Blood Bound - Chapter 72

>> Adam [28 years ago]

I sat under a tree in the backyard of my house that had no boundary to define it and it extended on a vast plain since there were no houses beyond mine. In a distance one could see the forest in which the only purpose of going was to hunt rabbits and if by chance we could find any other animal worth eating like a deer than that too.

Being the Alpha’s son it is a bit weird that we live in our own tiny house but we actually don’t have a pack house. Unfortunately, because we’re a poor pack.

We lack resources, it’s a good thing we can hunt because otherwise food is scarce too. There isn’t a single person in the entire pack that has a college degree, scratch that no one even entered college. Many of them are middle school drop outs, even I barely managed to complete my high school degree.

Some of the kids were playing around the flower fields while I was busy making flower crowns with the vines and flowers available.

“Adam!” Lilian, a six year old girl came running towards me and crashed into my lap.

“Oof! Careful Lily.” I managed to save the crowns as she made herself comfortable in my lap.

“Lily! That’s cheating!” Chloe, Lily’s ten year old older sister came running towards me along with all the other kids.

I braced for impact as they all jumped on me. Five kids in total with Lily already on me.

“You can’t have Adam!” Zen, six years old, yelled, “He’s mine.”

“No Zen!” Beth, seven, screamed back at, “He’s ours!” She pointed at herself and her eight years old brother Nathan while he stood by her side holding his shorts. Nathan was a delicate child really and he would cry easily even though he’s older than Beth, she is a lot stronger than him. Even now his eyes were teary because everyone was fighting.

“Kids! Kids!” I tried to protect the flowers, “Don’t crush the things.” But they didn’t listen to me and continued to fight, not just over me in say, but literally over me, “Kids! Calm down!”

“No!” Chloe grabbed my cheek, “Adam, you belong to me!”

Zen grabbed the other cheek, “No! Adam’s mine!!”

Beth jumped on my head and grabbed my hair while Nathan just stood in his place while tears started streaming down his cheeks.

Oh God…

I grabbed Chloe and Zen’s hand, “I belong to you all. So calm down.” I made them let go of my cheeks but I could still feel them burning. Man they pinch so hard. I mean why my cheeks??

“B-but mom said one person can belong to one person only.” Chloe added and then glared at Lily who was chilling on my lap. She had already marked her territory.

“Is that why you all fought?” I grabbed Beth with both hands and brought her in front of me, landing her on her feet with the other kids, “Come on guys I love you all.”

“Well I love more than anyone here!” Lily finally spoke and that aggravated the kids and they started fighting again for my love.

Oh God…

I grabbed Lily and made her stand with the other kids and then I held Nathan’s hand.

“Come on Nathan, don’t cry.”

“B-but, everyone keeps fighting.” His big round eyes were all glossy as tears kept flowing down.

I picked him up and cleared my throat.

“Everyone calm down!!” They all glared at me.

“Why are you picking up Nathan?” Zen asked

“Because he’s the best kid among you.” My answer left everyone in shock.

“B-but you said you loved us all.” Chloe spoke.

“Well, I have decided I will only love good kids now.” I wiped Nathan’s tears, “And kids who get along with everyone and don’t fight.” I placed one of the flower crowns on Nathan’s head.

“Flower crowns are for princesses.” Beth stated.

Nathan looked at me in confusion, “Adam?” His voice was soft, “I can’t be a princess?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at his question, “You want to be a princess?”

“I want to wear this flower crown…”

I pinched his cheek softly, “You can wear it even if you’re a prince.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” I looked at the kids, “From now on every good kid will get a crown from me.” I put Nathan down, “So who’s going to be a good kid?”

“Me!”

“Me!”

“Me!”

They all started shouting to the point their voices overlapped.

“We’re back.” I heard the voices of my friends and turned to see them. Kei and Suliha had come back from their part time jobs. Kei was the older brother of Suliha and was my age mate, while Suliha was three years younger. Both brothers worked in the nearby human town and came home on the weekends.

“You’re as popular as ever.” Suliha smirked, “Pedo.”

“You’re just jealous.” I retorted.

“Yeah right.”

“Adam,” Kei walked towards me, “Here’s your keep.” He handed me the money.

