by Sara Dailey
Seconds became minutes, minutes became more. Seeing me here like this must have been too much for Alli. I felt her stand up then, still crying, and she kissed my cheek. Then she left.
More time passed. Just when I thought I’d go absolutely crazy, alone in my head, my eyes slowly opened. I had no idea what I did that was any different, but one second I couldn’t see; the next I could. My mom was holding my hand and had her head down. She kind of looked like she was praying.
At the slight movement of my arm, Mom’s head shot up. With tears in her eyes she saw that I was conscious; then she kissed my forehead and said, “Thank God you’re awake.” Before I could respond, she darted out of the room shouting, “He’s awake! Everyone, Aiden is awake!”
In seconds, she was back with my dad in tow. Both parents rushed to my side, asking questions at the same time. The doctor came over and moved them both aside, again before I could respond.
“Can you tell me your name, son?” the doc asked.
“Aiden. Aiden Wright.”
“Do you know where you are?”
“I’m guessing the infirmary on the estate.” I couldn’t imagine they would let me go to a human doctor. It was weird being part of a compound of werewolves, but that’s where Mom and Dad moved us. Everyone here was part of the pack. That’s why we moved to New Mexico. I suppose it makes sense that you’d want to be near your own, even if we weren’t completely separated from regular humans. I mean, I still went to school with a bunch, though they didn’t know what I was. And then there was Dad.
“Good, Aiden,” the doc said. “That’s real good. Do you know what happened?”
I looked down at my mangled shoulder, which was completely wrapped in some type of soft cast thing, and my arm was confined to a sling. I closed my eyes and tried to piece together what exactly had happened. I remembered seeing Kendall’s phone with a cryptic text from Dylan, a text that we hoped would lead us to Alli. I couldn’t imagine what would have happened if that phone hadn’t accidently been left at Shari’s. Then I remembered getting in the car with Cade, my sister’s “mate” and the alpha’s son, and as if by fate spotting Kendall’s car leaving town. We gave chase, but it didn’t last long. Kendall’s car suddenly veered off the road and then…the crash. Three wolves burst from the wreck of that car, not three people. The last thing I saw before everything went black was one of those wolves heading straight for me.
Well, I had to say something to the doc. “Do I know what happened? My memories are a bit fuzzy, but I know it had something to do with that crazy-ass Kendall and Dylan, her junkyard dog. What happened? Let’s see. Kendall’s car crashed, wolves jumped out, and the fight was on. The only thing I’m sure of is that Kendall and Dylan attacked us. What happened with those two anyway? The last thing I remember was a giant wolf trying to bite my head off.”
“Dylan was killed on the scene, and Kendall and her mother have been banished permanently from the estate,” the doctor answered. I guess he wasn’t much for elaboration. I guess it didn’t matter as long as Kendall was banished and Dylan was dead.
“So, I guess this means that everything turned out okay? Case closed?”
With a small smile, the doctor nodded. He then checked me over and told my parents that I appeared to be out of the woods, but that they should take it easy on me. They rushed to my bedside, ecstatic, but just as they did Allison and Cade entered the room. Allison hurried over, while Cade hung back in the doorway. He looked noticeably uncomfortable.
Mom brushed my hair back from my face with her hand and said, “We’re so glad you’re okay, honey. We were all so worried.”
They were huddled around my bed, acting as if I’d been brought back from the dead. I couldn’t help it, I said, “I’m fine, guys. Y’all are the ones that look like hell. Have any of you looked in the mirror lately?” They really did look awful, and I felt the need to lighten the tension in the room. Everyone was being so damn serious.
A smile spread across each of their faces. My dad said, “Well, sounds like you’re going to be just fine, son. Already back to your smart-ass ways.”
There came a light knock at the door, even though it was open and Cade stood visible just inside. It turned out to be his parents. Marcus and Noel Walker poked their heads through and gave a small wave. Weird. Why were they being so tentative?
“Mind if we come in?” Noel asked. “Marcus was getting antsy.”
