This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  World Castle Publishing, LLC

  Pensacola, Florida

  Copyright © 2024 Kathi S. Barton

  Paperback ISBN: 9798891261723

  eBook ISBN: 9798891261730

  First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC, March 11, 2024

  http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

  Licensing Notes

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.

  Cover: Cover Designs by Karen

  Cover-designs-by-karen.com

  Editor: Karen Fuller

  Chapter 1

  “Run.” When they only stood there staring at him, Lica finally shoved his two brothers in the direction of the woods to get them going. If they were caught by their father, he’d knock them out and then blame the accident that he’d caused on them. As they were getting away, it was Edmond, his brother closer to his age, who shifted—which is something they rarely did, especially out in the open like they were, but he was getting further away with each bound of his paws. When Guy, another younger brother, did the same, Lica hoped they would be far enough away that no one noticed. Christ, he hoped so. That’s all they needed was for their father to know that they could shift into a wolf after all this time when they’d been hiding it from their parents since birth.

  Since their mother was a wolf, not even a full-blooded one, and their father was a human, the chances of them being able to shift were slim. The six of them, since they were old enough to be able to shift at ten, had been told to keep it from their parents or they’d use their ability not just against them but other people as well. It had been easy for them to hide it, so far anyway, since their mother couldn’t shift either. Lica thought it was the only thing that had saved their lives a lot during their childhood so far. Being able to shift to heal their wounds after a severe beating from them.

  “Where are they? Them other two? Where’d they go?” Knowing that he was testing his father’s already short temper, he asked him who he meant. The slap to his face knocked him backward, rolling him down the hill enough that he’d not be able to get to him quickly. Lica laid there. “Your fucking brothers. Where did they go? One of you is gonna take the blame for this, and I’m guessing it might well be you. You fucking shit.”

  He didn’t mind the name calling. In fact, Lica rarely noticed him being called anything but some version of fucking something his entire life. There were other names that he was called, rarely Lica Frazier, which was his real name. None of his brothers were ever called by their given name.

  Climbing up the hill when the police arrived, he stayed as far from his father as he could. Mother hadn’t been with them this time, which was a good thing. She would have surely noticed that the other two could shift. And that, as they say, would have been the literal end of all six of them. The three with their father, and the three at home with their mother.

  “Damned boy, there was driving.” He’d not been, and he was positive that the officer knew it. Dan Wilkins. At sixteen, Lica could pass for a person ten years older, but Dan knew how old each of them was since he’d been around when they’d been born. He was a part of their wolf pack. “Trying to get him to stay on the straight and narrow is damned near impossible with them other ones screaming in the back seat.”

  Dan spit out his tobacco juice before speaking. “Don’t see no other kids, Fred. You been drinking again?” Dan leaned in and sniffed father. “Yeah, I’ll say you’ve been drinking a great deal. And that boy there, he wasn’t driving. I told you last month we got us some camera’s all over the place now, just about on all the roads. I saw you getting out of the driver’s door.”

  “You calling me a liar, Daniel?” Dan said that he was on account of him lying to him again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. That boy there, he was driving and the one that tore out Mr. Charles’s fencing when he swerved off the road.” Father laughed. “It don’t matter to me, none who you think was driving. That little fucker is the one that is going to be putting the fence back up for knocking it down. And you call me a liar again, and I’ll snap your head off where your mouth is.”

  “You’re not above the law, Fred Frazier. You best be remembering that. Now, I’m going to ask you again, you driving that car? Remember what I said? I got us cameras all over the place now.” Father glared at him, but Lica knew he’d not hit him in front of the police. For all his blustering, his father was afraid of the police more than he was their mother. And she was terrifying to every living soul in the world. They all knew that.

  “I was driving. But I ain’t going to be putting that fence back up. That’s what I got these damned kids for. Doing the work that I don’t want to.” Officer Wilkins said he’d see about that, and Lica knew that their father would be putting up the broken fence, and they’d be getting the beaten for him having to do it.

  Officer Wilkins told him to get under the wheel to drive the car back to his home. That it was all right this time. Father was put in the back of the cruiser and locked in before Lica was ready to admit that he was terrified. Hanging onto the handle of the driver’s side door, he counted to twenty, four times, just to keep himself from falling over before he turned and talked to the officer.

  “You gonna get your ass beat, ain’t you, boy? You tell me the truth now. You hear me?” He said yes, sir, that they all would. He wasn’t going to lie to him anyway, the man carried a gun, and that was for sure more dangerous than his drunk father was right now. “Your brothers, they out there someplace? Hiding?”

  “Yes, sir. I didn’t know what he’d do to them when you showed up. So I sent them on their way.” Lica glanced at the cruiser with his father sitting in the back. “He ain’t going to like you talking to me like this either. He’s going to think I’m telling you falsehoods.”

