Mated to A Rival Alpha-Chapter 164: The Heart Wants What It Wants
[JIHOON]
At the mention of his best friend, Jihoon faltered for the first time before Yanna.
He had been doing well holding on to the little truth that maybe Rani cared about him like he did her. It was without a doubt the only reason he had been confident about Yanna not affecting him.
However, whatever Yanna said and the conviction in her voice made him feel like he had been running a shitshow for years.
"I see you want to be imprisoned so bad, huh? Guards!!" Jihoon said, calling out to his warriors. He didn’t care what else Yanna had to say and he wasn’t going to let the woman come between him and his best friend.
The dispensary was too warm a place for Yanna and her incitements, and Jihoon was tired of listening to the woman. He wanted to postpone the questioning, and yet at the same time, he wanted to face the truth and get to the bottom of all this.
Then again, he was also painfully aware of what was waiting for him beyond all of this. But just for tonight. He was choosing to go to bed a relaxed man. But what the fuck was even relaxing about his current situation anyway?
"Alpha," one of the warriors who had come said as he looked between the alpha and the luna they were given. He and his friends could sense the tension but then they were Calindra warriors, who served Calindra and their alpha.
They were worried that this was a fight that they didn’t need to begin and yet one look at their alpha’s face and they knew that there wasn’t much of a choice for them. This was happening and the sooner they all embraced it.
The sooner everything would set course.
"Take her to the dungeons for interrogation. If she tries anything, feel free to use force. If she tries to kill you, you have permission to slay her," Jihoon said and his warriors looked at him worriedly.
They weren’t sure if those were the orders they expected and a part of them was hoping that this was some sort of bullshitting, but it wasn’t.
Their alpha was dead serious and that was unsettling.
Maybe they would get to know why this was being done later but until then they would do as commanded.
"Yes, alpha," the warriors responded before they gently helped Yanna to the dungeons, leaving a fucked up Jihoon behind. It seemed like today he wasn’t going to be able to get any sleep anyway. He was wondering whether there was a truth in Yanna’s words. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎
Daehyun hadn’t done anything that could have gotten Jihoon suspicious of him. He had always been dutiful and supportive. If anything Lee Daehyun was the one person that Jihoon was sure wouldn’t ever be able to keep secrets.
His best friend was a blabber mouth in everything save for anything that involved compromising the security of Calindra. Yanna and Rania weren’t exactly people that Daehyun had any reason to protect.
Sure, Yanna had been the former Luna. But Rania??
She was nothing to Calindra at the moment.
Sighing, Jihoon decided to walk around Calindra as if that was supposed to help him clear his head. He had so many questions every time anyone talked about Rania.
However, he had to admit that Kim Rania protecting him more than Dalrae had to be the craziest of them all.
Maybe he would get to the bottom of this, and maybe his best friend knew some truth, but until then, he figured it wouldn’t be so bad if he reigned in his fantasies of Kim Rania as his Luna.
Somewhere along the way, Park Jihoon felt sleepy, and instead of going back to the pack house, he let himself sleep in the horse stables, the only place in the whole of Calindra that had memories of Rania.
Maybe the alpha was losing it but it was safe to say he found comfort in the memory. He didn’t mind that the day that followed he would probably be smelling like horse shit.
He didn’t care.
What he cared about was the little hope he had to hold onto Kim Rania.
****
"What are we doing here, Rani?" Chang Wook asked his sister when they made a stop at Calindra. They had been on their way back to Incayon from the palace, when Rani made the detour.
It was so unexpected and while Chang Wook was all for following his sister, this right here, made no sense to him.
He didn’t know why they had to come to Calindra this time, and that too, in the middle of the night, not to mention they were headed to the horse stables. It was beyond Chang Wook’s comprehension and frankly, even Rani wasn’t sure why she had come.
"Quiet down, you might wake the horses. If you’re scared of horses, you can wait for me outside, I promise, I will be quick. I just need to check something here and then we can go back home," Rani said with a smile but her brother wasn’t smiling.
He looked like he was about to squish his sister and force her to sleep. There were so many things wrong with what they were doing right now. But then he knew that nothing he did, would convince Rania to abandon whatever mission she was on this time.
"I’m not scared. But I’ll stay guard and make sure no one comes in. Be vigilant there. Oh, and if you take more than ten minutes, I’m dragging you out of here," Chang Wook said, and his sister just nodded before staring at him as if to reassure him that she wouldn’t be long.
Alone and walking deeper into the stables, Rani was looking for something, or rather, she was looking for the one person who had called out for her.
She had been with her brother planning how they were going to make King Seojoon’s life hard, when Rani felt her heart constricting.
At first, she thought she was just having another headache and that her pain was misplaced, but the longer they walked, the more she felt the pang, and it hurt so bad. It was almost like someone was intentionally breaking her heart.
Her first instinct was to check if Dalrae was fine, but after talking to Dalrae in the mind link and confirming that her Lim Lim was doing okay, Rani knew that there was only one other person who could affect her like that.
Unlike the other times when she could watch Jihoon be in pain and not feel anything, this time, she could feel it all. The mate bond was forcing the both of them together since they were both almost twenty-five years.
They were at the age when the bond would force mates to be together. If the mates were not mated yet.
The rules had always been made, but no one had ever thought that there would never be a mate who would stay away from the other for nine years after the day they first sensed the mate bond.
Given that Rani hadn’t rejected the bond, and Jihoon clearly wasn’t going to, they both had to work this out. And that was why Rania was here, in the very stables that made her want to puke. However, she had to respond and check on him.
She had to see for herself if he was okay, because if he wasn’t, then she would hurt even more.
"Even in your sleep you look so good," Rani whispered silently when she finally found Jihoon.
*****
[A/N]
* The way I screamed when I realized I finally published the 50th Chapter in Privilege, oh my sweet life. I have suffered lmao. Anyway, thank you for being patient with me, and I hope you find the wait worth it!
* Also if you see anything that needs to be fixed, please let me know. I have edited over 80k words in 3 days and there might be errors. Don’t hold back and let me know, thanks!!
* And yes, from tomorrow, the Chapter releases will be 3 -5 per day until the very end. the privilege was the only hard part now that it’s done, I can finally breathe lmao
* Once again, thank you!
