My Youth Began With Him Novels & Stories

"I might be dead in two days. If you're going to tell me, tell me now." He was quiet for so long I thought he wouldn't answer. Then he spoke. "When I was twelve, my father took me on my first hunt. We got separated. I found a bear trap instead." He rolled up his left trouser leg. There was an old white scar wrapped around his calf like a snake. "I was too young to shift and heal it. I dragged myself for two days. I ended up at the edge of your village, half dead." I stopped chewing.

He said all of this the way he said things that mattered without inflating them, plainly, in the voice of someone reporting facts that happened to also be the story of who he was. I said: "How old were you the first time you ran a proper route." "Depends what you call proper." "Someone threw you the ball on a real field." He thought about it. "Fifteen. High school sophomore year. First day of practice." "What did it feel like." He looked at the food in front of him for a moment. "Like the thing I had been building toward had a name finally." I sat with that.

"Then tell me." He lowered his eyes briefly. "I was looking for someone long before I knew who she was." Chloe stayed silent. "When I was younger, I spent time at a children's camp. I wasn't exactly good with people." A faint smile touched his mouth. "I was worse than that, actually." Chloe remembered the boy she had known. Quiet. Withdrawn. Always sitting away from everyone else. "I didn't speak much," he continued. "Not because I couldn't. I just didn't know how to be around people without feeling like I was being watched." His fingers tightened around the glass. "Then I met a girl."

"That sounds like a good memory." "It is one of the only uncomplicated ones I have of him," he said. "Everything after that got tangled up with duty eventually. The lessons started young. By the time I was twelve I understood that my childhood had an expiration date that most children did not have to think about." I let that settle between us, the weight of it familiar in a way that ached. "I understand that more than you might think," I said quietly. He looked at me then, properly, the last of the light catching the gold in his eyes.

I paused, trying to remember the first time I met him. I cleared my throat and started, "Well, I was in the Winter Pack at the time, and I was already a teenager. I happened to see him back then and thought to myself that he was so handsome. We briefly met eyes, but he looked away. He was so cold that I felt dejected at the time." Their eyes widened. "So, you met him when you were both teenagers? Wow. If I remember right, he became Alpha at a very young age."

I said quietly. My voice felt calmer than I expected. “But until you’re ready… I’ll continue.” I exhaled slowly, gathering what little strength I had left. “As I mentioned… at sixteen, I started training on my own.” My eyes drifted slightly, as if I could see it all again. “The clearing by the cliff became my escape, my punishment, my… refuge.” I swallowed. “And then at seventeen,” my lips pressed together briefly. “On the eve of my birthday, I met Kade.”

He smoothed a tangled part of his hair caused by a sudden gush of wind. I have known this man since we were teenagers, back from the time when my existence wasn’t acknowledged yet by my own father, the leader of the Bratva. I used to come to their family’s shop in order to learn how to create tattoos and since we were about the same age, we became good friends until now. Of all the club members that I have, he knew my dark past well. I remained silent and continued to bask on the mountainous scenery in front of us.

I started doing drugs when I was fifteen, Coden and I were so close that he would give them to me for free. We would sit and talk for hours and gradualt we realized we had so much in common. He had blonde hair and big blue eyes, his dimples popped out and his fringe made him look like a british prince from some distinguished family.

He looked about seven. Our daughter gasped. That's my age. I looked at Cassian. Something was terribly wrong. Our daughters had been born thousands of years ago. Yet the boy looked the same age. How could he exist? The Beginning appeared behind us. You have found him. I turned sharply. You knew about him? The Beginning nodded. Who is he? The Beginning looked at our daughters. He is your son. Silence. Cassian stared. Our son? I could barely breathe.

"I loved her. Your mother, I mean. From the moment I met her. It wasn't about power or territory. It was... it was just her." He looked away from me, his gaze fixed on the trees across the path. "When I was first starting out, I was a nobody. Just another young guy with big dreams. I met your mother, and she was... everything. She believed in me. She told me I could have it all. But my ambition got the best of me. I became ruthless. I stepped on anyone who got in my way, even people who were loyal to me."