  “I’ll tell him you didn’t say a word. Won’t matter, I don’t think, but I’ll tell him that.” Dan spit again, then looked at him. “I want you boys to come over to my house tomorrow after you’ve been put to bed. You can do that, can’t you? I’ve seen you out and about working.”

  “Yes, sir. So long as he’s not up and around.” He said he’d not be doing much but sleeping when he got home until the fence was up. “We’ll be there. Around midnight?”

  “Yeah, that sounds about right. I got me some work for you six that will give you some pocket money. I hear tell that your parents aren’t paying your dues for school. I’ll pay you enough to take care of that and get you some boots, too. I hate to say this to you, but you’ll have to find a good hiding place for them so he doesn’t find them. He’ll sell them off for sure, knowing him.” Lica said he had the perfect place. “I’m right sorry that you and the others have to put up with them as your parents. You’re good boys, and I hate that he beats on you so much. Both of them do it, don’t they?”

  “Yes, sir. They’re powerful mean when they think we’ve done something wrong.” Dan nodded. Then he asked him when he’d be eighteen. “I’ll be eighteen in thirteen months and three days. But I won’t be running unless he makes me. Us brothers, we made us a promise that we’d stay together until we can all leave. And Devlin, he’ll be eighteen in four years.”

  “Gonna be hard, you know that, don’t you?” He said that he’d not leave his family behind. “All right then. I’ll keep an eye out for you boys. Them fates, they surely did mess up a bit by putting them two together and then giving you boys to them monsters.”

  He didn’t bother agreeing or disagreeing with the man. Dan had known his parents since they were kids together. And from what his grannie had told them when she could visit, was that their father had been just what Dan called him. A monster. So had been their mother.

  Driving the car back to the house, he was inside and in his room before his mother noticed him. Checking on the other two, just making sure they made it home, he was glad to see that not only did they make it, but they didn’t seem to have been hurt any either.

  Their mother would be making her way to the police station tomorrow. Walking too. None of them had a driver’s license but their father. He told them they couldn’t have one until he was sure they’d not run off. But they would, licenses or not. Just as soon as they were all of legal age to do it. Just a little over four more years, and they’d be out of here. Lica only hoped that the six of them lived that long.

  Over the next month, the six of them chopped wood for Mr. Wilkins and anyone else who had the money to pay them for work. It was hard work, chopping in the dark, but they were able to get plenty done in that time and also were able to put a new roof on Mr. Chance’s house, round up Ms. Lane’s pigs that got out, and to pick corn and pumpkins for Mr. Brown.

  The four hundred dollars they managed to make that was left over from paying their school fees was held onto by Mrs. Wilkins. She even put it all in the bank for them so that they could get it when they wanted. A plan was worked out, too, such that if any of them had some extra cash to put up, they only had to leave it on the back porch under her basket of apples, and she’d put it in the bank. Extra or not, it was going to go into the bank for them to run with. Even if it was ten cents they found on the way into town, it would go into the basket money and be put into the bank.

  Over the next several months, the six of them managed to save up just over a thousand dollars. That was after they each got a much-needed pair of boots, coats that they could wear to school, and some paper and pencils for classes. They were all aware that it wasn’t a great deal of money. But it was a start, they thought. They didn’t take much in the way of chances with the cash, never having it on them when they were at home or working. As soon as they got paid, one of them would go right to the Wilkins home and put it under the basket. It was the only way that they felt safe with having a job. Then, their mother caught them working one night.

  He hadn’t any idea how she’d figured out that they weren’t home that night. She and father had gone to the bar to play cards and get drunk, and that usually meant that they’d be gone well into the afternoon the next day. They’d be too drunk to drive home, so they’d pull into some lot, pull out their tent, and sleep off their drunkenness. It was their Friday night thing to do.

  They had been coming back from working at six in the morning, dirty and exhausted, when she found them along the side of the road walking home. Luckily, he supposed they’d left their tools, an axe, and a limb saw at the place they’d been working. Otherwise, Lica was sure that she would have used it on them. Father was out cold, but she was raging mad.

  It was the first time that he’d gotten beaten so badly that he had three ribs broken as well as his left arm. The others, Devlin, had a broken collar and enough cuts to warrant him getting fifty or so stitches. But it was Edmond that had gotten the worst of it. Not only did he have broken ribs, nine of them, but he had both arms broken and his left big toe removed when she used her high heel on his foot to club him, she called it.

  She was arrested then. Officer Dan had made it out that they were working out some kind of trouble they’d caused and had to be healthy to do it. Unless she wanted to work for their trouble. Which needless to say, she didn’t. There wasn’t any trouble they caused, of course. But it worked, and Mother ended up in jail. Long enough for them to have healed like humans because shifting would have been dangerous for them.

  For the next three months, they were on their own convalescing. If they dared to shift, they’d be all right, but their parents didn’t know they could, so none of them risked trying it. He was nearly eighteen by then and was old enough to be able to care for them on his own if it came to that.

