Chapter 2

June 20^th - six months before Cato becomes Alpha

Ella’s point of view

“Stefano, Zacharias!” I shouted across the room, “No fighting in the house!”

My two youngest sons, nine and ten years old, were rolling on the carpet, grabbing each other’s shirts. They were dangerously close to the TV, which after an incident involving a baseball bat and an apple, was already the second one we’d had this year.

Meanwhile, my youngest child, Ana, screamed her lungs out. She was two years old, the heart of the tantrum phase, and five minutes ago, I dared to suggest bath time.

“Mathias, where’s Cato?” I asked over the noise as my second eldest son appeared, grimacing at the chaos.

He shrugged and plugged his ears.

“Can you shut them up?” he said, “I’m trying to study.”

“I’m trying, Mathias,” I said, lifting Ana