OLD VERSION: Amendable (Book 3 in the Original SOCIETY Series) ✔

❦Fourteen❦

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From where I was sitting in the living room, I looked over at my cousin tending to her two boys. 

It wasn't as strange, after all these years, to see Thea as a mother. She'd always act like one when it came to me horsing around when Maddox Sr. was still alive. I used to feel like their child because of how often they'd sternly shout, "Kale!" every single time I was doing something I wasn't supposed to. 

It was always Thea though who I'd simmer quickly to since she'd give me this tender look that was the complete opposite of what I was expecting. Maddox used to the give me the stink eye for everything (I missed that to be honest...). But not Thea. She was a mother before she found out she was one. 

When she discovered news about Eli, though, my cousin's motherly instincts intensified and I guess I gave her enough practice to know how to handle a kid by the time her son was born, and old enough to run havoc in the house back at the Society. Course... I made most of that havoc because I was playing with the kid. 

Seeing her now though, with Eli and little Maddox, it made me wonder if the fire I saw in her eyes earlier was due to her being a mother.... or the Advanced Human bloodline that was in her veins. 

With no threats since those years ago, Thea has not had to tap into her Hunter Mode for anything. The same for Dennison. He was this former alpha with a strength that had been intensified by two when my grandfather made it a point to alter Dennison's DNA to become this half-beast, half-human form he never got cured for. 

The bottom line is that both Eli and Maddox's parents were one word: Lethal. 

And my aunt's worrisome vision earlier was directed at the offspring to said lethal parents. Talk about those strangers asking for an ass-whooping...

My eyes shifted to the older of the two boys first. 

Eli has always been a happy kid. He was. Really. However, he did have a few things happen to him as a younger kid that kind of altered his personality. Aside from him being Dennison's son in both personality and looks, Eli had this very strong sense of protectiveness about him that prevented him from fully being a kid. 

He still played around with the other boys back at the Alliance, but Thea would mention how Eli always had to think things through before he did it. It was odd for a child, she thought, since children were supposed to just be carefree and enjoy their childhood. But not Eli. 

Instead, he made sure that whatever he partook in, it was safe enough. Not for him... but Maddox. 

My eyes shifted to the smaller boy with the dark hair and gray eyes that locked on his mother. He was lifting up his one-eyed teddy bear. 

Maddox didn't experience anything that Eli had at four years old. 

He didn't have to live in a Society where he was isolated from almost everyone, he didn't have to see the men and women who were attempting to kidnap his father because those people wanted his mother. He didn't have to suffer severe burns, or almost die, from being trapped inside a burning house. And he didn't have to suffer the hole in his heart of never seeing the man that helped raise, and love, him. 

I used to wonder if Eli was ever jealous of his younger brother for never having to endure the trauma he went through. I wouldn't blame him if he did, but I never could read that from Eli. If anything, I think the kid was grateful for being the one to have that hanging over his head instead of Maddox.