Always you...

45. I won't let go...

"Zhan, here is your food. Don't leave anything, alright?", said Wang Zi Teng with a smile and Zhan smiled back nodding his head and eating up the meal that Haikuan had probably fixed for him. A-Qing was heavily pregnant which meant she couldn't cook and Zhan trusted no one else around the food he ate. He might as well burn his taste buds than taste another bite Jiyang or Haoxuan had cooked. "How is my granddaughter doing today?", Zi Teng asked and Zhan rubbed his belly smiling when he felt his daughter move around. "Still as active as yesterday. This one is going to be a handful." "She might as well be. She is a Wang. We are not the lazy kind." Both men laughed at the words and as Zhan was eating, Zi Teng couldn't help but say, "I know what you are going through, Zhan. But, I want you to know that everything will be okay. You can talk to us." The spoon paused mid air to Zhan's lips and tears burned the back of Zhan's eyes but he swallowed the lump in his throat, smiling at the elder. "Everything is okay, dad. I am fine." "Zhan-Zhan, I know Yibo hasn't-" "He will wake up, dad. I know he will. Yibo won't leave me behind." Zhan's eyes held steel and Wang Zi Teng was no one to deny the words that had left the Alpha before him. Honestly speaking, he didn't have the heart to. Zi Teng knew that Zhan was hanging by a thin thread these days. The half-Omega tried to smile, tried to act normal but Zi Teng knew that every day was taking away a part of the man he would never get back. Zhan's every waking moment was spent beside his mate or Yuan and Zhan barely did anything else. When he hung out with the pack members, his smiles were forced and the mere mention of Yibo made the man appear like he would shatter. Maybe something in Zhan had shattered already. Maybe it had shattered the day he had seen Yibo lose consciousness.

The day the battle had ended, the Lan wolves had won but they had paid the price of that victory with too much pain and too much suffering. Yibo's wolf had collapsed right before Zhan and Zhan still relived that scene every fucking night in his nightmares. That day had been twelve days ago. Zhan had limped because his leg hurt and he had crawled when he couldn't walk anymore to get to his mate who had hit the ground so hard, the sound still reverberated in Zhan's ears. Zhan's wolf had lost his sanity, howling like a feral wolf at his packmates for help and when Yibo was being taken away, Zhan had fought everyone as hard as he could until his own body had given up. Zhan had woken up the next morning back into his human skin and his throat had been hoarse because he was screaming in his dreams for Yibo the entire night. The battle had been the most vicious battle the Lans had ever fought and everyone was shaken by the way things had turned out. Several had lost their lives. Xuan and Rong along with Bai Li and Talu had held the funeral ceremony on the Lan territory on behalf of their Alpha pair. FanXing had almost lost his leg, Guo Cheng's arm had been mutilated by the cougars and Rong might have lost his life if he hadn't been treated by Zi Yi in time. The other Lan wolves were in no better shape. The deep gashes, torn flesh, broken bones had been every wolf's memory of the battle but more painful than anything was seeing their unconscious Alpha fighting for his life and watching Zhan struggle through it all. The half-Omega had been hysterical the first two days. He had screamed, cried, begged everyone to get his Yibo to wake up but no one had been successful. The injuries on Yibo's body had been life threatening and while Zi Yi had healed most of the injuries, she had said that Yibo's unconsciousness was his body's way of recuperating. Zhan had been in no shape to hear that, though. He had begged and when begging hadn't worked, he had threatened Zi Yi which was something Zhan would remember forever. The shame that had washed upon him as he held ZiYi's fragile neck in his hand, the fear and pity in her eyes had brought Zhan out of his crazy state. None of the wolves blamed Zhan for his condition. They knew how deep the bond ran between their Alpha pair but it was painful to see Zhan most days. The half-Omega had been in a bad condition too. Shifting wasn't ideal for pregnant Omegas and Zhan had fought several cougars and wolves in his condition. There were claw marks on his chest, his leg was still not completely healed and he woke up at night feeling such unbearable pain in his belly, Zhan had passed out twice in the last week because he couldn't bear it. Li Xiao had shifted to Lan territory seeing the fragile state of the Omega and Zhan's response to the move was, "My Yibo will definitely stop glaring at you now, doctor."