Fate Succumbs (11 page)

“
And the Alphas found
out?”

“
I don’t know… maybe. Or
maybe they were just too worried about how powerful our little
family Pack was becoming. Mom was the strongest Seer other than the
Alpha Female in the world, Dad was beyond Dominant, I was following
in his footsteps, and Alex could See and Change. Either way, we
were a threat.”

Liam shook his head and
took a deep breath before continuing. “It was a Tuesday. I knew
something was up. Mom had a vision the day before, and they had
been acting weird ever since. They kept hugging us and giving us
these
you know we love you
talks, but since Nicole’s death they did that
every once in a while. That night, though, the talk went on for a
long time, and before it was over they were talking about things
like revenge and tempting destiny.

“
In my gut, I knew
something was very wrong, but they were my parents. I trusted them,
so I didn’t ask any questions when they gave us each a backpack and
loaded us into the back of a delivery truck. They made me memorize
an address in the United States and told us they would meet us
there in a week.

“
They died that
night.”

My heart ached for the boy Liam had been.
“If they knew what was coming, why didn’t they leave too?”

“
I don’t know.” I knew that
note in his voice. It was grief, pain, and confusion. They were
old, dear friends of mine.

“
Maybe they did,” I
ventured. “Maybe they’re out there and just don’t know how to find
you--”

“
No. They’re dead.” Liam
reached into his pocket and pulled out an old, tattered piece of
folded up paper. “This is my parents’ farewell letter. I found it
in my backpack that night, but didn’t really believe it until Alex
woke up in the middle of the night, covered in sweat, and choking
on smoke from hundreds of miles away.” He turned the note over and
over in his hand. “That night Christopher and Bryce died. In our
backpacks we had new IDs with names to remind me of everything I
had lost, everyone I let die. William became Liam. Alexandria,
Alex. Nicole’s name we both carried with us. They made sure I would
never forget the people I failed to save.”

He wasn’t being melodramatic. He actually
believed it.

“
I don’t think that was
their intention. No one would blame you, especially not your
parents.”

He acted like he hadn’t even heard me. “You
know the last thing my mom said to me? She said, ‘Take care of your
brother. It’s his destiny to follow his heart, but it’s your job to
protect him.’ And I tried. God, I tried.” Liam pinched the bridge
of his nose between two fingers. “I failed him, too. My whole
family is dead because I couldn’t protect them.”

No wonder he was so grouchy all the time. I
would be mad at the world if my whole family was dead, too. “Your
family is dead because the Alpha Pack is a bunch of corrupt, power
hungry monsters.”

Liam cut his eyes towards me. “Yeah. Well,
that too.”

“
So you’ve been on your own
since you were what? Fifteen?”

“
Fourteen. Some of the
other ‘rebels’ looked after us for a bit, but we didn’t stay any
one place too long. I had trouble quelling my Dominant instincts,
and no matter what someone’s intention might be, adults have
trouble submitting to a kid.”

“
And you couldn’t just
submit to someone else for a little while?”

“
Could you?”

I thought about it. “Not now.”

“
Once I could drive, it
wasn’t a big deal. Actually, it worked out really well because we
roamed all over the place trying to find other Shifters who might
be sympathetic to our cause. That’s what we were doing in Kentucky.
We heard there was a large Pack of strong Shifters there who kept
to themselves more than normal. We thought maybe it was because
they were less than sold on the whole Alpha Supremacy thing, so we
came to see if we could worm our way into their good graces and
find out where their loyalties truly were.”

“
And they were
receptive?”

“
No. Not at
all.”

“
So why did you stay so
long?”

Liam tilted his head skyward. “You.”

Something happened inside my chest. It was
as if my heart tried to swell and constrict at the same moment. It
was an altogether unpleasant sensation.

“
Me? Because of
Alex?”

This time, Liam didn’t just look at the
landscape stretching out in front of us, but turned his head
completely away from me. “Partially.”

“
And the other
part?”

“
Do you remember the first
time we met? It was at that burger stand down by the
lake.”

Some people you have to meet four or five
times before you start to remember them. Liam Cole was not one of
those people. I could remember every moment of our first encounter
at The Strip, from his insulting stare to his threats against me
and my family.

“
Seems to ring a
bell.”

“
I knew right then we
couldn’t just leave.” He wasn’t looking over his left shoulder
anymore, but he wasn’t exactly looking at me either. “The way you
smelled, I had only smelled it on one other person in my life.” He
took a deep breath, and this time decided to shift his gaze to the
stars. “You smelled like Nicole.”

“
What do you…?” The pieces
slid together slowly in my head. “You mean, you could tell I was a
Shifter?”

“
I knew you had the
potential to be one. I’ve met two of the other female Shifters, and
you didn’t smell like them. They had a stronger, more demanding
scent. And there is this whole aura of power other Shifters
have--”

“
I’ve noticed
that.”

“
You didn’t have that then.
There was just this faint scent layer underneath your normal smell.
It was like a ghost of a smell, barely perceptible.”

“
So, it wasn’t something
that happened the night--” I stopped myself before saying,
“the night Alex died.”
It
was getting easier for me to accept, but saying it in front of Liam
seemed callous and mean. “I’ve always been a Shifter.”

“
Honestly, Scout, I have no
idea. I think you’ve always had the potential to be a Shifter, but
something happened that night to trigger it. And before you ask:
No, I don’t know why the potential was there. Your dad isn’t a
Shifter. It shouldn’t have been possible. And I don’t know what
caused you to Change either. Maybe it was your connection to Alex,
or maybe it was something the Hagans did. I don’t know, so don’t
ask.”

I closed an imaginary zipper over my lips,
turned an imaginary lock, and threw away an imaginary key.

