The Love of a Lycan

The heart knows when the search is over.

-Bliss-

**************

"There's something that I've been meaning to ask you…" said Raine after they kissed.

The moonlight was shining gloriously in the sky. It was a sign that the night was falling deeper. Through the big window in the dining room, the moonlight escaped in, making the two creatures in love gleamed under its light.

Anyone could see that they looked good together, regardless of being a human or not. There was an inexplicable thing with the way Torak looked at his mate, whether it was adoration, or love. Whichever it was, had to be the reason for his change. His cold demeanor thawed whenever Raine was there. He was somehow turned into a different person, he wasn't the same cold, ruthless Alpha that he used to be.

"You know, you can ask me anything," said Torak reassuringly. He could see it in her eyes that she was uneasy, and hesitant. He tried to make her understand that it was okay to talk about the matter comfortably, no matter what it was going to be about. "Do you want to ask about what happened in the village of angel?" He helped her to smooth out the conversation.

Abruptly Raine raised her head, and looked at him hesitantly. She didn't want to offend him in any way with the question she was about to say. But at the same time, she was dying to know why did Torak, and his brother order something so cruel like that?

"If you don't mind…" Raine said timidly, and hurriedly added. "But, if you don't want to talk about it, then I'll be fine…"

"No." said Torak while playing with her hair again. He grabbed her wrist, and he stood up. "I'll tell you everything, whatever it is that you wished to ask me… but, let's continue this chat inside our bedroom." 

Then, from the kitchen, Torak and Raine moved to the second floor where their bedroom was. Along the way, Raine's heart was beating faster. She was nervous to find out the truth. What Torak's reason would be? Would he admit his doings, that he had killed them all?—she thought.

Suddenly Raine was afraid to hear the answer to those questions. But she refused to back down now. If she kept acting like this, she would never grow. And if ever so, Serefina would always mock her for being such a softhearted person. She would never let Serefina win, or being right about her mean opinion.

Because, what if all the things that Serefina had said were proven to be right? Then, it would only mean that her existence was only a burden for Torak. Meaning that she would only become his weakness, who could be used easily by his enemies in order to drag him down. She couldn't let it happen. This was her chance to prove it all wrong, her first step to find her true self.

It was the step that she needed to take, in order to know herself. Because knowing herself was an important quest that would lead to finding out what she could do, what her special power actually was, and what possible potentials that she might have. 

Torak opened the door to their room, holding it open for Raine. He was always such a gentleman for her. 

"I'm going to take a shower. It won't be long." He kissed her forehead again before walking away towards the bathroom inside their room. Meanwhile, Raine was waiting comfortably on the bed. She wrapped herself inside the warm blanket. 

After sometime, Torak came in his more comfortable clothing, his short hair was still damp. He tried to dry it with the towel in his hand. It felt so strange when Raine had this urge to take the towel away from Torak's hands, and dried his hair instead.

"Let me do it." Raine said softly when Torak looked at her questioningly.

"Sure…" He said, with a sweet smile beaming in his face. He slightly bent his body so that it would be easier for Raine to reach his head.

"You did this to me that night when we first met…" said Raine, looking back to the day when they first encountered each other. Inside her mind, the image of her past self was playing. Her past self when she was being timid all the time, and afraid of everything around her. 

She had been living that way for eight years, until Torak came to her life. Not only that he had saved her from her miserable life, he also had been keeping his words to always protect her from harm.

Torak chuckled softly in response. "How can I forget? You were so afraid of me that time."

"For the record, I was afraid of everything that time." Raine replied.

Torak rested his head on Raine's lap while she kept on wiping his hair gently.

Torak looked to the other side. And there he found their reflection through a huge mirror on the wall. He could see a soft smile grazing her lips when she continued talking.

"I started to see another creature just two days before my birthday, the same night my parents were killed." Raine said, reminiscing the painful memories. "Everything happened so fast. I swear it was like a miracle that I managed to escape…"

Raine intentionally skipped all the details about how she ended up witnessing the dead body of her mother, and father in the living room. And worst, how one of the creatures almost killed her.

"Afterward, I lived with my adoptive family because both of my parents didn't have any relatives. They treated me like their own daughter at first. But one day it all changed, because I always saw these inhuman creatures. I would suddenly freak out like a mentally disturbed girl. Since then, they started to look at me differently." Raine's expression turned sour.

Torak watched her through the mirror. He didn't say anything. In fact, he couldn't say anything. Because it was not the time to say anything about it. He realized that it was the time for her to be listened to, so he stayed quiet, listening to her. Then he let her say all the things that she had been keeping inside herself these many years. 

He didn't want to interrupt her. Because this was the first time for Raine to open up to him. For the first time ever, she talked about her past. It must have been hard for her to have everyone turn their back against her. Especially during such a difficult, and confusing time in her life, that no one believed whatever she was going to say.

All just because none of them saw whatever it was she had been seeing.

"I was put into this mental institution. The first year I was there, they still came to visit me. But then, during my second, and third year there," Her voice choked. "No one ever came. They didn't know what's wrong with me. They didn't understand all these conditions, and strange cases of me always seeing 'things'"

This time, Raine lowered her head. Although her long hair covered her face, Torak could imagine what kind of expression she had now.

"Since no one came to visit me, they moved me to the secluded ward. And then, that nurse started to harass me…" Raine gulped hard, and sobbed when she remembered what he had done to her. At this point, Torak regretted the fact that he had killed that man right away. He should've not acted impulsively at that time, because that man deserved a more painful life, than a quick death that he delivered to him.

He would love to torture him slowly, but painfully, letting him bleed out until the death come upon him. Compared to all the terrible things he had done to Raine, his death was too easy. That despicable deserved a more painful, living-hell-like life.

"And then, I started to ignore whatever 'scary things' that I saw. And it surprisingly worked. Because at some point, they got convinced that I was good enough to go back to the community." Raine tucked her hair behind her ears. Torak could see her sad eyes. "But then, they discovered that my adoptive family didn't want to take me back in to live with them. So, the system put me in the orphanage."

"Where I found you there." Torak said. 

"Yes. I'm extremely grateful for that, I could never say this enough." There was a sincere smile on Raine's lips. "Thank you for finding me."