Bodyguard Bear

BARRETT - SO CLOSE

Barrett leaned back in his desk chair rubbing the back of his neck as he did so to try to stave off the headache he could feel starting. His bear was growling and snarling in frustration. Today was just not going to plan for either of them Barrett reflected. 

The plan for today had been to come into the office, quickly check his email, head right back out of the office to go pack for his 3 week vacation in Northern Ontario, and finally have dinner with his sister before leaving early the next morning. He and his bear had been looking forward to going back home to Smooth Rock Falls. It was the perfect place to grow up as a shifter, a nearby provincial park to roam in and a town of less then 3,000, not to mention the river running right past it all. His bear had been looking forward to running wild, hunting and swimming after being cooped up in the city for so long.

Barrett sighed, he had better get back to the task at hand or he would never get to take his vacation. He stared at his computer screen intently trying to figure out how in the hell Madden had managed to crash the entire email server this time. The last time Madden had tried checking his email on Barrett’s computer and “accidentally” got into the network settings and shut down all the accounts. Barrett had since increased his computer security so no one else could gain access to it.

“WHAT IN THE EVER-LOVING f**k DID YOU SAY?!?” rang out loud and clear through the office. Barrett got up and went to the doorway of his office and looked out across the open and unused reception space towards his boss’ office. Barrett saw Madden and El were also looking out their doors and wondered who his boss could possibly be yelling at since it was only the four of them who worked at the Toronto branch of the CSEA.

A short and slightly balding beleaguered man scurried out Rafe’s office door open and practically flew through the reception area and out of the Agency.

“Well boss that looked like it went well” drawled Madden.

“Yeah boss what is that three accountants this month you have chased off? You do know head office said if you didn’t stop chasing them off, we would be on our own for finding someone” El added smiling widely.

Rafe’s snarl echoed through the office “Enough! Clearly you two aren’t busy enough. Madden, I want you to investigate the reports of a teenage wolf shifting in front of humans coming out of York. El you are on cleaning detail this week; I want this place spotless by the end of the day. Barrett what the f**k are you looking at, is the email functioning properly yet?”

“Not yet boss but it will be once I figure out what the hell Madden did to it this time.” Barrett retorted before ducking back into his office and heading back to work on the email issues.

Barrett smiled as he sat back down for all the technical frustration that he ended up dealing with he loved his job and the people he worked with. They were a tight knit clan or pack depending on who you asked. Life working for the CSEA, Canadian Shifter Enforcement Agency commonly called sea in daily conversation, was rarely boring. They were the police of the shifter world in Canada, as well as functioning as an intelligence agency and occasionally guarding high value assets, including people.

Rafe was a solid alpha for their branch, even with his short fuse, and his wolf was a beast; easily the biggest wolf Barrett had ever met. Madden on the other hand was a pain in his ass, constantly causing tech issues he then had to fix, but there were few other wolves Barrett would want at his back in a fight. Madden was lean, fast and not above using a dirty trick or four to come out on top. Elodie was still a bit of a mystery. She had joined the team three months ago as a transfer from one of the British Columbia offices and Barrett hadn’t had a chance to do much field work with her. He knew she was a leopard and shared the aloof attitude most cats had whether they be shifter, wild animal or house pet. She seemed like a solid agent, not above a little fun but hated being called anything but El.

Barrett wrote himself a reminder to give El the $20 he owed her for winning the bet on how long this accountant would last before running out. He settled back in to hunt down the cause of the email issue so he could get out of here. 

An hour later Barrett grinned as he found the network setting stopping the emails from coming through and fixed it. He could finally get home and start packing. His bear and stomach rumbled simultaneously, well lunch first it seemed and then packing. Briiiinnggg bringg… briiiinnggg bringg, Barrett’s phone started going off. He sighed, sat back down and picked up the receiver “Hello, Agent Barrett speaking…” would this day never end.