21. Shiro

21

Shiro

A ka and Lan were still nibbling on the chips and chatting enthusiastically when I finished showering. Feeling fresh and clean, I got on the bed and in between the sheets, resting my back against the pillows.

An hour ago Lan had complained he was hungry again, despite that we had only had dinner a few hours before that, but I guessed wolfkin had endless pits for stomachs, and Lan especially. Hence, I had offered to get them some snacks, and I was just walking into the living room when I heard Adam, Chase, and Nolan talking.

I sighed, feeling overwhelmed with emotions.

Yes, Adam had saved me, by picking me up and bringing me to his home, but I had never thought he had saved me saved me . In fact, I had never even thought to question why I had been able to move about quite easily, despite the pain, when I had woken up and found myself in Adam’s penthouse after the beating, even though I had known my life had been on the line .

I sighed again, staring into space.

Adam had given up his life essence to save my life.

Life essence. What is life essence?

Nolan had mentioned that it was dangerous for Adam’s life essence to be so low, both for Adam himself and the clan, which meant it must be very important. I couldn’t believe Adam had sacrificed so much to help me… Save me.

My chest tightened with emotions, again.

He cares. Adam cares.

“What’s the matter?” Aka’s voice came my way, which drew my attention to him.

“Huh?” I expressed.

Lan said, “You’ve been giving off that big sigh a couple of times already. What’s the matter? Aren’t you supposed to be like over the moon now that we’re together again?”

I licked my lip and said, “I am.” I straightened and then asked, “Lan, do you know what a life essence is?”

Lan widened his eyes. “Oh? You want to know about that?”

Aka said, “I know a bit about it. I heard beastkin talking about it in the streets.”

Lan said, “I know a lot about it.” He smiled cheekily. “You can ask me anything, so ask away.” He encouraged by signaling with his hand for me to spit out the questions.

I said, “Okay, what is life essence? And do all of us beastkin have it?”

Lan brought his fisted hand to his mouth and cleared his throat loudly as if to prepare for a speech. “Ahem.” Then he said, “Life essence is an alpha’s life force or the source of their supernatural power, and no, not all beastkin have it. Only alphas do.”

“So,” I said, “Adam, he has it because he’s an alpha?”

Lan nodded. “Yep. I know you’re very green in the modern world of beastkin so I will explain to you properly, Shiro. In New York City, we have three big clans: the Sullivan, the Valentino, and the Montgomery. There are smaller ones, too, but we won’t worry about small fry like them. Every clan has an alpha beastkin as the leader, or big boss, and sometimes, they’ll have another alpha as their second-in-command or right-hand man, as with Master Nolan in our Sullivan Clan. The clan’s power and strength are determined by how strong the alpha leader is, and obviously, how wealthy they are. If a clan leader wishes to take over another clan and merges the two clans into a bigger one, then the leaders go into a duel and the winner, obviously, takes all. More often than not though, the loser dies, with his life essence sucked from him by the winner, which is kind of a ritual. I heard this happened often years ago, but that doesn’t happen anymore. The clans are pretty stabilized, with the power pretty much balanced out.”

“So what if say, one of the leader’s life essence were to be… reduced?” I asked. “What would happen then?”

“Then the leader and the clan will be in deep shit,” Lan said bluntly. “I mean sure, stuff like dueling and taking over doesn’t happen anymore due to the balance in power, like I said, but that doesn’t mean the other leaders don’t think about swallowing up another clan, especially a big one. Can you imagine how powerful they’d become? It’s a fact that Luka Valentino and Sean Montgomery are always threatening Master Adam for duels, you know. If Master Adam, who I must say dislikes that sort of shit, refuses too often, then it’s a sign of weakness, so he has to indulge them sometimes, and that’s usually once a year just to get them off his back.”

The more Lan explained the struggling power between the three clans, the more I understood that Adam was in deep trouble, and it was all because of me. The realization only made me feel sick to my stomach. What if one of the other clans found out about Adam’s low life essence and decided to attack? Ah, shit. That just meant Adam had to find a way to increase it as soon as possible, and I decided then that I’d do whatever it took to help him.

