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“Leo!” I said approaching a skinny teen who embodied defiance.
“Mr. Lyon,” he replied with a mixture of anger and fear.
“Leo, I want to introduce you to someone. This is Dillon. He was the first recipient of my family’s scholarship. Dillon, this is Leo. I have suggested to Leo that he might be our scholarship’s next recipient. But, he tells me he doesn’t need it.”
“I don’t,” Leo said coldly.
“Right,” I replied not hiding my annoyance. I turned to Dillon. “You know what I’m offering him. Do you think you can talk some sense into him?”
Dillon’s brow furrowed at my request. It was like he was judging me. Yet, without a word he turned to Leo.
“Why don’t you think you need it?”
Leo huffed, crossed his arms defensively, and looked at me.
“You can speak freely. He knows what we are,” I told the young wolf shifter in front of me.
“I don’t need his help to take care of my pack. I’m an alpha. He should be taking orders from me,” he said meaning it.
Dillon stared at him unflinchingly. “How old are you?”
“17.”
“His father died,” I added.
Dillon turned to me with a cynical edge. “So, you want me to tell him my sob story about growing up without a father?”
Tensing my jaw at his tone, I calmed myself and replied, “Whatever you think is best.”
Dillon thought for a moment before his expression softened. Refocusing on the kid, he said, “It’s Leo, right?”
“Yeah,” he snapped guardedly.
“Well, Leo, what’s your dream?”
Leo spit his answer. “I don’t know.”
Dillon’s gaze held a glimmer of sympathy as he spoke again.
“I’m not a wolf like you. But growing up, my dream was to go to Paris. I’m not sure why, but I had seen it in movies and I had a friend who went there all the time, so it meant something special to me, ya know. Eating croissants by the river, having dinner on top of the Eiffel Tower… for a kid coming from where I did, being able to do those things meant that the worst of my life might be behind me. What might signal to you that the worst part of your life is over?”
“I don’t care about shit like that. I’m a shifter. We take what we want.”
“You’re a shifter who has to live in the shadows playing by human rules.”
“I don’t have to do nothin’,” he said defiantly.
Dillon turned to me. “Remy, what happens to wolves who decide the rules don’t apply to them?”
“It depends,” I said seeing where he was going. “Usually their alpha will set them right. If they are the alpha, then the other packs will remove the problem.”
Leo looked at me surprised. I could smell his fear.
“So, you kill them?” Dillon confirmed.
“We all survive by staying in the shadows. We’re not going to let some lone wolf risk what we have.”
Dillon turned to Leo. “In other words, shifters have to live by the rules just like everyone else. That means that you need a job. You need a consenting mate. And you need to figure out how to be happy. You’re just like the rest of us humans.”
