“Hi, Daine,” Isaac smiles and waves.

“BIG BRO!” Daine squeals. She quickly runs up to him, giving him a tight hug. "Hi big bro! I love you!”

“Hi, Shady,” Isaac looks towards Vince, waving at him as well.

“Yooo, Isaaaaaac!” Vince responds, looking up to him with admiration. “You’re sooo cool, man. I wanna be cool. Can you teach me how?”

Isaac happily bathes in the attention he’s getting from his friends. Being the oldest, he’s found himself the leader of this little group of misfits, and he loves it. It fills him with pride to know how much these two rely on him, and they're the only reason he ever comes back to this godforsaken village.

“Guess what you guys?” Isaac beams. “I have huge news! I’m an alpha lycan now!”

The two children gasp loudly and dramatically. “WHAT!?” Daine shrieks. “SINCE WHEN!?” Vince shouts.

“That’s right,” Isaac laughs. “I officially have my own omega lycan. I’m kind of a big deal.”

“WOW BIG BRO, YOU’RE AMAZING!” Daine jumps up and down.

“I WANNA BE JUST LIKE YOU WHEN I GROW UP!” Vince chants.

“I WANNA SEE YOUR OMEGA!”

“YEAH, SHOW US! SHOW US!”

Isaac laughs, and dramatically raises his left hand in the air. “Introduuuuuucing…” he steps aside, revealing a boy behind him who wasn’t there before. He’s holding his hand, and joyfully motions towards him. “Leoooooon!"

Daine and Vince’s smiles suddenly vanish. Leonard stands beside Isaac, his hair in his face as he blankly stares towards the ground. The two children get closer to him. Daine furrows her brow, while Vince squints at the boy.

“...this is your omega?” Daine asks, disappointed.

“...he’s kind of lame,” Vince says.

“No, no, you guys just don’t know him yet,” Isaac responds. “He’s the best, trust me! Right, Leon?” He motions towards Leonard once more, giving him the opportunity to speak. But he remains silent, continuing to stare towards the ground.

Daine and Vince look back towards Isaac, their expressions now combined with disgust. He tries to play it cool, but this reaction was not at all what he was expecting. For the first time ever, he’s disappointed his friends.

Isaac laughs awkwardly. “You’ll understand soon,” he says. “But I’ve gotta get my alpha status approved now.”

“Really?” Daine says, coldly. “You’re going to show this boy to the king?”

“Show me what?”

Isaac’s eyes grow wide as a man speaks up behind him. Slowly, he looks over his shoulder and finds himself locking eyes with Orion. When did he show up? He turns back towards the two children, only to find they’ve now vanished. For a brief moment, he panics. Taking a deep breath, he regains his composure and turns to face his father.

“That’s right, Dad,” he smirks. “I'm an alpha lycan now, and I have the best omega you’ve ever seen!”

“Really now?” Orion looks at Leonard with disapproval. “This is your omega?”

“You bet he is!”

“And what, exactly, made you think I would approve of this,” Orion scowls. “You know very well, as future king, it’s your duty to get an omega with value. This filth is not worth your time.”

“Hey!” Isaac angrily smiles. “You don’t know anything about him! Leon's worth more than you’ll ever know! Isn’t that right?” He motions towards Leonard, hoping the boy would stand up for himself. But at no point during this entire encounter has Leonard looked up from the ground.

His behavior is scaring him.

Isaac turns his back towards Orion and places both of his hands on Leonard’s shoulders. “Are you okay?” he asks. “What’s wrong? You’re acting strange.”

“I didn’t know you were a lycan.”

For the first time, Isaac’s smile vanishes. He’s never heard Leonard speak with such vitriol before. His face twists into a scowl, his gaze still avoiding Isaac.

“I didn’t know you were a monster.”

“Wait, I’m not a monster!” Isaac is fully panicking now. “Nothing’s changed, I’m still Isaac-”

“YOU'RE A MONSTER WHO RUINED MY LIFE!” Leonard finally looks up, his eyes filled with a terrifying anger. Suddenly, he pulls out a gun. At point blank range, he shoots Isaac directly in the heart.

“...huh…?”

The world has stopped around him. Slowly, very slowly, Isaac falls to the ground. The silver bullet in his heart is tearing his insides to shreds. Unable to keep his human form any longer, his body changes back to its true form. With a thud, the wolf boy hits the ground. The bullet wound in his chest bleeds a sickening black color. He has died.

Leonard stares down at the wolf’s corpse, repulsed by the sight. The gun in his hand is still smoking, and he just stands there, quietly looking at the beast he’s killed.

And then suddenly, he gasps.

All of the air has left his lungs, and he begins to choke. Being under the lycan curse, his very soul is being snatched from his body. His soul is tangled with the soul of his lycan master, and it drags the both of them down to hell.

