The Ripple Effect

He was sitting quietly on the couch with earbuds plugging his ears from anything I was tempted to say. Brian surely knew that I was standing before him, but he just kept fiddling with his phone. His eyes were hooded, and a blank expression cloaked his face.

I glanced to the kitchen, but Clarice just smiled apologetically before ducking back out of the room. A quiet sigh slipped past me before I sat carefully beside my little brother.

"Brian, can I talk to you?" I asked, placing my hand on his shoulder.

He shirked away and scooted away from me without even a passing glance. My heart broke into pieces, and I cringed away from the pain that not even Regina could block from me.

He is hurting you, Sophie. Let's just leave. We can go home to our mates.

He's my little brother. He has a right to be scared!

Humans, Regina growled, a scoff evident in her voice.

"Brian, please don’t do this," I begged, reaching out again—now that he had no more room to run. "I love you. Just let me talk to you."

He scrunched his brow and nose in blatant annoyance, but then he popped one earbud out and into his hand. His stern gaze matched the scowl on his face.

"Go away, Sophie," he demanded, turning away from me just as quickly and moving to put the earbud back in.

"No, Brian. Talk to me," I told him, taking his phone from him and setting it on the coffee table. He glowered absolute death at me. "Tell me what's wrong. I can't fix this if I don't know what's wrong."

"Why should I even talk to you? It's not like you're really my sister, anyway!" he spat, pushing himself to his feet.

"Of course I'm your sister. What are you talking about?"

"Nan says you're one of those dogs," he accused, turning his back to me. "And I'm not. So you're not my sister! My sister wouldn't be a dog!"

He pushed off then, clearly determined to pretend I had never existed. I hurried after him, catching his hand and pulling him into my arms. He squirmed and pushed against me for a while before finally stilling. His tiny hands clenched my shirt.

"This is all that Orion man's fault!" he sobbed into my stomach as his entire body shook. "If he had stayed away, you and Rein and I could be living with Nan! You wouldn't be a dog, Rein wouldn't be a dog... We'd all be normal!"

"Brian, hush," I murmured, pulling him farther into my arms. "This isn't Orion's doing at all. Nan is a shifter, too, sweetheart. And Mama... Mama didn't want us to know about her past. I think that someday you'll meet your wolf. When you're older. And you'll be right at home in the pack."

He shook his head and look up at me, sniffling as tears dripped down his cheeks. "I'm not a dog, Sophie. I'm just a Brian."

"Honey, why did you run off like that the other day?"

"I was scared..."

I knelt down in front of him, allowing him to wrap his arms tightly around my shoulders.

"Were you scared of Jonathan?" He shook his head. "Rein?" Again, no. "Then...what?"

He mumbled something I couldn't at all understand before he started blubbering.

"Honey, I can't understand you. What frightened you so much?"

He pulled back to look at me, and he wiped his face with his sleeve.

"Someone kept talking to me. But there was no one there," he whimpered, grabbing my arms and pulling them around him.

"Well, what did he say?"

Brian bit his lip and glanced around, leaned toward my ear, and he whispered, "'Is it my turn?'"

"I don't understand. He said, 'Is it my turn?'" Brian nodded, his lips pressed into a line.

"And he said he wanted to play, too... But no one was there! And he won't leave me alone! He's here, too!"

Sophie, it's my littermate. Breindel says that my mother was only able to name him before your mother killed her off. She must have panicked when she found out she was pregnant again.

Brian started shaking then, and his eyes were all but bugging out of his head. How had I not noticed that they had started flashing from hazel to blue!

"Brian, it's going to be okay. I just need you to calm down, okay? I've got you, baby. Nothing is going to happen to you. Not under my watch. You're safe, do you understand me, Brian? Nothing can hurt you. Just calm down," I waffled, remembering when Orion had tried to calm me down from a shift. It hadn't been very pleasant...and I was sure Brian wasn't ready just yet.

Regina, tell Breindel to stop talking for a minute, that he can have his turn later.

But I want to meet him, Sophie!

Not if it's going to kill my little brother! They're not ready!

...Don't yell at me, Regina grumbled sourly.

"There, Brian, it stopped, right?" He nodded his head feverishly, but he was still shaking. "Honey, I need you to relax. Can you wrap your hand around your necklace for me? Whenever I'm scared, Mama and Papa protect me."

He nodded fervently and did as I asked of him. Slowly but surely his shaking slowed until he was just rocking back and forth on his feet. His eyelids fluttered, and he fell into my arms.

"Nan, I'm going to take him home," I called over my shoulder, gently wrapping myself around the sleeping angel. "Hopefully Orion will know how to help him."

"Be easy on him, dear. Who knows how long that wolf of his has been all alone and scared."

I only nodded, afraid to make much noise in case it would awaken the boy in my arms.

I could only imagine what was going on inside that head of his...

And for the first time since I had been thrown out of my parents' house, I found myself despising my mother for doing this to Brian.