Hanna’s parents called her down for dinner, and she took a deep breath. She’d been putting this off, making excuses to herself, but she was just being a coward.
Her father and mother’s anger had cooled over time, but she was still grounded. Sneaking out to Maggie’s birthday party hadn’t helped either. That was yet another excuse to put off this conversation, to let things die down after that. Her parents had been furious when she got home.
Hanna thought it was worth it to be able to spend time with her friends outside school. To see her packmates having a good time, even if Carter barely left her side all night.
Every step down the stairs made her heat pound harder. Don’t be a coward. You can do this.
The rich smells of beef and onion filled the dining room, but Hanna’s appetite had retreated. “Father, Mother…” They looked up and she almost lost her nerve. “I’d like my phone back, please.” They’d taken it away before summer vacation and had kept it ever since.
Their eyes narrowed. “Have you stopped hanging out with those mutts?” Mother asked.
Fear warred with protectiveness. And anger too. She held on to that anger, balling her fists. “They’re not mutts. They’re my pack.” Don’t look away. It took all her bravery, but she met their gazes and announced, “I’m their alpha.”
The shocked look on their faces made her stomach flip with nervousness, but God, it felt good too. They stood and exchanged a glance.
“You can’t be an alpha to a ghoul and a vampire,” her father said.
“Yes I can.” A rush filled her and she lifted her chin. “You wanted me to be dominant. To be strong. Well, now I am.”
Clenching her jaw, her mother came around the table. They were the same height, and her mother looked Hanna straight in the eyes, trying to make her back down. “Wolves do not lead ghouls. They’re disgusting, lowly, human-flesh-eating things.”
“Carter and Jamila are people, and they’re nice, and they’re my friends.” Hanna didn’t know what had come over her, but she liked it. She tried to ignore the little voice that said she was digging her own grave.
“The damn treaty,” her father grumbled. “Throwing us all together like this.” He glanced over at her mother. “She spends every day at school with them. Of course she thinks they’re normal.” To Hanna he said, “At the end of the year, we’ll get you out of here and set you straight.”
She hadn’t given that a lot of thought. Once she was certified, she’d be stuck with just her parents and their old pack from before they moved to Shadow Valley. No friends, no one else to talk to. No school to escape to.
Her father put a hand on her shoulder. “Things will get better. There are boys other than Conner and his friends.”
He meant werewolf boys, the ones who were a few years older and had graduated already. Hanna felt the walls closing in. “What about college?” That would at least give her four years of escape.
“Of course you can go if you’d like,” her mother said. “You’re a smart girl. I’ve always thought you’d go.”
Her father nodded. “It will do you some good, help you learn how to fit into the mundane human world. It’s going to be very different out there, hiding what you are.”
Her mother sighed. “I’ve almost forgotten what it was like. It’s going to be quite an adjustment.”
Trapped between her parents and the mundane world. It sounded awful.
Unless she tried to make it on her own. Hanna took a step back from them. “I’m not going to stop being their alpha. Not until I’m certified at least.” Her parents’ faces turned hard again. “Nothing you say or do is going to stop me.” She tried to keep the tremble out of her voice and failed. “I’ve done everything else you wanted. Obeyed you, got good grades in school—”
“This all began when you started hanging out with that fae kid,” her father growled.
“No,” she growled back. “It started when I stopped letting Connor hit me!”
They blinked at her.
“Hanna…” Her mother reached out.
Hanna took a step back, shaking her head. Fear and anger tied her stomach in knots. “You were supposed to protect me. Did you really not notice, or did you let—” She couldn’t even finish, and she couldn’t stop the tears stinging her eyes.
“No.” Was that regret in her father’s eyes, or did she only wish it? “We didn’t know. I made the boy sorry for it, didn’t I?” He’d beaten Conner in front of the pack when Hanna told him Conner hit her sometimes.
“Aiden was nice to me. Dylan was nice to me.” And yet those were the boys her parents disapproved of.
“You’ll find nice boys among your own kind,” her mother said.
