It all happened with a blink of an eye. One instance, Randali was by his side and the next she was gone, bleeding profusely in his arms. He cried, never having cried so much before. It was all a blur, he couldn't even see through his tear streaked face. Randali's face was covered in so much blood, the only clean spots were the spots where Zan's tears had made a path down her cheeks.
He felt hands on top of his and looked up to see Faye.
"BRING HER BACK!" Zan demanded of the priestess. "BRING HER BACK!" But Faye wasn't going to do such a thing. She wasn't going to reach for Randali's spirit as she was on her way passing to bring her back to her body. That was dark, black, hoodoo magic.
Zan held onto the wolf's body, fearing himself alone and lost. Randali was his everything. They were going to be together forever. They were going to mate and have dozens of offspring.
He only had himself to blame. His arms fell limp to his side by the time Instructor Song came by and took the body. It was Zan who was the one who mated with Sous.
His hands instantly went to his stomach realizing he was going to have to raise this pup by himself. New tears strolled down his face, for the shame he was bringing to his family.
Makala helped Zan to his feet and he was slowly escorted to the infirmary due to his mental state. There he laid, laid on the bed just looking up at the cieling. He betrayed Randali, his Alpha so as to mate with Sous, another Alpha and here he was paying for it.
The infirmary smelt of antiseptic and dried blood, a sharp tang that bites Zan's nostrils with every ragged inhale. His hands soothed the rough weave of the blanket beneath him, grounding himself in its scratchy reality.
Outside, the muffled sounds of the staff and faculty moving in, footsteps, distant chatter, the rustle of wind through pine, press against the thin walls. Each noise felt like an accusation.
He pressed a trembling hand against the slight swell of his stomach, where Sous's pup grows unseen. The warmth there is a traitorous pulse, a living reminder of his weakness. He closed his eyes, but Randali's blood-streaked face flashed behind his lids, the clean trails his tears had carved now mocking him.
Zan wasn't sure how long he slept for but when he woke up, it was the next day and his parents were sitting beside him. He had two days, an Alpha and Omega. His sire was severely disappointed in their son. Zan watched him get up, take his pipe out, and inhale a couple of puffs.
His father remained seated. He placed his hand on Zan's face and began to soothe him. That was all Zan needed, he fell into his arms and started to cry. His sire looked over his shoulder and took the pipe out of his mouth. He sighed, not being able to stay mad at his son in such a state, her went to him and joined their hug.
The infirmary's antiseptic scent clung to Zan's skin, mingling with the ghost of Randali's blood. Outside, the wind whispered through pine needles, a sound that once meant home. Now it scraped like claws against his nerves. His hands remained on the rough weave of the blanket, each thread a reminder of the infirmary cot's unforgiving surface. It was time for him to go and he wouldn't ever be back.
He threw his legs over the bed and wiped his nose. There were showers in the back where Zan could wash so his parents waited for about an hour until Zan came out, dry and in new clothes the infirmary had on stock, a uniform that students used to wear.
Zan walked to his parents head down but it was his sire who lifted the young Omega's chin up. "Let's go home," the sire said.
Zan's forehead was wiped by the midwife as hr held his baby boy, an Omega. He smiled from ear to ear, this was his son. So cute, so small, could fit into the palm of Zan's sire's palm.
"You'll have to give him up," his sire said but Zan didn't meet his gaze. "Theres an Alpha that is willing to mate with you, claim you, but she doesn't want the child."
Zan's vision was starting to become blurry again, his tears once more engulfed him, and he found himself wiping his nose with his arm.
"Don't even name him. There's no point," the sire said, lighting his pipe.
Zan have birth at his childhood home in the town of Roronoa. It was a town north of Hacate close to the swamps but with a large stream that separated the two patches of land. A town within a city really.
During the two weeks Zan had the baby, he took pictures of him and named him anyway, Xeno. They played as much as a two week old could play and then it was time to give it up. The adoption family was a nice wolf family who was okay with keeping Xeno's name and to Zan's surprised, they wanted Zan to remain apart of their lives. Even though they planned to move, they would write to him and update him on Xeno's life.
The Alpha that Zan was claimed by was apart of the Nadia infantry, something Zan didn't even know Nadia had. He just thought they had Hunters.
She wasn't much older than him, three years to his fifteen. Their pack wasn't a pack where wolves mated young, they pack was absolutely against it. So they didn't first mate until Zan was nineteen since his Alpha was on a base away from him.
Zan didn't enjoy having sex with this Alpha. She was rough, even a bit violent but overall, she was abusive to him. She would hit him, slap him, punch him, yell at him even when Zan was pregnant with their first child, she would beat him.
One day, the beating was so bad that a neighbor came by because of how strong the iron was in the air. What the male Alpha was smelling was Zan's blood.
The Alpha found Zan passed out on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood. He called for assistance and Zan woke up in the hospital, his parents there, saying they would find him another Alpha. Zan just remembered passing out again.
Zan was claimed by a male Alpha this time and hsd moved back to the town in which he was from. He gave birth to an Alpha male that time, his new Alpha was ecstatic. Zan also began to get letters of Xeno. He was growing up into a beautiful toddler.
Zan was happy with his new Alpha. He wasn't abusive, he wasn't violent and Zan didn't feel scared to move around the house anymore. He was able to cook, clean and tend to the garden without fear. That was another thing, Zan picked up gardening.
He went to yard sales and found a few pots that were chipped and broken but Zan saw the beauty in them. He filled them with soil and planted seeds he found around the yard. He also planted seeds he found at the market. He grew tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and more.
Zan had never saw himself as a stay at home Omega but here he was and...he was happy. In five years, Zan had a total of five children, one with Sous: an Omega, one with the old Alpha: an Alpha, and three with his current Alpha. Two Alphas and an Omega. The Omega being the youngest. One Alpha male and one Alpha female who was the middle child. Xeno was the only child not with Zan.
One day after coming inside from the garden and while the four children were doing homework, Zan sat down at the kitchen table and began to write Sous a letter. For the past ten years, he had been getting letters from Sous from her time at Dragon Lair. He took a deep breath, it was time to respond back.