“
It wasn’t until you
Changed that Toby began to understand the threat of the Alphas,” he
continued.

“
Just Toby? What about the
rest of the Hagans?”

“
Jase, Charlie, and Talley
are obviously pro-rebellion, but the others don’t know anything
about it. After Alex died, I asked Toby to hide me as payback for
the unlawful death of my brother. It’s one of those Shifter customs
dating back to the dawn of time but nobody ever really remembers or
uses. I was a little worried he would refuse, but in the end he
agreed.

“
To keep my whereabouts
secret, we decided to only tell Charlie and Jase. They were both so
shattered by what happened they wanted to repay me however they
could. At first, we were just going to try to figure out a way to
join the rebellion without causing Toby to have to face a dozen
different Challenges for Pack Leader, but then you Changed and so
did our priorities.”

“
You knew they would come
after me.”

“
You’re a female Shifter.
There is no way they would let you live.”

Goosebumps broke out over my arms.

“
There is something I don’t
get,” I said, mulling over the whole Cole-Hagan relationship. “Why
didn’t Toby Challenge you when you first moved into their
Territory? That’s how it normally works, right? Did he just meet
you and realize there was no way he could take you down?” That
didn’t really sound like Toby, whose cocky arrogance might have
been more annoying if it hadn't been hard-earned, but since neither
he nor Liam was dead, something had to have happened.

“
Not exactly.” When he
didn’t elaborate I prodded. “Then what exactly was it?”

“
I convinced them I was
part of the Alpha Pack.”

Here’s the thing, if I didn’t know any
better, I would assume Liam was part of the Alpha Pack myself. He’s
the sort of person even normal people who have no clue about
supernaturals would steer clear because of his animalistic
personality. As a Shifter, it was even more pronounced. The amount
of power radiating off of him even under the new moon was
overpowering. I had been in the same room with the Alpha Male, and
I wasn’t sure which - Stefan or Liam - was actually more Dominant.
So, I could have just left it alone, assumed that was all there was
to the story. But the way he said it, as if he was embarrassed and
wanted to let it drop, made certain I wouldn’t do that.

“
How?”

“
How what?”

Ha! He was hiding something. “How did you
convince Toby you were part of the Alpha Pack?”

I thought he was going to ignore me, but
then he did something totally unexpected. He unbuttoned his
pants.

“
Whoa! Wait a minute!
Britches stay on. That’s a rule.” It was an unstated rule, but one
everyone should know.

“
Calm down. I’m not going
to offend your virgin eyes.” My face flamed at the v-word, which
was probably the only confirmation anyone needed that his
assessment was completely accurate. “It’s right here…” He pulled
down the edge of his pants to reveal his hip. It was hard to make
out due to the lack of light, but I thought I could see a mark on
his skin.

“
Is that a paw
print?”

“
Yes.”

“
Like a wolf’s paw
prin?”

“
Yes,” he said with no
small amount of annoyance.

“
You got a tattoo of a paw
print on your hip to make Toby think you’re with the
Alphas?”

“
All members of the Alpha
Pack have one there.”

Kind of a less-than-masculine place to put a
tattoo, in my opinion. “So why doesn’t everyone who wants to pass
as a member get one?”

Liam quirked a lip at me, which was so
reminiscent of his brother my heart clenched. “I’ll give you two
guesses, but you’ll only need one.”

Of course. It was the Alpha Pack. What was I
thinking?

“
Let’s see, could it be…” I
paused for dramatic flair. “Death to all who fake a paw print
tattoo?”

That earned me a full-on smile.
“Exactly.”

“
So, why risk it? Aren’t
you afraid of being severely punished for your ink?”

The smile disappeared. “I’m a dead man
walking as it is. A tattoo isn’t going to change that.”

We were quiet for a long time. There wasn’t
really anything to say. As far as the Alpha Pack was concerned, we
were both living on borrowed time. I thought of Jase, Talley,
Charlie, and the others who were putting their lives on the line as
well. Was it worth it? If this had all just been for me, then no.
But it wasn’t about me. It never was, even though I had been too
self-centered to realize it for far too long. Liam was right. I was
just a pawn.

“
Your grand plan,” I said.
“I’m the bait, aren’t I?”

Liam looked at me, like
really looked at me. The kind of
“looked
at me
” which makes you feel like a bug
under a microscope. “Not bait,” he said. “You’re the secret
weapon.”

Chapter 11

Jase was no longer on the couch when I went
back into the house. Instead, he was on the air mattress, his front
to Talley's back. His arm was draped over her waist, and his
fingers were once again entwined with hers.

Good grief, could they not
go five whole seconds without holding hands? I mean, for the love
of all things shiny, they were
asleep.

“
Everything
okay?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin at Jase’s
voice. The heel of my hand pressed my chest to keep my heart from
pounding through my ribcage.

“
Fine. I couldn’t
sleep.”

“
Yeah, me either.” He
slowly worked his way into a sitting position. The process involved
carefully unlacing his fingers from Talley’s and then reclaiming
her hand once he was in position.

“
Seriously, Jase, I don’t
think she’s going to wander off.” His eyebrows knitted together,
and I gestured to the hands-which-nothing-can-asunder.

“
She’s been having
nightmares,” he said as he brushed a piece of hair off her
shoulder. It was really sweet, but I still felt like I wandered
into some sort of alternate reality. Maybe in this world Sarvarna
was a good guy and asparagus tasted better than ice cream. “She
doesn’t have as many if she can See me, and this way I can wake her
up when they start.”

“
Isn’t this a bit much?” I
asked. “I mean, weren’t you the guy having a hissy fit over the
fear of Talley getting into your head just a month or two
ago?”

Jase looked down at a sleeping Talley, a
truly goofy smile on his face. “I was a coward.”