Assessing the Alpha

"The Stantons," she said, when I reached her. Not a greeting. An observation.

"Yes," I said.

"The middle child has been watching Kaelen since they arrived," she said. "The way children watch Alphas when they're trying to understand the category."

I looked. She was right — a girl of about five, dark-haired, standing very still near her father's leg and tracking Kaelen across the room with the speci