A life for a life - ABO

prologue

Louis's blue eyes are focused, moving around the white forest to find his prey.

Snowflakes are falling, making the area look like it's a fairytale. Sadly, his life isn't even close to this.

He can't come home empty-handed again. But the problem is, that in his territory the food is simply gone and the food that is left, all goes to their pack leader and his family.

Louis' family has been starving. His mother is too weak to come out of bed and his sisters are too young to help him hunt. So he has to do this on his own.

Luckily, while his father had still been around, he learned him enough to be able to at least shoot in the direction of an animal. But it is hard for Louis to keep the bow steady because it's quite heavy for him. He's an omega after all and not made to do this daily.

He's made to take care of his family and to carry children. His father had said that loud and clear before he left him and his sisters behind.

His mother tried to keep everything functioning like it did while his father was still around, but it's hard for her. She was used to Mark, his father, getting food on the table. She had never even been in the woods before.

The only thing his mom was allowed to do was stay at home, clean and take care of the children. Nothing more, nothing less.

Louis couldn't let her go out to hunt. She was getting older and had already conceived four children. She wasn't able to hunt anymore. So, he volunteered and used as an excuse that his father had already learned him the ropes before he left. Before he knew that his son was an omega.

And they survived like this for quite a while. Sure, it took a lot of practice for Louis to kill something bigger than a squirrel, but they were still pulling through until the forest started to become emptier and emptier.

And now, this was more clear than ever. There wasn't any food left to take home and they needed it so badly. Louis had already begged the pack leader, Nick, once for some food for his family and he absolutely wasn't going to do it twice.

Sure, he had gotten the food, but what he had to do for it made him feel disgusting. His mouth felt vile and dirty and he didn't eat for days because of the weird feeling in his tummy. So, no, never again.

He does need to find some food, though. Therefore, there is only one option left.

He has to cross over to Styles territory and try to get something to eat. It's freezing cold and Louis is sure that if he stays any longer, he will freeze to death, and then his family will be in even deeper shit.

So the omega's feet start to move towards the border, his chin held up high, determined to get this over with. He will just find a prey, shoot it and drag it home. Easy.

He feels the usual uneasy feeling take over his body as he passes the borderline, indicating that he should go back. This wasn't his region after all.

But he ignores it and tries to keep his head clear as he scans his surroundings. Luckily for him, he can already hear a distant snap of a twig.

A smile appears on Louis' face because he has already found his soon-to-be dinner so quickly and he reaches for his bow and arrow as he quietly moves towards where the sound came from.

A benefit of being an omega is that you are as swift as the wind and nobody will ever see you coming. Not even animals with great hearing.

His hand tightens around the arrow as he pulls it back, waiting for the perfect moment to release it.

The downside of being an omega is that you're less strong than betas and alphas, so he has to shoot as soon as he sees a sign of movement because if he waits, the bow would become too heavy.

Then, Louis sees something brown move in the distance, so Louis immediately aims and shoots.

He is prepared to hear some sort of whine as the animal falls down to the ground and he does take that sound in. This, however, isn't the only thing he hears.

He hears a chorus of howls.

And that's when Louis knows that he has really messed up because it wasn't a deer that he shot, as he first expected it to be. It was a wolf.