Hello, kittens! I'm back!
September was a pretty hellish time for me with so much work (three weeks with no day off 😭), but I'm getting back to writing and I've got a bunch of surprises for you. Check out yesterday's message on my board to find out about them, but basically: more extras.
(Did you already check out the last one - a Q&A with ten of your favorite characters? Link in the first comment.)
But first surprise: the much-requested Everett's POV!
My chest tightened as I recognized the car parked in front of my home.
The prospect of meeting with my own son should not fill me with dread, shame and self-loathing, but I could never help those sentiments mixing with the anticipation and hope that maybe this would be the day a miracle would happen and Alec would crack open for me the door to his heart.
I knew I'd let him down by not being there for him when he was growing up, but with the Maksimoff's connections, it couldn't have been helped.
I'd had briefly fantasized about kidnapping the child and running away with him, had made plans even, but thankfully, Rhys had caught on to my intentions and had prevented the disaster.
And a disaster my desperate attempt would've been.
Even if I'd managed to sneak into the Maksimoff mansion - an almost impossible task on its own - I would've never succeeded to leave there with Alec.
I would've been caught, all my parental rights stripped from me and I would've never been allowed anywhere near my son again.
So I'd stuck to the meager visiting hours the court had allowed me after giving custody of Alec to Anastasiya. They'd been too few and far in between for me and by the betrayed expression in my toddler son's eyes, I could see he'd craved more too.
A betrayed expression that had later been replaced with anger whenever his pale eyes had landed on me and then with complete indifference when he hadn't run away from me on the days I'd gone to see him.
My heart clenched, my knuckles going white over the steering wheel.
I hated myself for not having managed to do more.
What kind of a father was I, not being able to provide my son with the love he needed and deserved?
A pathetic, helpless being when I should've been strong for him.
No father at all...
The words rang out in my head and I had to fight tears of shame.
But Alec was here today.
Not because of me, but because of my beloved Ollie: my little bundle of joy to whom I could be a real father.
My ray of warm hope that through him, I could maybe connect to my older child.
I wished that hope had been all that filled my chest, but there was fear too, and that fear was my other source of shame; why was I unable to trust my elder son?
He'd given me plenty of reasons - picking up fights with my pack, including our own family, and risking exposing us to humans, to name a couple - but I desperately wished I could trust him that he didn't want to cause us real harm; that I wasn't scared that one day - out of a whim or as a part of him acting out - he'd cause real, irreparable damage to other people I loved.
I wished... But I couldn't be sure.
Ever since Ollie came along, Alec had seemed more thoughtful of us, more careful with his actions because he was afraid of putting Ollie in harm's way, but...
But I still couldn't trust him, and it made me fester from the inside.
As I drove closer and closer to my home, the dark sensations intensified, leaving only a tiny flicker of hope that today things would be better.
I parked my car behind Alec's, taking in long breaths to calm myself. With a shaking, sweaty hand, I reached for the handle of my front door, scents of cooking and voices assaulting my senses as I entered. I strained to hear Alec, but instead, it was Vika's casual inflection - "Soccer, right?" - that first reached my ears, followed by Kennedy's cheerful tone as he replied:
"Yep. Billy is our second-best player... After me."
The flame of hope shone a little brighter at the lack of tension in their voices and I managed to walk into my living room with a steady step. My eyes immediately landed on my two boys, Ollie once again having sought his brother's proximity and Alec preventing the toddle from climbing all over him with a gentle grip on the younger boy.
My heart skipped a beat at what would've been a charming display of sibling affection if not for the flat look in Alec's eyes; a look that I had no doubt had taken over once he'd realized I'd returned home.
The flame of hope quivered and died out.
With a resigned sigh, I walked further into the room, giving Lisa what I hoped passed for a reassuring kiss on the cheek before stopping a few feet away from my sons.
"I think it's time for us to go," Kennedy said, getting up and Horace immediately followed suit.
"Ring the house or stop by later, okay, bro?" My youngest sibling added as he headed the way I'd just came.
"Thank you for the apples," Horace said to Lisa, then nodded a greeting - and a goodbye - to me before hurrying off to catch up to Kennedy.
"How about I help you with dinner, Lisa?" Vika also got up and my wife - taking the hint without missing a beat - beamed at her.
"That would be great. Thank you, Vika."
Lisa stepped forward, then reached down to pull Ollie away from Alec. Our son let out a cry in protest and wriggled into his mom's embrace, trying to get back to the floor where his brother was.
