He was knocked to the ground and the air left his lungs in a rush as he was flipped onto his back on the grass and looked up at his dad. He didn’t have his phone or a notebook and so he couldn’t tell his dad that things were better now, that he could talk again, that he was going to stay with Samson and they didn’t have to take him when they left. But his dad pounced on him and his fists hurt and suddenly Ippy was screaming again as his dad pinned him down on the grass and hit him.
His wolf came to life, snapping to the front of his mind and just like that, as if a light was being turned on in his mind, Ippy wasn’t there anymore and he could only look out through his wolf. His dad fell back as the wolf bit him and Ippy tried to stop him, tried to tell him that it was wrong to go after his dad, but the wolf wasn’t listening and Ippy didn’t know how to get him to start doing so. He shut his eyes and tried not to see, not to taste, not to hear, until there was nothing left and the wolf walked away.
The wolf melted away and Ippy was running again, but this time not from his father, now he was running to the only place he knew that he was safe. Naked and freezing now that his adrenaline had left him, Ippy banged on Hannah’s front door and shivered until it opened and Travis was standing there, staring at him.
“Liam!” he shouted as he pulled Ippy into the home. The bright lights hurt his eyes and then a throw blanket was being tossed around him and Travis was sitting him down on the beige chaise in their living room. He left for a moment, only to return with a glass of water as Liam came downstairs.
“What’s—Oh.” Liam crouched in front of him and touched his face without asking, but Ippy didn’t cry out. Instead he cried big, fat tears and shook in the thin blanket. “What happened to you, Phillip?” Liam asked him. But of course he couldn’t say anything. He heard water running upstairs and wiped at his eyes, wondering why she wasn’t down there with them.
Ippy shivered and Travis rubbed his shoulders before getting up. Another blanket was quickly draped around him and Ippy pulled that one around himself as well. He couldn’t seem to get warm and his head was really starting to hurt.
“Samson will be here soon,” Liam said, getting to his feet.
Ippy’s vision cleared well enough for him to look up at Hannah’s dad. He didn’t look happy. His mouth was turned down and he was staring at Ippy who shrank away from him. Liam was the third in their pack, so far over Ippy that looking up at him and meeting his gaze when he looked that angry was dangerous to most. Ippy was too high, he had to get lower. He was submissive and had to show it. He slid off the chaise and knelt next to it. He would have gone lower but ducking his head made it hurt even more than just sitting up did.
“Phillip, get back on the chaise. I know it’s not that comfortable, but you can’t be on the floor,” Travis said, trying to get him to stand up again. But Ippy shook his head and bent down as he pulled his arm out of Travis’ grip.
Liam was crouched in front of him in the next moment and Ippy looked away, refusing to meet his steady, searching gaze. “Get back on the chaise. You’re hurt and I will not have our alpha sitting on the floor and bending over to get a good look at you. Do you hear me?”
The command was clear in Liam’s voice and Ippy quickly moved to obey. He got dizzy when he stood up, though, and had to grip Travis’ shoulder to keep from losing his balance. With the help of both of these men, something he didn’t deserve and shouldn’t have needed, he was placed back on the chaise. He tried sitting up, but it made him dizzy so he leaned against the back of the chaise and looked upstairs, to Hannah’s closed bedroom door, as her dads talked around him.
Hannah?
The water shut off instantly and a minute or two later her door opened. “Hey, Ippy just talked to me, but I didn’t see him outside. He’s got to be close so—” He was still watching her as she took the stairs two at a time and practically fell down the last of them in her rush to get to him.
“What the hell happened to you?” Hannah demanded as she sat down on the chaise next to him, her bright purple robe flying around her and showing off a pair of flannel lounge pants and a t-shirt that hugged her subtle curves. He didn’t know why he noticed that, now of all times, but he did. She had curves now, had probably had them for a while, and he didn’t know when that had happened. Hannah wrapped her arms around him and he leaned into her as she rubbed her hands over his arms on the blankets.
