Page 21 of The Rabbit's Foot
He didn’t want to. Alp was so ashamed that he’d been too damn weak to defend himself. Still, he told his tale. It started out hesitantly, but as the anger burned within him, it came out harsher, raspier.
“Someone knew what you were, and they did that to you on purpose?” Her horror was easy to hear. “Who the fuck? No reputable doctor or scientist would ever experiment on a person.”
“Hyde doesn’t think we’re people. Well, not entirely. He believes we’re animals that somehow learned to mimic human behavior. He thinks we emulate people in order to fit in.”
Lydia’s eyes went wide as she regarded Mal. “Is that the truth?”
Mal shook his head. “Yes and no. Shifters predate Homo sapiens. We’re genetic offshoots of humans, as much as Homo sapiens are of Homo erectus. We’re a divergent genetic line, nothing more, nothing less. Yes, we’ve evolved, but we’ve always been a type of human.”
She nodded sagely. “How many shifters are there?”
That got a shrug. “No one knows for certain. There are a lot, that’s for sure.” He smiled and rubbed Alp’s head. “Bunny shifters are pretty prolific, you know.”
Alp snorted. “I have thirteen siblings, and we’re one of the smaller families in our area.”
“Fascinating.” She quirked a brow. “I have to ask, if rabbits, even shifters, have such large families, how have you been undetected for so long?”
“Our communities—our warrens—are large tracts of land. In most ways, you’d probably think we were more Amish than anything else. Big families that keep to themselves.”
“That’s… amazing,” she breathed out.
“Okay,” Mal said, breaking contact with Alp. “Why are you not more freaked out?”
She shrugged. “I’m a doctor, so science is a huge part of my life. I understand divergent DNA, and what you’re saying? It makes absolute sense to me. A part of me wonders if I’ve gone crazy, but the rest? I suppose if I sat back and thought about it, I’d start asking the questions that would make my head spin, but after hearing Alp’s story, I find that I can’t worry enough about the why and wherefore to care. Whoever hurt him is an inhumane son of a bitch.”
Mal cleared his throat. “Um… I’m going to be honest with you. My plan is to take them down. Hard.”
Lydia cocked her head as she stared at Mal and Alp, and then her eyes widened and her nostrils flared. “You’re going to kill them.”
If Alp thought Mal would deny it, he apparently didn’t know his First.
“Yes,” he hissed, his expression dark. His body shook with an undisguised rage, the muscles in his neck tight, his face a twisted caricature of the one Alp knew. “They tortured Alp and who knows how many others. According to Alp, they’ve killed us, mutilated us, and I won’t stand for it.”
As her gaze lowered, Lydia blew out a long, slow breath. “I have to admit, I’m conflicted. I mean, I look at Alp and keep seeing Dinah’s face. What would I do if they hurt her or someone else I care about?”
“Imagine if it’s hundreds of someones,” Alp said. “I was there for six years. They kept a lot of shifters to test their crackpot bullshit on. I’ve seen the bodies of those who didn’t survive the experiments. I lay in my pen at night and heard the screams.”
The blood drained from Lydia’s face. “And you can’t call the police, because they’d know what you are then. And once your secret is out, who knows how many others would try the same thing.” She shivered. “Shit. I can’t approve of killing them, but I can’t deny you have every right to protect yourselves either.”
“If you have an alternative, let us know,” Alp said, hopeful that they could stave off the coming conflict that Mal had decided Alp couldn’t be part of.
“I wish to God I did,” she replied. “I look at history and see all the peoples whose only option was to fight back. They declared war on you, so how can you not take the fight to them?” She spoke the words, but trembled and her voice cracked.
“I’m sorry,” Alp said.
This time Lydia’s eyes widened. “For what? Tell me, Alp. What areyousorry for? You were a goddamn child, and they cut you up. Why on earth would you be sorry?”
There was such anger in her voice, and Alp was surprised that it wasn’t because of him—it wasforhim.
Alp shuddered. “Because if I hadn’t lost control, you never would have been dragged into this.”
“Well, I suppose there is that,” she said, a teasing lilt in her voice. “I’ll be honest—if I had to choose between remaining ignorant and knowing that there are horrors being perpetrated on your kind? I’ll always choose to know.”
That meant a lot to Alp. Finding out that not all humans were monsters helped.
Lydia folded her hands in front of her. “So, how can I help?”
* * *
