Betrayed By You

Ch.3 - Born This Way

I spend a lot of my time sitting and thinking. And naked. Demeter says I need to at least wear shorts when I'm human and, for him, I do. If it was anyone else telling me to put clothes on there would be a fight, but Demeter is the Alpha in a gang of shifters. We do not cross him. I listen because I want to be like him. Powerful, feared, in control. Total control. That's what he has over us. He is the most powerful of us all and chooses what we do for our gang jobs.

I scout and do whatever is needed if Demeter is busy elsewhere, Sam is record keeper, Luke a.k.a. Lucian is housekeeper and nanny to Sam, and Flint takes care of cleaning by fire when needed. There's another gang member, sort of. My twin brother, Duval. He hasn't shown his face in so long that no one really knows what it is he does for the gang.

My brother, not quite scum. There's only one person I hate more than my brother and that's the girl he chases after. The one he calls his best friend. Angeline. He followed her around like a lost puppy when we were in school. She calls him Du, and he calls her Ange. I despise her. She made him weak when he was strong.

You have to be strong to get in the gang. You also have to be a shifter of some sort, but Demeter made an exception for Duval. All Duval had to do was keep up with Demeter in a fight. The rest of us had to manage to stay standing and our position depended on our skills and what we did in retaliation to Demeter attacking us. Sam didn't last long and Luke jumped in to protect him.

I don't know how Duval ended up in his position or what happened during the match. Duval had one request and that was that no one else was in the room except for him and Demeter. I was rather hoping that Duval would get his rear handed to him, but he came out in one piece. Demeter came into my room after the match and told me, too calmly, that Duval was fine and to stay away from him. When I told Demeter that that wouldn't be a problem he seemed happy about it. The only contact I have with my brother is if I need something from him or if he's spying on me. Demeter has lightened up since Duval is no longer in the group. I work a lot for the group so I don't need to see Duval for money. It also helps that he controls the money our parents left us when they died and he puts some in my account now and then in case I need something. Guess he doesn't want to see me just as much as I don't want to see him.

"Devlin!" Demeter yelled.

I jumped out of my hammock and silently landed before Demeter could open the door. "Yes, boss?"

"My office."

I followed Demeter out of my room and into his office. The gang is housed in what used to be a gym. Demeter uses the office overlooking everything as his space and I'm the only one otherwise who actually stays there all the time. For the others it's usually just off and on or during the full moon so we hunt together. Duval never participated in our hunts. He preferred to lock himself in the basement at his house. Fine by me. Just less time I had to be around him.

We're shifters. We can change whenever we want. Demeter says it's a rush to change in full daylight when there's someone who needs to be hurt and he's right. Shifting while the sun beats down on you is a feeling like no other. Werewolves will never be able to shift fully under the sun. This is one of the things that sets us apart from them and one of the things that makes us better. We're not tied to any one being or any one cycle. We shift when the moon is full because it's the most powerful. For weres we hear it's like being torn apart. Demeter said he was able to speak with a werewolf about it once before he killed him. I would have loved to be there for that. Demeter has style when he fights.

Duval was born a human, probably with dormant shifter DNA. Ever since I was a kid I've been able to change into a wolf. Any piercings we have as humans stay there. The first time you shift with piercings in it hurts. Some of us like that. My wolf form is fierce. Black fur, red eyes, toes on my front paws are red, my muzzle and chest are read, and I have black nails. The piercings I wear are two silver and two gold. Gold on top because shifters can wear silver and gold. Weres can only wear gold because they are weak against silver. I can imagine a werewolf's grave 'death by dinner fork'.