Chapter One

I was five years old the first time my father yelled at me and beat my ass so hard that I couldn’t properly sit down the next day. Chase and I had been playing hide and seek with Emily who was four at the time. I was hiding in my father’s office although we were forbidden from entering it. They weren’t home so I wasn’t worried about getting caught.

I heard the office door open and I froze where I sat in the little niche between his desk and the wall near the windows. I heard my father on his phone and I knew I was done for unless I could sneak up on him and pretend to be cute or something.

He sat down in his chair and I could see the back of his head and his broad shoulders with the phone pressed against his ear. He lifted his head and turned it to the side and then sighed loudly.

“One of the fucking kids were in my office again,” he said to whoever he was talking to on the phone so I remained hidden in my spot.

He ended his phone call after another few minutes and I concluded that he had been talking to Uncle Jasper. They were always talking on the phone and laughing or discussing serious grown up business that we would be introduced to once we were old enough. I crept out from my hiding place making absolutely no noise.

I had found the toy gun in my father’s drawer earlier and I was holding it in my hand. I stood behind his chair as he wrote something down in his diary. I could feel him stiffen as I pressed the barrel against his head, right behind his ear.

“Bang, you’re dead Daddy,” I whispered with a smile as I pulled the trigger and heard the gun make a clicking sound.

“Ryder!” he yelled as he turned grabbing the gun from my hand so roughly that I fell backwards.

His face was one of anger, one I had only seen a few times before but never directed at me or Chase. I instantly realized my mistake as he stood up from his chair and grabbed me by the front of my shirt yelling and swearing at me.

“You could have fucking killed me!” he yelled as he threw me over his lap and gave me six of the hardest whacks I had ever encountered in my life up to that point. He pulled me off his lap roughly and I landed on my ass again as I looked at him in terror.

“I’m sorry Daddy, I thought it was a toy,” I said in between my tears and screams.

He saw the look on my face and I scrambled backwards as he stood up again. I reached the door before he rounded his table and ran crying from his office. My mother had heard the commotion and my screams and she found me right before I reached my room.

“Ry, what’s wrong sweetie?” she asked me concern etched on her face.

“I’m sorry Mommy, I didn’t mean to shoot Daddy,” I said and pushed out of her arms as her face paled and she ran to his office.

“Oh thank the gods,” she breathed as she reached the doorway and held her hand to her heart.

“What happened? Why’s Ryder hysterical?” she asked him.

“Little shit found my gun and held it against my head,” Lucas said.

“What?” she asked sounding half hysterical herself.

“It wasn’t loaded,” he said as he looked at her face.

“Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? Why do you even keep your gun in your office?” she yelled at him.

“Because they’re not allowed in here!” he yelled back.

“He’s a child and accidents happen!” she said angrily.

“If he knew his place it wouldn’t have happened,” he said equally angry.

“Maybe I should teach him how to handle a gun so that next time he does it properly!” she yelled and I placed my hands over my ears.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Lucas asked her still shouting.

“Did you hit my son because you’re an asshole that can’t hide a gun properly?” she asked him.

“Yes I smacked his ass,” he said still sounding angry to me.

“This is your fault Lucas, nobody else’s,” she said while glaring at him.

“I know, he just scared the living shit out of me,” he said sounding much calmer now.

“Please don’t fight, I’m sorry,” I said from the doorway as I swallowed my tears and tried to be brave.

“Ryder, you scared the hell out of me. I’m sorry I yelled at you but what you did was very dangerous,” my father said as he crouched down in front of me so that I could look him in the eye.

“I didn’t mean to scare the living shit out of you Daddy,” I said and I saw him trying not to laugh.

“Don’t swear kiddo,” he said and pulled me into a hug.

“I told you to watch your language in front of them,” my mother said as she held her arms open and took me from my father.

That incident remained with me for a long time and for a while I had nightmares about killing my father. Chase had listened to my story with wide eyes and then he hugged me and told me he would always watch my back and that’s what we did from then on.

At school we got into trouble for normal stuff, fighting mostly but normal stuff too. Nothing was ever so bad that our father had to come to school for it and we got detention a few times. We were fifteen when I saw Tia for the first time.

She breezed through the school halls on her first day of school and had every boy in the vicinity freeze in their steps and take a second and third look at her. She was instantly popular and much to my delight she seemed to like me as much as I liked her.

