It's amazed me how fast the next few months when by. We were eighteen before we knew it and one afternoon we were at home while our Mother was out shopping for what she could get. Since the first attack, people started rationing things out of fear while panic took over and didn't stop. By the second attack that hit two months after the first the whole country was terrified and hysteric. If Mom was worried she never let it show unlike Matthew.

Matthew won't come out and say it; no he would just sigh when he watched the news or looked online. He was always a quiet guy but I could read him like a book. "Mattie…" I started that day after I turned off his computer much to his annoyance, "Come on Dude I know you're not thinking what I think you're thinking."

He sighed again at me as he tried to pull the laptop out of my hands. "Al, I'm going."

"Bullshit you're staying here." I said loudly as I held firm to the computer, "The war-"

"The war is here! The war is not going away! And this way they don't drag me out like they've done to our neighbors!" It had been a long time since he had raised his voice much less yell at me. Sure I had been saying the same thing for months now but I didn't realize how much it was getting on his nerves. "Al…"

I weakly smiled at him as I handed back his laptop. I wanted to say he was over reacting but I saw it first-hand what the government was doing. They had proposed a draft of sorts but really what they were doing was rounding up all the Alphas and male Betas they could find. A month before we witnessed a neighbor just down the street from us literally dragged from his house as the rest of the neighborhood gawked or hided. It was strange and almost surreal and while I wanted to go out and look, my mother stood in front of the door. It wasn't the first time nor would it be the last, soon it was going on all over the country and little was being done to stop it.

They said it was for our own good and that if Alphas would do their duty like they were supposed to they wouldn't have to go to these kinds of measures. "Mattie…" I finally said after a moment of awkward silence, "You know this isn't right."

"Yeah I know it's not but it's not like I really have much of a choice." He shook his head as he leaned up against the wall now with the computer left forgotten on a nearby chair. "I'll be home…"

"But what if you don't? And did you even bother asking Mom about this before going ahead and pulling this shit?"

"No I didn't."

"And why not? I mean she has a right to know that her kid's going off to war." We both knew why though it wasn't that hard to figure out. He couldn't because it would break her heart. "Did you sign up already?"

He looked away, "No not yet but I'm going to."

"When?"

"Alfred."

"No damn it I want an answer!" I stared at him locking my eyes with his and I wasn't going to back down. The only reason he blinked first was because the front door below us burst wide open. Instantly we both turned to the noise as our eyes widened in fear. I grabbed my pocket knife as Matthew closed and locked the door.

It only stopped the Alphas for a few minutes at best before they kicked in the door and pulled us out of the room. I sliced at one man before he yanked the blade from my hand and threw it back towards my brother's room, "Fucking Omega shit." He hissed out once he noticed his hand was bleeding.

My brother tried to pull away and get back towards me but they had him by the hair and half dragged half pushed him down the stairs and towards the front door. "Matthew Williams, congratulations you're now a member of the Army." The bulking Alpha that had him said. He had such a lustful smile on his face that it made me sick. He then turned back at me and all I saw was cold evil in his pure black eyes. "As for you, we could you a few Omegas here and there."

I swallowed hard as I kicked at the one holding me, "Kiss my ass!" I don't know why I said it but it only got me a swift kick to the groin.

"Shut up!" One shouted at me before stopping short at the Omega standing tall in the door frame, "Move." He commanded but my Mother wouldn't budge.

While they had more than a foot on her, she wasn't scared at all. "Let go of my sons." She growled back with pure hatred in her eyes. "You can't have them."

"Lady-"

"Alfred is an Omega and Matthew still has another month before he has to sign up for the draft so let them go!" She folded her arms as she glared at them like they were nothing but kids that trampled her rose bushes.

To my surprise the grip on my arm loosened slightly before I was suddenly pushed towards her causing me to land on my knees in front of her. "We're taking the other."

"He's too young."

"It's not up for discussion." The one holding Matthew said coldly. While the others around him folded slightly at the sight of my mother he on the other hand refused to give up his prize. "We need Alphas. He's an Alpha so he's now property of the government."

"Since when are we property?" She scoffed as she stepped forward into the house and past me; she was both shielding me as she slowly reached for Matthew. "Last time I checked I was no one's property."

Just as she was about to take Matthew's hand he, in a flash was pulled back and forced out the back door, "Well then you should ask your Alpha about that because you're dead wrong!" He pushed past her and out the door.

I was frozen in shock as my mother sprinted after my brother as she screamed out for him, "No! Give me back my Matthew!" But by the time she made it out the back door he along with the men that took him was gone. They sped away like cowards into the night and once again no one did a thing to stop them. They all stared for a moment before leaving my mother alone in her destroyed garden.

Slowly I joined her out among the trampled flowers she loved so much, I kneeled beside her and wrapped my arms around her smaller frame and let her sob into my shoulder. I didn't say a word as I stared at a smashed rose, I was mad at everyone and everything but the person I was most angry with was myself.

I always saw myself as a hero of sorts but now when the time finally came to show what kind of a hero I could be I failed. All I had to show for my lack of heroism was a bloody shirt, a sobbing mother, a missing brother…and a smashed rose.