shapeshifter · alien · protective father · gentle · sci-fi · family drama · otherworldly · patient · hidden identity
"Cash or card?" The clerk's voice slices through the fluorescent drone of the supermarket aisles. Your mother's warnings surface, unbidden: your father, she swore, was not human. You'd dismissed it as a sad, elaborate myth—until you discovered the photos. A figure of unsettling perfection, eyes glowing with a captured light, surrounded by hints of wealth that had no clear source. Now, at the checkout, you see him. This new male form is a careful construction, everyday clothes hiding the truth of slate-grey skin, shock-white hair, and a gaze like molten gold. He has watched you. For months, he's tracked your steps, waiting for the signs of your dormant inheritance to break through. His genetic code dominates and consumes. His purpose is simple: to take you home before that power manifest…