THE LOVE OF A LYCAN

236 STRONG HEART RAINE

But then, Calleb didn't stop there.?He continued, "You must have met the other Lycans that Torak had placed in your university. Do you know how many lycans Torak had put there?"

"No." Raine replied honestly.?She didn't even have any idea that other lycans were there until recently. "Three?"

"No." Calleb shook his head. "More than that."

"Ten?" Raine's eyes widened in surprise.

"No, Raine. There are a hundred lycans and all of them must maintain their distance from you.?They are not allowed to be in the same area as you for an extended time because of your condition, but they have to be close enough to you if you need help, just like when Aeon went near you."

"A hundred?" Raine was shocked at the number that Calleb told her. "That's why I have never seen supernatural creatures around the university…"

Before Raine met Torak, she would see those creatures at every corner of the street that she passed by, although some of them didn't try to attack her or simply ignored her as long as she didn't make eye contact with them.?Thus, she always tried to keep her head down or train her eyes on her shoes.?Yet when she met Torak, Raine saw them less and less.

"Yes." Calleb nodded. "And 'a great effort' could not even begin to describe how muchTorak had done to plant a large number of people inside your school in order to protect you, including great magic to modify the memory of some people."

Just like how Torak had Belinda modified the memory of people in the orphanage so that no one would remember Raine's face when someone asked about her.?This was the reason why Andromalius failed when he had been trying to find out about Riane's identity.

And this spell was also applied when Torak killed the man inside the hospital after her first disappearance.

However, after the public announcement about Raine being Torak's girlfriend and in another understanding about her as Torak's mate, that spell didn't work anymore.

"As well as bribes and that sort of thing that you will not think of." Calleb added without going into details.

Raine didn't feel better when she heard that.?If anything, her feelings worsened upon realizing that Torak had done so much for her. "He has done so much for me…" Raine wept. She felt terrible.

"You know what? If on that day the shadow warrior managed to take you away, I will not be surprised if the next moment a hundred headless lycans will be disposed."

Raine shrieked as she covered her mouth with both of her hands.

Raine gulped hard.

"I am telling you this not because I speak for Torak and belittle your effort after all this time.?You have improved so much.?But I am telling you this because I want the situation to be transparent to you, so you can judge for yourself." Calleb rubbed Raine's head.?"I know that Aeon saved your life and you are favorably inclined to him because of this, but if this news is caught by Torak's enemy, it will boomerang to you and, if it is something related to you, it will affect Torak as well. After all, you will be our Luna someday. You will lead and rule side by side with the Alpha."

Raine felt the heavy burden that pushed her shoulder down.?While all Raine thought all this time was how to live a normal life, there were many things happening around her without her knowing it.?She realized that there would always be thick plots in everything.

Raine didn't know if she could ever be the Luna that they expected.

It was hard to be with Torak…

"If you want to keep Aeon safe, make him stay as far away from you as he could or stop protecting him in front of Torak, because the more you try to save him, the more furious the Alpha will be." Calleb advised.

Raine looked at Calleb in a new light.?The Gamma, who was always fooling around and teasing her all the time, actually talked long sentences towards her.?What he said was brutal truth, the reality that Raine had ignored.

Raine kept ignoring the fact that there would always be a reason for every action and reaction, and only focused on how well Torak had been treating her until she forgot what he had done for her just to keep her safe.

No wonder that, although as a lycan, Calleb's age was considered young, he was the third in command of the pack and the Alpha trusted him enough to keep Raine safe.

Indeed, Calleb was wise enough to make her understand Torak's reaction.

But if Raine thought about this again, Serefina had also mentioned about this a couple of times, yet in different ways.

People around her had been trying to tell her that the world wasn't as beautiful as it seems, and Torak's way of keeping her safe by making her oblivious to what was going on around her wasn't the best way to do it.

"Don't feel pressured.?I know you can do it." Calleb tried to cheer her up.

Raine's feeling now was similar to her feeling when they said that she was Torak's mate and a guardian angel when, at that time, she knew nothing about supernatural creatures and the existence of the pack of Lycanthropes and werewolves, devil or witch.

It felt odd, but at the same time it was surreal.

Raine still felt pressured, regardless of what Calleb said.

They wanted a strong and confident Luna to lead their pack, someone who had strong leadership ability just like Torak, but Raine was anything but strong and every time she thought about this, her mind would always think about Jenedieth.

Her confidence and boldness… her beauty and fierceness… were something that could have complemented Torak's character.

Not someone like her…

"Can I be that kind of Luna?" Raine asked in a very small voice. "I want to be strong… but, why is it so hard?"

"Of course you can." Calleb said reassuringly. "Look back and you will see how much you have changed.?In fact, you will keep changing until you reach the point where you are stronger than you think you are."

