Not What He Seems

Chapter 2

When Riot ran from his clan last year, his biggest fear was his alpha finding him and making an example of him. Every skinwalker knows that there's a specific set of rules that they need to follow if they value their lives, and listening to their superiors is the first rule on the list. But he really liked his human family, and he couldn't bring himself to turn them, so he ran.

His clan hasn't caught up to him yet, but Riot did go home a few weeks after he left to find a different family living in his house. His alpha may not have made an example of him specifically, but it looks like he made an example of his family, and that's even worse.

Obviously, Riot couldn't go beg for forgiveness, so he did the next best thing. He kept running and running until he knew no one could find him. He made it all the way down the East Coast and halfway across the country over the course of two or three weeks. It took a combination of running in dog form and catching public transportation in human form, but he made it all the way to Texas.

He wanted to keep going. He figured he'd be safe in, like, Utah. Who was going to find him in Utah? No one even lives in Utah. He's never even heard of someone staying in Utah. He's not even sure why the state exists, if not to hide from skinwalkers that want your head.

He didn't make it to Utah.

He got hit by a car instead.

He's not entirely sure that this isn't due to the universe not wanting anyone to know that Utah doesn't actually exist.

He'll admit, he was pissed at first. Getting hit by a car hurts like a bitch, and it doesn't help that this car is straight out of the mid-20th century and made of solid steel. And, to make matters worse, the dude that hit him didn't drive off after, so Riot couldn't shift into human form to assess the damage. A normal dog would be lucky to get hit by a nice guy like this. A skinwalker like Riot, not so much.

The guy was kind of a dumbass, but, Riot soon learned, he was also a nice dumbass. He brought Riot to the vet, where, after making a total fool of himself in front of the pretty vet lady, he agreed to take the injured dog home. All Riot really wanted to do was make his way to the middle of nowhere, but after a few days with Sam, he was starting to appreciate having a constant supply of food and to take care of him until he could get the stupid cone of shame off.

But, once he got the cone off, he found himself wanting to stick around a little longer. Sam had a nice thing going. He had a free apartment and a tiny paycheck for taking care of all the maintenance. Of course, he was so lonely that he was telling all of this to a dog, but that's not important.

Riot didn't really grow to like Sam for another few weeks. It's hard to like someone when the only ounce of their personality you've seen was how they treat their dog, but once Amelia was in the picture, things changed. She was nice and a little sarcastic at times, he was funny and charming, and they both loved Riot like he was their own child.

Riot — whose name is actually courtesy of these two; his human name was Bob and his last family named him Snuggles, so he's grateful that they finally gave him a cool dog name — was really starting to see them as family.

He listened to every word they said, always trying to subtly cheer them up when he heard them reliving painful memories. Amelia had just lost her ex and Sam had just lost his brother, so things were a little sad at times. That's when Riot would beg them to take him for a walk so he could pick some flowers in his mouth for them, or when he'd snag one of their wallets to remind them that they still have photos of their loved ones in there.

Other than that, they were happy. There were lots of smiles and laughs and nights snuggled in bed together, just the three of them. And, unlike with Riot's last family, when he was constantly worried that his leader would give the signal and he'd have to turn them, he was happy here. He didn't have to worry about anything ruining their perfect family.

Until Sam got up one night and started packing.

Then Riot was worried.

He caught a glimpse of Sam's phone before he left, shifting into human form while Sam was in the bathroom just long enough to jot down the coordinates someone had sent him. It took a few minutes of research, but he managed to track him down to the middle of the woods — which he'd almost been convinced was wrong until he hopped through enough busses cabs to find Sam's car parked by the side of the road.

He followed Sam's scent to a cabin in the woods, hell-bent on dragging him back home. He couldn't just barge in, given that his dog form didn't have opposable thumbs and no normal human would believe that their dog had a human form — so he had to bark until Sam opened the door.

And then it wasn't Sam that opened the door.

And Riot knew as soon as he saw Sam's supposedly dead brother pointing a gun at him that he wasn't getting his family reunion too easily.