Liam shook his head and took a deep breath before continuing. “It was a Tuesday. I knew something was up. Mom had a vision the day before, and they had been acting weird ever since. They kept hugging us and giving us these you know we love you talks, but since Nicole’s death they did that every once in a while. That night, though, the talk went on for a long time, and before it was over they were talking about things like revenge and tempting destiny.
“In my gut, I knew something was very wrong, but they were my parents. I trusted them, so I didn’t ask any questions when they gave us each a backpack and loaded us into the back of a delivery truck. They made me memorize an address in the United States and told us they would meet us there in a week.
“They died that night.”
My heart ached for the boy Liam had been. “If they knew what was coming, why didn’t they leave too?”
“I don’t know.” I knew that note in his voice. It was grief, pain, and confusion. They were old, dear friends of mine.
“Maybe they did,” I ventured. “Maybe they’re out there and just don’t know how to find you--”
“No. They’re dead.” Liam reached into his pocket and pulled out an old, tattered piece of folded up paper. “This is my parents’ farewell letter. I found it in my backpack that night, but didn’t really believe it until Alex woke up in the middle of the night, covered in sweat, and choking on smoke from hundreds of miles away.” He turned the note over and over in his hand. “That night Christopher and Bryce died. In our backpacks we had new IDs with names to remind me of everything I had lost, everyone I let die. William became Liam. Alexandria, Alex. Nicole’s name we both carried with us. They made sure I would never forget the people I failed to save.”
He wasn’t being melodramatic. He actually believed it.
“I don’t think that was their intention. No one would blame you, especially not your parents.”
He acted like he hadn’t even heard me. “You know the last thing my mom said to me? She said, ‘Take care of your brother. It’s his destiny to follow his heart, but it’s your job to protect him.’ And I tried. God, I tried.” Liam pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers. “I failed him, too. My whole family is dead because I couldn’t protect them.”
No wonder he was so grouchy all the time. I would be mad at the world if my whole family was dead, too. “Your family is dead because the Alpha Pack is a bunch of corrupt, power hungry monsters.”
Liam cut his eyes towards me. “Yeah. Well, that too.”
“So you’ve been on your own since you were what? Fifteen?”
“Fourteen. Some of the other ‘rebels’ looked after us for a bit, but we didn’t stay any one place too long. I had trouble quelling my Dominant instincts, and no matter what someone’s intention might be, adults have trouble submitting to a kid.”
“And you couldn’t just submit to someone else for a little while?”
“Could you?”
I thought about it. “Not now.”
“Once I could drive, it wasn’t a big deal. Actually, it worked out really well because we roamed all over the place trying to find other Shifters who might be sympathetic to our cause. That’s what we were doing in Kentucky. We heard there was a large Pack of strong Shifters there who kept to themselves more than normal. We thought maybe it was because they were less than sold on the whole Alpha Supremacy thing, so we came to see if we could worm our way into their good graces and find out where their loyalties truly were.”
“And they were receptive?”
“No. Not at all.”
“So why did you stay so long?”
Liam tilted his head skyward. “You.”
Something happened inside my chest. It was as if my heart tried to swell and constrict at the same moment. It was an altogether unpleasant sensation.
“Me? Because of Alex?”
This time, Liam didn’t just look at the landscape stretching out in front of us, but turned his head completely away from me. “Partially.”
“And the other part?”
“Do you remember the first time we met? It was at that burger stand down by the lake.”
Some people you have to meet four or five times before you start to remember them. Liam Cole was not one of those people. I could remember every moment of our first encounter at The Strip, from his insulting stare to his threats against me and my family.
“Seems to ring a bell.”
“I knew right then we couldn’t just leave.” He wasn’t looking over his left shoulder anymore, but he wasn’t exactly looking at me either. “The way you smelled, I had only smelled it on one other person in my life.” He took a deep breath, and this time decided to shift his gaze to the stars. “You smelled like Nicole.”
“What do you…?” The pieces slid together slowly in my head. “You mean, you could tell I was a Shifter?”
“I knew you had the potential to be one. I’ve met two of the other female Shifters, and you didn’t smell like them. They had a stronger, more demanding scent. And there is this whole aura of power other Shifters have--”
“I’ve noticed that.”
“You didn’t have that then. There was just this faint scent layer underneath your normal smell. It was like a ghost of a smell, barely perceptible.”
“So, it wasn’t something that happened the night--” I stopped myself before saying, “the night Alex died.” It was getting easier for me to accept, but saying it in front of Liam seemed callous and mean. “I’ve always been a Shifter.”
“Honestly, Scout, I have no idea. I think you’ve always had the potential to be a Shifter, but something happened that night to trigger it. And before you ask: No, I don’t know why the potential was there. Your dad isn’t a Shifter. It shouldn’t have been possible. And I don’t know what caused you to Change either. Maybe it was your connection to Alex, or maybe it was something the Hagans did. I don’t know, so don’t ask.”
I closed an imaginary zipper over my lips, turned an imaginary lock, and threw away an imaginary key.
“It wasn’t until you Changed that Toby began to understand the threat of the Alphas,” he continued.
“Just Toby? What about the rest of the Hagans?”