Page 7 of The Griffin, the Tiger, and Their House Cat Omega

At the curb, Dad got out and helped me unload my one suitcase and carry-on. He really was the best parent a guy could have. He gave me a great big hug. As he did so, I felt him stuff something into my pocket.

He kissed me on the cheek, said goodbye again then got into his car and slowly drove away.

I checked my suitcase with the baggage attendant then entered the terminal. As I walked, I stuck my hand into my pocket and felt the thick roll of bills. They were rubber banded, as Dad always did with his cash.

I didn’t take the money out, but I knew my dad well. I didn’t have to look to see the roll of cash would be all hundreds.

My eyes watered.

Dad.

‘He wanted me to splurge on this trip. And so I would.

Chapter Five

River

It was shortly before Flora’s fifth birthday that I got the job I’d been waiting for. It was a job in my field and they even gave us ninety days of housing when we arrived, allowing us some time to find a place that worked for us. Best of all, it was in San Diego, a place my sister had always talked about visiting.

I refused to move her just to move—everything had to be perfect. It needed to be in a location where she would be around other shifters but without the streak structure we had been living under. My job needed to allow me the freedom to take her to activities. And I had to make enough that I wasn’t struggling to make ends meet.

Streaks were great, and I probably could’ve found us a home in another one. But I wanted Flora to be able to go to school with all kinds of people, not just kids in her streak. I wanted her to be able to go to museums and parks and painting classes. And I wanted people to treat her like she was a little girl, not a delicate flower about to wither away. This decision felt right.

Alpha was not pleased when I told him we were going. He said she deserved her streak, and I was taking that from her. And he was right—I was taking it from her, but that was because she needed the break. If she wanted to come back, I’d make that happen.

“She’ll always have her streak,” I reminded him. “But, for now, she’s gonna get away from the hurt, so she can grow into the tiger she was meant to be.”

I had to play my cards right because if he decided to consider me rogue, that would mark her as well. Not all animals would care—a lot of them didn’t engage in this dated bullshit—but old-school tiger streaks did, and this was one of those. If I weremarked rogue, they could either take her from me or mark her as well. Avoiding either of those scenarios was top on my list of priorities.

We didn’t take much with us—nothing as far as furniture—but her clothes, her toys, my clothes, my computers. Everything else we would buy new there.

We were going all the way across the country, and paying movers or renting a truck was too cost-prohibitive. This was better.

We took our time driving, stopping at anything that looked interesting along the way. Being five—and barely five at that—made sitting in the car for hours on end not fun. Not that it was much better at thirty.

I was able to find multiple parks for her to run around and climb in. We camped one night so I could let my tiger out—one of her favorite things. There were also lakes and random weird museums, many of which were actually just the front of people’s houses—you name it, we did it along the way. And if it even hinted at there being ice cream, we were there.

And finally, after what felt like years, we crossed into California. Now that we were closer to our new home, we didn’t stop as much, more anxious to get there than anything else.

“Uncle, I’m hungry.” She’d fallen asleep in the car shortly before I planned to stop. I hadn’t had the heart to wake her up. She barely had her eyes when she asked me for food. Maybe I should’ve woken her up.

“I know, sweet girl. Let me find someplace where we can get a good meal.” We’d been eating junk for the past two days, and it was time to sit down and have actual sustenance.

I pulled into the first parking lot I saw and took out my phone to find a place. And that’s when my phone started ringing—the call that changed everything.

“Hello, River. This is Marcus from Johnson and Myers.” Marcus was the HR person I’d been working with.

“Oh, nice to hear from you.” Of course it was nice because I assumed it had to do with him meeting us at the new place—an assumption that was beyond wrong.

“I have some less-than ideal news for you. The position you were coming here for—it’s been combined with another position and filled internally.”

“What?” I had to be hearing wrong. There was no way I drove all the way here for them to tell me that there wasn’t really a job for me. I refused to believe it.

“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. We didn’t know.”

I called bullshit on that one. You don’t randomly combine positions and hire someone. This had to have been in the works for a while. Shit, me being hired could easily have been a bargaining chip.

“Everything we own is in our van, and we are already in California.” I wasn’t going to win this one and even if I did, it would be temporary. Corporate jobs sucked like that.

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