The Love of a Lycan

"Fine, I'll go with you. But only on one condition." Kace said, while gritting his teeth in an attempt to hold back his anger. It wasn't easy for him to finally relent to Torak's demand. In fact, never had he thought for a second that he would cross paths with his brother once more at all, let alone having to compromise with him in an agreement like this!

After tangling over in a long discussion that seemed to never end, Kace was cornered by Torak, Serefina, and Chiron. All at once. It was surely an unfortunate situation for him. Because how could he counter the three of them at the same time, when he was all alone holding his ground.

No matter how stubborn the youngest Donovan, he would never win against them alone. Because those three people were even more stubborn than him. No, they were the worst headstrong creatures there ever was, who happened to also be persistent, and too good at manipulating others. Kace's chance to get himself out of their demand was near to zero.

"What is it?" Torak leaned his body against his seat, while staring at his grumpy brother. After a long time of living separate ways, he looked even more hot-headed than he was ever before. Especially when things turned into this kind of matter that he had to deal with.

Torak was aware of Kace's resentment towards Jedrek. But on the other side, Torak couldn't say that he agreed entirely with all of the rules that his older brother had set. But the realm was his, and he was the rightful sovereign there. Meaning that he held absolute power over everything, thus it was only natural for his words to be the one that prevailed under the sky of the realm. 

And for this very reason Torak chose to leave the realm. Not only that he couldn't stand his older brother to be sitting on the throne, it was also because the Alpha blood in him didn't allow him to kneel before the King.

All this time, Torak and Jedrek had been having a tacit understanding to not disturb each other's sovereignty, and territory. Therefore, even though Jedrek was after the guardian angels, and had an intention to kill them, he wouldn't do it openly in Torak's territory.

However, Torak somehow knew that Jedrek had secretly infiltrated his territory in a way. His last meeting with Lyrus was the proof to that. 

After all, at that time, Torak had lost hope of finding his mate after centuries of waiting for her. He thought that the moon goddess had forgotten her own promise. 

"I want Jedrek to give the rights over the centaurs' land back to them," Kace said without hesitation. 

Chiron looked at the Lycan, and lowered his head solemnly as if showing his gratitude. After all, this was what he had asked of him a long time ago. He thought Kace had forgotten about it. 

"You should ask him, not me," Torak said casually. "I will give it back to them if that land is within my territory. But unfortunately, it is not." 

Kace shook his head. He knew Torak would say this. "You talk to him! I don't want to talk to him!"

"Why?" Torak asked again calmly. 

"Why?" Kace stared at his brother incredulously. "First, he had me locked inside the castle, but thankfully I managed to escape. It didn't stop there. Then, hunted me down by ordering his people to find me, and kill my mate. Seriously, after all that, now you ask me 'why'?" 

"Have you ever thought about addressing a direct complaint to him about it? Maybe you can knock some sense into his head." said Torak advisedly.

Kace scoffed, he wouldn't fall into Torak's words. "No, I know what you're doing here. You want me to go. Go on, you talk to him. If he agrees to give the centaurs' land back to them, I will go. If not…" He shrugged his shoulder, and waved his hand. And then, he walked out of the tent, leaving Torak, Serefina, and Chiron inside. 

It was the end of the conversation.

There was silence after Kace left the tent, and it was Chiron who broke the ice between them. "I know this war is important, but we have been away far too long from our ancestral land. If ever we have to die in this war, we would like it if we die in our own land."

With that being said, Chiron nodded his head and walked out of the tent to find Kace. 

"So?" Torak tilted his head, shifting his gaze at Serefina. She had been silent. Not even one word was spoken from her mouth, ever since Kace agreed to Torak's demand with the term that was a little bit tricky.

"What do you mean 'so'?" Serefina frowned at Torak. She plopped on her seat, and closed her eyes. The witch seemed exhausted. 

"Why don't you go to Jedrek instead? You know, that way you can talk to him? We all know he usually listens to you." 

Serefina threw Torak a nasty look. "Right. All I have to do is to meet him, and say; 'Hey, can you give the centaur's land back to them?' Do you really think that by getting me to go through all that, which is basically telling him what to do by the way, your brother would immediately say 'yes'? I mean, THAT easily…?"

"Maybe you can try," said Torak casually, but when Serefina was about to retort he added, "Because in the end, you have to meet him, sooner or later."

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"Thank you for the term that you asked earlier." Chiron found Kace was lying down on a big rock, a little far from their campsite. 

"I didn't ask that for you alone. That's for me too." said Kace. He kept his eyes shut, and let Chiron stand beside him.

It didn't sound like a simple request ever. Although it wasn't impossible to be granted, there was also a high chance for Jedrek to turn it down without batting an eye.

And whatever it would be, Kace didn't want to get a headache, let alone be involved in the convincing process to get Jedrek to do so. In fact, he didn't want to deal with the lycan king at all. Besides, he didn't have the kindness needed to forgive his brother for all the things that he had been through, because of him. 

The wound on his back was the reminder to when his tolerance actually met its limit. The cost he had to pay in order to heal, almost got him to lose Hope. For all that, he would never be able to forget.

"I still need to thank you." Chiron was adamant. 

For a moment, silence lingered once more between them. But then, Kace spoke again. "How could you possibly forgive the person who killed your mate, so easily?"

Now that Kace had experienced it himself, he didn't think he would ever be ready to face the person who killed his mate calmly. Just like what Chiron did right now. 

There would be nothing that he wanted more than vengeance, if ever Maximus or any other Jedrek's people, managed to locate her hiding place and at that point killed her. 

That damn lycan should fall and rot in hell. Regret was what Kace felt from now and then. And it was because of what happened in their last encounter. He regretted that he didn't kill him when clearly he got the chance to.

"You were not the one who killed my mate, and my firstborn. It would be wrong if I kill you." Chiron said in an impassive tone. "After all, living in sorrow, knowing you lost something so dear to you, is worse than death itself. Don't you agree with me?"