Page 4 of The Lab: Rigg

But so far, I hadn’t had the time. My shifts were short but frequent, and I had a feeling I’d need to spend a couple days there, getting a read on the pack and letting them get to know me before anybody made any decisions.

Once back at the car, I threw my clothes on—not bothering with my shoes—and drove back to my apartment. After climbing up the four flights of stairs, I plopped on my only piece of furniture, my twin bed, and wondered how this had become my life.

3

RIGG

I thought the money would last longer than it did. But between the kids outgrowing clothes, food, and the car breaking down, I’d already used a third of it—and we were only a couple months in.

Grandpa Joel offered to help financially, but he was helping enough. Just being there with the kids meant I could pick up a few off-the-books jobs here and there. Working some construction or helping with the clearing of land was usually good for some quick cash. But the writing was on the wall. I had to do more.

If I’d been a useful shifter—if I’d come with a dragon or a wolf or a bear—I could’ve hunted to feed the kids. But I wasn’t. And the few times I went out and attempted to hunt, I spent the whole day getting nothing in my sight.

Animals as a whole tended not to particularly love me. I think because they sensed something was off about me.

And it made sense. My genes were made from shifters but without any of their beasts actually inside me. I never found out if I was a mistake…or their goal at the lab. And maybe it was better not knowing.

I drove into town after promising the kids I’d pick up some cookies for them and grab some more coffee for Grandpa Joel. Technically, I was doing both those things, but mostly, I was going out there to find some cell reception on my burner to see if I had any hits on the lures I’d put out on the internet. I’d intentionally chosen burners that had shit service so my house would be a dead zone. It was the safest way.

To my surprise, there was a hit—a promising one. Usually I knew two exchanges in if they were a dud, and that wasn’t the case this time.

It was hard to tell from the conversation if they were reaching out because they knew who I was…or if it was something else. Then I got the message that sealed the deal for me.Maybe I’m not your average omega. Maybe I’m a little bit of everyone…

Something about the message made me think it was a good idea to go to him. I’d never have a stranger come to me, especially not now that Connor and Lily were with me.

Worst-case scenario, it was just a random guy—and maybe I could parlay that into a little bit of money.

And yeah, it was shitty of me to go there. Stealing from people who thought they were meeting a date would hardly be my proudest moment, but hard times called for desperate measures and all that.

Who knew? Maybe they did know something—something that could help me on my mission to take down the lab. A mission that had been put on hold while I helped get Connor and Lily settled in.

The kids were talking a lot more now, giggling even. I had Grandpa Joel to thank for that. They were his whole world. He spoiled them with attention and human toys, which were much better than having them play on a tablet with crappy shows downloaded on it. I knew at least that much about parenting.

Watching him with the kids taught me so much about the father I wanted to be for them. I still had a long way to go, but each day gave me more confidence that I wasn’t messing up the entire situation.

Even though they opened up to us, they had no more information about how they came to be in the dumpster. Their dreams were pretty repetitive at this point. At first, I’d listened to everything they said when they woke up, trying to get a little bit more information, but I’d gleaned all I could from them.

And now, all I wanted was for those dreams to go away. For these children to no longer be haunted by a past that was never their doing.

If I could get this plan to work somehow—get the labs shut down—that could be a good first step toward that.

We were meeting at a bar called On Tap, and I was nervous about it. It was far too close to the lab and had enough regulars there to put me on edge. The only good thing was that I could be anyone, and I could scope out the person I was meeting with first. If they passed the test, I could shift into somebody else and meet them. If not, I could leave.

The plan was a good one, but it also required that I bring extra clothes with me. Same clothing in a different face was asking for discovery.

“Uncle Joel, I owe you. I’m bringing you back cheese sticks.”

“Oh, I love those,” he said, rubbing his belly. “And if they have those potato skins?—”

“I’m not sure.” I didn’t want to overpromise and underdeliver. “I feel like people don’t really have those anymore.”

He rolled his eyes. “Potato skins are forever.”

I hoped that was true.

I sat down with the kids on the floor. They were building a train track out of some pieces Grandpa Joel had brought over on his second trip here. They’d belonged to his son when he was a child but never wanted afterward. He’d joined the military and moved overseas. Joel didn’t say anything about what happened from there, but… he was gone now.

On some level, it was probably therapeutic to see other children playing with the old toys.

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