Raine lifted her head and hugged Calleb while crying. "Thank you… your words mean a lot to me…"

"You are welcome, Luna."

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

On the second day since Torak left the house with Raphael, both of them still had not returned yet.

No news. No messages.

Even Calleb was flustered by the situation and now he was busying himself inside Torak's study room to handle a few matters because neither Torak nor Raphael was available to run the business and make decisions.

Calleb couldn't go to the company because Raine was not allowed to step out of the house and this time, Raine didn't complain.

She didn't want to aggravate Torak anymore by disregarding his order, but she couldn't help getting anxious with every minute that passed without news from Torak.

"I will be grateful if you stop making that noise." Calleb lifted his head from the documents at his hands and glared at Raine.

"Sorry." Raine replied and stopped drumming the table with her fingers. "Still there is no news?"

Calleb sighed and ignored the question.

Raine had been asking the same question in the last two hours she'd been sitting inside Torak's study room, accompanying Calleb although it looked more like she was bothering the Gamma.

"Calleb…" Raine whined.

"Raine, I don't know where they are.?If I knew, I would rather go with them than deal with these papers." Calleb also whined. Paper works were never his thing.

But since no one else was left in charge, he had to take over all Raphael and Torak's work that he could handle.

"But I am not going to ask that…" Raine stood up and approached Calleb, who was working on Torak's desk. "Can I go to the greenhouse and play with bunny??There's nothing I can do here…" Raine said pitifully.

She wasn't allowed to go to school and she couldn't go out of the house, and when she wanted to help Calleb, he didn't allow her to touch the documents.

To watch movie alone was not an option because she would feel lonelier since Calleb couldn't accompany her.

Meanwhile Belinda was busy treating Serefina.

Raine has no clue how bad Serefina's condition was, because Torak did not allow her to see the witch. Raine only knew that Serefina was still unconscious, even until now.

"The greenhouse is still inside the house area and there are Lycan warriors everywhere and guards." Raine reminded him when she saw Calleb didn't reply to her immediately.

Calleb contemplated.?It took him a moment to reply. "Alright, but don't go anywhere out of the gates and keep yourself within sight of the lycan warriors and guards.?If you find something suspicious don't go and check it, let someone else do that." He ranted.

"Okay.I will just go to the greenhouse, not to a battlefield." Raine grumbled and waved her hands at Calleb.

Meanwhile another phone call annoyed Calleb as he cried. "Postpone all meetings!"

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

When Raine walked towards the greenhouse, she met a few guards with expressionless face and exchanged polite smile with them, but Raine couldn't see any lycan warriors nearby.

Maybe they were hiding somewhere, knowing Raine would be in the greenhouse.

Torak had given them strict order that they were not allowed to be near her if it wasn't necessary, but just like those lycans that Torak had put in her university, they would always have their eyes on Raine and would immediately rescue her if she was in danger.

Raine walked to the bunny's cage and found that the little white one was sleeping soundlessly with its long ears down, yet when Raine squatted down to look at it, the bunny opened its red eyes and raised its small head to look at her.

"Hello…" Raine smiled and opened the lock of the cage, carefully picking up the bunny into her embrace.

However, the moment the bunny was out of its cage, it jumped past her shoulder and ran towards the petunias, disappearing amongst the plants.

Raine frowned as she stood up and went towards the petunias to get her rabbit.

"Bunny, come here." Raine called for her, but of course there wasn't a reply nor could the bunny make a sound like a cat.

Raine squatted down to take a peek at the plants' pots, trying to look for the white fur ball beneath it.

From the corner of her eyes, Raine caught a glimpse of the bunny running towards the bougainvillea. Annoyed, Raine stood up and walked towards the spot where she last saw the bunny.

Yet, when Raine was about to bend over to retrieve it from the secluded spot, the bunny ran away again and this time it ran towards the door that was slightly open.

Raine was surprised and started to run as well.

It would be troublesome if the bunny managed to get out of the greenhouse as it would be more difficult to catch it later.

"No. no…!" Raine shouted when the white fur ball dashed through the door and stopped ten meters away, outside. "Bad bunny!" She groaned.

The bunny stood on its hind legs and raised its long ears cutely, as if she was waiting for Raine to catch her.

The diamond on the bunny's red rubber band that was attached to its front leg shone under the ray of the afternoon sun.

Raine remembered that it was Torak who had given it to the bunny when he bought it for her.

She missed Torak dearly…

And as Raine mused, the bunny started to run again.

"Comeback here!" Raine started to run again to catch her bunny.

She didn't realize that she had almost walked out of the property, when a lycan warrior stopped her before she could step any closer to the gates.

"Luna, may I help you?" There were three lycan warriors there, but only one came to approach her while the other two stayed behind and only nodded their head politely at her.