He drops the gun, the boy’s body now no more than a lifeless husk. Leonard falls beside Isaac, and the corpses of the two boys are left in silence.

With a violent jolt, Isaac wheezes loudly. He’s awoken from his nightmare.

His breath has broken into choking gasps. His heart is beating rapidly. A cold sweat covers his brow, and his head is burning with a sharp pain. He looks around, trying to grasp his surroundings. Night has fallen, and he’s laying atop a blanket on the ground. Now shrouded in darkness, his eyes give off a faint glow. He’s outside amongst the grass, still in his human form. He must have fallen asleep at some point.

A soft breath from behind startles him. He notices an arm wrapped around his torso. Turning his neck slowly, he sees Leonard behind him. He’s still fast asleep, gently holding Isaac in a hug.

Suddenly, the rustling of grass can be heard. Isaac darts his eyes in the direction of the noise. Sitting there is Leonard’s cat, staring directly at him. He stares back at her with his glowing eyes. In a nervous gesture, he awkwardly smiles and brings a finger to his lips, as if to tell the cat to keep this a secret.

Slowly, he lifts up Leonard’s arm. He gently splits away from him, being especially careful not to rouse him from his slumber. Free from his grasp, he attempts to quietly sneak away. But Leonard stirs, and starts to get up. Quickly, Isaac hides behind the shack out of sight. Leonard has awoken, rising slowly and looking around.

“...Isaac…?” he mumbles quietly, scanning the area for his friend. Isaac holds his breath, silently pleading for Leonard not to notice him. He successfully remains out of sight, and Leonard sighs. “Figures…” he whispers to himself and goes back to bed.

Isaac waits a bit for Leonard to doze off again. The moment he thinks he’s in the clear, he makes a run for it. Grabbing the items he picked up for his friends, he dashes to the outskirts of the city, fleeing into the woods and back towards the village.

This is bad. He was in the city after dark, an act that was strictly forbidden by the lycans. If Leonard had seen his eyes, his secret would’ve been revealed. “I can’t let him know!” Isaac thinks to himself, rushing past the trees. “He can’t ever know what I really am. If he finds out, he’ll hate me…!”

Maybe if he was lucky he could sneak back into the village with none the wiser. Thankfully, he hadn’t been spotted in the city. It shouldn’t be too hard to remain hidden in Lupan Hollow. But the drinking from before was catching up to him. With each step, his head felt like it was going to explode, and the nausea caught him before he could reach the barrier. But reach the barrier he did, and he thought he was in the clear.

He places his hand on the barrier’s seal and waits for it to open. The moment it does his heart drops. Someone is waiting on the other side, his arms crossed and his brow furrowed in anger.

“Where have you been?” Orion demands.

Of all the people, why did it have to be him? Isaac really wasn’t in the mood to deal with his father. He was on the verge of gagging, but he broke through his nausea with his all too common smile.

“Hey, fancy meeting you here,” he sarcastically quips. Isaac marches past his father, intent to ignore him.

“You know you shouldn’t be in the city after dark,” Orion says with a stern tone. He follows after his son, who continues to try and get away.

“I’m here now, aren’t I? No one saw me.”

“That’s not the point, and you know it. The hunters are starting to organize. Would you still be so smug on the other side of their barrel?”

“Then I guess I just won’t get caught!” With every word out of his father’s mouth, Isaac was quick to sarcastically snap back. His constant disregard was grating on Orion’s nerves.

“If you’re going to be in the city after dark anyway, at least use the home I’ve set aside for us,” Orion pleads. “I already know you’ve been breaking into it. The sneaking around is wholly unnecessary! I gave you a key for a reason.”

“Gee, thanks!”

“Set your childish pride aside and take this seriously!” Orion scolds. “You can act out against me all you like, but your behavior is dangerous to more than just yourself. You’ll be ill-suited as a king if you continue to put your pack in danger!”

“Oh no, guess we need a new king’s heir!” Isaac angrily shouts.

Orion gives a long, exasperated sigh. His arguments with Isaac have always been exhausting, and they’ve never gotten them anywhere. He knows his son won’t listen to him, but there’s someone else who can break through his shell. He looks past Isaac to the figure standing just ahead. Isaac has yet to notice that the two of them aren’t alone. Orion raises his arms up, signing towards the person down the path.

“Please do something about our son.”

It’s then that Isaac notices her. Standing in his path is Quinneth Williams, the lycan queen and his mother. He smiles when he sees her, then turns back to Orion with a smirk. He got along much better with his mother than his father, and her arrival felt like a victory for Isaac. Once again, his father couldn’t handle him. He had to rely on Quinn to get to him, as usual. Orion just shakes his head and walks back towards the village, content to leave his son in his mother’s care.

