Phuket, Southern Thailand — 1836.

One Year, Three Months Later.

Caked in sweat, Tee peered at the sun for a split second. Noon, he concluded before he stood up on cramped legs. The tiny canoe shook from his movement, swaying one too many times in the calm Andaman Sea before steadying itself, allowing him to reel in his fishing line.

Tee had come out this morning feeling optimistic about the day's catch. However, the more he reeled in his line, the more disappointment loomed on him. It seemed luck wasn't by his side today... And by the looks of his nearly empty line, neither was any fish.

With a sigh, Tee scrunched up his nose and clicked his tongue before he grabbed the pair of paddles and began rowing his canoe, heading to the foreshore with hopes of getting home as quickly as possible because — well, he had someone, a little reminder from the past, awaiting his return...

Kai.

Venn.

They were so similar, yet so different.

Since the day he left KAi withering on the floor while begging him not to go away, Tee had been carrying Kai child: their child.

He did not know, not until later on. Perhaps if he had known, he might've been inclined to stay with Kai for their child's safety. Kai always wanted a child. The alpha was excited when Tee lied about it — he had been happy. He would've been a good father — he was also a deceiving bastard.

Kai played Tee for a fool...

Kai killed Grandma: Tee reminded himself from time to time.

And yet, although he thought about his dearly beloved Grandma a lot; day and night he envisioned her warm smile and her piping laughter... With a heavy, gulted heart, he thought about Kai a lot more.

Kai had done so much wrong. He was a beast, a monster — evil itself. Yet, Tee missed him dearly. He missed having the wolf's sinful fingers wrapped around his neck, choking him — it made him feel safe in ways it could not explain. It made him feel protected, despite the lingering threat. And the imprint of Kai's cock — the way it molded itself inside him — he missed that too. Tee missed his laughter, and his corrupted eyes — he missed the wolf's empty threats and his comforting hugs.

Sometimes he thought about returning; he blamed it on his child: Venn needed a father. Tee knew it was all him, though. He needed Kai; he hated how badly he needed Kai.

Tee knew it was not right; he was still in love with the wicked wolf, though. So much so, he often gazed into the forest, secretly hoping to find a face or perhaps soulless eyes that, for a moment, would bring him back to a time when he felt comforted the most, protected, cherished, and loved. There was never anyone, though, and always his heart would be aching for his alpha.

The feeling Kai gave to him made him feel alive. There was no one else like Kai. And Tee could not force his heart to act on who it should love or who it should hate. His heart loved Kai, despite his cruelty, despite poisoning his Grandma. And unfortunately, it seemed his traitorous heart would love Kai forever.

Pathetic.

If Kai ever found him, the alpha would surely slaughter him like some crazed animal.

Kai wouldn't spare him.

Tee knew this back then, too. That was why when he left Kai barely breathing in the cottage, he went straight across Thailand, seeking refuge in Phuket. Back then he knew nothing about life outside the forest he grew up in. He blamed his Grandma. She might've had good intentions, she sheltered him too much, though.

On his journey he had been taken advantage of; robbed by a group of men and a woman of whatever little trinkets he carted off from the cottage. Some people offered him work with smiling faces, only to pay him with insults and leftover craps on their plates. Still, some people were kind; they gave him warm soup and sheltered him for a night or two without asking for payment or labor.

In the end, a month and a half in, he found his way to Phuket with only the clothes on his back and no knowledge of the life people lived there — or if they were compassionate and gentle, or nasty and mean. Tee didn't know which part of Phuket he would live in, nor how he would go about making a living. He knew nothing. Well, nothing except for carrying a child. He had discovered it days before reaching Phuket, and instead of feeling joy like he once believed might happen, a dread loomed over him at the thought of his impending future, making him cry an entire day at Phuket's shorefront.

It was there when evening came and the beach went empty, he met Pol; a strange, talkative leopard alpha about the same age as him.

Tee had been cautioned of the alpha's presence when Pol decided to sit next to him on the sandbank and chat about, of all things, the weather. However, his nervousness went away when Pol forced a genuine smile out of him, and he soon ended up confining his long list of problems to the alpha, minus his recent discovery.

Pol was considerate; he listened, he worried, and in the end, he offered Tee to stay with him for the time being.

