The First Shifters

In the eyes of Ryker Whitlock

It felt like I couldn’t breathe, the words on the computer screen in front of me were impossible. They had to be, right? There was no way. I felt the hair on my neck and arms raise in fear and disgust, my tail ridged behind me. Next to the project file was another; so many names and photos, but I saw Inara’s name at the top. My vision seemed distorted, but I knew it was her; the silver hair and bright gold eyes were unmistakable.

“What are you doing in here, Ryker?” a low voice asks me, but before I can turn around to see who had caught me accidentally snooping, I’m thrown back into my dorm room. Looking around, nothing looked out of the ordinary, but the hair on my body is still standing; something was off.

“Oh Ryker,” I hear, and I whip around to find the voice. It’s distorted, but it kind of sounds like Inara. That’s impossible, she should be at home.

“You shouldn’t be snooping where you don’t belong,” she snarls, but I can’t find her; it’s too dark and the lights won’t work. I still can’t breathe. What the f**k is happening? Before I can understand this nightmare, there are teeth around my neck, claws in my belly, and I know I’m dying; there’s too much blood. I feel it draining out of me, the liquid hot and sticky as it pours over my chest and out of my stomach.

And then I wake up.

“Jeezus f**k,” I growl, sitting upright and holding my pounding head in my hands. I’m drenched in sweat, the fan not doing much to keep me cool in the moment. It was just a dream, a messed up one, but it was a dream. I keep telling myself this, trying to calm my breathing down. Inara getting involved in my life must have triggered everything I’d been suppressing since my life fell apart.

My phone is buzzing, and I look down to see that my brother Alex was calling. He may not be my blood brother, but he was going to be the closest thing I was ever going to have, seeing as I didn’t know who my family was. We had a sneaking suspicion, but we all kept that to ourselves.

“Hello Alex,” I mumble into the speaker of the phone, the hologram glitching in and out. I really needed to fix this damn thing.

“Morning goof, are we not meeting up for our usual round of me kicking your ass?” he laughs, and I have to chuckle.

“I let you win,” I sigh, a failed attempt at humor. I’m exhausted, I don’t think I’ve hardly slept. After Inara left my dorm room, all I could seem to think about was her and this mess we were about to be in. I knew there was no way she was going to let all this go now. The horrific nightmare didn’t help either.

“What’s wrong man, you okay?” I can hear a hint of worry.

“I couldn’t sleep very well last night.” I’m debating on whether or not I tell him the dreams are making a return.

“Does that have anything to do with Inara Ashwood?” Alex asks me, and my ears perk up.

“What do you mean by that?” I ask, wondering how he even knew she was here.

“Uh…look, don’t be mad, but I may have been the one who told her where you lived.” I can hear the sheepish tone, and can see him in my mind holding the back of his neck like he does when he knows he’s probably crossed the line.

“You what?” I ask slowly. I’m not mad, but I am surprised.

“Let me swing by your place, and we can walk home together and I can explain everything,” he says, giving me no choice. I sigh, pinching my nose with my fingers.

“Alright, let me get dressed, I’ll meet you downstairs.” I’m slightly annoyed, but I know Alex has my best interest at heart. He was older than me by about three years, but sometimes I swear he acted like the younger one. Now I’m wondering what Inara and Alex could have possibly talked about to have Alex leading her here. But that also meant she must have sought me out on her own. I smirk a little, pulling a plain white tee over my head. A pair of grey sweats follow; soon I’ve got my running shoes on and I’m out the door.

“Damn bro, that was fast,” I hear Alex as I come down the stairs.

“It doesn’t take me long to get dressed,” I say in a bored, matter-of-fact tone. He should know this about me by now. “So, tell me again, how did Inara know to find me?” I tease. His ears and tail droop a little, and I fluff his hair. “I’m not mad, I think I knew this was going to happen eventually.”

“She found me on my social page,” Alex admits. “She was asking about you.”

“What all did you tell her?” I ask as we finally get walked past the dorm building. It’s a beautiful mid-morning, the sun not quite far enough in the sky to cast its red hue. The stars are twinkling in a dark pinkish, purple light; the trees with their bright, glowing green against the darkened sky. It wouldn’t get bright enough for the street lamps to turn off for a couple more hours.

“She wanted to talk to you; she said she wanted to know why you had it out for her family,” Alex answers softly. I sigh, my head leaned back in slight frustration. Inara just didn’t know when to keep her nose out of things. The s**t with the science center was one thing, the drama with her brothers was its own issue entirely. Her distorted dream voice ran through my head, and I suppressed a shiver. “She also wanted to know some of your history.”

“What do you mean by my history?” I ask him with a raised eyebrow.

“I told her how you are our brother,” he says sheepishly. I growl at this a little.

“Damn it Alex, now she’s going to think I’m some broken thing to fix or something.”

“I don’t think it’s that,” he responds a little defensively. “She said she wanted to make peace with you to find out what was really going on. I told her that you’d found something.” He kept his voice low as we crossed out of campus and started walking through the roads of what was technically the east end of Emberhold. While it wasn’t as ritzy and glamorous where Inara and her friends lived, it was still kept up. It felt more like home than the inner part of the city where everyone was glued to their tech, with their little robots running around everywhere and holograms practically screaming in your face. It was a sensory overload for sure.

“So, she came to you looking for answers.” I had to wonder if she always knew something was up, she just needed the push from somewhere to start asking questions. Knowing what I knew now, I was a little worried she wasn’t going to like the answers. Hell, I didn’t know most of them myself, especially when it came to her file. It still gave me the creeps, all the names and photos.

