Problem?

I turned to look at the wolf seated at table six, the one who had just spoken. I nodded my head and strolled across the black and white tile floor until I reached the wooden employee-only door and walked through.

"There are some customers that want to see you," I said brightly, knowing that everyone outside could easily hear what I had said.

The two cooks in the kitchen looked at me like I was crazy. Their once white uniforms had turned into a greyish-yellow color from the years that they had been wearing them every day. But those two men had a heart of gold.

One of them, Caleb, was about to open his mouth to ask a question, but I quickly shook my head and held up a finger in the universal symbol to be quiet. I winked at the cooks, and the older one, Paul, simply shook his head and went back to cooking the burgers on the flattop grill.

Turning back around, I left the kitchen and headed toward table six, a shit-eating grin on my face. "Hi, I'm the manager; how can I help you?"

The stunned silence said it all.

---

"Goodnight!" I called out, waving at Paul from where he stood, scrubbing the kitchen counters clean. We might be a rundown retro diner, but I could promise you the place was always spotless. Not a mouse in sight.

I opened the heavy metal back door to the back alleyway and sniffed the air. Ah, there they were.

Wolves, or at least the wolves that I have met, always tended to run a little hot under the collar. After the confrontation a few hours ago (to which they didn't even tip me!) I knew they would be back.

After all, a lone waitress was not someone who would be missed if they just disappeared.

They couldn't confront me in the daytime when a human could easily walk in, but there was nothing stopping them from teaching me 'the respect they deserved' when the sun went down.

I chuckled, shaking my brown curls around my face as I tried to think about what they had in store for me.

What? Did you think that I was going to be scared of… I took another sniff… ten wolves? That seemed like overkill for a human, but what did I know? They probably didn't like the fact that I talked back to them in front of their mate.

Or hell, maybe even the bunnies had sent them after me. A few whispered words in bed did wonders, or so I have read.

I closed the door and walked back to where Paul was still frantically scrubbing the counter. "Do you mind if I leave my stuff here?" I asked, looking at him. His head shot up, and his eyes narrowed in concern. Paul was one of the very few people I considered to be family, and he regarded me the same way.

"Problem?" he grunted, putting down the rag and coming to stand at his full height. I smiled as I walked into his arms. He was in his late 50s, the salt and pepper hair turning more salt the older he got, but it was his eyes, his kind blue eyes, that made me feel safe.

He was the reason why I worked here for the past five years, even though I didn't need money. He needed the help, and I needed to help him. It was the least I could do after he saved my life.

"Some wolves," I admitted with a shrug of my shoulders. Don't get me wrong, Paul was 100% human, but that didn't mean he hadn't been read in on what went bump in the night.

"The ones from before?" he asked, pulling back just enough to study my face, just enough to make sure that I was as okay as I claimed to be.

"Yup," I grunted. "They won't bother you. But if they do, there is a gun under the counter with silver bullets for you to use."

He bopped me on the nose as he laughed lightly at my response. He wouldn't use the gun unless it was an emergency, but I always like to know that there was something to keep him safe at all times. It wasn't like I was good enough to do it.

"Leave your stuff here then," he said as he released his arms and took a step back. "I'll fold them up and put them in the staff room. Are you coming home tonight?"

I thought about it for a second before nodding my head. I was going to spend the night at the library doing some research on my latest idea, but honestly, I was worried that the wolves might try something on him and wanted to make sure that he was safe.

One of the things that I was currently working on was an alarm system that could differentiate between humans and non-humans. Paul lost his wife to a bear attack in the woods almost 15 years ago, three years after I had first met him. I didn't know if the bear was a shifter or not, but I wasn't going to take the chance on history repeating itself.

Getting one last nod, I smile and completely disappear into a pile of clothes.

Wolves were much bigger than their human counterparts, so they tended to destroy their clothes when they shifted. Me? I was so small that I got lost in the fabric of mine and had to be rescued time and again.

I could feel a giant shadow leaning over me, and I tensed, my prey brain trying to figure out whether I should run and hide or just stay still and hope that I wasn't found.

I felt the fabric of my uniform gently rise, revealing me to whatever was out there. But the light chuckle stopped my frantically beating heart from bursting out of my chest.

"Hello, Adaline," said Paul, gently scooping me up from the floor. I sat in the palm of his hand and frantically washed my face and whiskers. Once I was sure that I was clean, I looked up at him and let out a little chirp of greeting.

I rubbed my large, rounded ears, trying to make sure that all my hairs were in place, and wrapped my bare tail around my legs, trying to hide it from his sight. I was a bit self-conscious about my tail, but Paul would only laugh at me and pet it all the same.

He rubbed my white belly, and I fell over backward in his palm, encouraging him to keep going. This was how he found me all those years ago when I was nothing more than a newborn little mouse hiding away in the back of a library, trying to get warm.

Yep, I said it. That was the big, bad animal hiding inside of me. A tiny, four-inch common field mouse