Brother’s Betrayal

Tara knew when she left work at the grocery store something was wrong. Her brother wasn’t there to walk her home. That was warning enough for Tara. He was one of those fly-by-night types, every time his latest job didn’t go well and would run from it. Sadly, she couldn’t rely on him for much more than eating what little food was in their small fridge and racking up her long-distance phone bill with 900-numbers. Tara loved him, truly she did. He was her only family. She’d raised him through his teen years while she wasn’t much more than a teen herself.

What worried her was he wasn’t answering his phone. He always answered his phone and he’d give her some lame excuse about why he wasn’t there. This time he wasn’t picking up and it was her seventh attempt. Hid voicemail was also full.

The summer night was cool, and the streets wet from the rain which fell while she worked. At two in the morning, Tara watched cars drive past as she walked toward where she lived. It wasn’t home, they didn’t have one. A home was safe and stable. Where people loved you. Where they lived, it was none of those things.

She walked twenty minutes to find the derelict motel her pack use. It wasn’t much with it peeling paint, water-stained ceilings, and rotten floors. They didn’t own the condemned fleabag. In fact, her pack owned nothing, not even territory. They were a lone pack, a pack of sad shifters that were a drain on society. They existed in the neutral zone between three established packs.

Their pack was filled with rejects and unwanted wolves, who banded together under Alpha Elmwood out of desperation. The Elmwood Pack was almost nothing. Too small to have real influence or wealth.

Was she happy? No.

She didn’t have anything to offer another pack. They were stuck with the Elmwood Pack. If she left this pack, what would she do with her brother? His presence would get her an instant rejection from any sane Alpha. He’d steal the pack blind while wearing a charming smile. She loved him, but she wasn’t deluded about his failings.

With little education or prospects, Tara Travers could only keep her head down to survive.

“Come on, Eddie, pick up and tell me you aren’t dead.” She listened to his phone go to voicemail again. It wasn’t full now, that’s good. This time, she left a message. “Hey stupid, did you forget something? Or someone? Call me and you better have a good excuse. You know the number.” She disconnected the call and pocketed her old beat-up phone.

Sure, she’s a shifter, but she’s a woman out alone in the wee morning hours. In the neutral zone, where there’s no telling what could happen, and the only law is the human one. A human one that knew nothing about the supernatural beings living among them.

It was two-thirty when she reached their room. No, Eddie, or the flicker of the TV would be visible through the rotten drapes.

Tara entered the darkened room. The pack somehow kept the lights on and sometimes there was hot water. Right now, she needed to put the food in her backpack in the tiny fridge and sleep. If all went well, she’d have two days off work, and she’d start it by sleeping. Then she’d attempt to pick up some day work as a road side flower vender.

Tara hadn’t slept long when her phone rang. The people who used her number were few, her boss, brother, and Alpha Elmwood when he looked for Eddie, if he remembered she existed.

Tara was happy her Alpha didn’t like her much. He saw her as necessary to keeping Eddie. Eddie was blindly loyal, and would do anything for him.

“Hello? Is that you Eddie? Where are you?” Tara sat up in bed, the phone to her ear.

“Tar, hon, no time. Listen to me. Get out of there. Leave the pack. I screwed up big time. Get out, save yourself. Everything’s gone sour.”

“Leave the pack? Where do I go? Eddie, you aren’t making sense. What’s going on in the background? Where you are?” This wasn’t like her carefree, scheming brother. “What’s happening?”

“Just leave. Pack what you can and leave. I don’t know when or if we’ll ever see each other again. I love you, and if you love me, you’ll do this.” The call ended. Of all the nerve, to guilt trip her. She’d give him a piece of her mind. Tara tried calling him, but the call wouldn’t connect. His phone was off.

“Eddie, what have you done? Where do I go?” Tara said to no one in frustration. She expected him to call back and explain he was being overly dramatic. Tara was too tired to do much of anything. Where would she go at this hour without money? Everything was closed. She hated that he hadn’t explained things. Eddie kept too many secrets. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to protect her, or avoided her.

It was just after dawn when she awoke rudely to an angry fist pounding on the door. Tara didn’t get to the flimsy door before it buckled under the force of the fist.

“Really? You couldn’t wait for me to open it? What’s going on?” She regretted saying this because she was face-to-face with Alpha Elmwood, flanked by his Beta and a Delta, like he needed either with such a tiny pack. They might have numbered thirty years ago. Now, they barely filled ten rooms.

“Alpha Elmwood? What’s wrong? What’s going on?” The old man looked like a crazed lunatic. With his angry glaring eyes, red face, messy grey hair, he breathed heavily, and his claws were visible. How he banged on the door was a marvel without injuring himself. This wasn’t a good look and it scared Tara to no end. She saw strangers behind him. They bore the same expression as him. She didn’t recognize them. Only saw them standing in the old crumbling parking lot.

“Where’s your worthless brother?” Tara heard Alpha Elmwood growl, his fangs were on display in his aggressive display of anger. It was made more disturbing by the light coming from behind him.

“I don’t know. I got a call from him about an hour or two ago and Eddie wouldn’t tell me where he was. I’m scared something’s wrong. He wasn’t making any sense. Do you know what’s happening?” Tara suspected the men outside were rogues. Why were they with Alpha Elmwood? That made no sense.

“Your brother was supposed to do a simple job, and he screwed it up. Since, I can’t get him to fix this, you will.” Tara could see Alpha Elmwood was desperate to direct his anger and maybe embarrassment at someone. She was the closest target. She knew this wasn’t a situation for her.

“What job? I don’t understand. How am I supposed to fix this?”

“Your brother needed to pick up a payment for me and bring it back. Did he? No, he didn’t. The fool, thought he could make money with mine at the Wild Wolf. He’d hoped to turn it into a sizeable chunk of change. He lost it all.”

“You’ve got to be kidding.” Tara knew where this went. Eddie saw himself as a consummate gambler. She believed Eddie would have gambled with the Alpha’s money and lost. It wasn’t his money, how did he have the nerve to do that? What was he thinking?

“I won’t be screwed over by the likes of your brother. You’re going to go to the Wild Wolf and get my money back.”

“How do I do that?” Tara had never been to the private shifter club. A shifter needed money to get into there and they needed to be pretty. Prerequisites Tara didn’t possess. The club’s reputation was it catered to the twisted cravings and vices of the elite shifters of Toronto. Whether it was food, music, gambling, or sex, the Wild Wolf had it.

Tara couldn’t understand how her brother gained entry to the Wild Wolf let alone gamble there.

“Lie, cheat, or steal it back, I don’t care. Just get it or don’t come back.” He tossed some papers and money on the unstable table beside the broken door. “Get it back and you save your brother’s life. Fail and you can look for a new home while finding a place to bury your brother.” He stormed out, leaving the door listing drunkenly on a hinge.

How was she going to fix this? Where was Eddie? Now she was beyond the worrying stage and onto fearing she had lost the last person she’d ever call family.