And promptly threw up once the smell hit him.

BLECH.

Black mold caked the shelves. Mouse bones were piled in the corners and other deceased critters. There were discolored bottles with gray matter in them. Lucas patted his back as he vomited up his jerky lunch. “Here’s some water. Let’s go to the second floor before moving on. I don’t see anything worth taking here.”

His stomach hurt as they went up the stairs. The wood threatened to snap under their weight. In the main bedroom, there was nothing but rusty springs that would disintegrate if touched. He inspected the faint photographs on the walls. The pictures were almost white by now, but he could tell there were two adults and three older children.

The last room he checked out was the kids room. Some of the toys still had color to them. The stiff bed covers were pulled off as if someone had just woken up. Since the window wasn’t broken, only thick dust layered the items. Mold, too.

Teru wiped the bookshelf and grabbed a random book. He couldn’t read it but the cover had the omega symbol on the front. Were the children who’d lived here omegas?

He opened it. There were cartoony graphics of postures and body parts. It seemed to be a story of some sort. The bite on the character’s nape must be an alpha mark. On the middle page, two people held hands with a red heart between them. They looked happy. The expression was alien to him.

Could this be explaining courting between potential partners?

Near the end, a pregnant male character appeared. He brought the book closer to stare at the swollen belly for a while. Hearing the scavengers outside, it was time to go. Teru took the book with him.

Lucas saw it with a raised eyebrow. “You can read?”

“Well, no, but it’s about an omega. Maybe I could decipher it somehow.”

“I guess that’s a good idea. Ready for the next house?”

“Yep.”

They went outside. The experienced scavengers were efficient at finding useful items quickly. On the cart were cans of food, knives, hammers, some guns, radios, and other things.

They stood in front of the thirteenth house, which was the last one on this street. It was bigger than the others with a wrap-around porch. This one seemed… off. Teru couldn’t exactly say why, though. Intuition? Sixth sense? Lucas didn’t notice and continued breaking the handle. He pushed the door open. The room was dark.

His friend started to go in.

“Wait.”

He froze at Teru’s hesitancy. “What’s up?”

It was probably nothing. He went to Lucas and brushed the dust off his hair. “You’re dirty.”

Lucas smiled seductively and swished his hips back and forth. “Dirty for you.”

“Ha, nasty boy.”

The stairs were to the right, and the hallway leading to the living room was to the left. “I take upstairs, you take downstairs?” Lucas asked.

“Sure.”

Before Teru went, Lucas grabbed his hand. “When we’re done with scavenging today, I have something to tell you.”

“Really? Is it something you can say now?”

Lucas looked unsure. “Um, I feel this isn’t the right place and time. I’d rather wait until we’re comfortable. I just… don’t know what’ll happen once we return to the caves. Nolan might confine me.”

“O-okay.”

The alpha looked away, embarrassed, and went upstairs. Teru walked down the hallway, wondering what Lucas wanted to tell him.

This house was messy, whatever happened here, happened long ago. Objects were strewn everywhere. Glasses sprinkled the floor. The dark spots staining the wood… might have been blood. A fight had occurred. There were some decomposed animal carcasses. The spider webs were abandoned because bugs didn’t come to this desolate place.

He went to the kitchen and found a large, darkened knife with tarnish. It would be perfect for skinning meat, and it was solid silver, too!

Nothing else seemed useful. He returned to the living room and waited for Lucas to come down. Teru looked around again at the chaotic room. Some of the items were newly unsettled, and there were fresh footsteps. That was weird.

Did Lucas come in here?

Then, he noted the claw marks on the wall. Goosebumps dotted his arms. His instincts didn’t like this.

And that was when he saw a face emerging from the neighboring, pitch-black room.

It eyed him with murderous intent.

It had fangs. Saliva dripped from them.

It was a vampire.

At the same moment, his pack members yelled from outside. They were being ambushed.

The vampire lunged at him with its dagger-like fingernails. It wrestled Teru to the ground, trying to tie up his wrists with a rope. Dirt and soot flew into the air from their scuffle.

