The town was odd.

Hayes didn’t think he’d ever been in such a place. Here, everyone was either part of the supernatural community or was somehow related to someone who was. Usually, they were mates, but there were also children, parents, and extended families.

Then there were the mutants.

No one had behaved strangely after the mutants had moved in. Hayes had expected some weird glances, maybe even insults. He wouldn’t have been surprised, because that was how humans would have reacted to their presence. They wouldn’t have trusted them because they were even more different than shifters.

Hell, Hayes wasn’t even a shifter. He’d been human before, and he supposed that, in a way, he still was.

He was just a human who could fly now.

His phone vibrated on his nightstand, making him groan because he knew who was calling. His roommate and best friend, Jessup, chuckled from his bed.

“You know she’ll call again,” he said.

“I do know, but what am I supposed to tell her?”

“The usual—that you love her and that you’ll visit soon.”

Hayes scowled. “You know I won’t.”

“Why not? You still have a family, and they still want you. Do you know how rare that is?”

Hayes did. He understood where Jessup was coming from, but that didn’t make it easier to deal with his mother. He’d never had the guts to tell her exactly what had been done to him in that lab, even though he’d explained the consequences. He could never return to his old life, and she didn’t understand that. She always tried to convince him to come home, return to his old job, and forget everything that happened, but Hayes couldn’t do that.

Never again.

Sometimes he wished he’d gotten more than just being able to fly. It was useful, but being super strong would have been just as useful. He didn’t feel he contributed much, but the other mutants insisted they wanted him with them for some reason.

So here he was.

His phone stopped vibrating. He and Jessup looked at each other, and Jessup raised his fingers. He counted down from five, and sure enough, as soon as the last finger was folded, the phone started vibrating again.

Jessup laughed, and Hayes threw him his pillow. He also grabbed the phone from his nightstand to answer.

“Hey, Mom,” he said.

“You didn’t answer before,” were her first words.

“Hello to you, too. Why, yes, I’m fine. What about you?”

She huffed. “All right, all right. I realize I was rude, and I apologize. So, how are you? Why didn’t you answer before?”

“I was in the bathroom.”

Jessup grinned from the other side of the room and threw the pillow back at Hayes, who caught it, bundled it up, and pushed it under his head. He stared at the ceiling, and while part of him missed his mom and his family, the other part knew that no matter how much he wished he did, he didn’t belong with them anymore.

“I’m sorry,” his mom said, and she indeed sounded sorry. “I’m just worried.”

Hayes didn’t blame her. After all, he’d been kidnapped and had disappeared for months. His family had looked for him everywhere, but there hadn’t been any traces of him. Even the authorities hadn’t been able to do anything, and for good reason since he’d been locked in a lab, being experimented on until something in him changed. Flying was in his DNA now.

“I know, and you don’t have anything to worry about,” Hayes said.

“How am I supposed to know that when I never see you?”

“I’m busy.”

“Too busy to visit your family?”

Hayes gritted his teeth. He did understand where his mom was coming from and why she needed to see him. Even though he was safe and had been safe for months now, he’d only visited a few times. He didn’t feel like he could go more often, but it had nothing to do with his family and everything to do with himself.

He didn’t belong anymore. He might still be human, but not entirely, and the fact that his mother tried her hardest to act as if that wasn’t the case didn’t help. She believed that as long as Hayes wanted everything to go back to normal and to forget what happened to him, he could.

There was nothing further from the truth.

No matter how much Hayes loved his family, he couldn’t return to his old life. The other mutants knew what he’d been through, and even though they weren’t related by blood, they were connected through their experiences. Hayes felt like they were the only ones who could truly understand how he felt and accept him, no matter what his mother believed.

“You know what I do,” he said, staring at the ceiling. 

“I do, and it makes me even more worried. You shouldn’t be running around attacking people. What will happen if someone finds out about all of this?”

“You make me sound like a serial killer,” Hayes grumbled.

His mother sucked in a breath. “Please tell me you haven’t killed anyone.”

“Of course not. You know that what I can do isn’t useful in a fight. I almost never have to get physical.”

She made a small sound, maybe of dismay. It was hard to read her on the phone. “What you can do is…special, but it doesn’t mean you should use it.”

“Can we not talk about this right now?” Because Hayes already knew how it would end, and he wasn’t up for that. “We have a meeting, so I better go.”

“Wait,” his mother protested. “Why don’t you come to dinner?”

Hayes’s first instinct was to say no, but not only would it hurt his mother, it would also give her a reason to call again. She’d continue doing so until he said yes and went, and once again, it would be easier for him just to give in now.