Isaac bears a lot of hatred for his father. In his eyes, every bad thing that’s happened to him and his family is Orion’s fault. He’s the reason his sister suffers. He’s the reason his mother was injured. He’s the reason he feels so miserable. All of it was Orion’s fault!

His feelings towards his mother, however, couldn’t be more different. In his eyes she was blameless in his family’s trauma. She’s another victim of his father’s disgrace. He’s very attached to her, and she’s the only adult in the pack he felt comfortable around. Now that she’s here, he feels much more at ease. Isaac watches his father smugly until he’s out of sight. Once he’s gone, he happily looks back towards his mother.

His blood turns cold. She’s glaring at him. The fury in her eyes is terrifying. He knows now that he’s done something terrible.

He has disappointed his mother.

The two of them go to the village park and sit at one of the picnic tables. There’s no one here at this hour, the perfect time for a private chat. Isaac looks away from Quinn. He can’t keep up his happy charade in front of her, and he looks off in shame. She gently grabs his chin, and turns his face towards hers.

“I need you to look at me when I talk to you,” she signs to him.

Isaac nervously bites his lip. He doesn’t want to meet his mother’s stern gaze, but nor does he want to disrespect her. So he shamefully looks at her, despite his desire to turn away.

“Why do you keep fighting with your father?” she asks him.

Isaac begrudgingly raises his hands and starts signing back. “He’s not a good person,” he responds.

“You know he’s just doing what’s best for everyone. He’s doing his duty, as should you.”

“I never asked for this duty.”

Her son’s response fills Quinn with a deep sadness. Her expression lightens up, and she sadly signs back. “I know it’s hard. Our duties are difficult for all of us. But it’s what we must do.” The look in his mother’s eyes showed genuine anguish. It, too, filled Isaac with sorrow. Does she know that he knows?

It was always widely believed that Orion had disgraced Nebeous. That was the excuse that was given for Daine’s birth defect. Orion was the sinner who incited Nebeous’s rage, and Quinn was the saint who sacrificed a part of herself to quell the god’s fury. But what, exactly, was Orion’s disgrace? It was something the others had tried to hide from him, but Isaac knew what his father had done.

He knew that his father was the second son of the previous king. He knew that Orion used to have a brother, and that brother was supposed to be the king’s heir. He knew that Orion’s brother was the man his mother was set to marry when she won the Queen’s Tournament. And he knew what happened when Orion had challenged his brother to a King’s Bout.

“Do you love him?” Isaac signs to Quinn. “Do you love Orion?”

She needs a moment of thought before she can respond. After some consideration, she gives her answer. “Your father is a good man, and I have a lot of respect for him. We work well together.”

He saw right through her response. She made no mention of love. Of course she didn’t love Orion. They were closer to co-workers than family. Facing the reality of his parents' situation leaves him feeling more broken than before.

They weren’t a family at all.

He sadly raises his hands, and signs to his mother once more. “Mom, I don’t want to be the lycan king.” He was scared to admit this to his mother, but in this moment his heart was broken, and he was feeling especially vulnerable.

Quinn couldn’t bear to see her son like this. She loves him deeply, and she’s always wanted what’s best for him. After thinking about it, she decides she needs to open up to Isaac.

“You know, I have been in love before,” she signs.

“With another guy, right?” Isaac asks.

But Quinn shakes her head. “No, with a girl.”

Isaac perks up at this revelation. He had no idea his mother even liked girls. “We were a pair of troublemakers,” Quinn continues. “The two girls with the biggest egos in Lupan Hollow. We didn’t get along at first, but before long we became an unstoppable pair.” She sighs, reminiscing fondly about her youth. “But that was a long time ago. We don’t speak anymore, and we both have our own families to take care of now.”

Isaac looks at his mother desperately. He wants so badly to be understood, especially by his own family. “Mom, I don’t like girls,” he signs. “I never have. There’s a boy I really like, and I want to be with him. Not the girl from the tournament.”

Quinn gently smiles at him. “You don’t have to lose that part of who you are,” she gestures. “That boy will always matter to you. But you have your duty, and I know you have the strength to see it through.”

Isaac frowns. This wasn’t what he wanted to hear from his mother. She was so close to understanding him, the two having more in common than he realized. But his mother was a soul who had given up, and that’s become more apparent to him than ever.

He didn’t want to be like her.

“And, you know,” Quinn continues. “I still love someone very much. You, of course.” She gently kisses his forehead. “You are my son, and I love you. I love my family with my whole heart.”

“Even Blonde Sunrise?”

Quinn wasn’t prepared to be confronted in such a way. This was a very touchy subject for her, and she desperately didn’t want to speak of it. But she saw the way her son looked at her. This was an emotionally charged moment, and if she answers incorrectly she will lose Isaac forever.

So she takes a deep breath and averts her gaze. She raises her hands once more, trembling nervously. Isaac watches intently as his mother gives her answer.

“Yes. Especially her.”