“What about omega?” I asked, since Nolan mentioned an alpha could increase his life essence by mating with an omega. “Do you know anything about that?”

“Omega?” Lan asked. “What the heck is that? I’ve never heard of it.”

It looked like I reached a dead end here. But strangely enough, why did I have the feeling I had heard of that word before? Sometime long ago?

A knock came, and we turned to see Adam at the door. Chuckling, he said, “You boys still munching on the snacks, huh?”

Lan said, “Beastkin boys have big stomachs.”

Adam chuckled. “More like a bottomless pit for you, Lan.” To Aka, he said, “Chase is about to leave.” He nodded to the front door .

“Oh,” Aka said, standing up. “I’ll go and see him before he goes.” And he was out the door.

“What about Master Nolan?” Lan asked.

Adam said, “He’s too drunk to go home and is currently half dead in the study room. Why don’t you be a good bodyguard and drag him to the other bedroom?”

Lan rolled his eyes. “Why the heck did he have to go drinking so much?” He got up and then headed out the door.

Alone with just the two of us, Adam came to stand beside the bed and asked, “How’s your wrist doing?”

I raised my bandaged wrist to show him and said, “It’s feeling better, and I managed to not get it wet when I showered.”

“Good boy,” he said, ruffling my hair. “Then have a good rest and don’t stay up too late.”

“We’ll go to bed soon,” I said. “We have plenty of time to hang out and catch up some more tomorrow.”

Adam nodded. “Mm-hmm.”

He was about to leave when I said, my voice hoarse, “Adam?”

“Hmm?” He turned to look at me.

I licked my lip and said, “Thanks for… saving me.”

He chuckled. “You’re welcome. Good night, Shiro.”

Goodness, he was very nonchalant about it, wasn’t he? The saving me part, that was. I knew he didn’t want to worry me, which had been why he had never even mentioned it to me the fact that he had saved my life by giving up some of his life essence, the source of his supernatural power, or whatever it was .

Emotions playing havoc within me, I said softly, “Good night, Adam.”

“Mm-hmm.” He left and shut the door behind him.

I settled in bed and rolled over to my side, my mind still on Adam.

“Omega,” I said softly. Again, why did I have the feeling I had heard of that word before tonight?

A lullaby? I could hear this beautiful, soothing humming of a lullaby near my ears, and I opened my eyes. Before me, I saw the flickering of flame dancing in a hearth, giving out a sense of warmth and coziness, a long-forgotten sort of feeling that had only recently resurfaced.

“Are you awake?” I heard a soft, feminine voice say, and I tilted my head back to see a beautiful woman with long pale hair and blue eyes looking at me, a gentle smile on her lips. I found that I was in her arms, my head resting against her.

“Mama,” I said, my hoarse voice small and high-pitched, echoing with emotions, while my heart was racing. “Mama…”

She cupped my face and chuckled. “What’s the matter? Did you have a bad dream?”

I swallowed hard as I moved around and hugged her tightly, burying my face against her. I could barely wrap my arms around her and realized then that I was once again a child, that little Shiro still clutching on to his mother’s skirt and needing a hug and a kiss when he was frightened.

When I shifted back, she said, “My little angel, you’re so cute when you’re scared.”

“I’m not scared,” I pouted. “It was only a dream.”

She chuckled. “Then tell me, what did you dream about?”

I rubbed the back of my hand over my eyes and said, “I was chased by a big wolf. He was so big and he glowed blue, Mama. He kept chasing me and chasing me and I just had to run and run, and then he caught me and I cried, and then he bit me on the lips and then the neck, and then he changed into a beastkin, Mama. A wolfkin with wolf ears and tail and fangs and he glowed blue and his eyes also glowed, too.” I tightened my arms around her, shaking from head to toe. “I’m scared.”

