She’d met Sapphire’s dad visiting distant relatives in the arctic. Supposedly he was as exotic and perfect as my sister. It had been a whirlwind romance, but when he found out she was pregnant, he’d freaked out and ended things quickly. My mother had been sent back to the states with her unborn child.
Sapphire was exotic and perfect. I could certainly admit that. She had inherited her father’s fox traits. Where the rest of us were common red foxes, Sapphire was a beautiful arctic fox. Her most unique trait was her eyes though. She had one bright blue eye and one green. Even in human form her eyes and naturally frosted silver hair captured the attention of everyone.
She had a quiet confidence about her and tolerated the spotlight because she had to. Our mother saw to that on a daily basis. In trust, Sapphire was shy and hated every second of the attention. I had never envied her or wished I had that kind of focus on me. I was happy to just live quietly in her shadow.
With a small pup, my mother sought out a husband quickly. She’d manipulated my father into marrying her when Sapphire was only six months old. It wasn’t long before she was pregnant with me.
My father was smart and solid. That’s what Shay had wanted, or so she thought. Apparently marrying an insurance adjuster that doted on her and her children wasn’t enough. She grew bored quickly and left him. Sometimes I wish she’d left me with him.
I didn’t really know my father. He lived in Boston and sent birthday and Christmas cards with money for me every year, money that Shay took to spend on herself. I saw him two weeks out of the year growing up, and rarely found time for a visit now. He had remarried and was happy, but they had never had children and he had never really had the chance to be my father. I knew he felt that our shifter genes were a curse, and he hadn’t wanted to pass them on to offspring. Knowing that, I could only assume that Shay had lied to him or somehow manipulated him into having me. Either way it was clear I wasn’t exactly wanted by either of my parents.
When she left my dad, Shay moved us to Womack, Idaho. There were a few fox shifter families in the area. She fell in love for the first time and had two more kids, Sonnet and Sage.
Sage was the baby of the family. Our mother doted over her and spoiled her rotten. Sage could be a little vindictive at times and would do almost anything to get out of whatever she was asked to do. She had always been a cute kid, but at eighteen now and having her fox recently surface, she really needed to just grow up already.
Sonnet was the adventurous and outgoing one. She was the natural center of attention even while our mother tried to force that onto Sapphire. Sonnet was the life of every party and my best friend. We had always been close.
Unfortunately, their father died in a hunting accident leaving my mother as the mysterious eccentric Dubois widow in the small town of gossip central.
Dubois was her maiden name which she had given to each of her children, except me. My father had insisted I take his name at birth, or at least that’s what she told me. Being the narcissist that my mother was, she had saddled each of us with her initials. Sapphire Dubois, Sonnet Dubois, Sage Dubois, and then me, Susan Duncan.
There wasn’t exactly anything exotic or special about me.
“Oh thank God.” Sapphire said. “Mr. Ross is here and well, you know how difficult he can be. I don’t know how you deal with him.”
“Thanks for covering for me. Shay was livid that I slept in.”
I grabbed my apron and an order book then immediately went to where Mr. Ross was sitting at the counter. A very frustrated Sage was arguing with him.
“Good morning, Mr. Ross,” I said cheerfully.
“About time you showed up,” Sage muttered under her breath knowing I could hear it loud and clear, but Mr. Ross wouldn’t hear a thing. She immediately abandoned me and before I could get the man calmed down and his order straight, Sage declared herself done for the day and headed home.
“All sorted?” Sapphire asked.
“Yup. He’s good to go now.”
“You are amazing. Seriously, this place would wither and die without you.”
“Tell that to Shay.”
“Did she freak on you again?”
I sighed. “Really what else is new?”
“You sleeping in. I stopped by your room and you were dead to the world, so I made Sage come with me to open today.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You never sleep in Susan. You must have needed it.”
“I guess. I feel bad though. I know this isn’t your favorite place to be.”
She looked around and shrugged. “I actually don’t mind it so much. Mom would like fake a heart attack if she heard me say that. Without this place, or really without you, we probably wouldn’t even have a roof over our heads.”
“Shay hasn’t been here in weeks. Bets on her coming today.”
“She busted you slacking, so you know she’s going to make an appearance to ensure you actually showed up for work.”
I groaned knowing she was right.
“You were up really late last night. What’s going on?”
I got quiet and when Mr. Ross waved me back over I was grateful for the distraction. I didn’t want to get Sapphire’s hopes up again. I just couldn’t admit that I had been up all night hacking into a top-secret database that looked like a promising trail this time.
Four years ago, Sonnet had been seventeen years old. She’d gone to a party hosted by some local kids from her school and she never came home.
The human authorities declared her a runaway after no foul play was suspected.
The shifter community didn’t know what to think because Sonnet hadn’t been the only shifter in the area to disappear that night.
My family hadn’t exactly been normal even before that, but Sonnet’s absence had sent Shay spiraling into depression. She had demanded Sapphire wait on her every whim. I’d been away at college at the time studying computer science, particularly coding.
I had quit college and come home to help search for my sister, but my mother had other plans.
I was handed over the keys to the Café and told with no uncertainty that the family finances were now my problem. Shay was too distraught to deal with it and she needed Sapphire by her side. Sage was still in school and no matter how much I had pressed to get to work after school for the dinner crowd, she’d always had an excuse. It all fell on my shoulders.
Sapphire tried to help out when she could, but Shay always made excuses on why she shouldn’t be working or helping me.
My routine was a simple one. I got up early and worked at the restaurant all day long. I came home having already eaten dinner at the diner, and then I took a shower. After that I hid in my room and worked on my search for Sonnet.
After only six months my mother declared it too painful to even hear her name. She seemed to prefer to just forget her, but I couldn’t. I knew in my heart that Sonnet was alive and still out there—somewhere.
A year ago, I discovered a secret human organization called the Raglan. From the few rumors that had surfaced they were kidnapping shifters for scientific experiments. It took months to track down their systems online.
I’d managed to get through their firewall just long enough to confirm enough to solidify my suspicions. I was now convinced that Sonnet had somehow managed to get caught up in this mess, and I was determined more than ever to find her and bring her back home.