The rains continuously kept pouring on the parched earth.
A pair of white boots walked over the full of soaked leaves pathway and abruptly halted on tracks.
"Augustus!" Ivan called him out, after seeing the back of the familiar person.
Augustus turned his head at him. Their eye locked until a moment Ivan smiled and stepped towards him, he averted his gaze and started marching ahead. Ivan chased calling him multiple times but he didn't stop.
While running behind him, Ivan realized entering the dense forest. There wasn't a sight of Augustus. Looking around he found himself amidst huge trees covering the sky making the sun rays impenetrable through it. Apart from him, the forest is surrounded by lush greenery and nests of predatory creatures.
His heart started beating loudly in palpitating.
He turned back to run away but saw the darkness engulfing the trees, bushes under it.
His feet automatically moved ahead and started running in the unknown direction.
"Augustus!" He yelled out his name in a dream but merely breathed out in sleep.
Ivan's fists clenched when some uncanny images flashed in his subconscious state of sleep. He saw himself running through the forest, holding on to his dear life while glancing back as if someone was chasing him.
While looking back and forth while running, he stumbled upon a little rock and fell on his face.
He breathed heavily as the nightmare continued.
His body wiggled side to side while his eyes shut tightly, with a fear prowling over his face when he looked around and saw fire sprawling around him.
Unaware of the rain droplets coming through the window and soaking the floor that floated to the direction where Ivan passed out unconscious on the floor.
He kept running ahead till he came out through the forest but saw the edge of the hill where the dense cursed paradise resided.
Before he could balance his pace, his feet slipped and he fell off.
Ivan's breathing stuck in the mid when he found himself gripping on a tattooed hand which he felt extremely familiar with.
"Kai..." he breathed out his name while trembling in sleep.
In the middle of the night, a terrible nightmare caught him off guard. He felt like losing something close to his heart. He shuffled in the bed, profusely sweating and panting in sleep.
A loud thunderstorm pulled him out of his sleep but the nightmare continued even with open eyes. He tried to hold onto the things around him but his head spun. He hallucinated blood splattering over the walls in front of him as he tried to walk into his pitch dark room. He held onto his chest, tried to breathe normally but couldn't as it kept rising.
To get rid of that nightmare, he hastily ran across the room in the darkness and accidentally bumped his forehead on the wall. A squeal escaped from his mouth before he fell on the floor. His eyes started closing slowly, as he muttered his best friend Kai's name before submerging into the unconscious state.
In no time, the door burst open and Kai barged in breathless.
In the pitch dark room, the wolf's eyes fell on Ivan lying on the floor. He immediately moved near the tiny one and grabbed his wrist checking his pulse. He breathed normally but something had gone wrong! While scanning around in the house, he noticed a few things scattered on the floor. He checked Ivan's body to see any injuries or wounds. He scanned around not finding any doubt.
"Amor..."
He called him, patting on his cheeks, trying to bring him back to the conscious state. His face appeared pale. His skin felt freezing in the cold. Ivan was taking no cue to open his eyes and that freaked out Kai.
He gathered the tiny human being in his bulky arms and hastily moved towards the bed.
He carefully laid Ivan on the bed and held his hand, rubbing it to vanish the cold temperature in his body. He took his hands inside his huge palms and blew air from his mouth. He moved near the latter's feet, taking them in his hands and rubbing the bare sole.
But it didn't help. He could see Ivan turning paler and that palpitated his mind.
He covered his body with a bedsheet, closed the windows, and stood there watching him shivering.
Kai raked his fingers through his hair frustratingly.
Then something stuck in his mind. He quickly slid under the bedsheet with Ivan. He wrapped his hands around the human, pulling him closer to his chest and softly massaging his back till he felt Ivan's body turning warm.
When the warmth radiated through the body, Ivan exhaled a sigh in his sleep, giving a hint of being back to the consciousness that relieved Kai a lot. The paleness of his skin slowly dissolved to his normal.
His shivering stopped. He snuggled closer to the warmth, throwing his hands around, wanting for more. He didn't want this warmth to let go and his feelings reached to the wolf disguised as a human very well. It filled up every inch of Kai's heart that his lips pressed on the forehead of his pale man friend in his embrace.
Ivan curled up in sleep, burying his face closer to Kai's neck. When he inhaled a familiar musk perfume, the beta wolf captivated Ivan's senses and helped him feel safe in his sleep.
