The Love of a Lycan

Raine ate her dinner obediently and quietly, but it was enough to put Belinda at ease. She didn't talk too much, yet she was adamant to sleep with Raine.

Belinda didn't want her to disappear suddenly and made her panic again, thus against Raine's discomfort for having Belinda to sleep next to her on the same bed, the middle aged witch brought her own blanket and laid beside Raine.

"Do you want me to tell you a story?" Belinda asked gently while running her fingers in Raine's long hair.

Belinda smelled so good, like a mother, warm and gentle and her touch made Raine slightly feel sleepy as her discomfort begun to fade away.

In the end, it wasn't a bad idea for letting Belinda sleep together with her. The feeling was almost magical when Raine thought about her as her own mother.

Raine heard this from Calleb that even though Belinda was half werewolf, she supposed to have a mate.

And it was known that Belinda wanted to have a child of her own, but after waiting for centuries, she was yet to find her other half until this very moment and refused to take someone as her chosen mate.

Though the feeling would be very different if you spent your life with your other half, but at least you wouldn't feel so lonesome for not having someone to share this eternity.

Sometimes, when they couldn't meet their destined mate, usually they would take someone as their chosen mate, this almost happened to Torak when he got sick from waiting for the promised mate that the moon goddess had told him about.

And Jenedieth was the best candidate among all the female Lycans, no wonder she and her father hated Raine so much, because in fact, they would have been mated if Raine was found a few years later.

Raine was grateful for that. She couldn't imagine Torak to be with someone else and him staring into the other woman's eyes in the same way he looked at her.

That wasn't a pleasant thing to imagine.

"Raine? Why are you staring at me?" Belinda caressed Raine's head lovingly as she snuggled closer to her and put an arm across the latter's body.

"I am very glad to meet someone like you." Raine said truthfully. "Thank you Belinda for taking good care of me."

Raine remembered how Belinda was very patient when she taught her how to plant flower seeds, Raine was curious, how was her flowers now? They should have grown by now…

Maybe after all of this was over, she could ask Torak to take her to the raven village.

When all of this was over…

"If you don't want me to tell you a story, why don't you take some rest?" Belinda tried to change the atmosphere that had turned melancholic.

"Hmm…" Raine snuggled closer to the warmth of Belinda's body and closed her eyes obediently. "Good night, Belinda."

"Good night, my dear." Belinda kissed Raine's forehead, just like Torak always did and this little affection suddenly overtook Raine with an intense longing of him that she had been struggling to endure.

============== 

When the needle hit midnight. The lingering moonlight obliterated by the rapidly falling night and the haze of the rain that made the world blurry as the wind howled, warning like a wolf into the midnight.

Beside the sleeping Belinda, who had no more concern to the world outside, Raine was wide awake, her eyes shone in the dark without a tinge of tiredness or sleepiness whatsoever.

The mutter of thunder and the sound of the rain that was lashing down had masked the rustling sound that Raine created the moment she got down from the bed gingerly.

Her heart beat faster as she thanked the weather silently for being in her favor.

Raine glanced at Belinda once again before she opened the room door and she watched her even breathing with relief.

She didn't know where exactly Raphael and Calleb were sleeping, but she was pretty sure, they wouldn't hear the soft padding sound along the hardwood floor because of the rumbling rain outside.

Raine strode into the kitchen and rummaged that place for a while before she found a plate of beef from yesterday afternoon which was supposed to be her lunch. The beef was fine and still edible, though it had turned cold.

With a plate in her hand, Raine tread warily toward the other side of the house and within no time, she was already standing in front of the locked door to the underground.

But, now she had the key with her.

Raine pulled out the small metal from her back pockets and put it into the keyhole. With glorious clacking sound, the door was opened.

Raine held her breath when she heard a soft groaning from under the stairs, from the cell where the beast was kept chained.

Her heart clenched painfully when the sound led her down step by step to its source. The plate in her hand was trembling and her knees were too weak to make another step toward the cell after she stepped down the last stair.

Now Raine was only three steps away from the source of the sound.

Her body tensed when she heard a rustling sound from the cell before the howling stopped.

The beast stopped moving and Raine stopped breathing when she heard the beast sniffling.

It almost felt like decades when Raine finally decided to take a step closer to the cell, but not enough for the beast to see her trembling figure, yet he could sense her nonetheless as his breath became heavy.

Raine closed her eyes as she recalled the thing that Torak had said to her, chanting the words like a charm to gather her scattered courage.

'If I lost myself over my beast, he will continue to protect you.'

With that, Raine forced her feet to make a step again, one step after another, and with difficulty she finally stood facing the chained monster and witnessed with her own eyes, how the beast glared at her.

Fixing his intense bloody eyes on her face.

"Torak…"