𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐞 ⸙

2.58༊*·˚

Liam felt his heartbeat all around his face, around his stinging eyes, and in the cut on his hand. "I had to live with Barry and Jenny." (Or Jenna- I forgot)

The woman furrowed her thin brows. She shook her head with a small wail. "My poor boy. I worried that would happen, but I didn't know if my sister would take you in. I hoped she wouldn't. Anywhere would have been better than there."

Liam looked away when his tears swelled.
Are they really my parents?

His mind was so busy with betrayal, stress, worry, fear, anxiety, and uncertainty. Finding his parents after so long was like the sun peeking through the cracks, but when Liam looked up, they were not how he remembered them, but they had been treated poorly for almost a decade. How could he expect them to be the healthy and bright parents he had once known?

"Tell me something only I would know," he whispered. They both looked at him with such adoration, Liam almost told himself to believe them.

"Do we really look that different?" Sylvia asked with a weak smile.

"He thought we were dead." Spenser's eyes travelled around the cave, stopping on one of the burning torches. "I'm not sure if you'll remember this. I think you were maybe five years old. But um, I took you to a five-kilometre race and you decided to run around with me in your sandals. Together, we came in fourth place. Do you remember? The race organisers were so impressed, they gave you free entry into the rest of the races that year."

Liam's lips curled at the very hazy memory. But still, his mind was being stubborn. "Tell me something else."

Everyone in the Town had heard about that moment. They thought Liam would be a professional runner when he was older, then his parents died, and his world fell apart.

"One year when we went camping, I only remembered to take soup, so we had to eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three whole days."

Liam remembered that very well. "You only brought carrot and coriander soup."

He stared at the uneven floor and the pools of water reflecting the orange flickering of the flames. "It took me years to eat it again."

Spenser and Sylvia both laughed lightly into their sobs, sniffling back their emotion to share more.

"Do you remember when we got home, and I made you pie and chips?" Sylvia beamed. "You ate it so fast and spent the rest of the night lying on the couch, feeling sick."

It was Liam's turn to laugh through his sobs. He brushed his tears from his eyes, but new ones formed.

"I can't believe it.!" He covered his face with his hands, shaking his head. Nobody else would know that. "And it was meant to rain that camping trip, but we went anyway. The sun followed us there and held off the rain until we got back."

"That's right, and we got lost trying to find a shop that sold firelighters because you really wanted to toast some marshmallows."

"And we found a cat pottery shop in the middle of nowhere." Liam's smile then dropped and pouted.

"Aunt Jenny smashed the small cat we bought not long after I moved in." Their faces dropped too. The tall man in between his parents had listened with a fond smile and sad dark eyes. Liam studied them all, and his bottom lip quivered.

"You really are my parents, aren't you?" his voice cracked as his mother and father nodded.

A sudden wave of sorrow soaked him to the bone, and Liam stared to cry. Tears wet his face, his head pounded, his throat clogged, and his body trembled.

"A-All this time, y-you were actually alive. I should've figured it out!" he sobbed, furiously rubbing his eyes, but only crying until he could barely breathe.

His parents cried with him, rubbing their eyes too and trying to get closer to him.

"Oh Liam, my darling. I never thought we would see you again!" His mother reached out as though she could somehow touch him. Her hand returned to her chest and she gripped the dirty t-shirt with a trembling fist.

They all cried together for a while, until the Rogues in the corners got sick of it and growled loudly. Liam straightened up, startled. He had forgotten about them. They blended too well among the shadows.

For a moment, Liam had forgotten he was Mira's prisoner, trapped in a cave that was impossible to leave.

"I understand why we are here now," Spenser said, leaning against the wall of the cave. His face twisted uncomfortably as the jagged rocks poked in his spine. "I guess this is part of Mira's plan, to reunite us all and to watch us suffer together."

Liam watched him speak, saddened by his state. His dad had been a fast runner and was very fit. Now he was skin and bones, covered in scars, and probably very mentally scarred too. Liam pulled on his chain. The only thing that was missing from such a reunion was a bone crushing hug.

He couldn't do much in his chains, only look and believe that he wasn't dreaming. "You said you were brought here almost two years ago."

"Yes. I wonder why Mira took so long to get you here."

"I met Zayn almost two years ago. She might have thought that she could get to me the first time their Pack tried to drive Zayn out of his home."

"And you're Zayn's mate?" Sylvia asked. She cleared her throat, which led to another coughing fit.

Liam had to start thinking of a way out. He had to get them to safety, he had to help them heal. "Yes. I have been his mate for almost two years now. Do you, um, know much about mates?"

"Yes. After working in a Packhouse for seven years, you get to know a lot about the wolves upstairs."

Her eyes were back in the shadows, put Liam felt them changing. "I'm sorry you've been dragged into this awful world."

"It's not awful, w-when the wolves are not fighting."

What would they think of Zayn? Liam already started to worry about them meeting him. First, they had to escape the dreary cave before he could think about their future.

"It used to be quite a peaceful life" the tall guy in the middle said, "until wolves get greedy and want what others have."

Liam crossed his legs, already feeling a little numb on the cold stone floor. A sudden thought came to him about the night his parents died. No, they went missing, they didn't die. Liam almost grinned at the thought. He had wondered what really happened to them for years, and who was responsible. The smallest hope he clung to was that their bodies were never found.

"Are you Harry's father? He went missing that night too."

"Who is Harry?"

"Um..." Liam wanted to say that Harry was his long-term bully who was mated to Zayn's cousin and probably lived a life he didn't deserve in a luxury Packhouse, with a mate who wasn't constantly targeted by enemies. "Who are you? Sorry. I didn't ask before."

The man stopped slouching and shuffled into the light. "This might be a shock to you. My death had witnesses."

His beard wobbled as he spoke, and his dark eyes scanned Liam with intrigue. "I'm Xavier, Zayn's father."