The Love of a Lycan

If Torak continued to lash out his emotions toward Serefina now, he would lose Raine in the process and it wasn't something worth to risk.

With a brief glance at the pool of blood on the ground, Torak released Serefina's precious neck from his deathly grip.

"If something happened to her, you will suffer a fate worse than death." Torak stated grimly.

The sole reason why Torak didn't kill Serefina until now and let her linger around after what she did and said, was because her life still had value for Raine.

Serefina rubbed her sore neck and cleared her dried throat while gasping for air, greedily breathing air in to fill her empty lungs.

After she felt slightly better, Serefina moved closer toward Raine in Torak's arms.

The witch touched the wound and chanted in strange language, a spell. But, after a few seconds, her brows creased deeply.

Her eyes widened as they traced back to Torak's red ones, horror evident in them. "Did you mark her!?" Serefina's tone was filled with disbelief as it echoed throughout the room. "You marked without her consent!"

Torak's eyes hardened.

He realized that he had done it and hoped the opposite, yet Serefina's remark solidified his fear. Torak had marked Raine without her consent.

The mark that a Lycan put on their mate was a sacred thing that should be done on consent of both parties. The mark that was imprinted forcefully could snap the mate bond between them, not to mention the after affects that she would suffer.

When Torak was lost to his beast, he didn't have control to stop this dreadful outcome from happening. His beast was displeased because their mate was still unmarked.

A beast was still a beast, when they lost their human side, their rationality was gone along with it and could only act based on their instinct.

"This is bad…" Serefina shook her head as she mumbled. Sweat started to drip from her forehead as she concentrated to stop the bleeding from Raine's neck. The bite was so deep. If Torak didn't stop the beast in time, probably Raine would have been dead by now.

However…

"How could you regain your strength?" Serefina narrowed her eyes, asked Torak suspiciously. "Don't tell me…" Another fear fleeted in her lime green eyes when a terrifying idea flashed in her mind.

"I did." Torak said solemnly. It was so solemn, yet sounded so lethal, just like the calm before the storm.

"Damn you Torak!" Serefina cursed out loud, her eyes ablaze with anger. "How could you do that?! You know how dangerous it would be for a guardian angel, who is drained out of their own power!"

The situation was so odd when Torak didn't even retort. He accepted Serefina's curses silently, and fixed his eyes on Raine's pale face and her faint breath.

On the surface, Torak was so calm and collected, but inwardly, the raging storm of his emotions was on par with the thunderstorm outside. He was in a turmoil.

Torak was in the state that he could accept insults from anyone and let them step on his head as long as they could save his mate.

Raine was in this state because of him, because he couldn't protect her from himself and let her take the brunt. The guilt and helplessness that he felt now were killing him from inside.

It almost felt like he had been in a constant war for eternity, fighting the battle that he knew he would lose, as Torak had been fighting his beast and suppressed his feral side, but a second he lost to it, this was what he got.

On the other hand, Serefina concentrated more on Raine's wound, trying her best to close it and stop the flow of the blood. "You need a healer for this."

Serefina was a witch, so she couldn't possibly fix this damage entirely.

Apparently, it wasn't only Torak, who suffered from guilt. Serefina felt it too when she realized it was because of her overconfidence on her own power that the beast wouldn't be able to break free, which pushed her to impulsively give the key to Raine, giving her an opportunity to meet the beast.

At that time, she was only curious to know how the beast would react upon seeing his mate. would he still recognize her? After all they were mates. Was it possible for the mate bond to disappear once the soul wasn't in a balanced state?

Many questions were roaming around Serefina's head when she gave the key to Raine. But now, the answer was right before her eyes.

Serefina didn't know what she felt about it.

Yes, the beast did recognize his mate, but it wasn't enough to push back their primitive side to mark their mate without a second thought or showing any consent for her well being, as it was lost along the way with Torak's human side.

Therefore, an unbalanced Lycan, was a dangerous creature.

Serefina couldn't blame Torak for this entirely, as she had a hand in this to happen too. She had overestimated herself, again.

"I will call her." A meek voice could be heard from behind Torak. It was Belinda, who was hastily rushing out of the underground room to call their pack healer. She had to move fast, because it would take at least an hour before she could arrive here with the said healer and every second was counted.

"For now, take her to the bedroom." Serefina said after she retracted her hand from Raine's neck.

The blood had stopped oozing out from the wound, but it was only temporary, after all a Lycan's bite was a dangerous wound, not to mention the beast had accidentally sapped Raine's energy in the process.

Torak held Raine's body carefully, afraid he would add more pain to her, even though Raine wouldn't feel anything at the moment, because she was still unconscious.

Raphael and Calleb followed Torak and Serefina silently with their heads hanging very low. A severe punishment was waiting for them.

==============

It had been a week since Torak was out of reach and three days for Raphael along with Calleb to not attend in many important meetings.

Jack, the hunter who was once assigned to look for Serefina, was pointed as the person in charge when the three of them couldn't be reached.

Many people in the company knew him, though his role wasn't as significant as Calleb's, most of the employees respected him to some degree.

However, the upper echelon didn't have the same thought, as they kept demanding to know where Torak was, or at least whether they could talk to Raphael.

As the decision maker, Torak's presence was very important, so how could he disappear for days without any prior announcement?

This fact stirred up dissatisfaction in some of the shareholders and also presented an opportunity for Belphegor to add fuel to the fire.