“They selled fine?” I asked and he nodded. I make the crowns and some other natural stuff that Kei and Suliha sell when they leave. I can’t leave myself since we’re a vulnerable pack and I need to be here due to certain reasons.

Like, winter is coming and the rogues are bound to come and steal what little we have in store.

Most of the men work somewhere else to feed their families so I along with other men who are here have to stay to protect ourselves because only a few female wolves know how to fight in the pack.

Still, we live in a secluded place with no proper protection like other packs. We aren’t strong either and that makes us an easy target.

“Hey…” Suliha stared at me and I looked back at him wide eyed.

“Yea?”

He came closer and pointed at my ear, “It’s cut.” He looked at my face, “Did your dad do it again?”

I sighed and then shrugged.

“Forget that. If you’re free let’s go and hunt.” Suliha didn’t say anything, they all were used to it by now.

I was used to it too.

This is how things always have been.

***

I came home with two rabbits in my mouth. The old wooden door was open and the inside reeked of alcohol. So I decided to shift back into my human form otherwise the smell would kill me.

I walked in.

Dad was looking at some papers with a full bottle of wine next to him.

“I’ll make lunch.” I told him and walked to the kitchen without waiting for his reply because I knew it wasn’t coming.

I was in the middle of skinning the rabbits when dad’s beta, ziur, came running in.

“This is bad!!” He yelled, “The rogues are here to raid!!”

I paused, “Already??” I shot my head towards him, “But it’s still september!”

“I know!!” He yelled and the pack siren went off in the background.

I wasted no time and ran to the small animal shed of the pack.

The only thing that keeps us going is the small shed we have where we keep our food. One group is incharge of keeping the animals is check. One portion of the shed is used to store meat since in winter it gets very cold here and the shed is pretty much like a freezer. The few animals we have are taken home by the people in winter since we can’t afford any heating equipment for the shed.

By the time I reached the shed many of the rogues had breached in. Some of the wolves from my pack were already fighting them.

Everyone was desperate here, no one wanted to lose what little we had.

I dashed inside the shed and pounced on the first unfamiliar face I saw but then another rogue head butted me off and tried to attack me. That’s when Kei jumped on the invader and bit his ear off.

The shed became a war zone. The Rogues may have come here thinking they’ll catch us off guard but they chose a weekend most of the people came back for a holiday.

I fought them like crazy along with my men. We were being a bit overpowered because clearly rogues live in rougher environments and are stronger.

As we fought, we made our way towards the forest and I was glad we were able to leave the shed.

As we fought the only thing I was proud of was how the people in my pack were united. All the wolves fought with all their might. So of course I had to put in much more effort.

Give more than a hundred percent.

It was my duty after all. I have to do it no matter what.

Fighting off rogues isn’t something unusual but we suffer a lot each time.

It’s become too exhausting.

So this time I wanted to leave a clear warning. I ripped the throat of one of them and ran further into their standing, attacking like crazy and receiving the damage as well.

When they noticed we weren’t going to back down they decided to retreat into the forest but I wanted them gone.

It wasn’t a wise decision but I couldn’t think of anything else. It’s not like we had any reinforcements so I decided to chase them in the forest too.

There was just us, but at the very least, since I had Alpha blood, I was stronger than the rest.

So I had to go. I had to, because that was my responsibility.

If I wouldn’t do this, who else will?

***

The forest looked like it was dancing and instead of being green, it looked oddly red.

I was weirded out at first but then realized I was actually losing blood and that made me extremely dizzy, moreover my eyes were covered in blood too, the reason why I saw red.

On top of everything else I was in the deepest part of the forest and it was going to take some time to get back to the pack.

Each passing second was more heavy and as I walked among the Oak trees I felt like I wouldn’t be able to make it anymore.

My wounds were deep and it hurt a lot.

“I need help.” I whispered, “I can’t die here. I have to protect my people…” Even though we don’t have much, we’re a small group and we’re vulnerable but still there are a few good people there, “Please…” I had no idea who I was begging, maybe I was saying it to myself.

Darkness began to loom over me as I trudged while mist began to form around me for some unknown reason as I kept walking.

But it was no use.

Just a few steps further and I crashed to the ground.