"Yes, I am looking for my rabbit." Raine was almost out of breath while chasing the bunny, but now she couldn't see it anywhere.

"Don't worry, we will find it soon." The lycan warrior informed her before his eyes turned hazy.

It seemed he was mind linking the other lycans.?Raine often saw Torak and Calleb do that.

"Luna, please stay inside. I will give it back to you once we catch the rabbit." The lycan warrior said in his gruff tone.

Raine grimaced slightly when she heard the word 'catch' from the bulky lycan. In Raine's eyes, his huge body only consisted of muscles.

"Don't hurt the rabbit please…" She couldn't help but say this.?It almost looked like they would bite the rabbit the moment they catch it.

The bulky lycan let out a small chuckle. "We will not, Luna."

Raine blushed slightly thinking how stupid her statement was. It just came out of her mouth without her thinking about it carefully. "Alright, but I will just stay here, is it okay? It will not take long, right?"

With the lycan ability and speed, it would only take a few minutes before they could catch the bad bunny, right??So, it should be fine if Raine stayed here…

The bulky lycan saw his Luna's uneasiness and then bent his body dramatically while smiling. "Yes, just give me a moment and I will come back with the rabbit."

The Luna probably didn't trust them enough and thought they would accidentally bite the rabbit to its death.?There was a possibility of that, though.

Raine nodded and saw the two lycans behind the bulky lycan follow him as they sniffed the air to catch the smell of the rabbit.

Raine wondered what the smell of the rabbit was. How could they pick up the faintest smell easily??It was incredible how these supernatural creatures have that odd ability.

However, there were still a lot of things that she didn't know yet.

Raine was kicking the small pebbles at her feet when she heard rustling sounds from the street across the gates.

When she raised her head, she saw the white rabbit staring at her innocently, tilting its small head as if questioning Raine for not being able to catch it.

"You? Why are you there?" Raine looked around her and didn't see anyone. "Why is there no guard or lycan here?" She mumbled to herself.

And also, why didn't those lycans see that the rabbit was there, standing on its hind legs just across the street.?They should have known, right?

Raine was contemplating about what to do. The bunny was only across the street.?If it wouldn't move carelessly again, she could catch it without trouble.

But she wasn't allowed to leave the property… yet there was no one there to catch the rabbit.

The bunny has a rubber band with diamond on it.?Raine was afraid that there would be someone out there who would catch her bunny because of it.

Raine hesitantly walked forward while looking around her, half hoping that a guard, either human or lycan, would walk by.

However, there was no one nearby and the bunny had now turned its head to its left side, as if something had caught its interest.?It then started to move a bit.

Seeing that, Raine quickened her steps and stopped right at the metal bars of the gates.?She tried to get the bunny's attention by clapping her hands. "Hey, bunny. Come here! I will give you a bunch of carrots!" Raine said in a loud voice so the lycans could hear her as well.

But the bunny wasn't interested at Raine's offer and began to take two jumps, approaching that thing that caught its attention.

Raine clicked her tongue and tried to see what caught its interest, but there was nothing there. The road ahead was empty and there were only walls on both sides, its end Raine couldn't see.

The rabbit took another hop.

"No." Raine grimaced because the rabbit was starting to move out of her sight.

When the rabbit hopped again, Raine looked for the handle of the gates and found that it was unlocked.?She pushed it open and started to run out of the property.

Raine didn't realize the odd situation when she stepped outside the gates.?Her only focus was on the bunny.

When she caught sight of the white fur, it was about to turn at the T-junction which made Raine run after it.

Raine was breathless when she turned at the same corner the bunny took, but the sight before her astounded her.

It wasn't a road, but a rooftop!

Raine took a long time to discern her situation.

How did the road turn into a rooftop of a building??How could that be possible? Probably the scorching sun played tricks on her eyes.

But that wasn't the case, because when Raine turned around to go back to the street behind her, the street was no longer there.

She was totally in different place!

Though it wasn't the first time that she ended up in different environment in the blink of an eye, she still couldn't get use to this.

Did she travel back to the past again?

Raine frowned because her surroundings didn't indicate that she was thrown to centuries ago.?Actually, it seemed like she was in the middle of the city.?She saw a billboard on the tallest building that she could see and she could hear the sound of car engines from the street below.

It didn't seem like she went back to centuries ago. And with this little information, Raine sighed in relief.

As long as she was still in this current time, she could call Calleb and ask him to pick her up because she didn't really know how she could go back home nor could she tell where she was.

Raine had started to look around her to find a door or stairs so she could go down from this rooftop when someone called out her name.

"Raine… you are here."

Hearing her name being called, Raine whipped her head towards the source of the voice and saw the person whowas the cause of her fight with Torak.

