Page 68 of Primal Bonds 1

“It hasn’t been that long,” Shiro said. “I’m coming. Don’t be so impatient.” He gathered the bags of chips, and after giving Adam a smile, he rushed over to Lan, who snaffled a bag from Shiro’s arms and opened it. As they headed back, Lan fed Shiro a chip, which made Adam chuckle in amusement.

He was just finished brewing the coffee about ten minutes later when Nolan came out of the study room. In the kitchen, the brother rooted around searching for something, and when he turned, he had a bottle of wine in his hand.

“I thought you said you’d get too drunk to go home,” Adam said.

Nolan shrugged his broad shoulders and then poppedthe cork. “It’s Saturday night and I haven’t drank with you and Chase for a while so I’m going all out.” With that, he left the kitchen and headed back into the study room.

Adam chuckled. So, he thought, Nolan intended to stay the night after all, the mother hen.

21

Shiro

Aka 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 mesaved 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 knowa lotabout 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 powerfulthey’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.”