“Did it set in during puberty?” That was how it worked with us shifters. We were largely human until our animal sides were able to rise to the surface, and that was when our enhanced senses, accelerated healing, and ability to shift rolled in. Some children got them earlier or later than others, just like humans went through puberty earlier or later.
“Eh, no. I always saw little flashes in the corner of my eyes, but I was told it was my imagination. I also didn’t have the words to describe or even understand what it meant. I was around nine when my ADHD gotrealapparent, and I tested into the gifted program at school. That was a good distraction up until I was about thirteen and the stuff in my peripheral vision became much more… distracting.”
“You were in a gifted program?” I asked, trying to envision a young Cherry in school. It wasn’t difficult to believe that she was plenty intelligent enough to get into that program, but it was difficult to believe she’dwantto.
“Yeah, why?” she asked with an acerbic look. Although Cherry often oozed confidence, she had quite the insecure streak. “Would it be less surprising if I chose to speak more eloquently? If I switched my cadence to something a little more verbose to align with the academic setting I once excelled in?”
“It’s nothing like that,” I said with a slight chuckle, leaning back in my seat. “Just thinking that you were likely a handful for a teacher. They probably had a hard time keeping up with you.”
“She did,” Cherry said, blushing slightly, and I liked the look on her. “Especially since I genuinely used to talk like that.”
“Did you?” Strangely enough, I could imagine that just fine.
“Yeah, but then people would make fun of me, ask me why I talked like I swallowed a thesaurus. Or they said I was trying to be better than them. As I grew up and got more responsibilities, I realized it was way more fun and took less energy to loosen up a little and use slang.”
“I think my journey was more the opposite,” I said, musing on the matter.
“Yeah, because you use your professional vernacular as a shield, as I mentioned, oh, approximately forty-five seconds ago.”
“Oh, did you? I don’t recall anything like that.”
“I’m sure you don’t.”
We shared a chuckle at that, and it put me at ease that we seemed to be trending toward normalcy. Good. I was glad I hadn’t ruined everything by giving in to my more animalistic side. I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing that Cherry brought out my more impulsive nature, but there was no denying that she did.
“Do you wanna use the bathroom first?” Cherry asked once she was done with her food and the protein bar.
“I already cleaned up, so we can head back to the estate once you’re ready.”
“Fantastic! I’m gonna take a quick shower. I’ll probably be about half an hour. That’s not too long to make you wait, is it?”
I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. I have emails to catch up on.”
And probably a lot of missed calls from Chris. Maybe even Penelope.
Probably not Jackson, though.
“Okie dokie, artichokie! Be back down in a jiffy!”
She hurried upstairs. When I heard the bathroom door close and the shower start, I went to her room and grabbed my phone. Then it was to the craft room for my belt and discarded shoes.
Although my dark hair was much more unkempt than I would prefer, I ran my hand through it and settled down to catch up on missed work. No one would blame me for falling behind after what my family had gone through, but the distraction was nice. Especially since the word was still spreading about the murders, according to the reports the sub-alphas and betas emailed me.
Time got away from me as I went through the tedium, but the tedium was a nice break from the high-octane action of the day before. However, when I heard her thundering down the stairs, I could already hear that something was off.
“Ready to go!” Cherry cried, already down the steps as I rounded the corner to meet her.
“Phone?” I asked, putting mine in my pocket. Although that wasn’t what I’d heard that was wrong, I just had a feeling about it.
“Shit! One minute!”
Then she was off on what had to be a part of her cardio routine as she ran right back up the stairs, skipping the last one despite her short legs. She returned just as fast, her cheeks slightly pink.
It was such a direct parallel to how our journey had started the evening before, and how she’d first gone to my estate, that I couldn’t help but feel a certain sort of déjà vu.
“Wallet?” I asked.
“Ah,fuck.”