"When I met your mother, she was running from some bad people. She told me everything after I proposed. Your mom was seeing another man before me and he was hiding things from her.”
Gary snorted, apparently that was an understatement.
"He was married, for one," Dad continued. “She tried to end things when she found out and that’s when it starts getting scary.”
He hesitated, not sure I could handle more. Me either. None of this felt real. I nodded for him to continue.
“She’d noticed little things about him, insanely fast reflexes, picking up on the smallest noises. So when they had a confrontation and his eyes flashed red, she put the pieces together and realized he wasn’t totally human. So he told her the truth. That he was a fox shifter and…” He hesitated again. Uh-oh.
"That’s when things get scarier?" I filled in.
“The harassment and threats started, I guess his pack or whatever it’s called stepped in. They’d say she wasn’t one of them, that she was a problem, that they’d do whatever they needed to keep their people safe. It-she-she wasso scared.”
Dad choked up, unable to go on, so Gary helped fill in the details too.
"Sarah was in danger and then she learned she was pregnant. She didn’t know what they’d do to you and couldn’t let them find out. She had to run. Your mom changed her identity and cut off all contact with her old life.”
“She had to keep you safe,” Dad said with certainty. He glanced towards the agents. “We knew virtually nothing about the supernatural world or how many shifters there were. We were afraid that you being a shifter could lead them right to us.”
"So you suppressed the fox shifter side," Temple filled in.
“Yeah. Family savings, double shifts, our money for a honeymoon trip, it all bought magic to suppress your shifter side.”
“I-I am a… fox shifter?” I asked, thinking it would feel real if I said it out loud. Nope. “And someone else is my father?”
Another father. And everything about my mother, it wasn’t real? Was her name even Sarah?
"Right,” Dad said. “That brings us to the important part."
"There’smore?"I couldn’t handle more.
"You are a fox shifter. Someone else is your biological father.” Dad looked me square in the eyes. “You’re stillmyson. I’m only saying it out loud because it needs to be said once. I’ll say it again for good measure. You’re my son. But I’m hoping I don’t have to repeat myself much. Do you know why?"
"Why?"
"Because if I’ve done my job right, you already know exactly who your dad is."
He reached out. I grabbed his hand. Yeah, who my dad is was the easy one. I knew who my dad was. The question: who the hell was I?
12.A Helping Hand
Lucas
Zap!Crackling blue sparks jumped in the air after emitting from a common household item, a freaking flashlight.
"Not sure if it’d do any good,” Uncle Gary admitted. “Found the recipe from a defunct online site."
"Sure, it’s a quick and dirty stun gun but that gives it character.” Temple tested the weapon himself, giving an approving nod. “It’d still get the job done.”
Gary and my dad high fived each other, no longer torn between cowering before or threatening the agents as they turned into eager toddlers showing off their most impressive toys to the cool older kids.
I watched the show from the edge of the room, feeling strangely…blank. Chase joined me and knocked his side into mine. “You okay?”
“Of course. Why not?” My family and a supernatural agent were bonding over mystical weapons. My dad isn’t my biological father. I was a fox shifter. Oh my--
“A fox,” I whispered. “Am I really a fox shifter?”
"Looks that way."
