“Things changed when I was nine. That’s when my sister was born.”
A sister….? “Nicole.”
Liam nodded. “You know how your siblings are supposed to annoy the shit out of you just because that’s how life works?”
“As you may remember, I tried to kill my brother earlier today.”
“We never felt that way with Nicole. She had Alex and I tied around her tiny little finger the moment we walked into the hospital room and first saw her angry red face.” He laughed silently at the memory. “Mom said she was furious at having been born. She apparently liked the womb a little too much. Mom finally agreed to induce labor when it was two and a half weeks after her due date and she still hadn’t made an appearance.
“At first, everything was fine, but when she was six months old we got a visit from some Alpha Pack Seers. Dad had sent me and Alex to our bedrooms, but we snuck out into the hall to eavesdrop. I didn’t understand much of what they were talking about, I was just a kid and they were talking about grown-up stuff, but I got the general idea of it. They wanted to take Nicole back to the Den with them. I didn’t know at the time that was the standard procedure when a girl is born to Shifter parents.”
“It is?” I hadn’t heard that before. All Alex ever told me about female Shifters is they never make it to adulthood because the Change is too much for their body to handle. “All of them?”
“Initially, yes. Actually, parents are supposed to take their female daughters before the Alpha Pack immediately following birth. The ones who don’t show any signs of carrying the Shifter gene are sent home, but the others…” Liam rubbed a hand over his hair. “They say they’re trying to find a way to save them. Most parents let them go without much of a fight because they want to save their kid, and if they can’t, then it’s better to not have grown too attached, right?”
“They seriously just leave their babies with those psychos?” Even if I hadn’t known Sarvarna was completely unhinged, I don’t think I would be able to just walk off and leave my baby with someone else. And I couldn’t imagine it would take anyone more than a few seconds with the Alpha Female to realize she shouldn’t be trusted with a goldfish, let alone a baby.
“It’s the way things have been for as long as anyone remembers. When a Shifter gets married there is this blessing everyone puts in their wedding cards and stuff. It says, ‘May your days together be many and blessed, and may your children be born male. And should you have a daughter, may she See with the eyes of God.’”
“You are one seriously messed up group of people.”
Liam actually turned his head and looked at me. “You don’t even know the half of it.”
“So tell me the rest. Did your parents let them take Nicole back to Romania?”
“No. They thanked the Seers for their time and concern, but Mom told them she Saw Nicole’s future, and it was as a Seer, not a Shifter.”
“She lied.” Because I had seen Nicole in her wolf form and knew better.
“She lied, and the Seers didn’t know any different, so they left. My parents thought that would be the end of it until Nicole actually Changed, but they underestimated the Alphas.”
“They came back?”
Liam shook his head, his normal scowl replaced by something a lot more heartbreaking. “Christine, the Alpha Female, called a few times and expressed her concern, but Mom always brushed her off. Then, just before Nicole’s fourth birthday, Mom had a vision.
“Future Seeing isn’t always clear-cut. The Seers get a bit of this or that, but never any context or timeline. Mom wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but she knew the Alpha Pack would be coming back for Nicole. She got really over-protective, always wanting to know where we all were and what we were doing. I was thirteen, which isn’t the most intelligent time in a guy’s life, and thought she was being crazy. So, when she told me to stay at home with the doors locked and watch my siblings, I didn’t listen.”
I did not like where this was going.
“I had a girlfriend at the time. Her name was Elyse, and I thought she was the love of my life. When she called and asked me to meet her at the gas station down the road from our house, I went and took Alex and Nicole with me. I didn’t want to seem uncool, so I made them stay on the sidewalk out front while Elyse and I made out around the corner.
“I had only been Changing for about a year and a half, but my senses have always been sharper than a normal human. I heard the car turn onto the street and something inside me just knew what was going to happen. I ran as fast as I could, but I was too late to save them both.” Liam’s voice shook. I continued to look at the night sky, allowing him to have his moment. “They called it a hit and run, but it was a murder. I saw the driver. I smelled him. A Shifter ran over my baby sister on purpose, and then drove off, leaving her bloody body on the side of the street.
“After we buried her, we moved. We weren’t allowed to tell anyone where we were going or say good-bye. To the citizens of Provost, we were there one day and disappeared the next. In reality, we just relocated off the grid. Shifters tend to like places with small populations, but our new place was miles from civilization. We weren’t allowed to have Internet or go to school. Mom taught us from books she borrowed from the library while Dad kept taking off on ‘business trips’. Sometimes his ‘business partners’ would come to the house for meetings. They were all Shifters.”
“Were they part of the Alpha Pack?” I asked.
Liam snorted at the thought. “Exact opposite, actually.”
“What’s the opposite of the Alphas?”
“Shifters who want to bring the Alpha Pack to their knees.” He seemed to consider what he said for a moment before adding, “And then cut off their heads.”
Well, that was pretty opposite. “So, you’re talking about a rebellion.”
“Exactly. My parents went from being Potentials to becoming the leaders of the group secretly plotting to overthrow the Alphas.”
“And the Alphas found out?”
“I don’t know… maybe. Or maybe they were just too worried about how powerful our little family Pack was becoming. Mom was the strongest Seer other than the Alpha Female in the world, Dad was beyond Dominant, I was following in his footsteps, and Alex could See and Change. Either way, we were a threat.”