Marked Northern Shifters 1

this search?”
“Yes. I’m a good tracker. Better than Seth.”
“When do you leave?” Alec’s knuckles whitened as he clenched the rail. That Alec didn’t want him to leave was gratifying, but his fear wasn’t.
“David and Seth will be here,” Liam offered.
“Oh, that’s great.” Alec pushed off from the rail. “I don’t exactly know them, Liam. But whatever.”
Liam paused. “Alec.”
“What?”
“I should tell you that Trey is Gabriel’s half-brother.”
Alec’s face went blank and he spoke carefully. “Does that mean Gabriel is Veronica and Seth’s father or something?”
“Nope. Trey’s sister was their mother.”
Alec gazed up at the cloud and Liam had to concentrate to hear what he said. “Just wish I’d never met Gabriel.”
    That afternoon the sun broke through the clouds and, with two restless kids, Seth decided they needed fresh air. So they trooped outside to play soccer in the backyard. Claire was new to the game, and to rules in general. Ira rolled his eyes during Seth’s explanations to the little girl, which earned the boy a sharp rebuke from Seth. A tense David didn’t join in. Instead, he sat on the deck and watched over them, his gun at hand.
    They had about fifteen successful minutes of playing. Alec was just beginning to think it was going quite well when Ira accidentally-on-purpose hit Claire in the face and her nose began to bleed. She was all prepared to shift and heal, but Seth convinced her to stay human and let him take care of it.
    “Not impressed,” Seth told Ira shortly, though not with a lot of heat, and Ira started to cry.
Seth took Claire in to clean her up while Ira, eyes downcast, stayed close to Alec. They wandered towards the back of the yard, out of David’s hearing range because Alec wanted to talk to Ira privately.
“You know,” began Alec, and the boy looked at him with hope. Alec wasn’t quite sure what the hope was about.
“She deserved it, didn’t she? She was acting stupid.” Ah, so Ira thought Alec would sympathize with Ira and his dislike of Claire. Time to put an end to that idea.
“No, Ira.”
“I don’t like her.”
“You’ve made that clear.”
“Liam doesn’t like her, either.”
    Hmmm .
“He likes me.”
“Liam can like you and Claire, bud.”
Ira adopted a rather pugnacious expression, chin jutting out, face set hard. “You shouldn’t use tears, Ira.”
“Use tears?” the boy repeated, even as he wiped a wet eye.
“Do you like it when someone is cross with you?”
Ira’s lip trembled a little. “No.”
“What if you’ve done something wrong? Should Liam—or Seth—not care enough to
    teach you what is right?”
Ira chewed his lip.
“Some adults don’t care enough to teach at all. But, don’t use tears and crying to
    avoid being taught. Don’t use tears to make Liam worry about you when he’s teaching you.” Alec paused, unsure if this was pitched at an appropriate level. Reading to eightyear-olds and explaining life’s lessons to them were somewhat different activities. “Am I making any sense to you?”
    For a long time, Ira just stared, but he was no longer crying. He gave one slow, thoughtful nod.
“Good. Liam loves you and wants you to know right from wrong. And it’s wrong to hurt Claire.” Here Alec stumbled and he had to clear his throat before he went forward to talk about Gabriel. “The quad hurt her. Like they hurt you.”
“I’ll be nicer to Claire, I promise,” Ira whispered. His face reddened. “Please, don’t tell Liam I hurt her on purpose.”
“I have to, Ira. But, I’ll also tell him about our talk and that you won’t do it again. Okay?”
Ira’s eyes widened and his gaze shifted beyond Alec. He turned to see what Ira was looking at, and froze at the sight of a wolf.
Gabriel .
    Alec could literally feel the blood drain from his face. He refused to faint. “Ira,” he choked out. “ Run . Run to the house.” He forced himself to step in front of the boy, though every muscle in his body strained to flee. Maybe David would shoot before the wolf attacked.
    But no gun fired and Ira, perplexed by Alec’s reaction, asked, “Why run, Alec? It’s Trey.” Ira jumped up and down, arms going in some kind of exuberant semaphore-action in case he hadn’t been noticed by the wolf. “Hi, Trey,” he shouted.
    Instead of responding, the wolf turned its large head away and trotted into the woods behind Liam’s house. This didn’t dampen Ira’s excitement, but Alec felt a kind