I almost asked what the hell he had to be antsy about, but I caught myself just in time. That was no way to speak to him. He was the alpha. Rules, rules, stupid rules. I was still learning to be a good part of the pack. But it was really strange that Marcus would act tentative about anything.
Dad seemed uneasy with our new visitors, and he moved toward the window. It made me realize how strange it must be, being the only true human in the room. That just reminded me of how much he must love Mom, moving here to be with her.
Marcus made his way over to my bed, and Mom stepped aside. What was he doing here? All I could figure was that my almost being killed by another pack member was official business, so he must be in hurry to get to the bottom of it all. But when he walked up and just stood over me, I knew it was something else. Something strange. I got the odd feeling that he wanted to hug me, but thankfully he didn’t.
He’d always made me a little nervous, Marcus. From the moment we first met I could see why he was the alpha of our pack. There was just an air of confidence about him that most men never possess. It was both appealing and off-putting.
After a few very awkward moments he finally spoke. “How are you feeling, son? Are you in any pain?”
“No, sir,” I said. “Well, not much anyway.”
“Good. Good.” He smiled down at me.
“Sir, I wish I could tell you what happened, but I’m sorry. I don’t remember much about that night,” I admitted.
Marcus looked puzzled. Then he looked at Mom and said, “You haven’t told him yet?”
“Marcus, for crying out loud. He just woke up.” My dad was almost shouting.
Damn, Dad. Ballsy.
I half expected Marcus to bite his head off. To tell him that nobody speaks to the alpha that way. But Marcus just stood there with a blank face and the room fell into an uncomfortable silence, everyone looking around waiting for someone else to be the first to speak.
Alli reached out and took Cade’s hand. My dad put his arm around my mom, who was beginning to shake. Marcus’s wife Noel just stood beside him, her eyes glued to the floor. Everyone looked so…panicked. What the hell had happened while I was unconscious?
“What’s going on, Mom?” I finally belted out. I couldn’t stand the silence, the guilty look on my mom’s face, or the sadness in my sister’s eyes.
Mom glanced at me, and I knew that look. For a moment I could see in her eyes that whatever was about to be said wasn’t good. My blood ran cold, and I wasn’t sure anymore whether I even wanted to hear it.
With downcast eyes she admitted, “Marcus is right. You need to know the truth.” But she didn’t add anything, and no one else did either.
Little beads of sweat formed on my forehead, and if I could have managed to walk out of the room, I would have been halfway home already.
Finally, Dad moved toward my bed, having decided to be the one to speak up. “Son, you know how much I love you, right? And how proud I am of you?”
I shook my head, even more confused. “Wait. What the hell is going on here? Am I dying or something?”
“No, Aiden, you’re not dying. It’s just…well, the truth is…I am not your biological father.” He looked around the room and added, “There, I said it. Everyone feel better?”
Better? No fucking way. Instinctively I tried to sit up, but I failed miserably and excruciating pain shot through my body. I saw nothing but stars. Then darkness.
*****
I opened my eyes to find the room empty except for Marcus, who now sat in the chair next to my bed. I glanced his way, and he
gave me a half-smile then looked down at his hands.
Shit. I’d hoped it was just a bad dream, learning that Dad wasn’t my real father, or maybe a delusion brought on by the drugs still dripping into my arm. But after a short pause Marcus shifted his gaze toward the door and said, “Well, that didn’t go exactly how I imagined.”
How he’d imagined? How the hell had he expected me to react? And why did he care?
“How about you just tell me what’s up,” I muttered. “Since you’re in charge here. Someone needs to.” I was unable to keep the frustration out of my voice. From what I could see, this pack was full of lies and secrets. I thought I’d moved to New Mexico to be part of a werewolf pack, not a group of liars and hypocrites. If I couldn’t even trust my own family, how could I trust this almost-stranger sitting by my hospital bedside?
Marcus leaned in and seemed to be debating whether or not to take my hand. I made up his mind by pulling away. I couldn’t stop him from talking, though. I couldn’t stop him from saying whatever would come next.
