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Chapter 22 - The Present Still Has Surprises (Kaden POV)

A/N: NOT EDITED. Not a new update. Got home and a good amount of people PM'ed me saying they couldn't see the chapter so I reupdated. sorry.

Chapter 22 - The Present Still Has Surprises (Kaden POV)

"Was this what I looked like when I learned I could share what I saw with everyone?" Sawyer slinked over to me at the grill, my dad and Jace outside with Cain as well.

We weren't a happy perfect little family, but my family had acted like my family.

 Something that I'm not sure but it felt amazing, liberating that for once I was this guy, I had my beautiful wife and children, hosting for my family. We had done this so many times for new pack members, for strangers but for now, I was doing it for mine.

"Ha - ha," I muttered dryly but the smile was still fighting it's way out. "No, it's good," Sawyer said seriously placing the raw meat on the side sitting at the table her chin on her fists.

"So... who's going to bust out with stories about dad?" her eyes filled with mirth I couldn't help but throw my head back laughing at her. "I mean... come on... I can do math..." she references her own age.

"So you were adopted?" my father asks her seriously.

A smile on her face she nods, "Yeah - mom and dad, they adopted us when we were babies, I mean well they thought they did but you guys are gonna love them," Sawyer spoke freely and I could feel my brothers and fathers eyes on me.

"You were adopted by shifters?" I could hear the disbelief in his voice. Sawyer and Tristan, Emerson and Smith, while they couldn't exactly pass for Caucasian, they all took strongly after me. Sawyer, while we thought she looked like Etta, there was a strong resemblance to my mother.

"Uhm, nope, humans," Sawyer shrugged.

My family - well their eyes all widened - "What?"

Sawyer nodded, "Yeah... we - well I - were sort of different, like I could smell and hear very well by the time I was seven. I used to do this strange thing like I'd smell the air, and I'd tell people what I scented. Mom and dad they hated it, said it was weird, but then dad and mom found us, and the first day we met Ree and Morgan, dad said he smelled them like us. Anyways the rest is history."

"You have contact with these-"

"Their names are Katherine and Donovan Bradley," I offered, no longer housing any animosity for them, and not wanting my family to show any prejudices either. "Yeah we have contact, I talk to mom and dad nearly everyday, they take vacation with us all the time. Dad flies them out twice a month too," Sawyer says her tone happy and I'm reminded of why we - Etta and I - allowed contact to continue even though we would've been well in our rights to cease that.

Not sensing the change in the family, Sawyer stands and goes inside, and placing the meat up, I take her spot. "You've been quite busy," My father states, Cain nods, Jace well his opinion no longer matters to me. There was a time when I was a young boy where everything he did seemed cool, and I couldn't wait to be just like him, until everything happened and I learnt better.