Chapter 99: The Easiest Road Home
[TAMIKO]
Tamiko stared at Kosta silently.
He wanted to complain about how formal his erasthai was with him and at the same time, he wanted to tell the Lycan chief that it wasn’t that easy. He knew the king was affectionate towards him, but then showing up was something else.
"This will be your home," Alpha Ashton had told Tamiko years ago, when he was ten.
That was the first time the alpha had spoken to him, because he was being bullied. The alpha hadn’t addressed the bullying, but simply showed him a cabin in the woods. Alpha Ashton had been kinder to Tamiko.
He had loved the boy, or maybe that was what Tamiko thought; so, when the alpha showed him the cabin and convinced him that every boy would always have a cabin, the young boy had easily agreed to it.
He hadn’t once complained because the alpha had been like a father to him. That was just another mistake he had made, one that would haunt him for over fifteen years. It was like his entire life had paused when he left for the cabin.
Zula had been forced to erase any memories of Tamiko from before but then the boy was a Lycan prince, obviously, no magic would work on him, but it was worth a try. Again, Tamiko trusted the man who would later ruin his entire life.
"Kosta—" Tamiko struggled to spell out. He knew Kosta was only looking out for him, trying to get him out of the shell of distrust, but then Tamiko had had his heart broken at a young age.
He was scared that being accepted by the Lycan king would just be another cabin story. He was scared that he wouldn’t ever be enough for the king and that he would be subjected to crueler fates.
He was scared that the king would find him a bland little thing and banish him or even worse make him a Kawai outcast. Tamiko couldn’t handle that. Maybe his fears were controlling him, but as a boy broken at a young age, his fears were valid.