All four boys stop playing when they see me.
“Foster! You’re back!” Briar is the first to approach. He’s the youngest in their group, turning seventeen this fall. Dark brown hair, copper eyes, and a wide nose, he offers me a grin, eyes darting to Hannah. His parents are the only steady role models for any of them, but they work two jobs each to support Briar and his six siblings. We helped set him up with a part-time job,but the state restricts how many hours he can work, so he spends his free time here. I imagine a few of his siblings are somewhere in the building, too.
Clapping him on the shoulder, I pull Hannah into the room and away from the door. “How have things been? You guys staying out of trouble?”
Vale steps up next to his friend, a cold expression on his face. It’s how he protects himself, scaring people away before they can get close enough to hurt him. His parents run a local gang, the Eternals, bringing trouble, drugs, and abuse into his home. He’s grown up knowing angry fists and locked doors, nothing a kid should be used to. “There’s been a few low-level pricks hanging around, trying to recruit in the neighborhood.”
“We ran them off,” Sable cuts in from behind them. As the oldest of the group, he’s their unofficial leader. He’s all square jaw, prominent brow, and blue eyes so light they seem white from afar. It’s taken me the longest to get any details about his home life, neither before his parents’ deaths nor after. There is a haunted look that steals into his eyes each time I bring it up.
“Did you tell Ursa? You know he wouldn’t want you to put yourselves at risk like that.” The whole point of the program is to keep these kids out of trouble with the law, gangs, and cartels. We want them to have the brightest future they can dream of, not be dragged down by past mistakes.
Chance leans an arm on Sable’s shoulder, towering over him by several inches. His shoulder-length blonde hair is pulled back into a bun, and stubble lines his jaw. I expect he’ll present any day now, and he’s going to be an Alpha. I can sense it. “Ursa wasn’t available, so we did what we could to protect the other kids here. They were targeting a couple of freshmen. You know how impressionable those little shits are.”
They all laugh, grumbling about the younger kids, but there is a fondness in the way they interact with them. Protectiveness.Every one of these guys takes care of the others who come here. Regardless of their social or economic status, if a kid sets foot in the center and doesn’t have ill intent towards the others, these four have their backs.
“I’ll let it slide this time. In the future, please don’t put yourselves at risk like that. Now, there is someone I would like you to meet.” Turning, I gesture to Hannah, who gives them an uncertain wave. “This is Hannah. She is my Beta, and obviously, she is pregnant. I’m trusting you to keep an eye out for her whenever she’s here.”
They straighten, offering her polite nods or greetings. I know they’ll take my request seriously. If they hear anything on the street about my angel, they’ll pass it on to me. Having their eyes and ears will help if Colin or the Montgomerys decide to take less savory paths to getting her back under their control.
“Since I am back, let’s get a lesson in today!” All four of them groan, heads falling back dramatically. Hannah chuckles and lets me slip her hand back in mine as I lead us to a conference room across from the basketball court. “We’re going to talk about pack laws and registries.”
Did I choose this topic with Hannah in mind?Absolutely. She should know what protection being in our pack will give her and the kids. If what she learns today influences her to let us court her sooner, well, that’s the cherry on the cake, isn’t it?
“Her kid isn’t yours, is it? Like biologically?” Sable asks.
After our lesson, we moved to the main room to offer the other kids tutoring or advice. This part of the programis something Chance started after he overheard a couple of younger kids complaining about the lack of tutoring for kids in low-income families. It’s helped a lot, slowly evolving from homework help to something akin to mentorship.
The kid Sable mentors isn’t in attendance today, which is why he’s sitting beside me. I peer at him from the corner of my eye. His expression isn’t as blank as it usually is. Instead, he looks confused. His eyes track Hannah as she walks around the room, soaking in all the small details she missed earlier. Like the giant Scrabble board on the wall next to the bookshelves, and the magnetic chessboard beside it.
“Have you heard about the anti-designation cult the FCDA busted up in New Hampshire?” I ask instead of answering him directly.
“You mean the one connected to the livestream of that Omega who got beaten up by that pastor?”
Nodding, I tilt my head toward Hannah. “The Pastor is her father. She grew up there. Experienced the same abuse, or worse. We haven’t talked about her childhood much, but the signs are there. Like her fierce independence, which stems from growing up too quickly.” I give Sable a pointed look, but continue speaking before he can respond. “They forced her into an arranged marriage when she was in her early twenties. A situation she couldn’t escape without leaving her little sister unprotected. Her husband is biologically part of both her children, but he isn’t their father. A man who hits his wife, ignores his daughter, and subjects his family to heinous acts of cruelty and abuse could never fill that role.”
“What if they turn out like him? The Pastor?”
Of course, that is his concern. His father was a serial killer who kidnapped, tortured, and murdered over thirty people before being discovered. His wife, Sable’s mother, shot her husband after learning of his crimes, and later took her own life.
If Sable witnessed any of their crimes, they could have taken root in his mind, slowly convincing him he, too, would become a murderer one day.
“While there is some natural predilection toward psychopathy and sociopathy, nurture plays a larger role in the outcome. Hannah and her sister–the Omega from the livestream–are both kind, empathetic, accepting people. They didn’t follow in their parents’ footsteps. They chose to be better.”
“It’s that simple? Make a choice?”
Hannah wanders back toward us, leaning against my side with an exhausted sigh. Our time here is ending, as my mate needs to get home and relax. She’s probably getting hungry, too.
Pushing to my feet, I turn to meet Sable’s gaze. “Making the choice is the first step. After that, work hard to follow through. Life isn’t simple. It’s messy and out of control, but making good choices leads you in the right direction. You aren’t your parents, Sable. The weight of their sins isn’t yours to bear.”
I leave him to think about what I said and say a quick goodbye to everyone else. As we wait by the entrance for Shepherd to pick us up, I wrap an arm around Hannah’s shoulder and lean my head against hers. “What did you think? It’s still a work-in-progress.”
“The place is wonderful, Foster,” she admits softly. “What you’re doing to help these kids is incredible. I can imagine what their home lives are like, and having a sanctuary like this? It’s worth more than you know.”
“You never had a safe space, did you? A place you could exist without your parents watching your every move?”
Her head shakes. “I learned at an early age to keep my thoughts and feelings hidden. That was the only way to survive.”
Turning my head, I press my lips to her forehead and whisper a promise that echoes deep into my soul, not just to her but for the kids, too. “I’ll always be your safe space, Angel.”
