Worthless

Jian Yu really wished he could cry out at this very moment. How could they… how could they actually manage to stumble into a wolf den? 

He slowly rolled his obsidian ones from the yellowish eyes to glare at the owner of the jade eyes, coincidently locking gaze with Zeke. The other man actually had the nerve to look innocent with a little sprinkle of pitifullness added like a cherry to a cupcake. 

The Beta turned his attention back towards the wolf-- he counted the head, only one, which made him sigh a bit in relief; taking down one wolf was better than the whole pack right? 

Wait. 

Where was the rest? 

A scoff was heard from his left and Jian Yu sneaked a glance at the source of sound. 

"I can't believe we were all fooled by the Headmaster," Zeke snorted. "A whole pack? He just fuċkɨnġ put a female Alpha wolf in the middle of this gloomy forest." 

The Alpha couldn't believe they had all been listening to the principal bluffing about a whole huge ȧss pack of wolves placed in the middle of the forest to scare the shit out of them. He even made up stories about how they had to drag the remnants of the victims of the vicious wolves. 

The victims were indistinguishable! They were reduced to almost nothing!

Perhaps, it was indeed nothing due to the fact that none of it ever happened at all. That meant that everything they had heard up till now were mere rumors made up by the Headmaster. 

Zeke really couldn't accept his naivety. 

However, if he put this matter aside and while still on the topic of extreme bluffing… 

"Fooled?" 

Zeke flinched unconsciously. He gulped. Don't get him wrong! As a male, he needed to ruffle and puff his feathers to appease his future mate. Heck, even a peacock did too! So don't blame him for making up shits about him encountering and surviving the wolf pack as part of his tragic and heroic backstory! 

Maybe he added a bit more spice in it to make it even more flamboyant. 

But well, who would have thought that they would encounter the subject of their discussion that quick? He really did have a crow mouth. 

On the ȧssumption that he had to provide an impromptu but detailed explanation, the Alpha was half glad and half relieved when confusion filled the Beta's drop-dead gorgeous face. "Female?"

Jian Yu was too focused on the fact that they were only a good eight paces away from a snarling wolf and the pungent smell of day old blood and rotting flesh that he missed the shredded carcass of hare, lying scattered at her feet. There was a scurry of movement among the scattered hare and Jian Yu tracked more and more young pups appearing from under the hare, scampering back to their mother. 

Three — no, four — pups clambered over each other, another one toppled the other as if trying to reach its mother in a hurry. Two pressed themselves close against the light brown cloak of their mother and the last, limped towards the mother wolf before slumping on its side over the uneven ground. 

From his distance, he couldn't exactly see what was wrong with the young pup but he could draw a few conclusion to himself as he noticed the heavy rise and fall of its stomach indicating its harsh breathing and soft whɨnės falling out of his snout as it slowly licked at the exposed flesh of what Jian Yu thought was a hind leg. 

It seemed Zeke noticed it too as he commented. "Ah, a fellow bear survivor." 

After a while, the mother wolf eventually deemed the sudden appearance of two dumb humans, one injured, as weaklings and not a threat, she turned her attention towards her injured pup, distressed by the continuous painful whɨnės of her young and licked at it, trying to calm and soothe the young one. 

She picked up a piece of meat and nosed it towards the little pup, but the young one was in no mood to feed, kept on whining in pain. 

He pulled out the elastic bandages provided in the bag given out to each of them. He moved instinctively as if his body knew what to do and pulled off Zeke's left boots. His ankle had swollen a lot, supporting a purple-blue color. 

He needed something cold to press on the ankle. Thank goodness it was snowing so heavily that Jian Yu hurriedly gathered snow right outside the den and piled them thickly inside the scarf Zeke had given to him. Wrapping it tightly, he managed to create a makeshift ice pack. 

Walking back towards the Alpha, who was watching him unblinkingly, he crouched down and gently pressed the ice pack look-alike onto the ankle. Feeling the intense gaze on him, Jian Yu ignored him in favor of keeping pressing the pack down. 

After a quarter-hour, the Beta slowly raised Zeke's ankle up, lifting it and wrapping it expertly. He wound it around the ankle, not too tightly, then he added two more overlapping strips under foot and wrapped it up over the top and around the ankle again. Still going on, he continued to pull bandages from the back of the ankle and back to the top of the foot to complete the second loop. 

He finished it up by taking it back up under the arch of the foot and repeated the same action twice. Jian Yu checked his handiwork and taped the exposed skin to avoid blisters from happening from any gaps. "Try moving your toes. Is it uncomfortable?"

Zeke did as instructed and wiggled his toes before shaking his head. "It's good."

"Keep it at your heart level." Jian Yu instructed. 

"You are amazing! It's like there is nothing you couldn't do!" Sparkles appeared from the gorgeous jade eyes, piercing brightly through Jian Yu's soul. 

The Beta rubbed the back of his neck embarrassingly, his face warmed. "It's nothing. I've always done it when I was young—"

No. 

Truth to be told, this was the first time he did this. He had never performed this treatment before. In fact, he would remember if he ever did. Yet, everything he did seemed natural like he had done it numerous times, the way he handled the injury and bandages. 

How? 

How was that possible? 

When did he learn to do all of this?