[RANIA]
Being two alphas who had always been used to chaotic mornings, this morning sure was different for them. They had slept the whole night, with their bodies so close to each other and their breaths in each other's faces.
Anyone could have mistaken them for the ultimate normal werewolf couple, which was something they weren't, but at least it was the thought that counted, yeah? As they slept through the morning, the sun began to show signs of an appearance.
The horizon looked beautiful and there was no other word to describe it. The fact that they were both in a forest across their borders, made the whole thing even more appealing.
There were no kids to wake them up, and so the two alphas slept through midmorning, only waking up when their horses neighed in the distance.
Jihoon was the first to wake up and the shock on his face was golden.
'Oh shit.'
He didn't want to imagine what he and Rania could have done in the night, for them to end up coddling each other. It was a sight that would make him want to clear his eyes at the stream south of where they were, more than once.
Whatever it was that had gotten the both of them to this point, it had to be some kind of madness, because how the fuck was he even supposed to explain sharing the same space as the Kim Rania?
Jihoon had been in shock that he hadn't realized there was more chaos to their coddling.
Somewhere in the night, he had put his arm under Rania's neck to keep the stubborn woman comfortable, and granted, she had been so comfortable, even without knowing that she was being aided in it all.
The Calindra alpha stared at his helpless arm in Rania's hair. It would be hell to remove his arm from under her neck without the woman insulting him or beating him up in all seven ways to hell.
It was crazy how their lives were being entangled and situations were just showing up like they had summoned the damn awkwardness.
Gently, Jihoon made the first pull of his arm, and expectedly, Kim Rania twitched. She seemed to be so deep in sleep, but what if the devil's playmate was waiting to see what Jihoon would do?
Surely, an alpha who always woke herself up, wouldn't exactly sleep over time, and that too while on a mission of the damned, right?
'Shit, she's heavy,' Jihoon said, having realized for the first time, that his arm had gone numb from the weight of Rania's head. Maybe pulling his arm forcefully didn't exactly sound like a bad idea, if anything, Rania wasn't about to thank him for his royal kindness anyway.
Once again Jihoon was a man on a mission only that this time, he was distracted by the chaotic beauty he was hovering over. Maybe he needed to let her sleep, but then they had both wasted enough time with their sleep.
"Get the fuck up, woman," Jihoon said to Rania, having decided that his kindness was never going to get him anywhere with the woman he was staring at.
Rania got up so fast, her hair going in all directions before settling roughly on her shoulders. She looked like she was having the worst time of her life, and worse, she looked almost like she was being attacked.
She looked confused to the point that Jihoon was certain that she had no clue about what was happening. Her eyes were knitted like she was trying to adapt to the brightness of the day. The sun hitting her face made her feel like she had danced the final dance, but had she?
She had let her guard down when she was with her worst enemy.
What if Jihoon had decided to kill her in the night? But what if Rania trusted Jihoon with her life?
Theirs was a madman's dance and anyone who tried to understand them would probably end up booked in an asylum.
"Shut. The fuck. Up."
Rania was still sleepy when Jihoon woke her up. It was a wonder why she had spent that long sleeping. Was she okay? Had she been having sleepless nights before this? Was there a reason for that?
Jihoon glared at the grouchy woman, who was staring at him, like she didn't just sleep on him. He was fazed by how fast she shifted her attitude, or maybe it was the full moon and he hadn't realized it yet? But then the full moon was still months away, so it couldn't be.
She was different from the pretty woman who had been sleeping earlier. Now that Jihoon looked at Rania, he felt like he had been cheated out of his sanity.
"Get off me. You made my arm go numb and you dare to growl at me," Jihoon said as he roughly pulled his arm from Rania's neck.
"Oww," Rania winced when her head roughly hit the ground, and for a moment, Jihoon wanted to ask her if she was okay. He wanted to tell her that he didn't intend to hurt her, but Rania would never believe him anyway. It was a lost cause trying to make the woman see any sense.
"Get up and quit whining. We are two hours late because you snore like a pig, at least the pigs look prettier than you while snoring. I might just see you in my haunted dreams, fuck," Jihoon said to Rania who just rolled her eyes at him.
She knew she was lying through his teeth, but she was too tired to even argue with him.
Roughly, she pushed Jihoon away from her. She evidently had so many questions. Like how she did end up in Jihoon's arms. How she had fallen asleep next to her enemy. How she had managed to even sleep through the night and mid-morning.
Rania was frustrated.
She hadn't expected herself to be this gullible.
"Fuck," Rania said quietly as she took in her surroundings. There was a dead fireplace next to where she had fallen asleep. Someone had to have created it, and the only person who could do that was Jihoon.
He had no reason to be nice to her.
He shouldn't have helped her. But Rania was smart enough to be silently thankful for that. She was sure she could have had an asthma attack or something if she stayed cold the whole night. Gently, she sat herself up, taking in whatever was around her.
The trees were gently swaying and the forest was no longer quiet. instead, they could hear the birds and the animals they shared Obren with. it was almost crazy, how the wolves shared space with non-werewolves.
Rania's horse was still in its place, just like she had tied it. It looked so overwhelming, but then it also looked like the horse had had some good sleep.
"What the hell," Rania said again as she got up. She had told herself she wouldn't let herself be vulnerable, let alone when she was close to Jihoon. There was so much at risk, and it wasn't about her life.
She and Jihoon were polar opposites, and that should have been a sign for her not to give in, but the night before, she had given in.
Kim Rania had felt safe with Jihoon.
It was almost like she was with her best friend, Dalrae, who also happened to be the one person she trusted with her life. And that, scared the fuck out of her.
"No. Too soon. This can't happen," Rania said as she rushed to her horse, making Jihoon watch her like she was some spoiled kid who had gotten the candy she was promised.
Surely it wasn't because she wanted to pick a fight with Jihoon, right?
'Too soon.' That was all Rania could think of when she untied her horse and checked him for injuries.
She couldn't afford to make known whatever was going on in her head, because if she did, Rania would lose.
She would lose more than she had planned for, and while she had gotten accustomed to losing through the years, there was one thing that Kim Rania would fight the universe for. Something she would never forgive herself if she lost.
It was the one thing that she would even fight Dalrae for.
Maybe it was too soon to go on the mission or too soon to kill Jihoon, but with Rania's ways of thinking, there was always going to be more to it.
"Are you okay? I know you're crazy, but your silence is driving me nuts. Curse at me or something, Rania, anything," Jihoon said to Rania.