Tee didn't want to impose; he had nowhere else to go, though, so he accepted Pol's offer, mentally dreading what his murderous alpha would think of him, running away, only to live with another alpha who he barely knew.

Unknowingly fot Tee, it wasn't just one alpha he ended up living with, there were two of them.

The talkative alpha had forgotten to mention a tiny detail when he blabbered his life story to Tee. He had a husband! Kinn, a lion alpha. Perhaps it was a good thing, too. If Tee knew he would've ended up bunking with two alphas, he probably would've declined Pol's offer.

The pair turned out to be the nicest people, proving not all predator alphas were as dangerous as Tee was led to believe.

Kinn was equally considerate and easygoing as Pol. They offered Tee a cozy mattress to sleep on and stuffed him with hot meals without ill intentions. And when they found out he was carrying a child, Kinn made toys for when the baby came, and Pol built a crib; Tee sewed clothes and chewed on peppers: a craving he knew that would make his alpha double over and gag at; Kai hated peppers.

Regardless, Tee knew he should not stay forever, so soon after Venn was born he moved out despite the two alphas' complaints. He did not stray far, though; he lived right next door to Pol and Kinn, in a cottage similar to the one he grew up in where Pol visited him daily to chat about nothing of importance and help him care for Venn while he gardened in his front yard; planting peppers, eddoes, and potatoes — some celery, and lettuce.

Still, it wasn't enough; Tee needed proper work.

With the help of his alpha friends, it didn't take him long to assemble a canoe before he started fishing in the Andaman Sea, just off the coast of Phuket's beach, and after sold his fish to the local villagers to buy grains, rice, or sweet treats...

"Just a few more minutes," Tee breathlessly muttered to himself while paddling through the water current to get to the shore. "I just need —"

"Tee!" a familiar voice yelled on the beachfront.

Tee's fluffy ears instantly perked up and he furrowed his eyebrows, trying to make out the figure standing at the shore front, waving an arm at him. "Pol?" he whispered, almost in disbelief. "What is he doing here? And why is Venn —"

"Look!" Pol yelled back with glee, lifting the baby in the air for Tee to see. "I brought Venn!"

Tee groaned and started paddling faster.

Dammit, he had told the alpha not to bring his baby outside in the hot sun.

Venn was barely shy of a couple of months!

When Te ehopped off his canoe, drenching his feet in water from the knee down, he wiped his sweaty forehead and started pushing the wooden vessel up to the shorefront. It was a tiring process, and it made him gasp for a quick breath one too many times. Still, he wasn't about to stop — he needed to murder Pol, or at least set some ground rules.

Tee approached the two with a deep frown. He was hell-bent on scolding the alpha, however, one glance at the swell in Pol's eyes as he cooed at Venn made Tee bite his tongue. Pol was such a great friend — the alpha would never do anything to put Venn in harm's way.

Venn's bubbly giggles snapped Tee out of his thoughts, and his dimples popped out at the sight of the young wolf-predator hybrid, nestled inside Pol's arm. And as much as Tee wanted to hold him, his skin was dirty and he reeked terribly of fish.

Tee sighed. "Vee-Vee," he purred down at Venice before his eyes found Pol, and his face instantly turned sour. "Pol."

"Awe, come on... Don't look at me like that — Venn wanted to come," Pol said, rolling his eyes and going back to poking Venn's chubby cheeks. "Isn't that right Vee-Vee?"

Tee gazed down at Venice in Pol's arms. "Did you miss Papa?" he cooed as the baby suckled on his thumb, eyeing Tee with big doe eyes that resembled Tee's. .

It seemed, Venn only had Tee's kind eyes; everything else he took after Kai.

Venn had Kai's dark hair, and his toned skin; he had his nose and his lips — and even his sly smile! And by the looks of things, he might surely become an alpha like his father. So unfair. It made Tee feel wronged — he'd been the one who had been carrying Venn!

At least Venn had Tee's gentle nature; he didn't reek of Kai's evilness.

"I fed him three times and the little gremlin still wouldn't stop crying," Pol chimed in.

Venn could not talk, he made a blabbering noise and reached for Tee's face as he playfully bopped his nose against Venn's own. "Is that so?" Tee cooed in the baby's face. "Did Uncle Pol starve you, Vee-Vee?"

"As if," Pol huffed out a laugh. "Venn wanted his Papa. As in you and not me."

