Everleigh
Seven days before, Everleigh felt a twinge that she hadn't felt in five years.
Romanwas in town.
Her ex-lover who had turned out to be her mate. Her brother must've told him where she lived. But why would he be there? Certainly not for her. He made it very clear five years ago that he wanted nothing to do with her. She would never forgive him for that, even if he'd given her the greatest gift of her life – her daughter Eliza
But as the hours wore on and then the hours turned into days, she dismissed it. He must've come to town for business. She lived without him for this long, and she would not be seeking him out.
"Mommy! Watch this!" her daughter yelled.
Her daughter hung upside down on the monkey bars. She started swinging and then flipped off, landing gracefully.
"Come here," Everleigh said to her daughter. They had been over this time and time again. Her daughter was a shifter. And that meant the feats she could perform on the playground were always going to be a lot more difficult than the ones the other children could perform.
She could also fall without getting hurt, and that would be very noticeable to other parents. They had discussed this so many times, but it was hard for a five-year-old to remember.
Her daughter had known since a very young age that she was not human. She'd been taught that she had to be very aware of what she did on the playground when other children were around. Her daughter usually did a good job, but every now and then the temptation to show off was too great. Everleigh understood. It was hard to be the odd kid out.
Everleigh had never had that problem growing up, so it was hard to relate. She had wanted to play with the human children on the elaborate playground equipment that she'd seen. But she had never been allowed.
"We bears stick together. We don’t need human stuff," her father had always said and then of course her older brother Sutton had backed him up. She'd even snuck out once and gone to the playground at the baseball park. It had a twisty slide and a set of swings and even a seesaw.
She'd gotten a good thirty minutes in before they'd found her. Of course, they'd found her. They were bear shifters with an amazing sense of smell and they were also expert trackers. She had been ten years old and hadn't even tried to cover up her scent. That’s how desperate she’d been.
So she understood the lure to the playground equipment, but it was imperative that her daughter understand why they couldn't show off.
"Yes, Mom," Eliza said. From the contrite look on her face she already knew why she'd been called over.
"You already know what I'm going to say, don't you?"
"Yes, Mommy. I know. Sometimes I just can't help it though – it's so much fun."
"Listen, if you really want to do tricks without having to censor yourself or think about what you're doing, I'll bring you here one night when it’s dark and no one's around."
Everleigh didn't think there were any surveillance cameras. She certainly didn't want this on tape. But maybe it would be good for her daughter to get some of her athletic ability out at an appropriate time. Was she doing her daughter a disservice by not raising her in a clan? Was she missing out? She had not wanted her daughter to feel the oppressive burden that she had growing up.
Her daughter would've had it even worse though, because as a member of one of the prominent shifter families, everyone would want to know who her father was. And if they spent long enough thinking about it, someone would eventually figure it out and discover that Eliza was half-wolf.
She had no doubt about that. She never wanted that information revealed. She would take it to her grave. That was another source of guilt.
Sometimes she thought she owed her daughter an explanation. Or an answer when she asked who her father was. Maybe one day she would have to tell her. It didn't seem right to keep it a secret. But it would only cause problems.
She would have to watch a father reject her. Everleigh knew what it was like to be rejected by a mate. She could not even begin to fathom how it would hurt to be rejected by her own flesh and blood. Her own father drove her crazy. But he had always loved her. He wasn't good at boundaries or seeing that she was actually an adult now, but his love was unquestionable.
She wished she could have provided that for her own daughter, but it had not happened. There was no changing it now.
"Could we go to one of the aerial silks places?" Eliza asked.
Everleigh had taken her daughter to the circus and she'd been enthralled by the dangling fabric that swayed in every color, as well as the graceful dancers that spun from them.
"Because that's what I really want to do," Eliza said. Maybe Everleigh could put her in an aerial silks class when she was a little older and had better control over her body.
"Maybe in a year or two when you've spent a little more time in public school you could take one of the classes. And you wouldn't even have to sneak around. Maybe until then we could see about buying you one and putting it inside our house. Would you like that?"
"Are you serious, Mommy? I would love that!" Eliza squealed in delight.
So far her daughter had made it through almost an entire year of public kindergarten. There had been very few incidents. "I know you work hard all day to keep yourself in check and I really appreciate that. As long as you can do that, we can keep doing fun activities," Everleigh said.