!" I cried.

Griffin's laughter died out when he realized we were no longer alone and he fixed wide eyes on my mother. She exuded that calming aura of hers as she walked toward him, stopping an arms-length away.

"Who's this cutie?" she asked, cooing.

"This is Griffin," I answered her.

"Hi, Griffin. It's nice to meet you," she said, holding her hand out to him. Griffin stared at it for a long moment before he reached out and grasped it. It wasn't a handshake, exactly, but a gesture of trust. He accepted her touch. My mother had a way with children like no one I had ever seen before, so I wasn't surprised Griffin had taken to her so quickly.

"Do you think you can take him for a couple of minutes?" I asked.

Mom smiled warmly at Griffin and said, "Of course, dear."

Oh, thank goodness. I had to go to the bathroom pretty badly and hadn't wanted to upset Griffin by setting him down again. Each time I tried still ended in tears. I cautiously extended Griffin away from my body and toward my mother's waiting arms. He squirmed and reached for me, but Mom cooed comfortingly and smiled that magic smile of hers and Griffin accepted her embrace.

"Thanks, Mom," I said, and rushed to the restroom. I heard her chuckling behind me.

When I returned, I found my mother sitting in the middle of the playroom with Griffin on her legs and several other children in a ring around her. She held a book in her hands and was reading it to them, never losing patience when children inevitably reached out and grabbed the book or when they got distracted.

I looked around for the other workers and found Tina feeding a baby a bottle in the armchair nearby. "I got my arms back," I said. "Is there anything that needs done?"

Tina looked up and smiled softly at me. "General tidying, if you don't mind. We still haven't totally recovered from snack time."

I turned to go to the kitchen, where the high-up shelves held cleaning sprays and paper towels. Tina spoke again, though. "You were right about your mother. She's wonderful with kids. Thank you for her."

I looked back to my mom and the ring of children who were getting pulled into story time one by one. "She's happy to be here," I told Tina. "And I'm happy to see her."

As I cleaned, I noticed Griffin's eyes on me. When I met his gaze, he reached his arms out to me. "Give me a minute," I told him, hurrying to put the cleaning supplies away before he started fussing for my mother. When I returned, he was squirming in her arms and she passed him off casually, never letting it break her focus on the story she was telling.

"You're impatient," I accused Griffin in a whisper, settling down next to my mother. Griffin just leaned back against my chest and fixed his eyes on the book. It was answer enough for me.