Dark hair too long, curling at the ends, eyes too big for his face. Skinny. Hollow.
My stomach turns as I skim the text beneath it.
Finn Reed. Age: 6.
Subject removed from family home due to severe neglect. No known pack affiliations. Minimal social interaction. Feral.
A tight knot forms in my throat.
I turn the page. Another photo. Older this time—ten, maybe. Wrists nothing but twigs. Face sharper. Eyes darker.
Hunter leans in, flips the page for me. “His father’s pack didn’t just ignore him. They erased him.”
The words drive straight into my ribs, sharp and unforgiving.
His finger taps the paragraph at the bottom of the page.
Beta child showed signs of extreme isolation. Family rarely acknowledged his presence. No formal schooling. Kept in basement for extended periods.
I suck in a sharp breath. My fingers tighten on the folder.
“He wasn’t just unwanted,” Hunter continues. “He was born wrong in their eyes. They didn’t believe he was theirs. An embarrassment to the pack.”
I flip another page. A grainy black-and-white photo. A cell.
A fucking cell.
The caption below it is clinical, unemotional:Sleepingareaprovidedbypaternalpack.Location:Basementstorage.
The rage that builds inside me is instantaneous.
“He lived here?” My voice comes out choked.
“Lived,” Hunter confirms. “If you can call it that.”
I flip again.
This time, I wish I hadn’t.
Incidentreport-Age15.
Subject removed from institutional care following suspected involvement in the deaths of both parents and pack alpha. Incident ruled as inconclusive due to lack of evidence, but multiple accounts state subject had threatened all three victims in the days leading up to their deaths.
My heart stops.
I read it again.
Finn’s parents are dead.
I jerk my gaze up. “You think Finn killed them?”
Hunter watches me, expression unreadable. “We don’t know. No one does.”
“But you believe it.”
His silence is all the answer I need. A sick, twisting sensation unspools in my stomach. I flip another page. More reports. More institutionalizations. The second he was out, the second he gained an inch of freedom, someone else ended up dead.
Another alpha.