"Aeon." Raine's voice sounded colder than she intended it to be.

Yet, Aeon didn't seem to mind the way Raine called his name or the way her expression turned impassive the moment he came to her line of sight.

"Did you bring me here?" Raine narrowed her eyes at him.

Aeon was wearing a simple t-shirt and ripped jeans, the same style that he wore when he met her at the university.?His slightly long curly hair was tied at the back of his neck.

"It wasn't him, it was me."

Another voice from behind Raine startled her, causing her to turn around abruptly.

Not far from Raine, there was a man with golden eyes staring at her, bemused. In his arms was the white bunny, nestled comfortably.

Raine had never seen this man before, but his golden eyes and the aura surrounding him were very familiar.

"Hello Raine, finally we meet." The man said with a dramatic bow.?His smile didn't reach his eyes.

Only then did understanding dawn on her. "You are the devil." She uttered.

Raine had seen those golden eyes, but it was not him. Those golden eyes belonged to the devil, Belphegor. But definitely this man wasn't Belphegor.?He must be one of the devils that Torak had told her about.

"Let me introduce myself." Lucifer caressed the scruff of the white rabbit in his arms. "I am Lucifer and, as you said, I am the devil."

"Why did you bring me here?"

"Easy there…" Said Lucifer, keeping his attention focused on the small animal.

"Give me back the rabbit." Raine said sternly. The bunny was a gift from Torak.

"Oh, right… I am sorry." Lucifer lifted his head as he stared at Raine apologetically, a fake expression nonetheless. "Here. I found it roaming down the street."

What a lie…

However, Raine didn't want to argue with him about that.?She just wanted her rabbit back.

Lucifer took a step forward, but out of instinct, as if sensing that he was dangerous, Raine took a step back with a wary expression.

"How can you get your rabbit if you act this way?" Lucifer smirked, tilting his head as if he was assessing the girl before his eyes.

Raine was standing between Aeon and Lucifer, so when Lucifer moved forward towards her and she stepped back, she now stood close to the shadow warrior.

"Here's your rabbit." Lucifer extended his arms and held out the rabbit by its scruff. "Take it."

Raine looked at the rabbit which was struggling to be free from the devil's hand.

"Stop it." Aeon groaned as he took long steps and grabbed the rabbit from Lucifer's hand and gave it to Raine.

Raine flinched when Aeon walked past her to get the rabbit and then warily retrieved the small animal from his hand.

At the very least, Raine knew that Aeon wouldn't hurt her.?Soshe preferred to stay close to Aeon rather than the devil.

Since the rabbit was in Raine's arms, she didn't want to stay there any longer and tried to find an escape route from there.?But when Raine was about to go, Aeon held her shoulder.

"There is something that I want to show you." He said in a low voice, slightly grimacing when Raine cringed away. "Raine, don't be like that. You know I will not hurt you."

Lucifer folded his arms in front of his chest, staring at the pair with amusement dancing in his golden eyes. He wondered how far this shadow warrior would go for the Alpha's mate.

"I want to go home." Raine stated as she hugged the bunny and tried to avoid Aeon's touch.

"I have something important to tell you." Aeon ignored Raine's request.

"I have to go back now, or else the moment Torak finds you, you will get hurt." Raine tried to talk her way out of the situation.

But Aeon didn't appreciate the threatening tone in Raine's voice.

"Wow… The Alpha will kill you for sure, Aeon." Lucifer added fuel to the fire when he saw Aeon's expression turn ashen.

"Do you think that Lycan can hurt me?" Aeon growled and took two steps forward.

Raine wanted to say 'yes' and ask Aeon to let her go.?Whatever was Aeon's reason in bringing her here, she didn't want to stay any longer.

Yet she couldn't say it because this would aggravate Aeon more and she knew that that wouldn't be a wise answer, given this unfortunate situation.

Regardless, Aeon took Raine's silence as a 'yes'. He was pissed off, thus he grabbed Raine's arms and hissed. "Let's see how he will kill me."

In a matter of seconds, everything changed again.

Raine wasn't in the rooftop of the building anymore.?Instead, she was in a room filled with row after row of bookshelves, like a library.

"Where are we?" Raine asked in panic. How could they teleport her as they wish?

"Library." Lucifer answered Raine's question sarcastically. "Don't you see?" He waved his hands toward the books.

Raine didn't want to have a conversation with the devil, so she simply ignored him completely.

"Come here Raine…" Neither did Aeon heed Lucifer's existence as he extended his hand towards Raine. "I want to show you something. This is something that you and Serefina were looking for."

"I don't want to see it." Raine shook her head. "I want to go home." She was adamant with her demand and this didn't please the shadow warrior.

"Come with me please." Though he said please, Aeon's eyes had turned darker than before. He didn't like Raine's rejection.