Rafe’s POV
(Flashback — 6 years ago)
That day I was patrolling around the territory, just like the other Alphas under training. There had been news of a rogue werewolf targeting innocents, and we had been told to look for them.
I didn’t know that while doing so, I would catch a familiar, tempting scent that almost brought out my innate vampire instincts—instincts I successfully suppressed thanks to my werewolf side that helped counter it. But it was always on the brink of failing whenever that scent hit . Her scent.
Eira.
She was returning ho from school, walking alone on that deserted path, and it was already getting dark.
Standing in the woods, my gaze lingered on her. Isn’t she afraid of going ho alone? Why does her ho have to be so isolated and away from others? Her family mbers are truly idiots. I frowned and decided to keep watch on her until she reached ho.
I didn’t want her to be in danger from a rogue. Now, thanks to her, I had to do everything to catch that rogue so he wouldn’t harm her when she was alone like this.
Just then, I watched her stop and look around.
What now? Just go ho so I can go after that rogue. I frowned inwardly, my worry for her safety gnawing at .
Leaving the road, she started to walk toward the woods, searching for sothing.
What the hell? I felt like dragging her back ho myself. Is she oblivious to the dangers for kids like her in the woods?
Miao!
She made the sound of a cat, and another sound ca in response, which took by surprise. She was responding to the cat’s cries and searching for it. She looked so adorable, so sweet, carefully making her way toward the sound. So pure and innocent—exactly the opposite of what I was.
My eyes narrowed at her. You should worry about yourself more than a random cat, silly girl.
Soon she found a hurt kitten and tried to coax it. She was kind—and her kindness was going to put her in trouble one day. She carried the kitten with her, and I followed her silently, not letting her know of my presence.
I wanted to keep protecting her.
When she reached her ho, entirely isolated here in the woods, she hid the cat in the gaps between the boulders at the rear boundary of her ho. I understood from her behavior that she was hiding the cat and couldn’t let her family know about it.
Sitting high up on the branches of a tree, I continued to watch her taking care of the cat. Even in the dark, she wasn’t afraid to co out of the house. That small kitten seed to be her priority.
Once she returned ho safely after treating and feeding the kitten, I left to search for the rogue werewolf. That night, we found it and killed it along with my other friends.
But after that, instead of returning to my ho, I went to hers. I sat at the sa boulder where she hid the kitten and looked up toward her window. The lights were off, and she was sleeping.
I spent my ti taking care of the kitten. The bandage she had put around its leg had co off. I secured it well and even fed and cared for it.
After that, once in a while I would co here in the dead of night and spend so ti with this kitten while the owner of this cat nestled in her bed.
I didn’t know why I was even doing this.
I only knew that her scent, her untouched appearance which felt sweet and tempting at first, had slowly started to break every ounce of restraint I had been practicing over the years to control my innate instincts.
Not just her scent or her blood was maddening—her innocent beauty tempted to ruin it over and over again. I wanted to hurt her in ways she wouldn’t imagine.
That was sick, but that’s how I felt.
And I hated to think that soone existed who could affect this way, almost pushing to beco a monster I didn’t want to be.
Despite being so irresistibly drawn to her, I decided to stay away from her—or I didn’t know what I would end up doing to her.
But thanks to my friends and their sister, she was always around. It only grew my frustration. Neither could I go to her, nor would they let stay away from her.
The first ti I saw her at Lucian’s ho, though tempted by her scent and beauty, I could barely control myself. So the mont we finished our al, I left in a hurry, making an excuse.
I knew the mont I laid my eyes on her that day—she struck straight into my heart. I wanted her in every way. A vampire’s instincts were stronger toward the one they desired. They could never go wrong, and she was the one for .
But she was a minor, and I couldn’t lose myself to my desires. So my efforts to keep her away from , to protect her from the kind of monster I could be, grew stronger—and at the sa ti, wrong. She hated for how I treated her.
If only she knew I was protecting her from myself.
After that incident with Alice and our pack, just like everyone, I was hurt—for the ones we lost, for my friends who suffered, and for the impossibility of believing it was her. But the proof was there, and so was the anger that she had sided with our enemies.
Moreover, what happened with Kael and his family... Kael was the first friend I ever had, and he was more like my brother. He had brought out of hell. When I saw him crying and howling in pain for the first ti, that pain wasn’t just his—I felt it too.
When it ca to Kael, I would go against anyone in this world, even if it ant abandoning my feelings toward her.
I hated her as well, just like the others.
But after everything grew calm, after we had taken our revenge on the enemies, I went to her ho once more. I wasn’t sure why, but I did—as if I was expecting to see her there.
The mind might control you, but the heart only wants what it wants.
The ho was empty, her grandparents gone as well, though I wasn’t sure where.
But the little kitten was still there—weak and almost about to die, with no one to take care of her. I brought her with and nad her what I used to call her owner: Vixen.
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