“I think Inara just wants to put an end to the hostility going on between you and her brothers,” Alex says. The street lamps illuminate him just enough that I can see his hands are in his pockets, and he looks a bit downcast.

“I don’t think I can ever change that,” I tell him softly. Not after what happened, there was bad blood between Silas, Rowan and I now. I couldn’t agree with how skewed their moral compass was, and I hoped that Inara coming and snooping around meant she truly didn’t align with them. After our little street scuffle, and our meeting in my dorm room, I had to believe her words. No one has ever been able to best me in any kind of fight, not even to establish dominance. She was just full of surprises. The thought of her piercing golden eyes sends chills down into the pit of my stomach, and I mentally shake my head of her.

We come up to a home styled like an ancient colonial home in the before times, and I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. My dorm room was my home now, but this place was truly home. This was where I’d been brought as a rescue, where I was shown what love from a family was supposed to be. I don’t really have many memories from where I came from, but I remember that I was beaten a lot. Those memories hurt, and I kept them shoved very, very deep in the pits of my mind.

“Ryker!” Piper squeals, a flash of blue and she’s pounced on me. She never fails to put a smile on my face, and I spin her around in a bear hug. She’s wearing her favorite dark blue sweater, with black leggings and her dark blue loafers. She loved matching her outfits.

“Hey Pip-squeak,” I greet as I put her back down. “How’s school going?”

“It’s been pretty good,” she says as she flounces away. True to her nature, I muse. Her golden ears are perked up, tail wagging. She sits down at the dining table, breakfast served, and I see there’s a spot for me. I look at Alex with a question, but he just smiles at me and sits down in his spot.

“Ryker, it’s so good to have you home,” a soft voice coos, and that part of me that I keep guarded at all times melts instantly.

“Mama, it’s great to see you,” I say and embrace her in a bear hug. She was just an aged version of Piper, her blond hair turning white and golden eyes gleaming at me. “How have you and dad been?”

“Oh, you know your father, still working at the mechanic’s shop. The hospital remains busy as ever.” I smile at her words and we sit down together. Dad was retired military, his skills earning him a high paying job at a local mechanical shop. Mother was a nurse at the local hospital, it was how she found me. Between their incomes, they lived a comfortable life, but sometimes it came with its struggles.

I don’t bring anything up that I’ve been dealing with, instead we all eat our breakfast and enjoy each other’s company, cracking jokes and laughing till it hurts. I can’t remember the last time I relaxed like this, and for this moment I’m happy.

“You should come by more often, Ryker,” Piper tells me, and I nod my head.

“I know, I know. I’ll make it a habit to stop by more,” I tell her, but I don’t make any promises. I don’t want them drug into my problems. My parents caught enough heat when I was kicked out of the intern program at the science center. I think had the Grey’s not been hiding such a huge secret, thing’s would have been worse.

I help Mom clean up the dishes, wiping down the countertop on the island that she prepped her meals on.

“How have you really been, Ryker?” I hear her ask me in a soft voice. I swear I can’t keep secrets for s**t from this woman. She knows me way too well. I sigh deeply, not really wanting to face my reality.

“It’s the same, Mama. I’m just trying to keep my head low for now,” I tell her. I rinse the rag I was using and hang it to dry. She’s put away the rest of the food and leans on the counter of the island, facing me. More like trapping me against the sink, but I know she’s just worried.

“Are you going to let it go?” she asks me.

“How can I?” I ask, rubbing my forehead. “What they did…it’s horrific.”

“I don’t want you caught in something you can’t get out of,” she says, exasperation in her voice. Her golden eyes are pleading with me. “Ryker, please let this go. Karma will get them eventually.”

“Inara Ashwood came looking for me,” I blurt out, and I see what looks like panic before it’s gone in a second. She’s staring at me, so I keep talking. “She knows something is wrong, so I told her what I know.”

“You what?!” Mom squeaks. “How do you know she isn’t going to report back to her brothers?” She looks like she’s about to faint, so I hurry and tell her everything.

“Inara doesn’t agree with this either, she wants to help.” Mom is pacing the floor now, and Piper and Alex walk into the kitchen.

“Is everything okay?” Piper asks, watching her mother do what she always does when she’s worried about something.

“Yes darling,” she coos, holding Piper’s face in her hands for a second to give her a quick peck on the forehead. “I just have a lot to think about right now,” she chuckles. I know she’s downplaying this big time; I haven’t missed the looks of terror in her eyes.

“Well, I’m going to walk Piper to school to pick up her project, we were coming to say bye,” Alex says, and Mom hugs them both and tells them to have a good day. My sibling’s wave goodbye at me, and as soon as the front door shuts, Mom rounds on me in a hurry.

“There are some things you don’t know, and I’d hoped to keep you from it,” she says, nearly growling at me. “I guess I should have known the day you found those files.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask her, starting to get confused. She motions me to follow her, and she turns and heads towards the back door. She has me follow her outside, to the storm shelter doors. I’m looking at it like it’s going to eat me; I didn’t do small dark spaces.

“It’s okay, Ryker,” she assures me, and opens the metal doors, disappearing down the stairs. I see a lamp light flick on, and I feel a little better about going down there. She knew I was a bit claustrophobic, so I knew if she was telling me to come down here it was for a good reason. With a deep breath, I follow her down into the shelter.