This felt nice, having her there with him, her holding him, him getting to smell the lavender soap she used. He put his arm around her too and she opened her legs for him, letting him lay against her as she wrapped her calves protectively around him. Her dads were still talking and the doorbell rang. He and Hannah didn’t move. She was whispering to him, nothing coherent so he let it go, and simply drifted as he closed his eyes and tried to relax. He was tired and his mouth tasted funny, but it felt so nice to be in her arms, to be safe and wanted. Hannah had never once yelled at him. She’d yelled around him, but never at him. And she made him happy.
Someone touched the side of his face and Ippy opened his eyes to see Samson there. He tried to sit up, but Hannah didn’t let him go. He tried again, but she stubbornly held onto him even tighter than before.
Samson’s here. I need paper, he told her.
She shook her head. “Do not. I’m here. Not letting you go. Talk, I’ll tell them what you say. Start with who hit you.”
Ippy was startled by the anger in her voice. She didn’t usually sound so upset, especially not around him. How’d you know I was hit?
“The side of your head is split open, for starters. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out,” she grumbled back to him.
“Hannah, include us please,” Travis said, grabbing a nearby chair.
She sighed and it sounded like the sound had to be dragged from her as she leaned forward and kissed the side of his forehead that didn’t hurt. “Ippy asked me how I knew he was hit.”
You should let me go, he softly told her, though he didn’t want to say the words.
Hannah shook her head. “Not letting you go.”
I’m naked, he told her, in case she’d missed that.
She hesitated but her grip on him didn’t lessen. “I don’t care.”
“Han—”
“He told me that I should let him go since he’s naked. I’m telling him it’s not going to happen. Jesus, Dad, more important things going on right here than what we’re saying. Someone beat him up. Can’t you do something?” Hannah snapped at Liam.
Ippy turned in her arms so that he could face her and, after making sure that the blankets were wrapped around his waist, held her face between her hands. Don’t be mean to him. He’s your dad. Be nice.
There were tears in her eyes and she leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his. Hannah put her hands over his and Ippy shuddered as their breaths met. “I was so worried about you, when you said that we couldn’t be friends anymore, I missed you so much, and now you’re hurt and I don’t know who did it. Help me, Ippy. Tell me whose ass I have to go kick. Please.”
Couldn’t see you because your dads are gay, he told her gently, wanting her to know the truth.
She gasped, but didn’t pull away. When he looked up at her she had one eye and it made him smile. But smiling hurt, so he stopped. “Your parents said you couldn’t see me because my dads are gay?” If she’d have been a wolf she would have been growling, he could hear it in her voice. He nodded.
“Samson?” Liam said from somewhere behind them.
He could hear his alpha moving around, but didn’t want to turn to look at him. That would mean moving away from Hannah, and he wasn’t ready to do that yet. Or ever. “If that’s the case, you know what’ll happen,” Samson said gravely.
Hannah lifted her head away from his and Ippy turned in her arms so that he was still against her, but this time his back was against her chest. It was a familiar position for them, especially when they watched a scary movie together,
and her arms came around his instantly as her chin rested on his shoulder. “What will happen?” she asked the adults in the room.
Ippy knew, but he wouldn’t say. He didn’t want that to happen. The men turned toward them and Samson shook his head. “Hannah, we can’t have a homophobic family in the pack. That won’t work. They’ll be sent somewhere else.”
Hannah’s arms tightened around him until he wondered how he was still able to breathe. “No! You can’t take him away from me!” she screamed. Samson stepped forward and Ippy moved back against her as well on the long chaise. Her ankles locked around his feet as he pulled his knees to his chest. They were closing ranks, protecting each other and keeping each other safe. He shook his head, not wanting to leave either. He belonged with Hannah and in two years he would be with both Hannah and Caelum. That was what was supposed to happen. Nothing less than that. He would not be moving to another pack. They couldn’t make him.
