Hunter's Alpha (gxg) ✓

33. Deliver Me

Are you ready for Part 2?

HUNTER

Twelve Years Ago

"Happy birthday! Happy, happy birthday!"

The chorus fades, the echo of the song swirling into the air like the smoke from the candles.

I turn eight years old today.

Around me, my family is gathered. My mom, before she left us for Italy. My dad, before he came a rich businessman on Wall Street. My sister, before she became the ruthless boss of a crime organization. And my brother . . . still almost the same.

"What did you wish for?" Tommy asks.

Anise elbows him. "You can't ask that."

The cake is in front of me, pink lacy icing and all, and the wax drips slowly down to the top. Happy 8th Birthday, Hunter! it says.

My mom tucks a knife into my hand, and my fingers shake around the handle.

I've never used one this big before. Even Anise, who is secretly teaching me knife-throwing lessons, hasn't given me a knife this size.

My father whistles, "Cut it!"

Tommy's words ring in my ears. What did you wish for?

I wished . . . I wished my best friend could be here.

She was the only one who wasn't.

I wasn't sure why, except for what I had heard my mother and father talking about last night. Mary says there's going to be a surprise attack.

They won't dare. There's nothing to worry about.

I miss her, though. She was the only person I really wanted to see today.

But later, I know she'll sneak in through my window.

The knife slices down through the pink surface of the cake, deepening between the soft layers of vanilla and cream.

"Who wants the first slice?" my father called out.

It was the last thing he said before the world went to shit.

That was how my mom described it, later. The world went to shit.

I'd always remember that.

A single gunshot pierced the music and the song and the concentration of my cutting. There was a paper plate hovering in front of me, and my tongue peeked out between my teeth as I tried to remove the slice of cake.

One gunshot. That was all it took.

The screaming erupted, and my father roars, "Get down!"

I knew he was the Alpha. I just didn't know what that meant.

But there is a suddenly a gun in his own hand, and as the children are shielded by their parents, cowering on the ground, he aims it towards the street.