Outcast Son

By Emily Carrington

Cast out of his pack for being psychic, Seiji seeks a home. Though he thinks of himself as lesser and doesn’t believe anyone could ever want him, he still yearns for love.

Nicholas sees all of Seiji’s potential, but he finds it difficult to be attracted to someone who’s so lost. Will Nicholas’ capacity for loving kindness help Seiji find himself and what his heart desires most?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Changeling Press
• Release date: Jun 27, 2019

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Chapter One

Seiji Watanabe, not quite a member of the Issei werewolf pack, brushed his overly long black hair out of his eyes. He scanned the main SearchLight Academy notice board. Around him, the student union was mostly deserted. It was June 1st and the spring semester was nearly a month ended. Only those who had over-the-summer jobs or a summer class or two stayed. Seiji worked in the dining hall, keeping himself on campus through June and the beginning of July, waiting for his last chance at Werewelsh, which would start in the second week of July.

He didn’t have anywhere else to go. If he didn’t fail any more classes during the coming academic year, he would work in the dining hall next summer.

All right, he did have somewhere to go. The Issei pack would have taken him in if only because he was born of them. But given the choice between being little more than a slave or a potential member of SearchLight, he chose the latter.

He shook his head and his hair flopped back into his eyes. Now was not the time to think about what he didn’t have. Scanning the board, he sought what he needed at that moment: a tutor for Werewelsh. Even though he was a werewolf, and even though most of the world’s werewolves spoke Werewelsh, his own pack spoke nothing but Japanese and English. Japanese because that was where they were from, and English because their alpha, Issei Ryo, insisted they understand what might be spoken about them by the humans that surrounded them in the city where they lived.

Brightly colored flyers caught his attention first. One announced the Summer Solstice Dance, which was being held despite the dearth of students because many of those who had stayed considered the longest day of the year one of the top holidays. Another, printed on pink paper, offered tutors, but of the wrong sort.

He looked over the whole board and saw no Werewelsh tutors. Panic gnawed at his innards. If he failed the class again, he’d be out of SearchLight Academy. Something like a third of the students who joined the academy flunked out in the first year. Seiji had considered himself to be on the fast track to success… until bombing Professor Lepa’s Intro to Werewelsh in the spring.

You have nowhere to go, a corner of his mind whispered.

More importantly, he told himself firmly, I’d lose my chance to become a tracker.

SearchLight’s trackers were a combination of negotiator, hunter, spy, and, when necessary, executioner. They were the elite, the department rumored to be feared by all but the heads of SearchLight. And maybe even the higher-ups fear trackers. Because if they’re corrupt, they might be targeted for removal.

If even SearchLight, rumored to be the most powerful organization in the world, largely feared trackers, their own people, then maybe as one of them Seiji would be safe from his alpha’s wrath.

Someone approached the notice board, whistling off key.

Seiji glanced at the new arrival and saw he was taller and broader than Seiji himself, and that he was putting a piece of paper up on the board.

Want a Werewelsh tutor? Call Nicholas Black, campus extension x4857.

Are you Nicholas? Seiji asked, inhaling discreetly to see if he was a werewolf also.

The other student nodded. Looking for a tutor?

Desperately, Seiji confessed.

Nicholas raised a blond eyebrow. His eyes were green and seemed to be windows to a mischievous spirit. I know you. We were in class during spring semester.

Seiji blinked, startled. Um, I guess so. Which class?

Nicholas laughed. Werewelsh. I guess it was a bitch for you, huh?

Nodding miserably, Seiji asked, Can you really help me? And how much do you charge?

Five dollars an hour.

Why so little? Seiji blurted.

Because I’m a sophomore and we’re only allowed to ask for five bucks. When I’m a senior, I can charge a whole whopping fifteen. Nicholas snorted. Something about keeping education affordable. Despite his words there was empathy in his gaze, as if he understood the need for an education-for-all policy.

Seiji thought about his job, which would end in late July so that he could concentrate on his second chance class. His work in the dining hall was far from glamorous, but it would allow him to pay Nicholas. Well, I’m glad it’s not too much. But I can pay you another couple of dollars under the table if you want.

Nicholas shook his head. If my alpha found out, he’d tan my hide. He tilted his head a little and his eyes sparkled. Are you always this honest?

Werewolves can’t lie to each other, Seiji pointed out.

Nope, but that doesn’t mean you have to blurt out ‘the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you moon goddess’. He paused before adding, Although I’d love to know something, and you might run at the mouth just enough to tell me. Why do you wear clothes at least two sizes too big?

Seiji pulled at the hem of his T-shirt. Um, none of your business?

Nicholas grinned. I like that better.

"Why