“Are we going to Max’s party tonight?” Tia asked me as we sat in the cafeteria at school. Chase was busy drooling over Kenna, his girlfriend, and our other friends Burke, Ryan and Chester had just joined us.

“Probably,” I said and she smiled at me.

“Then I’ll see you later,” she said and gave me a quick kiss and left the cafeteria with her four friends in tow. Melissa was quiet, Tori was the Tia wannabe, Leana was the experienced one and Megan was the odd one out. She was more of a nerd and I didn’t really know why or how they were all friends.

“I think Kenna’s tonsils are clean now,” I said as I kicked Chase’s leg under the table.

“Piss off Ryder,” he said to me with a grin.

“Come on the bell’s going to ring any minute now anyway,” I said to him and stood up.

I hadn’t walked halfway through the cafeteria when Chase caught up to me and left a slightly pissed off Kenna at the table. Chase and I looked alike except that he had our mother’s blue eyes and I had our father’s green eyes. Other than that we were exactly alike in looks. Tall for our age, muscular because of our training and assholes when we needed to be because of who our father was.

“Have you popped Tia’s cherry yet?” Chase asked me and I pushed his arm off my shoulder.

“Shit Chase, what the hell, we’re not all sex addicts like you,” I said to him.

“You’re going to die a virgin,” he said to me with a laugh.

“And you’re going to die because of some STD,” I said and grinned at him.

“At least I won’t die a virgin,” he said and pushed me into the row of lockers next to us.

“Asshole,” I said and lunged at him.

We tackled each other to the floor and grappled for a while and then gave up. We were equals in many ways especially fighting since we trained together all the time. We always ended up being tied, no clear winner between us.

We had all our classes together and we always sat in the back of every class. I made notes that Chase would copy at home as he spent the majority of each class on his phone with one of his three girlfriends. I had been dating the same girl for almost two years and I really loved her, loved her enough not to push for anything she wasn’t ready to give.

I respected our boundaries and I respected her and other than hurting my family there was nothing I wouldn’t do for her. I picked her up in the mornings, took her home in the afternoons, carried her bag at school. Hell, I even went shopping with her on the weekends and carried all her bags. Chase called me whipped but I didn’t mind, he had no clue what love was all about.

At home we ate another lunch and trained for two hours with our father and Baz, we had recently started training with his dragon because he was adamant that we should know how to hurt one and preferably how to kill one.

“Daddy please,” I heard Emily as I walked towards the stairs to go shower before the party.

“No Em,” Rev said.

“But Chase and Ryder will be there and you know they’ll watch me like a hawk,” she said.

“Ryder?” Rev called out to me.

“Yeah?” I said as I walked to the living room.

“Details of this party tonight,” he said as he turned his attention to me.

“It’s at Max’s house, lots of beer, lots of horny guys and lots of slutty girls,” I gave him my honest opinion.

“You’re not helping cousin,” Emily said as she glared at me.

“Sorry Em, I’m not going to lie. I’ll always watch over you but I don’t think this party is for you,” I said.

“The answer remains no,” Rev said and stood up.

Emily punched me in the stomach as she walked past me and I heard her go up the stairs. Lying was the one thing that wasn’t tolerated in our house. Rev was a little scary so I would definitely never lie to him and my father could be a savage so we learnt early on to rather tell the truth.

“I’m sorry Em,” I said as I stood in front of her door.

“Go away asshole,” she said loudly and I smiled as I shook my head.

“You’ll have plenty of time for parties when you’re older,” I said and she yanked the door open.

“Do you realize that Graeme asked me to go to that party with him,” she said as she looked at me.

“Now I’m really glad you’re not going,” I said to her seriously.

“Why?” she asked me.

“Graeme’s a douche Em, he uses girls for one thing only, you’ll be labelled easy and then he’ll never talk to you again,” I said to her.

“Fine, but I’m still mad,” she said.

“Love you too,” I said as I kept on walking to my own room.

Max was one of the many humans in our school and although some people knew what we were, we didn’t advertise it. Some people were oblivious and we preferred to keep it that way. I showered and dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and boots and didn’t even bother looking in the mirror.

I knew Chase would spend at least half an hour checking out his hair and I settled downstairs in the living room as I waited for him to finish up so we could leave. We had our own cars and we always drove separately but together.

“Come on Ry, you look half asleep,” Chase said as he ruffled my hair from behind.

“Finally, you broke your own record, only twenty-nine minutes today,” I said as we left the house and he laughed at me.