“Aiden, I’m just going to giving it to you straight. I’m your real father. There. Now you know.”
So, that was the moment I realized my entire life had actually been a lie. Complete and utter bullshit. It was crazy. Anger, hurt, and confusion swallowed me whole, and I closed my eyes and turned away. The man who raised me, who taught me to catch a ball, to ride a bike, to do all of those important things that are milestones in a boy’s life was not my father. Not really. Worse than that? Marcus, this werewolf, this pack alpha, my mom’s ex, was.
I couldn’t look at him. Not when I didn’t even know who I was anymore.
4.
Peter
The road was a dark and lonely place. Peter had nothing to keep him company except for his favorite talk-radio show, Coast to Coast with George Noory, and his thoughts. His thoughts were deep. On nights such as this, the memory of his Uncle Raymond came flooding back. The memory of Raymond’s death.
He’d been just a boy when it happened, eleven years old when his favorite relative and the only father figure he’d ever known invited Peter on his first hunting trip. A short time later, he’d stood hidden in the protection of the woods and watched in horror as his uncle was torn to pieces. For as long as he lived, he would never erase that scene from his memory. He couldn’t.
His uncle had been convinced there were werewolves living among them, humans that looked just like ordinary people but who could shift into wolf form. Raymond had spent months trying to convince him and finally decided that it was time for Peter to see for myself. The trip took them into the wilds. It wasn’t long before they spotted a wolf, either—and his uncle didn’t waste any time. Peter watched from a safe distance as his uncle raised his gun…but before he could pull the trigger, another wolf blasted out of the thick brush and mauled him to death.
It was stranger than that, though. The second wolf was too large and powerful to be any normal animal, and it attacked from behind. Cleverly, tactically. Then, while the life drained from Raymond’s body, the wolf stared directly at Peter. Seconds later it ran into forest, and it was at that moment Peter was finally convinced: The beast was a werewolf. It had to be. Given his uncle’s obsession, he’d spent hours on the Internet researching them, and there was no other explanation. Not for the precision with which his uncle was killed, for the human eyes of his killer or the fierce determination behind them.
He’d raced back to the hunting lodge and told the authorities what happened. He was frantic, desperate, but no one believed him. Worse, upon inspection his uncle’s death was ruled an accident. But Peter still knew the truth. He knew that his uncle had done nothing to provoke the attack, and he remembered the malevolent intelligence in the beast’s eyes.
He’d tried to convince his mother that what killed his uncle was no ordinary wolf but something more sinister, and then he’d tried to convince counselors and doctors. The more and more he tried the worse it got for him. First came a long line of therapists, then medication after medication, each with its own unpleasant side effects. Finally, the institution. Peter had spent six and a half years of his life locked inside a psychiatric hospital. His mom visited often at first, but as the years slowly passed her visits became fewer and farther between. By the time Peter was fifteen, the visits stopped altogether.
The horrors he’d witnessed inside the institution still haunted his dreams: the isolation, the padded rooms, the drugs, the needles, the sedatives. The beatings at night when the guards were bored. Peter clinched his eyes shut, trying to block out what else they’d done to him when he was alone at night. No one would believe him about that either.
But now, twenty-one years of age and off all medication, he was free. He’d told the people at the asylum he no longer believed in werewolves, and they’d finally believed him. But his life had purpose. He knew what he had to do. It was up to him and him alone to expose the world’s werewolves. He would make the world see, and then he would make every last one of those wolves pay, every last cold-blooded killer. They would pay for the death of his uncle.
Suddenly, Peter felt a presence in the car next to him. “Hello, Uncle Raymond,” he said, glancing at the passenger seat.
“Hello, Peter,” a voice said back. “I hope you’re ready this time. We’re close to finding them. I can feel it.”
“I’m ready, Uncle. I will not let you down.”
“I hope not,” the voice whispered. “I hope not.”
5.