Hanna wanted to argue that, but she would rather finish her point. “My pack is nice to me. They need me, and I’m not going to abandon them because you don’t like them.” She didn’t want to talk to her parents anymore, didn’t even want to look at them right now. She suddenly felt so tired. “You can keep my phone. I don’t care.” Hanna left the dining room and headed for the stairs.
Once back in the relative safety of her room, she flopped on the bed and told herself not to cry.
Ten minutes later her father knocked on the door. Expecting more lecturing or yelling, she opened the door warily. Without a word, her father gave Hanna her phone.
* * *
“How was school today?” Mom asked.
“Fine.” There’d been no drama today, although Aiden was worried about the upcoming test in Advanced Spellcraft. He and Maggie should probably set up study time together. “How was work?”
“Busy,” she said with a little sigh. “But at least it made the day—night—go fast.”
His parents had mostly adjusted to the night schedule of Shadow Valley, going to work in the late afternoon and getting home in the middle of the night.
Whenever he thought about it, a pang of guilt went through him. And it was much more than changing schedules. They’d given up everything to take him to Shadow Valley—their home, their jobs, their friends.
Aiden poked at his chicken breast. “Do you hate it here?”
“Aiden…,” Dad started in a gentle tone. “Don’t start blaming yourself again.”
“You could’ve died when the dark fae came after me.” Over half a year had passed, but Aiden still thought about it almost every day.
“That’s not your fault,” Dad said.
“You could have died,” Mom said. “We were all in danger.”
Because Dylan let Morgan out of Faery, and Morgan let the other dark fae out. Aiden wasn’t sure why he could feel guilty about this and yet not blame Dylan.
Dad reached over to grip his hand. “You saved us.”
“You were so brave.” Mom took his other hand. “You and Dylan and Tiago.”
Another flutter of guilt went through Aiden for a very different reason. His parents dealt with so much, had to accept so many things about him, he didn’t want to give them yet another thing to deal with. “How can you handle all this magic and danger and stuff? I can barely handle it myself.” Aiden went to the school counselor once a week to talk through his problems.
Mom and Dad exchanged a look. Mom said, “We do the best we can. This is our life now, all of us.” She squeezed his hand.
“We’re here for you, Aiden,” Dad said. “Never forget that. We might not understand everything that’s going on in your life, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want you to talk about it.”
Do you want me to talk about how I like boys as much as girls? That I’m dating Tiago? The guilt was sharper now. He knew they meant it, knew they would love him no matter what. They’d proved that when they gave up their lives for his sake.
But secretly, maybe deep down where they didn’t even want to admit it to themselves, Aiden feared his parents were disappointed with him. That they desperately wished for their real son, their human son, and not Aiden the freak. Aiden the changeling. Aiden the trouble magnet.
Aiden the bisexual.
“I know,” he said. “I just wish… that you had a better life.” A normal life with a normal son. Maybe he could find a way to give them that after he graduated. Aiden’s birth parents were somewhere in Faery with the human boy they’d switched Aiden for. My brother. What if he could bring him home?
That might make up for everything Aiden had put his parents through.
And Aiden could ask his birth parents what was wrong with him, why they’d wanted to get rid of him.
For about the thousandth time, it was on the tip of his tongue to ask Mom and Dad what they thought, if they lay awake at night wondering where their real son was, if he was safe and happy.
Did a human boy feel as out of place in Faery as Aiden did here?
Mom got up and hugged Aiden. He shifted in the chair, hugging her back. “We have a good life. We love you, Aiden.”
“And we’re so proud of you,” Dad said.
“I love you too.” Aiden knew he was really lucky to have parents like this. His fae parents could have dropped him off with anyone, people who hurt him or neglected him. Like poor Tiago. Aiden’s heart hurt whenever he thought of the abuse his boyfriend had suffered.
Or Aiden could have ended up with parents who freaked out when they discovered he wasn’t human, and he would’ve had to go to Shadow Valley all alone.
“You’re the best parents, you know that?”
Mom squeezed him and Dad reached over to take his hand again. “And you’re the best son,” he said.
After a moment, Mom said, “We should finish before everything gets cold.”
Aiden looked at his dinner. If his parents really were okay with his magic… “Want me to make the broccoli taste like chocolate?”
Dad pushed his plate over, laughing. “Please.”