  Father wouldn’t leave the jail because his love was there, so they did as much as they could in gathering up food stuffs, and cash while he was gone. It was the most difficult three months of his life. It was a few months later, the day he turned eighteen, that everything went to hell. And the only time in his life when he could honestly say that he hated people. And he hated his parents with a passion that stayed with him for most of his life.

  Temptation was nothing he’d ever been swayed by. Not a pretty woman. Not a too good to be truth scam, nor was he ever swayed by fast money. All of them had learned the hard way that if their parents were on board with something, it was going to mean jail time for somebody. None of them ever participated in anything that their parents thought up. In fact, they would let the police know about their scams so that if they were caught with them and made to go on their scams for some reason, they wouldn’t be a part of the arrests. And there were plenty of arrests for their parents the older they got, until his birthday.

  ~*~

  Fred hated his kids. He didn’t much care for his wife either, but she was an easy lay, and that’s mostly all he wanted from her. Paula hated their kids too, mostly Lica, but she would beat them until they were bloodied every time she got the chance. Fred didn’t feel sorry for his boys. Hating them with a passion took care of that. But he decided one afternoon that if he was able to get rid of the oldest one, the others would fall in line with what he wanted more often than they did now. Mother fuckers weren’t even good for scaring people with their beasts. None of them had one.

  “You’d think that with having six kids that, one of them would be a wolf like you are, wouldn’t you, Paula?” She told him that she wasn’t a pureblood either, so it didn’t stand to reason their kids would be. Then she reminded him, as she did every time, that she couldn’t be a beast either. “Yeah, I know you can’t shift, Paula. You don’t need to tell me every time I say something about it. But one of them should have been, don’t you think? I mean, your sister, she has her nine kids, and all of them are wolves. I probably should have married her. That would have been better suited to me in getting some scary kids.”

  “If you’d of married up with my sister there wouldn’t have been nothing for you to use to father them boys. I would have cut you to the wick. You can bet your ass on that.” She turned and looked at him. “What are you thinking about Tally for? She’s worse off than we are with feeding her kids. At least ours don’t come to the table all the time expecting something for them to eat. We trained them good in not expecting anything from us.”

  “Yeah, that’s true, that’s true.” He smiled when he saw his boys out in the yard. They were just sitting there under the tree that they had them chained up to, not saying a word. “I’m thinking that the next time we have to discipline them, we should kill them off. Ain’t no law against us killing them if they’ve been horrible kids, is there?”

  “You don’t remember all that trouble I got into when I beat them for working? I still don’t believe for a minute that they were only working for food. But nobody would tell us if they were getting paid real money. And I hate that them people tried to shame us by saying we should have fed them better than we did. Fuck that shit. If I had to feed them every time they were hungry, I’d not have time to have myself some relaxing time.” She turned and looked at him again. “What are you thinking about by killing them off?”

  “How old is Lica now? I’m betting he’s an adult. We should make him work at a real job someplace. I don’t know why all of them ain’t working at a real job bringing us home some cash.” She said that it would mess up their food card. “Not if nobody knows about it, it won’t. Besides, if any of them is eighteen or better, we won’t be getting food money for them anyway. We already had them tested for being stupid. They said that they’re all smart boys but not wolves.”

  That bothered him to this day that his boys were just plain old humans like he was. The only reason that he agreed to be married to Paula was her being a wolf and her daddy being the alpha. Then, not ten days after they’d been married, Lica senior had went and picked a fight with a young pup and lost not just his life and his pack but all his land and money, too. Fred was thrilled beyond words that he and Paula had been on their honeymoon then, or they would have been killed too. Just like the entire pack had been. Damn, but it was a wholly mess.

  The only person that had managed to get away was his momma. He still didn’t know how that had come to be. But she’d been helpful to them for a few years. Her being a doctor of their kind and having a full-time job that paid them real well and kept them in nice things. Then she up and thought that she’d not be helping them anymore. She told him that she didn’t like the way that they treated her grandsons. Stupid woman. There was no threatening her either to make her stay. One day, they got up, and she was gone. Couldn’t find her either. Damned woman. All women were stupid as far as he was concerned. But he didn’t say that very loud when his wife was around. She’d kill him off for sure if he did.

  They had to hide out for weeks after the pack was taken over. Them just being married and just being the two of them made it a sight better at hiding than it would have nowadays and all so that the pup and his crew didn’t find them. He didn’t know anything about that kind of thing going on when he arranged to marry Paula. And he wouldn’t have if he’d known that was possible if someone else came along to take over the pack. They joined them a new pack, and then his mom came for a bit to stay with them after the boys started popping out like them Pez candies.

  “What are you mumbling about?” Fred nearly told his wife it was none of her business, but he caught himself just in time. “I looked it up, Fred. Today is Lica’s birthday. Imagine that. It’s today like you planned it. What did you have planned for him to be gone from here? I, for one, would like to have them all disappear, but that one, well, you know how much I hate him.”

 

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