Aiden
Alli walked into my room without bothering to knock. “Mom told me that you’re planning on going to school Monday. Do you really think you should? You almost died, you know, Ad.”
“Yeah, I know, but Thanksgiving break will be over and…I don’t know. I just have to,” I told her. “I can’t stay in this house for one more day. It’s driving me insane. And I’m fine. It won’t be long before I’m completely healed. One of the perks of being half wolf, I guess.”
I didn’t look up. I’d been trying to read the same book for the past few hours, but with my wandering mind and a helicopter mom, I hadn’t made it very far. Actually, it wasn’t even just her who was helicoptering. I’d come home from the infirmary two days ago and now all three of my parents were hovering. That sounded so weird. All three parents? Well, four if you counted Noel. Did she count?
What was I thinking? Marcus didn’t even really count. Technically he was just the sperm donor. And it was bad enough having my mom and dad constantly checking on me. Having Marcus come by several times had made all of this way more uncomfortable than it needed to be.
“What are you going to tell the throngs of females waiting in line to kiss your boo-boos?” Alli asked. “Obviously, you can’t say that you were randomly attacked by a wolf.”
I knew she was messing with me, but she did bring up a good point. What was I going to tell people? Obviously, the full truth was out of the question. People outside of our enclave didn’t know what we were. And the full truth was totally humiliating, even if humans did know of our existence. I mean, I’d gotten my ass handed to me. I’d gotten beaten up by a guy because he could shift and I still couldn’t.
She was right, though. My pride aside, there would be plenty of questions asked, especially looking the way I did. “I haven’t thought about it. Why? What do you think I should I tell them?”
Alli sat down beside me. “It has to be something believable. And, we need to tell everyone the same thing so that our stories match. There will be questions, you know. Marcus said we had to sync our stories.”
“Why not a car accident?” I offered, thinking that would be the easiest excuse, and it was kind of true, even though I wasn’t actually in the car that crashed.
“Whose car? There isn’t a single scratch on ours or mom and dad’s, so that won’t work. Wait… What about a snowboarding accident? We can say that a bunch of us went snowboarding during break and you were…I don’t know, trying some stupid trick or another. That would
work. It kind of fits your injuries. It would explain why your arm is in a sling and the cuts on your face,” she added.
“Yeah, that would work, I guess,” I admitted. “But let’s leave out the part about me attempting to be an X-treme snowboarder.”
“What, Ad? Do you have a better idea? Something a little more glamorous to keep your fans all hot and bothered?”
I didn’t want to admit it, but I was just hoping for something that didn’t make me look like a complete klutz.
We were both silent. After a few moments, Allison moved a bit closer, put her hand on my good shoulder and asked, “So, how are you taking the whole Marcus thing? Really. I meant to ask you before but…well, you know.”
What the hell was I supposed to say? Mom had been lying to me my entire life. How could she have been pregnant with another man’s baby when she hooked up with Dad, and how could Dad just accept it? It kind of made Mom look like a tramp. I didn’t think she was, though. Everything seemed one big confusing mess.
“I’m okay, I guess,” I said.
Alli didn’t buy it. “You are so not okay, Aiden. You don’t think I can tell? How can you just pretend like everything is fine?”
Instinctively I jerked away, which hurt my damn shoulder, but I didn’t need her trying to be all sisterly right now. She had no idea what I was going through. How could she? Before I could stop the words from coming out of my mouth I blurted, “Why do you care, anyway? This is my problem, not yours, and I’ll handle it in my own way, on my own time. Just back off, okay? I don’t need you suffocating me too.”
My sister stood up, furious. “You’re an ass,” she said. Then she stormed out of my room without turning back, practically shaking the house by slamming the door.
I lay back on my bed and closed my eyes. Everything was so screwed up.
I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew Mom was waking me up for dinner and to take my crappy pain meds. I swear, the only proof I’d ever had that I might actually one day become a werewolf was that the damn pain medication didn’t work. It was like taking freaking baby aspirin for a massive migraine. What was the point?
