Zakariel
10 Years Ago...
"Um. Dad?"I called, hesitancy creeping into my voice.
"Which one?" a familiar voice replied from around the corner. I rolled my eyes so hard they nearly launched out of my skull. It was my alpha-father, obviously. He loved to recycle the same old dad joke, which was dumb because I called himPopsand my omega-fatherDad.
But right now I was too distracted to make a sarcastic remark about it.
"Either one," I said.
That seemed to get both of their attention. They probably weren't used to hearing me so reluctant. But there was something really friggin' weird going on, and honestly, it was freaking me out a little. Okay, maybe a lot.
Two figures appeared in my bedroom, both wearing concerned expressions. My Pops, Nero, leaned against the rickety old door frame and put a reassuring hand on Dad's back. Dad was always the more anxious of the two. They kind of balanced each other out, I guess, but I was glad I took after Pops in that department. It sounded shitty to be worried about crap all the time.
"What?" Dad asked, his voice tight, like he was gonna blow up with stress at any second. "What's wrong?"
"Relax, Remmy," Pops said with a small laugh, though I could tell he was worried about me too. "Zak, what's up, man?"
He'd started calling me that since I became a teenager. Maybe it was to make me feel better about not going through puberty yet. I was fifteen and hadn't had a huge change in my body except a slowly deepening voice. My cousins Quinn and Leveret started already--not to mention my girl cousins, Lupa and Starry, who were way ahead of us boys. They all weren'ttechnicallymy cousins, but since we all grew up together, we considered each other family.
It wasn't so much puberty itself I was looking forward to--though, to be honest, it sucked being slower than everyone else just on principle alone. At least my cousin Ashe hadn't started, either, and he still had a higher voice than me.
No, the real reason I wanted my stupid puberty to start was to find out if I was an alpha or omega.
I was so jealous of my cousins. Starry, Leveret, Lupa and Quinn all knew. And hell, all four of them were alphas! Ihadto be one too, right? Maybe it ran in the family or something. But then I realized with a small jolt of panic that I wasn't blood-related to them. What if that meant I didn't have the alpha-becoming gene?
No way. I had to be. I felt it way down in my guts that I was an alpha. Even if my biology didn't give me what I wanted, I could always be like Uncle Red. Though he could give birth like an omega, he was fluid, sometimes an alpha and sometimes an omega. Except I'd be an alpha a hundred percent of the time. Knowing that was an option gave me some relief, at least.
My own pops only found out he was an alpha when he was an adult, which was weird. I couldn't wait that long. I needed to knownow.
"I'm an alpha no matter what, okay?" I said furiously to my parents, who looked equal parts confused and amused. But I was not amused. Something was happening to my body and I didn't know what it was. And when I didn't know something, it annoyed me.
"Of course, Zak," Dad said.
He approached the bed, looking for a place to sit among all the dirt and dried grass. Even though we had a cabin house like humans, we grew up as wild shifters so a lot of our habits carried over. Besides, did a little dirt in the bed ever hurt anyone? No.
Dad sighed and sat anyway, ignoring the dirt sticking to his butt. "Can you tell us what's going on?"
I narrowed my eyes. That's what hesaid, but the look on his face said 'I know exactly what's happening even before you tell me', which was annoying. How could they know when I hadn't said anything yet?
"Nero, come here and support our son," Dad said to Pops.
"One support coming right up," Pops declared. He plopped down on the bed on the other side of me.
I narrowed my eyes further, suspicious. Why did it feel like something monumental was about to happen?
"So, Zak," Pops said, giving me a clap on the shoulder. "What's going on?"
Well, now that it was a wholething, it felt even weirder. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything at all and asked one of my cousins instead. Parents were so annoying. But I knew they both meant well and I couldn't snap at them after I'd been the one to call for help in the first place. I sighed and stared down at the muddy wolf paw prints (mine) on the floor.
"I'm having a... Uh, there's something..." How the hell was I supposed to phrase this? It was awkward. My gaze drifted from the floor to my lower half, where the issue was currently located. "Um... There's like--"
As I struggled with my words, Dad was trying to stifle a smirk.
I whipped my head towards him and frowned. "What?"
Dad shook his head. "Nothing, Zak, sorry."