"Now, now." I placed a hand on the toddler's head. "You go with your mom. You can play with your brother some other time."
Ollie quieted under my touch but turned his gaze to Alec to listen to his input. The elder boy didn't speak, simply inclining his head in the general direction of the kitchen and that was enough for Ollie; he swiveled into Lisa's arms and began to toy with her brown hair. My wife gave me an apprehensive glance before braving up and placing a smile on her face.
"Let's go then."
With those words she led Vika out of the room, leaving Alec and me alone.
My son was still sitting on the floor. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, wondering if I should join him or claim a spot on the couch instead.
Wondering if I should speak first or let him set the tempo and steer the conversation to whatever he'd come here to say.
I was the adult.
I should have the answers.
I should know what to do...
But I felt so terribly lost, so awfully powerless in Alec's presence.
Before I could decide on my next move, Alec got up and faced me, his eyes cold as they landed on me.
"I won't beat around the bush. I can shift."
My brain froze and I couldn't make out the words.
I'd heard them clearly, but their meaning was so incomprehensible that I had to have imagined them.
I licked my lips, my voice rasping at I stumbled over my next words:
"Come again?"
"I can shift." He took a single step towards me, chin raised. "I have a wolf form."
"You... You what?"
There it was again.
I'd heard it, as clear as a cloudless sky, but my mind refused to make sense of it.
My son sighed in frustration.
"I know you aren't exactly the brightest bulb out there, dad, but what is it that you don't get? How can I be more straight-forward than 'I can shift'?"
My knees gave out and I fell to the edge of the couch.
"You... How? How long?" I managed to mutter.
"All my life, really." His careless shrug was in stark contrast to the sharp tone he used.
My son could shift...
My half-breed son had a wolf form...
Like me.
My heart beat so fast and loud, I half expected Lisa to run into the room and demand to know what was going on.
"Just ask Riley if you don't believe me," Alec threw in. I'd been staring at the wall, but I blinked rapidly, my gaze returning to him.
"Riley? What does he have to do with it?"
"He saw me last summer." Alec snickered. "In your precious woods."
My world spun, making me dizzy.
Nausea came over as I remembered how terrified we'd been last year by the unknown shifter killing humans so near our territory, how horrified we'd been that one of our pack would be the next to lose their life...
And then Riley had seen a wolf.
One who had been on our ground, but hadn't been part of our pack.
One whose scent no one recognized, and who'd elevated our dread further as we'd thought the murderer had managed to breach our borders.
And that wolf had been Alec.
He'd known the panic his appearance would bring and yet appeared he'd had.
"How..." My voice cracked, the unshed tears from before brimming at my eyelids. "How could you do this to us?"
He stared coolly down at me, giving me no response.
"To the pack... To your family." My voice rose and so did I. "We are your family, Alec. Love us or not, we are."
My chest heaved, tears falling down.
"Even if you didn't think of me... Your grandmother. Your grandfather. Your uncles. You let everyone think an enemy was here to kill us. And for what?" I shouted the question. "Because you... Hate me so much?"
My voice fell at the last question. Alec's was low and even:
"Don't flatter yourself. I didn't do it for you; I was just bored."
"Bored?" I croaked out and this time I simply slumped to the floor, not minding the pain when my body crashed against the hard surface.
"Bored..." I whispered, snot mixing with tears on my face.
My son had lived his whole life keeping something so important, so vital, all to himself, and then he'd risk exposing it out of boredom... He'd risked and managed to throw into chaos my pack - my family and close friends - out of boredom.
Boredom.
Boredom, boredom, boredom...
Was Alec really so selfish?
So cruel?
Was there really no hope that one day we could be a real family?
I felt him move.
I knew he was leaving.
But I couldn't look up and face him, my eyes staring sightlessly at the floor.
"Tell them," Alec said, now from behind me, his words cryptic enough for me to try to focus on him.
He was standing under the doorframe, his back to me, but face turned sideways, something akin to a hint of remorse coloring his features.
"You don't have to keep what I told you a secret. Tell the pack. I'm registering tomorrow, so they'd find out anyway."
With those words, he left me broken on the floor; with those words, with his permission to speak instead of condemning me to chose between him and my pack, he gave me hope.
Thoughts on Everett's POV?
Was it as good as you hoped it would be?
Did it change your opinion of him in any way?
Do you see Alec's parting words as taking pity on/showing affection to Everett or do you think the werewolf's hope is in vain?
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