Shifters; Wrath of Dragons

Prologue; Hope

I stumbled around the darkened buildings. It was almost ten and almost all the businesses were closed. It wasn't that my eyes hadn't adjusted because, thankfully,they had. The stumbling was because I was so freaking hungry. I hadn't eaten for a week. I'd been on my own for a month,since I ran from the social worker. I'd had a good family for ten years. I didn't want a foster home. So,I ran. Deciding to find my real family, I found out where I was found when I was five,and found out who was living there at the time. Then I just had to find out where they were now.

I was approaching a motel when I heard a car behind me and shrunk into the shadows. The van pulled into the motel and parked,then a surprising number of people piled out. Including one I recognized. What the heck was he doing here? He and two other boys and two girls who looked his age spilled out of the van,followed by a woman from the front passenger seat. I sucked in my breath. That was her. I recognized her from her obituary photo. How was she alive? A man got out of the driver's seat and starting talking to the others. Or was he issuing orders? The girl with black shoulder-length hair,who had her hand entwined with one of the boys,spoke back to him,and they seemed to argue for a minute. Then the man threw up his hands in defeat. The woman laughed, and I felt a warm sense of security. I knew that laugh,though I hadn't heard it in ten years. The man walked towards the office. I stayed around the corner of the office and watched as he approached. Outside the office,he stopped and looked around. I pulled back and pressed against the wall, holding my breath. Then,when I heard the door open and close,I breathed again.

After the man left the office,handing a key to one of the boys and walking with the black-haired girl and the woman to one room,while the boys went to another, it was another half hour before I moved. And then,when I was standing outside their room,another five minutes to get my courage up to knock.