She chuckled in amusement, stroking my head. “But you just said you’re not because it’s only a dream.”

“But now I’m scared because he said he’ll eat me, Mama,” I confessed. “He said that he’ll eat me.”

She cupped my face gently again and said, “It’s just a bad dream, my love, so you shouldn’t be afraid. You must be a strong boy, do you understand? We foxkin can’t afford to be weak.”

I nodded my head as I looked up at her. I moaned. “I know.”

She leaned down and kissed me on the forehead then. “And remember what I told you before? You are an omega. Never, ever tell anyone that you are one.”

I nodded. “Mm-hmm. I won’t ever tell anyone I’m an omega. ”

“And you must remember to never give a part of yourself willingly to anyone,” she said firmly. “Your heart and soul, your Hikari , your light, you must only give it to the one you love, that special someone, do you understand, Shiro? Only give it to the one you fully trust, do you understand? Because what you have is rare and you have the power to make a beastkin a daemon.”

I nodded again. “I understand.”

She chuckled and kissed me on the forehead again. When she moved back, she said, “I love you, my darling. I pray you’ll one day find the one who will cherish and love you for the rest of both your lives.”

“Mm-hmm,” I said, smiling. “Like the way Mama loves me.”

She chuckled. “Well, not quite the same sort of love, my darling, but still love nonetheless.”

“And then I can turn him into a daemon,” I said. “He’ll become very powerful and protect all us beastkin.”

She laughed. “Yes, a daemon.”

I fluttered my eyes open and I muttered softly, “Daemon…”

Daemon? What was it again? A daemon? I frowned as I stared up at the ceiling, the morning sunlight flitting in through the window giving the room a golden hue.

I turned to my right and came to face Aka, sounded asleep, in bed next to me. That was right, he was staying the night. And Lan ?

I sat up, searching the room for him, but he was nowhere in sight. Ah, I remembered now. He had gone to help the drunken Nolan and never came back. He must have slept in the same room as Nolan then, considering he was the man’s bodyguard.

Yawning, I got out of bed and headed out the door, feeling damn thirsty and in desperate need of a hot drink. I was just entering the living room when I came to a stop and saw Adam sitting on the sofa. He was watching the early morning news on the television. He must have noticed me, or at least heard me, because he turned and gave me a smile. “Morning,” he said.

Damn, he was hot, even this early in the morning and wearing casual clothing.

I licked my lip and replied, “Morning, Adam.”

He signaled with his finger for me to come over, and I eagerly obliged. Hence, I found myself sitting next to him on the sofa.

Shit, he smelled so good and felt so warm, and I felt the urge to move closer, to steal some of his body heat. As if he could read my mind, he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and nudged me until I was very close to him and our legs were touching. In fact, he even moved me so that I had my legs over his lap.

Resting his arm over the back of the sofa, he gently stroked my hair. I inhaled slowly, enjoying the moment as I stared at the cup of coffee sitting on the arm of the sofa.

He said, “Want some?”

“Huh?” I turned to look at him.

He chuckled. “You were looking at it. Thirsty? ”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

He picked up the cup and, instead of handing it to me like I expected him to, he said, “Open your mouth.”

Huh? He wanted me to open my mouth?

When I stared at him, quite flabbergasted, he said, “Go on.”

I said, “I can drink it myself.”

He pulled the cup back as he said, “This is my cup of coffee. You want a sip, you do as I say.”

Oh, dear. But because I was desperate, I opened my mouth anyway, and Adam chuckled. “Good boy,” he said.

I drank heartily and when I was done, I said, “Thanks.” Turning to the television, I asked, “What’s on the news?”

“The usual,” he said.

The news presenter was explaining a complex-looking graph I couldn’t quite understand, and there were numbers, too. Was that the normal type of news? I didn’t know. Feeling rather sleepy again, since it was barely six in the morning, I leaned against Adam and then closed my eyes. I felt him tighten his arm around me, hugging me, and I smiled. It wasn’t long before I fell asleep again.