When a Well-Raised Son Grows Up - Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Another man?

What a sudden, out-of-the-blue sound… Abella’s head spun with confusion.

The fangs he’d bared earlier seemed even more menacing today.

The pain in her captor’s wrist was so intense that it throbbed to the bone.

“Oh, that hurts……. Get off my wrist!” Abella cried, slapping his hand away. Carlisle let out a short sob and pulled away hastily.

“I’m sorry…… I’m sorry, it’s just that…… mommy smells like another wolf…….”

“Another wolf?” 

Abella shook her head as if she had no idea.

“I’ve never met a wolf or anything, I just met a friend, and all she had with her was her cow and…….”

Frightened, Abella rubbed her forearms together and shivered. Finally, Carlisle realized he’d made a mistake and stammered.

“I’m sorry…… I’m sorry…….”

“I’m sorry…….”

“I’m sorry, really…….”

A red handprint remained on her slender wrist. Carlisle chewed his lip and tightened his grip on her.

“I’m sorry……. For a moment, I caught a whiff of your scent……. So I made a mistake…….”

“Kindred?”

“…….”

“What do you mean, congeners?”

Abella asked, sensing the strangeness. Carlisle rolled his eyes in embarrassment and avoided eye contact.

“Carlisle, did you just…… realize how scary that was?”

“……I’m sorry.”

The look in Carlisle’s eyes as he revealed this much was so unfamiliar and frightening that it made her legs go weak.

She felt like he could sink his teeth into her, and it would be weird.

She felt exposed, as if she were n*ked, thrown in front of a wild animal.

“Explain to me why you did this. If you don’t, I’m going to be really mad at you.”

Abella’s voice still trembled slightly as she spoke firmly, showing how surprised she was.

Still, Carlisle could only nibble at his lip, unwilling to speak. He didn’t want to tell her about his people.

But Abella didn’t back down. She spoke to him as if demanding an answer.

“Go ahead.”

“…….”

“If you don’t, you won’t be taking a bath with me for a while, and I won’t be sleeping with you, and I’ll tie you up in the front yard so you can’t even come into the house.”

“Uh, Mom…….”

“I’m not kidding.”

Abella said, clenching her fists hard and stomping backward.

“You just… bared your teeth at me.”

She shrank her tiny body even further, her eyes narrowing warily at Carlisle.

“No…, my teeth were bared by instinct… and I never meant to bite…!”

“I’m sorry…….”

“Mom, I really don’t…….”

Her eyes, usually soft and docile, glared at him fiercely today. Carlisle’s aggression toward her had come as a shock to Abella.

Looking into her cold eyes, Carlisle realized that no amount of emotional begging and pleading would work here.

She was very strong now.

Finally, he shook his head in frustration and opened his mouth cautiously.

“Literally.”

“…….”

“So…… there were kin like me who could shift between wolf and human, though there weren’t many of them…….”

Carlisle peeled off his robe, revealing the many scars on his upper body.

“……I didn’t get along with my kind, but that’s just the way it is, leggy assholes like me get culled from the pack, in the wild.”

“…….”

“So…… anyway, that’s why I was always bullied by my own kind. All these scars…… are from my own kind, and……. And…… that time…… I almost died, it was my own kind that did that to me, so…….”

Carlisle sobbed as he rambled on. But he knew his tears wouldn’t work on Abella right now, so he swallowed hard.

“Anyway, that’s why…… and that’s why I don’t like…… my own kind…….”

‘I hate my own kind, I loathe them, so I killed them all.’

‘He bit their throats and chewed them until they were nothing but mush, thus he should be the only one still alive after doing this to every one of them.’

His mother had the scent of one of her kind.

Carlisle couldn’t bring himself to tell her the truth. He was afraid that if he told her all of this, she’d be so shocked and distant from him now that she was looking at him and frightened.

“”I am scared of my own kind.””

Once again, Carlisle chose to buy a sympathy ticket. Abella had a soft spot in her heart and was quick to sympathize with poor creatures.

For now, she decided it was better to play the pity card than to tell the truth.

“But then I smelled the scent of my own kind on you, that’s why I was afraid.”

Carlisle sobbed, wiping the moisture from his eyes. Abella listened to him in silence, then let out a small sigh.

“…… So you were.”

As if she didn’t need to hear any more, Abella cautiously stepped closer to Carlisle, who choked back a sob and spat out the words with difficulty.

“I’m sorry…… I’m sorry…….”

“I’m sorry…….”

“I never meant to threaten you mom, but……I, really…….”

Abella could still remember the first time she had met Carlisle, how he had looked.

Certainly, he was full of scars for such a small wolf pup. And once he’d grown up a bit, he’d been too busy disparaging himself as a lame duck to notice.

So unless Abella was an idiot, she could see that Carlisle hadn’t had a good upbringing.

There was one thing he didn’t seem to want to mention, so she’d been avoiding it until now…….

“I see.”

He had a bad leg and was bullied by his own kind…….

Abella spread her arms cautiously, a bitter look on her face.

“Come here.”

She did, and Carlisle eyed her cautiously with damp eyes.

“Come on.”

When Abella nodded for him to come, he shifted into his wolf form and lunged for her.

For a moment, Abella squirmed under the weight of Carlisle’s body, and then he n*pped his furry as$.

Luckily, it didn’t hurt too badly, and Abella was able to pet Carlisle while she held him still.

He rubbed his furry cheek against Abella’s and licked her face, his tail wagging apologetically. The black wolf’s tongue licked every inch of her eyes, cheeks, nose, and mouth.

“Puhh…… hh, go, tickle!”

“Ching…… ching…….”

Still, Carlisle let out a weak whimper and nuzzled her apologetically.

He twitched up and down like a puppy who couldn’t get his feelings across.

He would occasionally whimper and bark, and when Abella cautiously rose from her seat, he would lay down on his belly in front of her as if waiting for her.

Abella squatted down, giggling at the ridiculousness of it all, and patted Carlisle’s belly. Carlisle hummed and meekly accepted her touch..

She knew that baring her belly in this way was a submissive behavior for members of the canine family, so she smiled as she played with his fluffy fur.

“You shouldn’t do that next time, okay.”

As if in response to Abella’s words, Carlisle barked once.

“I was really scared,” Abella said.

“Pfft…….”

Carlisle stared at Abella with a sullen expression. Guilt glistened in the corners of his eyes. After staring at her for a while, Carlisle got an idea and shifted into his human form.

In the blink of an eye, the large ball of fur transformed into a full-grown man, and Abella couldn’t help but be horrified by his next words.

“Do you want to rip out my fangs then?”

“……what?”

“I’ll take out all the sharp teeth so you don’t get scared!”

Abella paused for a moment, not sure what she had heard. Then she thought back to Carlisle’s words and gasped in surprise.

“You’re going to pull your teeth. You’ve got a perfectly good raw tooth……!”

Abella was horrified at the idea of pulling out a wisdom tooth while smiling innocently.

“You can’t be serious, no way!”

“What? But…….”

“Do you have any idea how painful it is to pull a wisdom tooth? It bleeds like crazy, it hurts like hell, and you can’t even chew your favorite meat comfortably!”

As if it mattered to Abella’s startled response, Carlisle narrowed his eyes.

“But you were scared of me.” Carlisle said.

“But you can’t eat comfortably……!” Abella replied.

“It doesn’t matter, I could live on raspberries if you wanted me to.”