Michael The next morning at breakfast, the parental units are informed of last night’s run-in with the wolves.
Their reactions are exactly as to be expected; alarmed and anxious.
When Dad is usually like this, he is a very bad listener, so it’s a struggle to calm him down and slowly explain everything that happened.
“Are you sure they didn’t suspect a thing?” Dad checks, after we’ve assured him over and over again that we’re safe.
“Yes, Dad,” I repeat patiently.
“I’m sure.” “I’m just checking,” Dad says.
“Alpha Underwood is anything but dumb.
It’s easy for him to catch on.
We have to be more careful than usual.” This seemed a bit hard to process.
I mean, how much more precautions can we take?
We already limit our contact to people outside the family, we barely go out without one of our own, and even in our home, I am treated like a boy most of the time and expected to behave like one no matter who is around.
If anybody was listening in on our conversation right now, they still wouldn’t be able to know that I’m a girl, because we never acknowledge it out loud.
They’d just think we’re hiding something.
“What else can we do?” Daniel voices my thoughts, sounding as confused as I feel.
“We can’t have them suspect anything,” Dad tells us.
“At the moment, we can get away with the excuse that we’re still not used to each other, but that won’t be good enough after a while.
At the very least, you boys will have to be civil.
It might even be good that you form ties with them, though of course, not deep enough to reveal secrets.” My brothers and I stare at each other to make sure we all understood the same thing.
By their expressions, I’m guessing we did.
“So…
you want us to be friends with them, but not best friends?” Danny asks, a hint of sarcasm seeping through his voice.
Dad catches his incredulousness and frowns at him.
“There’s no need to use that tone,” he says.
“You boys know very well what we would have to do if we can’t coexist with the Silver Moon Pack.
This is their land, not ours.
We’d have to leave.
Your mother and I are already looking into unclaimed territories in case we have to take off on short notice.” The news is more of a shock than it should be.
My dad always plans ahead with everything, and it’s really no surprise that he would have an emergency escape plan.
But it’s still astonishing that he would uproot us so… easily; like it’s no big deal, when in fact all of us have loved living here since we moved.
Out of the five of us, Connor is probably the only one with some faint memories of our family’s life before I came in the picture.
But after that, keeping my gender secret became a priority for them.
He was six years old when my parents left the Redwood Pack.
But he still always gives the impression that he loves living here more than anything.
“Dad, we can’t just leave,” I try to object.
“Our whole life is here.” He gives me a pointed look.
“Which part of it?
Your friends?
Your relatives?
Your hometown?” I wince at the reminder.
Daniel and I may have been the only ones to have been born here, –right in this very house in fact– but it still feels like our hometown.
When it comes to relatives, Mom and Dad are the only ones we have.
They never even talk about the rest of their immediate family members.
As for friends, we don’t have any real ones other than each other because of this very reason; at any moment, Dad might make us all move.
The bigger three, Connor, Mason and Nathan, are old enough to do whatever they want and Dad won’t object.
But for whatever reason, they continue living with the rest of us and abiding by the rules Daniel and I have to.
I’m not sure why they do that, but secretly, I’m a little glad.
I don’t know what I would do if they left.
“That’s a bit harsh, darling,” Mom says in my defense.
“You know it’s not their fault that they’ve never had that kind of connection here.” Dad looks at her tiredly.
“I know, Brooke.
But Dylan’s safety has priority over that.
We all know it.
It’s why we’re all still here, because we care about you, Dyl.” I look up at him and suppress my weakening eyes.
“I know, Dad.
But I don’t get what else you want us to do.
I mean, honestly, what more can we do?
We can’t really be friends with the SMP members for the same reason that Danny and I aren’t friends with the humans at school.” Dad frowns in confusion for a second.
“The what?” “SMP,” Connor repeats for me.
“You know, the pack.” Recognition dawns on his face and smoothes his eyebrows apart.
“Ah.
Right.
Well, nevertheless Mickey, these wolves didn’t just let us live on their land for nothing.
They didn’t invite us to join them or you to shift with them just because they felt nice.
Alpha Underwood is really trying to form ties between us.” The five of us are all confused by what Dad says.
“But why?” Daniel asks the question I know we’re all thinking.
“By my guess, to respect the wishes of his predecessor,” Dad tells us.
“Or actually, the guy before that.” “Still, that doesn’t explain why he’s jumping at every chance he gets to play nice with us,” Nathan comments.