“Hannah, you can’t decide that. You aren’t an adult or an alpha and—”
The doorbell rang again and everyone turned their attention to it.
“Did you hear anyone come up?” Liam asked them. Samson shook his head, Travis moved back away from the door. “They must be on foot.” He walked forward and opened the door. Ippy’s mouth fell open as his father, bloody and scratched up from his neck down to his torso, stood there holding what was obviously his broken arm.
“There he is!” he seethed, lumbering toward them.
Ippy’s mind snapped again as soon as his father crossed the threshold into Hannah’s house. His wolf pushed him out of the way and in an instant Hannah went from holding him to having her hands buried in his fur as he growled at the man that had beaten him. He was more in control this time, or at the very least he was more aware. And he lowered his head and snarled at the bloodied man across from him.
“Ippy?” Hannah asked him in a very small, incredibly soft voice. Liam moved behind him and grabbed Hannah, lifting her off the chaise and hiding her behind him as Travis moved beside her, protecting her. Ippy approved of them protecting her from his father, and so did his wolf.
You won’t hit me again, he said, surprised that he could still talk as a wolf. He didn’t know why he bothered, since no one else could hear him aside from Hannah and he hadn’t been trying to talk to her. But the words still felt good to say aloud.
His dad stopped though, his mouth hanging open. “You little shit. You’ve been able to talk this whole time?”
Ippy put his ears back, surprised that his dad had heard him. No one could hear him except for Hannah and Caelum. Samson moved between them, facing his father and blocking Ippy’s view of him.
“Is that right? Did you hit your son?” Samson asked him.
His dad seemed so small next to the alpha. Ippy waited for him to say something, to lie or confess, it didn’t matter though. He wasn’t going back to that house. He knew where home was and who he belonged with. And it wasn’t with his parents.
His dad’s face twisted. “It’s all your fault. Yours and his!” His dad shouted and pointed at Liam.
Samson didn’t falter. “Exactly how did I make you abuse your son?”
“You turned him gay,” his dad replied, his voice dark and dangerous and hurting Ippy’s ears.
Hannah struggled out of her dad’s hold and ran to his side. Her hand was in his fur a minute later and Ippy leaned into her, pressing his shoulder against her leg. “He’s bi, you sick prick. And no one turned him that way. You don’t get turned gay or bi, it’s how you’re born. And he’s perfect, despite what you think. He’s always been perfect, and you are a horrible person for ever thinking otherwise. I hate you.”
“You little brat—”
Ippy growled at him and his father’s words were cut off. You don’t talk to her. You don’t hit me. I’m not your son. Not anymore. I’m home, and it’s not with you…
Samson moved forward, forcing his dad to get back. He stumbled out of the house. “You’re banished from this pack. I don’t care where you go, as long as it’s not here. But when we get done with you I doubt there will be much of you left, and no one within a thousand miles will want to take you into their pack. Gay pack members might not be all that accepted still, but child abusing bastards like yourself carry a black mark wherever they go, and no pack is tolerant of someone like you.”
His dad’s face went pale. “What do you mean by when you get done with me?”
Ippy saw Samson’s shoulders lift in a small shrug. “Everyone in the pack has been told about what you did to your son. I also sent them a mental picture of what he looks like right now. You think I’m upset? Wait until my sister gets hold of you. Or her men. Or anyone else in this pack that cares about Phillip. He’s the weakest of us. He’s an autistic boy who, until tonight, has never spoken to anyone but Hannah and their friend, Caelum. He may not be beloved by all, but he is under our protection, and he is the pack’s son in a way all of the children are. You hurt one of them and you hurt them all. So, in short, you’d better start running, because I can hear them coming for you, and my sister is out for your blood.”
