HIS UNKNOWN LOVE CHILD (Book Three In The LOVE CHILD Series)

Chapter Four "NOT SO DRUNKEN LOVE"

THORNE.................. Twelve Years Ago

Flashback...............

I literally stumbled my way into the Howlers. It was a bar that I frequented whenever things got to be too overwhelming. Like tonight. I took a seat at the bar and signalled to Trevor, the Bartender. He reached under the counter for the special blend of whiskey that was only served to super naturals like myself. Human alcohol did nothing for us. He set the entire bottle down and an empty glass in front of me. "Rough night?" He asked.

"Something like that." Was my reply. I didn't need to elaborate. He new whenever I came here and why. I poured the whiskey into the empty glass until it was full. I knocked it back in one swallow. The familiar burn of the alcohol coursing through my being. As I settled into a night of binge drinking, my mind wandered back to what had led me here in the first place, or rather whom. My nephew Liam. He was currently in the hospital fighting for his life after trying to kill himself. This wasn't the first time that he had tried to commit suicide and it wasn't going to be the last either.

But this time other people had gotten hurt and my brother Hunter and his two mates Rafe and Cameron were busy trying to minimize the backlash and the fallout from Liam's latest act of self destruction. Thankfully no one had died, because of him.

We were all at home, sitting around in the family Den, pretending to be a normal family, pretending to be happy. All of us pretending as if our minds weren't on the one family member that was missing. Liam, my nephew.

Blair had been the one to insist on us having a family night. It was her way of trying to keep us together. Trying to stop our family from completely falling apart. We did this once a week, to make her happy. She was the only girl in a family of thick, bullheaded men and we would all do anything just to see her smile. So once a week we gathered together for family night.

Then the phone rang. All activity and chatter seized immediately. My eyes tracked my brother Hunter's movements as he first flicked his eyes up to the clock over the mantle place and then over to the ringing phone. It was well after midnight. No one ever called this late unless it had something to do with Liam. I watched the emotions play across Hunter's face. Pain, hurt, anger, remorse, hopelessness. Finally his expression settled on resignation and his shoulders slumped in defeat. You couldn't help someone who refused to be helped. You couldn't save someone who didn't want to be saved.

Hunter walked with slow measured steps over to the persistently ringing telephone. No one in the room had moved. We all held our breaths in painful anticipation of what was to come. The same questions on everyone's mind. "What had Liam done now?", "Who did he hurt?", "How badly was he hurt?"

The little boy that I had met for the first when Cameron brought him back home, was no more. Gone was the boy with a smile a mile wide and one that could light up an entire room. Gone was the little boy that cared about and protected his siblings. He had been ripped away from us in more ways than one. In his place was a hateful, angry teenager, that thought nothing about inflicting pain and hurt on everyone around him. He hated everything and everyone. But what was even more sad was just how much he hated himself.

Hunter picked up the phone, "Hello." His voice was steady, but we could all see the tension in his shoulders. We waited as he listened to which ever policeman was on the line. "We'll be right there." He finally said again before hanging up. Hunter turned to us and the pain in his eyes was just a fraction of what he was really feeling. He took a deep steadying breath before dropping his bombshell. "Liam is in the hospital. He tried to kill himself again by riding his motorcycle into a speeding train. The train derailed and a lot of people are also badly injured."