Let the Healing Light Come In

Once he was sure that Shane wasn’t going to try to talk to him, he pulled the giant dossier back into his lap. Everyone thinks that he skates by on his looks and his skills on the lacrosse team, but he’s smart. He’s always had a good memory, and he’s going to remember these people so that he doesn’t look like some kind of idiot. The dossier is thick, but he’s going to study each picture until some of this start to make sense.

On the very first page is a very long, and detailed, family tree.

The beginning of the tree just says Agatha Trucco. Nan.

The far left branch is the alpha and his family. Shane and Leah Trucco. They have six children, three boys and three girls, and a total of three grandchildren. For now. One of the sons is about to have another child. He knows that because there’s another branch with a question mark. It’s the same for another pregnant family member.

The middle branch is a part of the family that he’s going to be staying with. He can tell because of the stars next to some of the names. Sean Trucco is Shane’s twin brother, and his wife’s name is Rita. They have ten children, six girls and four boys, and one adopted daughter. They only have one grandchild. For now. Their oldest daughter is pregnant.

The far right branch looks small compared to the other two. Sally Trucco-Owens, the youngest of Agatha’s three children, and her husband Trent Owens. They have six children; three boys and three girls, and the oldest is only fifteen.

After that, the pages show each individual family member. Pictures and details…So many faces and so much information.

The first picture is of the Werewolf Matriarch, Agatha Trucco. Her light blonde hair has thick streaks of gray in it, and there are wrinkles next to her clear blue eyes. Looks like werewolf genes are good for the aging process. Under the picture, in Saraleigh’s elegant handwriting, are the details.






The next picture showed the man that he was currently in a vehicle with, and it must have been a recent picture because he couldn’t see any differences. His hair is light blonde, his eyes are a clear blue, and there’s some scruff on his cheeks and chin. He looks like a normal guy, but he’s an alpha werewolf.






The next picture was of a smiling woman, with short curly hair and big green eyes. Shane’s wife, and a human.






The next picture showed what Jackson imagined the perfect American family to look like. The parents stood in the back, both tall and blonde with bright blue eyes. Two children stood in front of them, a boy and a girl, both with the same light blonde hair and blue eyes. They were standing on a lawn, with lush green grass, and they looked…happy. Not like they were smiling just for the picture’s sake.





















The next family photo wasn’t as picture perfect, but it was pretty close. Shane’s second son was tall and blonde, but there were gauges in his ears. He had one arm wrapped around a woman with long dark hair, and a small toddler with blonde curls was perched on her hip and leaning back against his father. There was some kind of old car in the background, like they were at a garage.
















The next picture looked professional; it was just two girls and a white background. The girl on the left was pale and had long blonde hair, and her eyes were closed as she leaned back against the second girl. The second girl had a little more of a tan, and her long dark red hair had a little bit of a wave to it. (It wasn’t as light or as wavy as Lydia’s.) He couldn’t tell her eye color, because she was looking at the blonde girl. At Saraleigh. The blonde is the one who created this whole thing.






The next girl looked like she could almost be Saraleigh’s twin. They had the same straight blonde hair, and this time he could see the girl’s blue eyes. She looked young, but still older than him, and she was smiling.






The next picture was of another blonde girl with blue eyes, but her hair was shorter than her older sisters’ and curly. Her red lips weren’t smiling, but they were tilted up just enough like she was trying not to smile.






After two families and then three girls, it was almost a shock to see a picture of a boy. He had the same blonde hair as the others, and he was smiling so wide that it was nearly impossible to see his blue eyes.






That was the end of the alpha’s family. The next picture was of his twin brother, Sean, and the start of his family. He’ll be staying with Sean’s family, four of his children to be exact. It’s clear that they’re twins; everything about Shane and Sean Trucco is the same, except for their eyes. Shane’s eyes are blue, like all of his children, but Sean’s eyes are brown.






Sean’s wife, Rita, is smiling in her picture. Her brown hair barely brushes the top of her shoulders, and her eyes are a pale green. There’s laugh lines around her mouth and eyes, but she doesn’t look very old.






Great. Another happy family photo. It looks like the family of three is out in a field somewhere, complete with colorful flowers and a clear blue sky. The man is tall with brown hair and a beard, and the woman is only a few inches shorter with long wavy blonde hair. Between them, holding onto their hands, is a little boy with light brown hair and big brown eyes.











The next picture was the one he’d already seen, as were the next six, but he studied them again anyway. Forrest was the second oldest in this line of the family, but the oldest one that he’d be living with. He was a werewolf carpenter. The next, third oldest son, was a human cop. Next were the witchy werewolf twins, whatever that means. Roman is a nurse, and Reese just became a cop. Maggie is their younger sibling, and the first one in their line to have green eyes instead of brown. She’s a human, a witch, and still lives with her parents. Malvina is the same age as Maggie; she’s a werewolf that was adopted by the Trucco family.

After Kit and before the twins (Roman and Reese) was a picture of Sean’s first daughter. She was standing in front of a shop, with her arm linked through her husbands. Mya’s brown hair was darker than her husbands, and he had blue eyes while hers were brown. It looked like they were standing outside of the tattoo shop that they owned.











After Malvina’s picture, the adopted werewolf, was a picture of a teenage girl. Like most of her siblings, she had straight brown hair and brown eyes. She wasn’t smiling as she looked into the camera, which made sense since she was in that early teenage phase.






The next picture was of two little girls; Sean and Rita Trucco had two sets of twins. The two little girls were nearly identical; they had the same wavy brown hair and even the same face, but their eye color was different. One had brown eyes, like most of Sean’s children, but the other little girl had light green eyes like Rita and Maggie.






The last picture was different from all of the rest. Instead of having everyone in a different picture, there was just one large family picture. Sally Trucco-Owens and Trent Owens were standing in the back, their first three children were standing in front of them, then their two youngest daughters were in front of them, and their youngest son was standing in front of his slightly older sisters. Sally had the same blonde hair as her brothers’, Trent’s hair was a light brown, and they both had blue eyes. The oldest son, Myles, had his mother’s blonde hair. The next two children, Blaise and Kayle, had dark brown hair. The two younger girls, another set of twins, had light brown hair. The youngest Trucco-Owens child, Bruce, had light blonde hair.




































In total, thirty-seven people made up the Trucco family. In a year, after two of the women gave birth, the count would be up to thirty-nine. Saraleigh, the nutjob who actually put this whole thing together was apparently getting married in December. That’s forty members, and it sounds like they’re all close. Not just close in the way that most people keep in contact. She mentioned that they get together, that he’d see these people regularly. Forty people…they all live close together, as a family.

It doesn’t make any sense to him. They all sound so normal, except for the occasional mentions of werewolves and witches, but they seem like ordinary people. Why did they agree to take him in?

He’ll do his best to remember their names, maybe even some of the details, but this isn’t going to work. He gives it a week before he either disappears in the middle of the night or they kick him to the curb. Either way, he won’t be with them long.