Chapter Four
Ippy was still shaking when the door slammed behind his father. But, as his father’s footsteps could be heard going away from the house, his wolf backed away, letting him come forward. Shifting hurt this time, like really hurt, and he grabbed the blanket as he dashed upstairs to the bathroom and wrapped it around himself. He made it just as the little he’d had to eat that day flew out of his mouth. He washed out his mouth the best that he could before he made sure the blanket was covering him and went downstairs to be with them all.
Hannah was the first to move toward him, quickly wrapping him in her arms and adjusting the blanket around him even though he was a good three inches taller than her. She gave him a smile and he returned it, although his face felt like it didn’t want to smile at all. And he was shaking really badly still.
Samson was the first to speak. “Phillip, have a seat, you look even paler than usual.”
Sitting felt good and he found a place in a corner on the floor. Having walls on either side and Hannah beside him helped. He held his hand palm up to her, offering it to her. She took his hand instantly and gave him a squeeze. “Your wolf rocked, by the way. Why didn’t you tell me you could shift?”
Ippy shrugged. Only just able to tonight.
He looked at the men in the room, hoping that they would have been able to hear him speak. But they looked like they hadn’t heard him anymore than they could have yesterday. Only Hannah nodded.
I guess I still can’t talk to them.
She frowned and rubbed the back of his hand with the one not wrapped around his fingers. “I’m sorry. It’ll be okay, Ippy. Somehow. I promise.”
Don’t lie, he chided her.
Hannah snorted and shook her head. “I’m the daughter of the third in a pack of werewolves. And Evangeline says if I had fur I’d be an alpha. So if I say it’ll be okay, it’s gonna be okay. You got that?”
He gave her a watery smile. Guess there isn’t anything you can’t do. Best friend to a werewolf and a selkie.
“More than friends,” she whispered to him before placing a quick kiss on his cheek.
Ippy looked up at Samson, Travis, and Liam, wondering what they were talking about over in the corner away from them. Even with his hearing, he couldn’t hear them, and that bothered him. But he could hear the howling of the wolves outside. They were getting closer.
Samson lifted his head and glanced outside before looking back at him. “Hannah, Phillip, get upstairs. Now.”
Ippy refused to budge. Is it about my dad?
Hannah moved onto her knees beside him. “Ippy wants to know if it’s about his dad first.”
Samson gave them a hard glare and Ippy got unsteadily to his feet. Even exhausted, he still had to obey Samson when he gave an order like that. He might have been able to ignore the words, though he had wanted
to obey him instantly, but coupled with the glare, Ippy had no choice but to obey him, as much as he didn’t want to in that moment. He wanted to know what was happening, what would be happening, to both him and his family.
Tell them not to kill him, he told Hannah as he got shakily to his feet.
“Ippy says don’t kill his dad,” Hannah said as she got to her feet beside him and started to help him up the stairs.
Liam and Samson were looking at him, both of them wearing sad expressions. He didn’t have to ask what that meant. He slowly nodded and worked his way upstairs with Hannah’s help.
“I can’t promise that, Phillip. I am sorry,” Samson was saying as Hannah closed the door behind them and Ippy went to her bed. He lay down on his side, taking the place he liked most—on the side of the bed that was closest to the window.
Hannah went to her dresser and pulled out a pair of shorts from the top drawer. She threw them to him before turning around and sitting on the edge of the bed. For a long moment he didn’t move, but finally realizing that she wasn’t going to turn back around to face him until he had some clothes on, he put them on.
“Good?” she asked him when he’d stopped moving.
Yes.
He reached for her and played with a strand of her still damp hair as it fell against his fingertips. She lay down next to him, facing him on her bed. “This sucks,” she mumbled into her pillow.
He put his hand between them and she covered it with her own. Yeah.
“I’m sorry your dad did that to you. Can I do a bit of first aid on you? Shane has been teaching me. He’s a decent nurse. Says I’ve got some talent. Too bad I don’t have the patience to deal with people all day like he does.” She smirked and Ippy slowly nodded.
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