Chapter 1 - Dots of Red

He was out of breath and yet he was still running through the forest that was covered with snow, not caring if whether the branches were hitting his face or the fact that he was freezing because he was running against the wind. He was leaving a trail of small red dots on the snowy ground and unfortunately it was because he was bleeding from the abdomen but he didn’t care about the pain and not even about the blood loss. His only thought at that moment was to run away from his pack, which had fell into chaos hours before his escape.

Of course, his priority was the young Zitao, who was clutching on his shoulders as he sobbed quietly. His now only child, who was three years old was too young to have been a witness of that cruel slaughter, too young to have been abandoned by his mother. He couldn’t transform into a wolf to run even faster because he didn’t have new clothes with him and he knew he wasn’t going to last long with that bleeding wound. He tightened his hold on Zitao and he sniffed, trying to stop his tears from falling.

He had to be strong… for his little Zitao.

He stumbled more than once, fell on his knees and had always stood up again, not caring about the blood loss nor the cold sensation that crept up inside his body. Behind him was nothing but darkness and he was very far from his old home but was afraid to stop. He didn’t want anyone to follow him, even if it hurt having left his family.

Zitao had finally stopped crying but was now tugging at the red fabric on his shoulder. “D-daddy, daddy…” He sniffed quietly. “We’re almost there...” He huffed as he started going slower, not only that he was tired but he was now thirsty, as well. He was getting nearer to a log cabin that had plenty of food and medical supplies, thanks to some towns people who lived not far from there.

His son was the only person he had left in that world and he just couldn’t let something bad happen to him. Fortunately, the cabin wasn’t locked and as soon as he set foot inside, he let Zitao wander on the ground- the child had always been curious and even if he clearly was tired and hungry, he took the leisure to play a bit with the snow and to stroll around the shack. The child’s father immediately found the first-aid kit and was glad that there were a few useful supplies sitting just next to it.

He quickly lit the hearth that was located in the middle of the room and as soon as he bent down, he hissed quietly letting the fire lit up the place. He took off his cloak and the blood-stained shirt and gasped in pain when he felt the cloth cling onto his wound; meanwhile the young Zitao sat next to the fire and sighed in pleasure, feeling the warmth spread and comfort his cold, small body.

“Daddy, are you going to be okay?” The child muttered as he peeked through the flames. “Of course I am, my dear.” He replied with a strained smile. He got up, took two glasses and a pot, he then went out to gather some snow. He placed the pot over the hearth and took out two spoons and two canned beans. He gave one to his son and said, “Leave it near the fire for a while, okay?”

The child nodded quickly and smiled at the sight of the food. It wasn’t much but he couldn’t give him anything else… not with that wound, anyway. As Zitao stared at the food, clearly hungry, he took the time to bandage his abdomen, he tried to clean it a bit then wrapped the gauze around it. It wasn’t much but he knew that as a werewolf he was going to heal much quicker than a human. His only problem was that the cause behind his pain was another werewolf.

While he was running in search of Zitao, someone bit him… someone that was in his old pack, and the venom on the wolf’s teeth caused slow healing even if he wasn’t a human himself. The venom made him dizzy, he couldn’t breathe properly and after a lifetime of being a werewolf, he still didn’t understand why it affected his kind that much even if he had the same venom in his blood. He knew it kind of worked like blood types and blood transfusions but of course for humans it was an entirely different thing.  

The venom in their teeth could change every cell in humans until their body has changed in a much stronger one, their first wolf form was at full moon but then a werewolf could change anytime. He knew that the freedom of running, the air on him, the sound of the nature around him were things he would have never exchanged for anything else. However, in that moment, he would have paid with his soul if that meant he could see his dead sons smiling again.

“Come on, eat.” He said as he felt tears falling from his eyes again. To hide his face from Zitao, he turned around to wear his torn shirt again and wiped his face with the fabric. “Yummy!” The child happily exclaimed as he started eating. Jiaheng finally looked at him and took his own canned beans, he stared at his dear son and smiled softly, before digging on his own food. They had a warm shelter and they had food, they could easily survive. He was simply scared of taking care of Zitao all alone, without the child’s mother and without a pack that could protect them.

“Mommy won’t come with us?” The young werewolf asked. Jiaheng stopped eating and stared at his son, who was looking sadly at him. He then shook his head and he opened his arms, silently telling him to sit on his lap. Zitao immediately stood up and ran into his father’s arms, to hug him as tightly as possible. “I’m sorry, but she…” The man sighed and caressed the child’s soft, dark hair, the only thing they had in common. “She doesn’t like us anymore, Zitao. I don’t think we’ll see her again.”

