Ethan's POV
I pressed my face against our apartment window and watched the scary guys walk around our building.
There were three of them now. Big men who moved like the dogs in my picture books. They kept sniffing the air and looking up at our window. One of them had yellow eyes just like mine when they got weird.
"Mama," I whispered. "The bad men are still down there."
But Mama wasn't listening. She was on the phone with someone, talking very fast and quiet. I heard her say words like "found us" and "need help" and "my son."
The man at our door knocked again. BANG BANG BANG.
"Maya, I'm trying to help you," he called through the door. "My name is Kai. Your son is in danger."
I didn't like how he said "your son" like he knew me. How did he know about me?
"Mama, who is Kai?" I asked.
She held up one finger, which meant "wait." But I didn't want to wait. The guys outside were getting closer to our building, and something inside me was getting angry. Really angry.
My hands started to feel hot and tingling, like when I accidentally broke Tommy Wilson's toy truck last week. I'd only meant to take it away from him, but I squeezed too hard and it broke like a cookie.
The phone in Mama's hand started to crack.
"Ethan!" she said sharply. "Control it. Deep breaths, remember?"
I tried to breathe like she taught me, but the angry feeling was getting bigger. It felt like a big dog inside my chest, trying to get out.
"They found us because of me," I said, and I knew it was true. "Because I'm different. Because I break things and my eyes turn gold and I can smell things normal kids can't smell."
Mama knelt down in front of me. "Listen to me very carefully. None of this is your fault. Do you hear me? You didn't do anything wrong."
But I had done something wrong. Yesterday at preschool, when Tommy Wilson pushed Sarah Martinez and made her cry, something had happened to me. Something scary.
"Tell me what you're thinking about," Mama said softly.
"Tommy," I whispered.
Yesterday felt like a long time ago, but also like it just happened. I had been playing with blocks when I heard Sarah start crying. Tommy was standing over her, laughing because he'd knocked down her tower.
"That's what you get for being a baby," Tommy had said.
The angry dog inside my chest had woken up. My hands got hot, and my eyes started doing the gold flashy thing. But this time was different. This time, the gold feeling spread all through my body.
I'd walked over to Tommy. He was bigger than me and older, but when I looked at him, he got very quiet.
"Say sorry," I'd told him.
"No," Tommy said, but his voice was shaky.
That's when the really weird thing happened. The angry dog inside me had growled, but the growl came out of my mouth. Not a human sound - a real growl, like from a real animal.
Tommy's eyes went wide and scared. All the other kids stopped playing and looked at us. Even the ones on the other side of the room turned around, like they'd heard something that made their skin crawl.
"Say sorry," I'd said again, and this time my voice sounded different. Deeper. Like my daddy's voice in the dreams I sometimes had.
Tommy had dropped to his knees right there in front of everyone. "I'm sorry," he'd whispered. "I'm really, really sorry."
"Now help her build it back," I'd ordered.
And Tommy had done exactly what I told him. So had three other kids who hadn't even been involved. They'd all rushed over to help Sarah like I was the teacher or something.
That's when Miss Peterson noticed what was happening.
"Ethan Sterling," she'd called sharply. "Come here right now."
I'd walked over to her, but the angry dog was still awake inside me. When she looked into my eyes, her face went pale.
"Your eyes..." she'd whispered.
I'd blinked hard and tried to make them normal again.
"Timeout area. Now," she'd said, but her hands were shaking.
I'd sat in the corner for the rest of the day, but I could hear all the other kids talking about me. And I could smell their fear. Sweet and sour, like milk that had gone bad.
But the worst part was what happened when Mama picked me up. Miss Peterson had pulled her away and whispered things like "aggressive behavior" and "unusual strength" and "maybe he needs to see someone."
I'd pretended not to hear, but I have really good ears. Better than average kids.
On the way home, Mama had been quiet for a long time. Finally, she'd said, "Ethan, you can't use your voice like that with other children."
"What voice?" I'd asked, even though I knew exactly what she meant.
"The voice that makes people do what you want," she'd said. "It's dangerous. It's not fair to them."
"But Tommy was being mean to Sarah," I'd argued.
"I know, baby. And it's good that you wanted to help her. But there are other ways to help that don't involve... what you did."
I'd wanted to ask her more questions, but she'd looked so sad and scared that I'd kept quiet.
Now, hiding in our flat, I looked at Mama's worried face.
"I made Tommy kneel down," I admitted. "I didn't mean to. It just happened."
Mama's face went very white. "Oh, baby," she breathed. "Your Alpha voice is getting stronger."
"My what?" I asked.
But before she could explain, the banging at the door got louder. "Maya! They're almost here. We need to go NOW."
I could hear the man named Kai getting scared too. His voice was different now, more eager.
Through the window, I could see the three big guys getting closer. But there was something else moving in the trees behind our building. Something that made the angry dog inside me whimper instead of bark.
The escape bag that Mama always kept ready was sitting by the back door. She'd told me it was in case we ever had to leave very fast. I'd always wondered why we might need to run away so quickly.
Now I understood.
"Mama," I said, my voice very small. "There's something in the woods. Something really, really scary."
She looked where I was pointing, and I saw her face change. She looked frightened.
That's when I smelled it. The same smell from this morning, but stronger now. Much stronger.
Pine woods. Snow. And something that looked like... like me. But older. Angrier. More dangerous.
My nose wrinkled as I tried to figure out the smell. It reminded me of the dreams I sometimes had about a big man with bright eyes who looked sad and angry at the same time. In the dreams, he would reach for me, but Mama would always pull me away.
"Mama," I whispered. "Is that my daddy?"
Her eyes filled with tears, but before she could answer, the screaming started again.
This time, it wasn't coming from behind our building. It wasn't coming from outside at all.
It was coming from inside our apartment building. From the stairs.
Heavy footsteps echoed in the hallway. Slow, measured steps that made the floor creak under their weight.
The man named Kai stopped knocking. "Maya," he called quickly. "He's here. Dominic found you."
My heart started beating very fast. Dominic. That name made the angry dog inside me pace in circles.
"Who's Dominic?" I asked Mama.
She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the back door. "Someone very dangerous," she whispered.
But as she reached for the emergency bag, all the lights in our flat went out.
In the darkness, I heard something that made my blood turn cold.
A deep, rough voice calls through our door: "Hello, Maya. Hello, son."
And for the first time in my whole life, the angry dog inside me was scared.