Pol didn't mean any spite by his words, Tee knew this yet it stung deep in his stomach.

Of course Venn would want Tee; his Papa.

Suddenly Tee's eyes watered and his shoulders were hunched over.

There was no doubt that he was a horrible father.

Kinn and Pol might not admit it, but Tee was sure they thought the same way. He had been neglecting Venn every day he went fishing to feed them. And though he knew it would be difficult raising Venn alone; he thought he'd been prepared; he thought he could do it. He was wrong. He was a neglectful Papa; he wasn't spending enough time with Venn, and he was sure Venn would grow up to despise him if he went on like this. Now he didn't know what to do. He just — he just needed someone. He needed Kai to come and help him through his struggles, to make everything better.

No.

He didn't need Kai. (Kai didn't need him.)

Kai was a monster.

"Thank you for taking care of him," Tee said with a deep sigh. "I know what I'm doing isn't right, I just need —"

"Ay, Tee," Pol frowned and nudged Tee on the shoulder. "Don't start with this again. Not here. Not now."

Tee snaked his fingers through his brittle hair. "I know it's not right," he said, ignoring Pol's words and turning his back from the alpha to stare at the canoe. "It's just... You and Kinn can't be taking care of him all the time... You two have each other. Venn is my responsibility. This is wrong."

"We don't mind," Pol said, his fingers tightening protectively around Venn. "You know we don't."

It was true. The pair had assured him many times. They loved Venn and they cared about Tee.

"That doesn't make it any less wrong," Tee said in a soft tone. "I should be home looking after him myself... I'm a bad father. I can't even do this right. I just —"

"Tee, stop," Pol said in a more serious voice. "You're not a bad father. You're being unreasonable with yourself. You need to start giving yourself more credit."

"Venn will hate me," Tee whispered.

Pol placed a reassuring hand on Tee's shoulder. "He will understand," he said, looking down fondly at the now-sleeping baby in his other arm. "He won't hate you."

Tee joined him, watching Venn sleep... He should've been the one holding his child.

With dirty hands, Tee reached out to take the baby from Pol. He just needed Venn in his arms — he just needed to smell him.

"Give him to me," Tee said.

"Your skin is soaking wet," Pol pointed out. "Why don't you get —"

"I don't care," Tee bit back in a harsh tone. He didn't mean to sound rude to his friend. "I'm sorry," he concluded. "Pol, I'm sorry."

Pol smiled stiffly in understanding. "It's alright," he said, carefully handing over the baby to Tee. "Take him."

A small smile made its way across Tee's face as he stared down at Venn in his arms, and suddenly a relief feeling washed over him, and he felt calm and content again.

"Pol, do you think I'm a bad father?" Tee mindlessly asked the question for a second time, not taking his eyes off Venn.

"Tee," Pol sighed. "None of us think you're a bad father... I don't think so either. You're doing your best."

"Do you think Venn needs... Do you think he needs his —"

"Don't you say his name," Pol interrupted with a frown. "That alpha doesn't deserve you... Look... Venn won't judge you. He will understand when he gets older."

But Tee didn't want Venice to get older without his other father.

Tee didn't want to get older without...

"Mm," Tee hummed as he gently rocked the sleeping child back and forth.

____________________________________

That night when Tee lay next to Venn, he stared at his sleeping son for a long-dragged out moment before the memories; the bitter tears in Kai's eyes and his pleading, rageful voice, echoing with desperation appeared, hammering inside his head with a wild animalist wrath. It caused him to feel disheartened for Kai. Remorseful, perhaps.

So many conflicting thoughts...

What would Grandma think of him now?

Would she be disappointed?

Saddened?

Hurt?

Or would she understand how burdensome life had been for him? How lonesomeness ate at his heart? Or how Venn needed his father as much as Tee needed his mate?

Tee didn't know. He dreaded the answer though, just like he dreaded how much he desired to see his alpha's dishonest, cruel, wicked face again.

____________________________________

While Tee slept, in the faraway distance — at the edge of Phuket's forest, the wicked wolf lurked, watching the curtains flutter on the open window of Tee's newfound home. The longer Kai looked, the more his eyes turned venomous, and his jaw clenched painfully tight — his heart thundered, too, and only one thought hammered in his head...

Blood, the monster in him growled, low and frightening. Tee's blood.