Zitao nodded, pouting a bit with unshed tears in his eyes. “What about brothers?” He whispered. Jiaheng bit his lips and he started crying again, his child did the same, as he understood that something bad had happened to them and the two of them hugged each other, trying to find some kind of comfort. “I’m s-sorry… It’s just the two of us, Zitao. They got hurt too much and…” He gulped down a sob and kissed his son’s forehead, as he closed his eyes. “It’s just the two of us, dear.”

***

Jiaheng fortunately healed within a couple of days. He still was a young werewolf his body could fight much more easily the foreign venom in his body. As soon as he could move around without feeling pain, they took as much as food as possible and they ran away from that place. They were far from their old home, but Jiaheng knew that he was never going to be careful enough with the new lifestyle he and Zitao had to adopt.

Being a rogue was difficult: he had to take care of everything by himself, from their food to their shelter and it wasn’t an easy task to do when he had the constant fear of being found by those rebels from his old pack. However, it gave him the freedom he had needed since when he became an adult it was hard to live with many other male werewolves, which were all alphas. It was hard to live with the constant need to fight and be the strongest and it was even worse when the leader of the pack had fun watching them getting hurt.

There were no nice rules in his old pack, only bad ones. He had lived in the worst way possible until Zitao came in the picture but not even then he had the possibility to find a better pack for himself and his new family. He had decided to run away with his fiancée and their sons the day before the uprising, but then his day started with a post-it note and it ended with him without his lover and without three of his sons.

Zitao never asked again about his brothers but he clearly missed them a lot and at night, he was more than just a bit happy to sleep while hugging his father. Jiaheng never had the chance to sleep with his sons, because his fiancée decided so but he did spent all of his free time with them. However, he could never forget them and he thought that it was his own fault that they weren’t there anymore was going to haunt him forever.

Sometimes, at night he stayed awake with the fear of losing his Zitao and during those long nights, he always kept his eyes wide open, his mouth tightly closed and his son near himself. Those were the hardest moments where he struggled to cry as silently as possible and where he felt the loneliest. His son was already doing too good after having seen such things, but even after a couple of weeks Jiaheng knew that he didn’t completely understood what happened to them and their family  and that Zitao was still waiting to meet his brothers again.

His theory was confirmed when the child started mumbling names, one night and the next morning Zitao was grumpy and he started whining once his father told him it was already time to leave the place to find another one. “I’m tired!” He started screaming. “I want to play with brothers! I wanna go back home!” Jiaheng wasn’t surprised when his son started crying loudly, after all he was used to his little tantrums; what he didn’t expect was that Zitao had never complained for days.

He sighed and kneeled in front of him  to talk him quietly. “Zitao, I’ve already told you that you can’t see your brothers anymore.” He said before taking his small hand into his own. However, the child started sobbing even louder and whisked away from his father’s hold. “No! I want to see them!” He cried again. Jiaheng was too tired to start crying again  but that didn’t stop him when he looked sadly at his son and grabbed him anyway.

“Zitao, a very bad person hurt them a lot and now they will never open their eyes again.” He explained as his voice wavered a little. Hearing that, the child stopped wailing and sniffed a bit, looking at his dad as he tried to wipe away his tears. “Did they go to sleep?” Jiaheng’s lips formed a tight, strained smile; he shook his head and he tugged his son towards his body, a small attempt to hug Zitao and calm him down. “It means they’re dead. We can’t play together anymore.”

Zitao, unfortunately, had other plans: he started crying again and without waiting for a second, he started hitting his father, who fell back on the ground out of surprise. “Liar!” The child screeched. “You’re a liar! You just want to go away from them!” He kept screaming while kicking the snow and throwing it at Jiaheng; the man, for the first time, didn’t know what to do. He was used to Zitao’s tantrums, but not to that: he simply couldn’t tell him that he could play with his brothers again if he started to behave better. “If they got hurt, you could have saved them! Just like you do when we play dragons and knights!”

Jiaheng lowered his gaze immediately. Of course, as a father he had to save his children, he had to make sure they were safe. However, he didn’t and he felt like he failed miserably as a parent, even if he knew it wasn’t completely his own fault. “You know I feel really bad about it…” He started explaining after wiping away the snow from his hair. Zitao didn’t listen to him and he kept screaming, stomping on the ground and crying.

“I hate you! I just want to go home and play!” He sobbed some more and then he suddenly ran away. Jiaheng quickly stood up and followed him, despite feeling tears in his eyes. He knew that Zitao didn’t mean it  but it still hurt and deep inside he was scared that his son truly hated him for what happened. He followed him until they arrived to a forest and he saw that Zitao was getting tired of running. “Come on, let’s go back. There’s a storm coming.”

