Betrayed By You

Ch.44 - Hope Filled Future

I was glad to see Flint happy for the first time in a long time. My brother had ruined a lot of his happiness from training and so many things. So long as Hadley treated him right, I was okay with him. He seemed like a good guy. Ange and I made our pizza, Sam and Luke made theirs, and Hadley and Flint made their pizza. Everything worked out well. Sam and Luke hadn't known that Flint was going to come, let alone that he was bringing his boyfriend. No one seemed shocked that Flint was bi, and I was thankful that no one asked him questions about it. The pizzas went into the oven and one by one they came out.

When we all had our food and went to sit and decide on the movie we rearranged our seating positions. I sat in the chair, Ange on the arm of the chair, Hadley sat on one end of the couch, Luke at the other, Flint between them, and Sam sat at Luke's feet. We made it all work. When the movie was over we started talking about what game to play and Ange spoke up. "I think now's a good time for Duval to bring up something he was talking with me about earlier." And she nodded to me.

"Yesterday I got a call from Flint with a message that I know some of you were waiting for. My brother, Devlin, is dead. While we've all seen him at his worst, I would like those of us who knew him to pick and say one good memory we have of him. We can wait a few minutes and then someone who wants to start can go ahead and we'll go in a circle from there. Hadley, you can go ahead and be excused, obviously, since you didn't know him."

"I do have something to share about him even though I never really knew him. If that's alright."

I smiled, "I'd like that." And we waited for a few minutes so everyone had some time to think. Hadley started.

"Even though, as you know, I never really met him, if it wasn't for Devlin pushing Flint to find other fights I never would have met him."

Angeline smiled at me and Luke took his turn. "Devlin was a little shit, but he did force me to find my place and to really find out more about myself."

"If it wasn't for Devlin I wouldn't have hid behind my computer and gotten my stories written." Sam said, smiling softly.

Angeline looked at me, "If it wasn't for Devlin always pushing me away and making me feel like I had to question everything I wouldn't know how much Duval really meant to me."

I kissed her hand. "My brother and I, before he came to his shifter ability and before I became a werewolf, used to fight in the basement here. It was our bonding time. And really, family game night was something we started and even though he hated it, he always participated because I think he knew how happy it made me."

We looked to Flint. His hands were shaking slightly and I watched Hadley put his hand over them. "If..." He took a deep breath to steady himself. "If it wasn't for Devlin being just who he was and acting all tough and like he was boss I wouldn't be able to control my temper the way I do. I grew up on the streets and I had a bad temper that I couldn't control and then Demeter found me and took me in, but from day one, Devlin treated me like crap. Back when I was a kid I would have fought and everything, but Demeter made me promise never to attack another member of the gang, or anyone, without his permission or without orders to. With Devlin pushing me I had to learn to train myself and find other outlets and just control my anger. I owe him a lot just because of that."

We all sat in silence for a few minutes to remember my brother. Someone that we all knew, but we never really knew all there was to know. "Duval, what was Devlin like before he came into his shifting?" Hadley asked.

"He was kind of troubled, but an average guy for the most part. He never really made friends though, and I think that's what eventually drew him to Demeter. He felt like he was a friend and someone he could trust. Our parents knew that Devlin was going to be a shifter so that's why we fought, but our parents always said it was so we could defend ourselves if something were to happen. We spent time talking about people and our classes and different things. I never really knew what I wanted to do with my life, but back then Devlin actually wanted to help people. He was always watching these medical shows and documentaries. It freaked mom out to no end, but when he came into his shifting he wasn't sure he was going to be able to help people. He became mean and just changed. Part of it was because blood, even the sight, triggered some of his shifting."

"Like how when the moon is close you have issues holding back from changing?" Sam asked.

I nodded. "Exactly like that. Most shifters, when they have strong emotion, shift. For Devlin it was weird. It was like that was never the case because he never had emotional problems. His emotions just never changed, but as soon as he was around fresh blood something in him changed. After that it just got worse. He thought maybe if he saw it through a screen, so we tested it. I was pretty accident prone back then, so we had a live feed camera one day when we were home alone and I got a normal cut for me, but it was enough to trigger a response from him. He just gave up at that point. He went from someone who wanted to help others to someone who was just anger and nothing but."

"He was more than that and you know it, Du." Ange said. "He had his own emotions, but he was blinded by hate for all weres and he disowned the one person who really had faith in him his whole life." Everyone nodded.

Hadley asked, "Is that... Did you propose?" He asked me.

I nodded. "Today." Ange smiled down at me as I spoke.

"Congratulations." Flint said.

Hadley grinned, "Anyone want to celebrate with a toast of our drinks and maybe some of the cookies Flint brought?" We all laughed and Hadley went to the kitchen to get the container of cookies. None of us had ever seemed happier than that night. Our futures, no matter what happened or where we ended up, were full of hope. And so were we.