Kai could hear his heartbeats getting louder at each time Ivan's breath fell over his neck. A small droplet of sweat trickled over his face when he felt Ivan's legs dangling between his thighs. He gulped hard trying to behold the human being in his embrace. Something has always affected him when it came to Ivan.
When he heard Ivan calling him for help, he left everything behind. The ripper friend, his pack, everyone he pushed behind and ran to Ivan's place. When he found Ivan lying on the floor, his heart came up to his throat. He thought he would almost lose Ivan and that gave a tremendous ache in his chest. He thought he would never be able to endure this pain until now looking at his sleeping sound in his embrace like a baby, he felt coming back to life.
Everything is fine! He tried to tell his widely awake self.
Ivan is fine but I am not!
Kai smiled while breathing a new feeling taking a place in his heart, unaware of someone is there, watching over them.
Meanwhile, Augustus altered himself in an Owl's shape and found a place on a tree to sit and watch Ivan through the window.
He has been there on Ivan's first call for help. But didn't go inside. The night is still going on and he doubted his ripper abilities to take over him again.
Although the one who dragged him out was suffering from a nightmare, he couldn't be there for him.
As far as Kai was with Ivan, he felt assured. It was better to stay away from his tiny, for now!
-
When the sun rays brightened up spreading across the town and taking over the dark rainy night, everything felt lively around the earth.
The birds chirped around the windows, breaking Ivan's peaceful sleep. He stretched his body, rolling on the vacant space on his bed, and exhaled a sigh. He hasn't slept like this before.
After some time he pushed himself to wake up, yawning and rubbing his eyes while balling his fists. After a moment of being hazy in sleep, his eyes fell on the soaked floor near the windows and guessed the rains must have showered the earth last night. He facepalmed after seeing half of the sofa drenched and squeaked after feeling a painful ache on his temple.
He scratched his head trying to remember what happened last night. He was sure of waking up in the middle and most probably because of that one nightmare. He sighed thinking never to sleep on the bed again. He could smell the familiar fragrance of musk around him. When sniffing his shirt, it becomes more evident that he has practically bathed in that scent. But as he knew, only Kai wore a similar kind of perfume.
It must have happened when I hugged him during yesterday's event.
Ivan assumed sniffing the smell one more time and felt expensive as that wealthy friend left something over him.
He tapped on the geyser and remembered about the power cut.
He suddenly realized he had bills to pay and further spent a weekend with his friends. He gathered himself to seize the day.
-
Ivan hastily started doing his morning chores. While brushing his teeth, he decided to pay the bills and grabbed his mobile. A message flashed on his screen of bill payment.
"Huh? Who must have paid for it?" when he thought, the fan above him started rotating. The electricity was back and he felt relieved to have some coffee before walking out of the house.
He packed some of his besties' favourite food to eat during the drive.
After everything was done, he got ready in his normal simple long sized full-sleeved shirt and perfectly fitted black jeans.
While stepping out the door, his phone buzzed. He smiled thinking it must be one of his friends, but his face fell seeing his foster brother's name flashing on the screen. He decided to ignore it and walked out of the gate when his eyes fell on a black car parked nearby the compound.
As he started walking towards the bus stop, the car's engine started. Ivan sensed something unusual.
When he glanced back, caught a black car following him. He increased his walking pace feeling something fishy. Slowly Ivan increased the pace and started running. The car changed the gear and sped up. He kept glancing back and forth while running ahead. He recalled a nightmare similar to this and started going out of breath.
Suddenly the car drove past him at speed and halted in front of him.
He stopped on his track knowing he was in danger. His eyes shut in fear and let out a scream from the pit of his stomach.
"HELLPPPPPPPP"
"IVAN! It's me!"
He opened his eyes. The decibels of his scream lowered after seeing Kai's sister Moon in front of him.
She looked at him perplexed. "Are you okay?"
He huffed an exhale holding on to his dear weak heart.
"Kai sent me to escort you"
"Hun?" Ivan felt baffled.
"He has invited you for his boxing practice right?"
Hearing her, Ivan nodded, clasping his hands in front.
"Then come, follow me"
Saying this she turned towards her car. Ivan felt embarrassed for screaming like this in front of her. Urghh, such a coward I am!
He mentally smacked his head for his stupidity and briskly went behind her.