Page 40 of Primal Bonds 1

“What about a foxkin boy with black hair and—”

“Go away!” she snapped.

I stood and moved on to the next beastkin, but this one shooed me away, too. I walked along the alleyway, my gaze darting here and there, and I was about to stop and have a chat with another beastkin when I heard one say, “He’s back.”

The man sounded terrified yet pleased and excited at the same time.

“Whose back?” his friend asked.

“Haven’t you heard? It’s all over the neighborhood,” the man said. “The Beautiful Monster is back. He disappeared for six months and now he’s back. Annihilated that bastard Tony and his gang in one fell swoop last night. Half of them were dead and the other half scattered off to other parts of the city. He gave them a warning.”

“The Beautiful Monster only gives one warning, right?” the other asked.

“Yep,” the man said. “One warning. He told them if they ever step foot in his territory or terrorize us again, he’ll kill the lot of them.”

The other man sighed in relief. “Then we don’t need to worry about Tony and his gang anymore.”

“Mm-hmm.” The other nodded his head.

The Beautiful Monster.I had heard of him from the others, and I knew everyone was afraid of him. I was warned to never cross paths with such a man as he would kill without mercy. Apparently, he owned most of this neighborhood as part of his territory, and he was the leader of a mafia clan.

Mafia clans.I knew there were many of them across the country, and the most powerful ones were in New York, California, and Nevada, more specifically in New York City, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas respectively.

Now that I looked at those around here more closely, they didn’t seem as afraid as before, hiding in their spots and going about their business cautiously. I supposed Tony and his gang had done a great job at fucking up everyone’s minds, me included, terrorizing us simply because there was no one who’d stop him. And now that he had been stopped, I felt this sense of relief sweep through me.

Honestly, I hoped that bastard Tony was either dead or at least half dead. I hoped he had experienced what it felt like to be the one on the ground and being beaten to a pulp because the terror of that would never leave you, or at least it’d take a long time to.

I continued searching for Kuro and Aka, stopping now and again to ask a few questions if anyone happened to see anything, but no one could give me any good leads.

I was walking along the alleyway when, once again, I felt the sense that I was being followed and watched. I turned around and saw a figure standing a little distance away. He was slender, like me, and he wore a black leather jacket and ripped jeans. He had a cap on his head and a mask to cover the lower half of his face. The mask had an illustration of a wolf howling.

We stared at each other for a moment, and I didn’t know why I didn’t run. Then again, I didn’t feel any sort of threat coming from him. It was just like strangers who happen to pass each other and make eye contact.

Suddenly, he sprinted toward me, and before I knew it, I was backed up against the wall and he had his arms around me tightly.

“Huh?” I expressed, my eyes wide.

He squeezed me and even nestled his face against my neck. Then he said something I couldn’t understand, probably because he had his face buried against me and the words were further muffled by his mask.

I said, “Wait! What are you doing? Who are you?”

He finally moved back then and pulled down his mask. We stared at each other, and then I widened my eyes. “Lan?”

He grinned, showing his wolf fangs at me. “Yep, it’s me, Lan.” He hugged me again, tightly, of course. “Oh, man, I missed you so much, Shiro. I’m so glad to finally see you again.”

I felt my knees go weak and I wrapped my arms around him tightly, too, tears brewing in my eyes. “Me, too. I’ve missed you, too, Lan. I can’t believe it. You’re okay. You’re all right. The institute, you got out.”

Pulling back, Lan nodded his head. “Yep, I did. Ran away two years after they separated us, those fucking bastards.”

“But I heard the black department security is really tough and…”

Lan said, “I got a couple of guys with me, wolfkin, and we busted ourselves out. It took two years, but we got out, and you know what? They ain’t going to get us again, those fucking bastards.” He sighed then and asked, “So, Kuro and Aka?”

“We ran away a year ago,” I said. “Us foxkin, we’re not that strong like you, Lan. We finally got out, but Kuro, Aka, and I got separated six months ago. The institute caught up to us and, well, I’m searching for them now.”

“Then I’ll help,” Lan said. “I still have a job to do, but I’ll ask my boss and see if I can help you and stuff.”

“You’re working?” I asked in pleasant surprise. “How? I mean… is that possible? Will anyone even hire beastkin like us?”