Chapter 1: That Summer

*LEON*

Beautiful ladies and ugly gents...*cough*  forgive me\, that is a phrase I have come to pick up from a friend of mine. That damn Crusty!  He is not a Werewolf but that foul mouth of his.

As I was saying, beautiful ladies and humble gentlemen,  as it is evident, I am nowhere in a good condition. My hands and legs are bounded by chains and my body beaten to a state that would have left most begging for life.

I am deep within the confines of the Poison claw clan prison and from the ache in my body, I have realized the true reason for the name poison claw clan. These people really had an appropriate name to match their tastes. The person's tears running down my battered beaten body as I hang loosely from these chains, is the princess of my dreams and attention, Pheobe.

In any normal circumstance, I would enjoy this much attention from her in bliss but right now, the pain from her tightly holding my beaten torso hurts a lot. It was not the first time these few days she had come here in an attempt to ensure I was still alive. But in all honesty, I wish she didn't come. She had too much on her plate to deal with.

This was not supposed to happen. The script pattern from those novels was quite simple really. You know... Hero goes to train, he comes back very strong, kicks the asses of all in his path and impresses all, takes the princess by the waist, gets a kiss and live happily ever after. But Me! a murderer? How? When? Where did it all go wrong?

Hahaha...*cough* Damn it. still coughing blood.

But I should warn you, This story is not mine alone...

.....

On the first verse of my mom's favourite song, Calvin harris said in his lyrics.

"When I met You in the summer,

to my heartbeats sound..."

Those are the only words I could ever use to describe the feeling my chest endured that day.

It happened three years ago. Summer was at its peak.

The heat of the day would usually endure till the deep of the night. I was never one to enjoy the hot weather but that summer was the reason I persevered.

Under the bright moon of a lonely dark night, I ran away from home. I had just heard the topic of 'a most controversial' argument between my parents. It was one I had hoped would never be, but destiny with her fickle fingers couldn't keep her claws to herself. It was about my DEATH.

No, no, no... I know what you are thinking but that is very far from the truth. You see, I come from a family surrounded by the lore of ancient history and Urban legend.  A family that believes death to be more of a salvation than it is the ceasing of life. A family of Vampires. But I myself, was not one. And so the first question would be how a human boy became the son of a ruthless blood draining family. But that is an answer I'll give later on as the story unfolds.

I ran away from home at the latest of the night. I had with me only a bag filled with food and some money I had taken from my mom's drawer. Straight out of the stash she specially kept from my father for her monthly Cuban cigars. It's not like she was going to notice a few hundred dollars missing from that much money anyway, or so I thought.

I had wanted to take the bus out of town but I feared for the influence my parents had in these parts. And so like any ignorant boy running away from home, I took a route I was sure was safe from their reach and would never be found. The forest.

I had walked for heavens know how long. Deep into the shadows of the huge unsuspecting trees. I had with me the full moon as my only source of light. I was becoming tired and decided to take a short rest on the big trunk of a tree that had that newly fell smell.

I brought out an apple and a sandwich stuffed with ham, I had meticulously prepared back home just for the reason of this escape. I had thought to eat it for breakfast the next day. Clearly, I had underestimated the tiring journey. I proceeded to take a big bite from my sandwich enjoying its flavour in my mouth as I smiled in bliss.

Unbeknownst to me, I was about to become another person's dinner.  Well hidden in the shadows of a tree were two wolves stalking prey and unfortunately, that unsuspecting prey was me. I had barely gone halfway with my sandwich when a big wolf landed directly in front of me.

It was big and black, with scissor like teeth that growled at me. Even though it stood on all fours, it gave the impression that I was before a mountain.

Yeah! I know right, so scary. I have come to know now that on that night, those two wolfs were actually toying with me. Just a little thrill of the chase before they enjoyed their midnight snack.  I ran through the woods, as fast as my legs could carry me. But no matter how much I ran,  I would always see them behind me whenever I turned my head to have a peep. I was already running out of breath. Oh! how I wished I took P.E classes more seriously. I could feel my legs getting heavier and slower, that was when I felt a hard pull on my left shoulder and a soft palm cover my mouth. Another lesson learnt on that day was that although wolves have good eyesight, they rely more on their sense of smell when hunting.

I wanted to scream out of reflex, but the hand held my mouth tighter. Coincidentally, my left hand still had my sandwich squeezed tightly in it. The person grabbed forcefully the sandwich in my hand and threw it far into the distance. The next thing I knew, was that I was also flung in the air-but it was onto the shoulders. We moved with speed in the opposite direction of the thrown sandwich. One wolf went in the direction of the sandwich while the other one chased after us. I held on tightly to the body of my ride in fear. It was soft and warm all over, and the lingering scent of perfume from the smooth wavy hair already hinted to me that my ride was feminine. If not for the pressing situation, am sure I would have enjoyed the moment.

We had gotten to an impasse.  Before us was a cliff. We looked around with nowhere else to go, but my sharp witts for survival was at work. I spotted a big tree with a gaping hole in its trunk. I quickly pointed at it and before I knew it, we were squeezed together inside it. A few minutes after we entered the tree trunk, a big wolf arrived before us. It went sniffing all around the place to even the cliff but it did not find anything. It turned around and was sniffing towards the tree. I was wondering why the bad luck when a thought suddenly came to me.  I remembered my hand probably still smelt of cheese and that was probably how this animal was tracking us. My hiding complaining most have had the same thought as she took my hand and brought it towards her face. She immediately put my fingers in her mouth. I thought she was going to bite it but want was to happen next, was a feeling that still got me looking at my hand in a daze to this day. I could feel a small tongue meticulously going through my fingers. It felt like a very small immature snake was learning how to strangle its prey and was using my fingers for practice.

She licked them fast and thoroughly, and just before the wolf got close enough to the tree-it stopped. It turned around and retraced its steps again, sniffing with more attention to correct its mistake. But we were not out of trouble just yet. The wolf seemed to sense something wrong and proceeded back our way. It came close, very close. I had already started to regret my decision of leaving home and prayed hard to lady luck, making promises to her I knew deep down I could never keep. But Before it got close enough, she answered the prayers of her loyal son.

A howl in the distance stole its attention. it sounded like a wolf in pain. The wolf barely in front of us stopped and ran in the direction of the howl, giving its own as it ran towards its companion.

"Wow, that was so close," I turned to the person I was sharing the tight room with, expecting a reply. But to my surprise, all I got was the sound of light snores. She must have used a lot of energy just now. I was at a loss for words. I mean, Who just sleeps on a random stranger they just met out of the blue. But then the fatigue from all that running also hit me. My legs were tired and I soon found my eyelids heavy and also fell asleep.

And that was how we met that summer.

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