“It’s… well, I won’t lie. It’s alarming.”
Red opens the folder and hands a piece of paper to me. My eyes widen at theProdigy Police Departmentlogo at the top. The date in the corner is from nearly forty years ago.
“What is this?”
“Selene shifted once,” Red says.
I snap my eyes up. “What?”
“When she was nineteen years old.”
“I didn’t think that was possible.”
“It is. It’s just… rough.” He hesitates. “Half-bloods usually can’t control their animal very well, and in your mother’s case, that lack of control was exactly why people fear them.”
The words hit like a blow. I open my mouth to ask what happened, but instead what comes out is, “What was she? What animal?”
Red’s eyes soften, as if he’d expected the question. “The report didn’t say.” He looks away, sighing as he touches a stack of papers. “She killed two people, Toby.”
I freeze. “What?”
He nods slowly. “When she shifted, she attacked two bystanders. Served three years in supernatural prison, then took a deal to get out. Mandatory suppressants for life.”
My attention drifts to the papers, the news sinking in. It’s taken me two months to accept that my mom was a half-blood living on shifter suppressants. Two months to even consider that I needed them too. But now this? My mom was a murderer too?
I feel like I’m going to throw up.
I shove the papers away. “That confirms it then. I need to be on meds. Now! I don’t want to—”
“Let me finish,” Red cuts in.
My hands shake as I sit back, dreading whatever he’s about to say.
“In Selene’s testimony, she said she didn’t know she was a half-blood before she shifted, and honestly, I believe her. Back then, half-bloods or crossbreeds like myself were thought of like a disease. We didn’t talk about it. Her parents probably raised her hoping she’d never find out, and they probably couldn’t afford the suppressant when she was an infant, if thereeven was one then. Which means when shedidshift, she didn’t know it was going to happen. Do you hear what I’m saying?”
I nod slowly. “That must’ve been scary.”
“Terrifying, actually. She probably was more freaked out than she should’ve been.” He pauses. “I believethat’swhy she killed those bystanders. Not because she was a half-blood. She was scared out of her mind and didn’t know what was happening.”
“You’re saying—you think if she’d known, she might’ve been able to control the animal or something? I thought all half-bloods are unpredictable.”
Red shrugs. “Maybe. Maybe not. Half-bloods are dangerous when they shift. I’m not denying that. But I think if she had known first, it would have reduced the fear.” He crosses one leg over the other, leaning forward. “You said there were periods where she went off her meds, right?”
“Yeah, because she couldn’t afford them.”
“Could it also have been because she tried to shift again?”
I consider it, then shake my head. “No. She always seemed terrified when she was off her meds. Like…” I swallow hard as it hits me.
“Like something was going to happen?” he asks gently, giving me a small smile.
A memory of my mother talking to herself in her bedroom, muttering about howit can’t happen, I don’t want it to happen,rings through my mind. It hits so differently now, echoing the same fears I had just moments ago, upstairs.
Except where my fear is about the voices, Mom’s fear was about something else entirely.
“She was afraid of the shift,” I murmur.
Red nods patiently. “And after what she went through? I don’t blame her.” He pauses. “Can I ask something else?”
