“So what do we know about them now?”

  Leo glanced beside him. They had been walking through the lands close to the pack house, and after the tour-for-the-price-of-a-lecture package deal his dad had given him, they had stopped to rest on a short wall surrounding a playground for young wolves.

  He thought back to the meeting. “They need our help, so they're vulnerable. They haven't had all of that power in so long that they got lazy.”

  “Almost there—but good thinking.” His father said, his voice suddenly growing louder. He clapped Leo firmly on the back. “When you're an Alpha, you need to constantly be thinking about these things.”

  “If those fucking witches and wizards managed to get into both of our packs, we need to go after them.” His father's voice was laced with unfiltered hatred.

  “What about security?” Leo asked. Amirah had told him that her mom had ordered the number of patrols around the pack borders to be increased by thirty per cent, but that wouldn't be much help if the coven had gotten in another way. They were tricky. They had all sorts of ways of fooling people. He could feel his eyes starting to glow bright orange at the thought, his gums pricking like they did when his canines were about to emerge.

  “They're still working on investigating how they got in in the first place, and I'm assuming your Beta informed you about the patrols.” His father answered.

  He nodded.

  “Look at that.” His father grinned widely. “You two are already acting like me and Farah.”

  Leo smiled, welcoming the warm feeling that engulfed him at his father's words. A kaleidoscope of images depicting him and Amirah fighting side by side began to appear in his mind. He languished in the tranquillity of the dream for a split second before the colours morphed into one another and the glass images shattered.

  He wished he could help them at border control, help catch those witches and wizards before they ruined his life like they had before. But he resisted the urge to ask. He had never seen his dad do border control. “Alphas don't do border control,” he would probably say.

  He could tell that his father was avoiding talking about the last part of the meeting. He had said that talking about the issue had gotten them nowhere. What would get them somewhere? Was another war coming?

  His dad suddenly coughed, snapping Leo's attention back to him. “Your mamá is calling you. We'll continue this tomorrow.”

  Can you come downstairs and help me quickly? He heard his mom say over the mindlink. He got up from the wall and transformed into his grey wolf, running the long distance back to his house

  When he entered the house, he found his mom standing next to an open closet in their living room. She was frowning at the top shelf of the storage closet, and at her feet were a chair and a stepping stool that she had probably used to try to get to the top shelf.

  “Mamá,” Leo said in a questioning tone when he entered the living room.

  She jumped in surprise, then turned to him and gestured to the spot she had been looking at. “Can you. Por favor.”

  Leo smiled, remembering when he was eight and would constantly state with unwavering determination that he would eventually be three inches taller than her. Back then, she would just laugh at him. Now, he was much taller than her and the same height as his dad, standing at six feet and two inches.

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  He stepped around the chair and lifted the box down, placing it onto a nearby table before removing it again and placing it on the floor after his mom gave him a warning look.

  “Gracias.”

  She tucked a black, grey-accented strand of hair behind her ear before kneeling down and opening the box.

  When Leo peered into the box, he was instantly hit with a wave of nostalgia. The box had old photos from his childhood, some water-damaged magazines and decor items he hadn't seen around the house in years.

  “See, I knew it was here!” His mom suddenly said in Spanish and sprang up, holding up a box of jewellery he assumed she had owned before he was born.

  When she left the room, he turned back to the box. The corner of a silver photo frame lying under other items caught his attention, and he knelt down on his haunches to examine it. Why did it look so familiar?

  He pulled the frame from under the pile. When he saw the picture inside it, he froze. The picture was of two children, a girl and a boy, standing in front of a roller coaster. The girl was a little taller and older than the boy, and her arms were wrapped tightly around his head, squashing his face against her cheek as he frowned angrily at the camera.

  “Are you gonna tell them?” Ximena had been asking him for weeks after he had come out to her, and his answer was the same every time.

  He shrugged, sitting down next to her on the edge of his bed.

  “Are you gonna tell anyone?”

  “I told you, didn’t I?”

  “Barely.” She mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear. He ignored her and stared at the small bookshelf near his door. There were over two hundred red paper cranes neatly positioned between the small trinkets on his shelf. He had spent hours positioning them the way that he had wanted, and they looked perfect.

  He had almost forgotten that his father had told him to stop making them because, according to him, they looked too messy.

  He got up, grabbed the small trash can from beside his bed, and began stuffing the cranes inside, squashing each one in his hands before dropping them into the trash can. Ximena said nothing, watching him work in silence.

  “Will you just drop this already?” He said, finally squashing the last crane. “I'll just wait until I become Alpha.”

  She frowned at him sadly. “Seriously? Come on Leo–”

  “Stop!” He suddenly said, a lot louder than he had meant to. He turned around to face her, his features hardening. “Don't you think I've thought about every possible option? This is the best one.”

  Usually, she would have made a joke about how this was probably the first time he had thought anything through, but she just nodded in understanding. She knew what her aunt and uncle were like.

  “Then what do you plan to do after that?” She looked at him with sympathy, like she was delivering bad news to a child, except now he was the parent and she was the older, teary-eyed child.

  He wished she wouldn't. He wasn't a child anymore. He was almost fourteen. He could deal with his own problems.

  “But it's okay.” He smiled, trying to dissipate the thick mood hanging in the air. “It's not as bad as it sounds…”

  Leo blinked rapidly, willing the shallow stream of tears forming in his waterline to disappear. Ximena had been the only one who knew about him. When he had finally mustered up the courage to tell her, she told him that she had already known. He had annoyed her for weeks afterwards trying to get her to tell him how. Then after she died, he was alone with the weight of this secret again. And now Ivan knew too, and Leo still didn't know if he regretted telling him or not.

  When his mom walked back into the living room, Leo turned his body in her direction, hiding the photo behind him.

  “I just can't wait for your birthday! I was on Facebook two weeks ago and saw this really cool galaxy-themed birthday cake.” If the wide grin on her face wasn't indication enough, her words came quickly, running behind one another to chase the thoughts that had been evidently turning in her mind for a while.

  "That's months away, mamá," he sighed, hoping her excitement would dim. “And I'm too old for that.”

  She shrugged. “Yeah, but my baby is turning eighteen, and you're going to find your mate, and—I can't wait to see who it'll be.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Leo mumbled.