He heard a yell from across the room. Lucas dashed over and drop-kicked the bloodsucker off of him. The move barely fazed it and the vampire shoved Lucas into the wall with a hard THUD. His friend slid to the floor in a daze.

The momentary distraction was enough time for Teru to slip out of the loose binding, grab the solid silver knife from the floor, and stab it in the chest with as much force as he could muster. He felt the blade crunch through the muscles, making squelches from blood gushing out. It was just long enough for the sharp object to pierce the heart.

Blood flowed over Teru’s hands.

Oh… heavens…

The vampire screamed and writhed. Red soaked the wooden floorboards where it fell. Within a minute, it stopped moving. The life in its eyes dimmed. Teru fell on all fours and heaved, but there was nothing left in his stomach.

“What the fuck was that?!” Lucas groaned, rubbing the back of his head, where a nasty bump was likely forming. He crawled over to Teru. “Are you hurt?”

“No.” But he wanted to wash his hands. The blood made him queasy.

“You killed your first vampire before me!”

Now wasn’t the time to celebrate. There were shouts and cries. Right. An ambush!

“We need to get out of here. Now.” Lucas pulled him up in a rush. “Let’s go through the ba—”

WHACK.

If the first smack to the head hadn’t made Lucas pass out e this one did. A figure snuck up behind them and hit him in the same spot, hard. He went down like a limp doll. It was another vampire, but a female. She grabbed Lucas’s ankle and dragged him to the front door. Blood seeped from his wound, making a crimson trail.

“L-Lucas!”

Teru went after the woman, aiming at her with his knife. Someone attacking from the side quickly wrestled him to the floor and hog-tied him, gagging his mouth with a cloth. He squirmed.

“Holy shit.” The vampire sounded surprised. “No way. This is an omega.”

“A what? I highly doubt it. There hasn’t been one in years,” another replied from afar. The questioning one approached Teru and smelled his neck, nose touching the area where his scent gland was.

“Dvnt tasch mii!” Teru mumbled with the rag, trying to say, “Don’t touch me!”

But the bloodsucker laughed at his pitiful struggle. He high-fived the bastard who tied him. “We are gonna make bank at the next auction. I can’t believe this!”

Auction?

If he remembered correctly, Teru’s dad once said humans used to battle with money over valuable objects at an auction.

Valuable? Am… I the object?

The bigger vampire flung Teru over his shoulder and walked out the door. Ugh, he smelled like putrid sweat.

There were scavengers dead on the road. They were the ones who had fought back. That included Josy. She lay face down in a pool of her own blood. Her arm was almost ripped off. Two dead vampires were next to her body with stab wounds to their chests. No doubt she took them down, not without a fight.

He was in too much shock to cry.

They placed him with the remaining members. Because of the way he was tied, his cheek rested on the dirt and rocks. It was uncomfortable!

“We got an omega!”

The alpha vampires smelled Teru’s throat to confirm. He despised every second of it. They cheered at the payday they were about to receive.

Teru looked around at the scared survivors and counted heads. Of the living and the dead, two were missing. They must’ve escaped. Hopefully, they’d reach the Valley Pack and tell them what had happened that day.

The captives were shaking. Some had accidentally relieved themselves in their pants. Josy’s second-in-command looked at Teru with pity, assuming what was going to happen to an omega in a vampire’s clutches. Whatever was in store, it wasn’t good. Lucas was still blacked out but alive. Everyone’s wrists were bound.

Why am I the only one hog-tied and gagged?

They were about to be corralled in the back of a big truck. If it weren’t for the situation, Teru would’ve been excited to see his first running vehicle. Hina would say she was jealous. That moment was taken away from him.

Oh, Hina.

He’d never see her again. Mom would grieve over her only son, taken the same cruel way as her husband. He wanted his mother. Tears finally escaped his eyes, hard to accept the unfortunate fate awaiting him.

And Teru knew exactly what was going to happen. With the mention of an auction and the way they were careful at packing them into the truck… the compliant humans would be spared.

These vampires were human poachers. They searched rural areas like this one, finding the remaining mortals left in the wild to sell as blood slaves. And today… they had found him.