“I’m almost this close to being flattered, but it’d just be too weird.” My brothers snicker and I half-smile.
Of course, only Nathan would say something like that at such a serious moment.
“Well then you better get used to it, because I have a feeling that- what did you call them Mickey?
SMP is one very persistent pack,” Dad says.
This is the closest I’ve ever seen him get to sarcasm.
There’s a moment of silence while we process that before I finally speak again.
“So… what does that entail of us, exactly?” Dad shrugs like it should be obvious.
“Hang out with them.
Go to their parties, do plans with them after school, have study groups if you even need it.
Do things normal teenagers would do.
Just don’t shift with them, and don’t say anything that would put Michael’s secret in danger.” He makes it sound so simple, when in fact, it’s anything but.
When we get to school later that day, I meet up with Sadie in the hallway, at her locker.
I seek her out because I know Dad will expect us to start the friends plan right away, and Sadie’s the only one I’m genuinely comfortable around so far.
She’s putting away her books when she sees me coming and beams at me like she has been waiting for me.
It actually brightens my day a little.
“Morning!” she says in her cheerful manner.
“What’s up Sadie,” I say back.
“I hear you met the guys in the clearing yesterday.” I scratch the back of my head nervously.
“Yeah, um, I hope they didn’t take that too personally, it’s just that it’s still weird for us being around other…” I look around hesitantly.
“You know.
Others.” She flashes me a reassuring smile.
“I know.
I’m glad you don’t have that problem with me.” I grin at her.
“No offense, but you’re not as intimidating as they are.” Holy shit, did I just admit to being intimidated out loud?
To Sadie, of all people?
Thankfully, she doesn’t seem to notice the slip and instead laughs at the part directed at her.
“I’ll have you know, I grew up beating up Cade and Logan’s asses, so you better believe I can hold my own.” “You mean before they shifted for the first time and had their strength spurt?” I tease her, grinning.
She mock-glares at me.
“That is an unfair advantage.” I chuckle in amusement and decide not to push her on this.”I actually meant that you don’t radiate testosterone animosity like they do.” I just did it again!
“Oh.” She smiles softly.
“Trust me, they’re softer than they look, even if they don’t admit it.
Especially Logan.” An eyebrow shoots up.
Logan, the stare-you-down-till-you-pee-in-your-pants alpha, a softie?
Somehow I doubt that, but I don’t say anything.
“Walk me to class?” she asks timidly a moment later.
Knowing exactly what she means by that, I give her a teasing smirk.
“Have you lost your way again?” Sadie blushes with a faint smile on her face.
“I forgot my schedule at home this morning, and I haven’t memorized my classes yet.” “Oh?” I tease.
“Did someone distract you?” She understands what I am insinuating, which makes me like her even more.
“Oh shut up,” she complains, blushing again.
“When you find your mate, we’ll see if you act differently.
So are you going to help me or not?” I hide the uneasiness in the pit of my stomach and finally roll my eyes at her.
“Let’s just go to the admissions’ office and get your schedule again.” We’ve got a good fifteen minutes before class starts, so I know I’m in no hurry.
Once we know which classroom she’s in, we start walking at a slow pace together, and she’s asking me questions about myself.
“When’s your birthday?” she wants to know.
“June 6th,” I tell her.
“Where were you born?” This is a fairly safe question, if I know how to answer it, and I do, because I’ve practiced telling it since I was seven.
The same way my parents practiced explaining to people that they left their pack to raise us in a quiet place.
The real reason is that they found out one of the new twins my mom was pregnant with is a girl.
“In my house,” I say easily.
Sadie seems surprised by my answer.
“What, really?
Your mom didn’t go to a hospital?” “She went to a hospital twice before that to give birth, and she wanted to try the ‘real experience'” -I make air quotes- “without any doctors or medicine,” I explain, which is still 20% true.
“Didn’t your dad put up a fight?” she wondered.
“Sure, but she was determined to do a home delivery at least once,” I tell her.
Then, I grin.
“Whenever he talks about it, he says it was one of the longest, loudest and filthiest nights of his life.” She smiles but doesn’t answer for a moment, and I can feel she’s not quite done yet.
“It seems to be very easy for you to talk about this,” she remarks, confusing me.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” I wonder, my eyebrows furrowed.
“Because you’re a guy,” she simply says.
I ignore the guilty feeling rushing through me at that moment.
I’ve never felt bad about lying to anyone before, but Sadie’s different.
She’s someone I can actually be friends with, like Marianna.
“So?”