His child hesitated  but then he started running again between the trees. Jiaheng sighed but walked behind him not worried and careful not to lose him inside the forest.  Zitao was young and  was slow and clumsy in his human form. His son still struggled to change but sometimes his wolf ears appeared along with his fluffy tail even when he wasn’t doing anything. Jiaheng was staring at him while he jumped from a big, visible root when he smelled something he didn’t expect.

There were three other werewolves near them, and unfortunately, he knew their scent: they were from his old pack  and they still smelled like blood. He immediately ran to Zitao and grabbed him; his son didn’t even whine, already too tired, and Jiaheng glanced around them. Now he was worried. “Zitao, there are very bad people here, I need you to stay as quiet as possible.” He whispered to his ear.

His son widened his now red eyes and nodded, before hiding his face on his father’s shoulder. Jiaheng started walking, looking everywhere he could, but he only saw white and the stripes of dark brown that reached for the sky and the scent of those three wolves was getting closer. Soon he understood he was being surrounded and there was no way he could go to escape them. He glanced at his son and kissed his cheek, before sprinting towards the end of the forest.

It was when he reached it that he was stopped by a man who was already snickering at him. “I’ve found the rabbit!” He shouted with glee. Jiaheng took a step back and hugged Zitao even tighter; he was scared, he was never the type to fight much but he was ready to die if that meant he could save his son. The other two werewolves arrived next to their partner  and Jiaheng got ready to do something he had never dreamt of doing.

As soon as the two wolves jumped on him, he threw Zitao behind him and he let them bit him. He screamed in pain as he felt the sharp teeth tearing his skin apart, but he didn’t dare to move and he let the third wolf to do the same. He screamed even louder when he bit between his shoulder and his neck, and just then he looked at Zitao, who was crying desperately again, and he gulped. “Run!” He shouted before he started shaking and transformed himself.

His wolf form was huge, more than the average werewolf, and that helped him to shake off the attackers. He didn’t wait for another second, and despite the pain he jumped over the closest enemy and bit on his neck, as tightly as possible. The wolf yelped but soon his cries were muffled and after the initial struggling, he quiet down and stopped moving. Jiaheng let him go and turned towards the other two wolves, that were now backing away.

He started growling and  was glad that the two of them preferred to cowardly run away instead of fighting him and helping their partner. Jiaheng turned around and quickly followed Zitao’s scent; the child didn’t run that far, and he caught up with him pretty quickly. His son screamed in joy when he recognized his dad’s wolf form but Jiaheng didn’t have much time left, he grabbed him and lifted him on his back and started running.

Once again he was losing blood and  he knew he wasn’t going to survive. The wounds were deep and his transformation didn’t help them to stop bleeding; he kept running towards an inhabited area  and he didn’t stop once because this time he wanted to be sure his son was going to be okay. His lungs hurt, he felt light-headed and he couldn’t feel his limbs anymore. Only when he finally reached a small clearing he stopped running and transformed back into his human form.

He fell on the white, soft snow and was now completely ; his son rushed to his side, scared to see so much blood on the ground and his father’s body but nothing he did helped the man to stand up again. He was dying, Jiaheng understood that. He could feel his life slipping away from his wounded body, along with his soul but he had to make sure of something before closing his eyes forever.

With the remaining strength in him, he lifted his hand and took Zitao’s. “Listen…” He slowly mumbled. “Daddy got hurt a lot. I can’t move.” He started explaining as the first tear fell from his eyes. Zitao started to tear up and kneeled next to him, clutching on his hand. “When you see that I’m not breathing anymore…” He coughed a bit and closed his eyes, trying to bear with the pain for a few more minutes. “You need to leave me…”

Zitao shook his head and started sobbing. “Daddy, no… I don’t want to!” Jiaheng smiled and brought his child’s fingers to his cold lips, to kiss them as he trembled from the cold. It was the only thing he could feel on his skin, as the pain was fading away to replace the feeling with numbness. “Listen to me for this last time…” He whispered, feeling his eyelids getting heavier and heavier. “Just run, don’t stay with me…” He saw Zitao moving his mouth to say something, but his voice sounded muffled and soon even his sight started to blur.

“Daddy… loves you…”

The last thing he saw was two red dots. His lungs got filled with the scent of pomegranate and a warm feeling enveloped his heart and took every worry he had away. He smiled and for the first time in his life, he felt free.

A/N:
I really want to thank again my AMAZING beta *O*
Also, I want to thank my subscribers! I really hope you'll write a comment because this is very important for me and I hope you enjoyed reading this first chapter ^-^

♥