Mated to A Rival Alpha-Chapter 249: A Drop In The Ocean

[RANIA]

"I didn’t mean for this to happen, love," Jihoon whispered softly when he finally saw how sweaty and frustrated Rania was in her sleep. He had never expected that the first time he saw her asleep was when she was hurting and that broke his heart.

The fact that the people around her also looked helpless was something else. This was not normal, and he hated how casually Kaia had said that she would eventually wake up. That could only mean that this happened frequently, but how frequent was frequent?

How frequent was her pain, and when the hell had all of this started? Oh, but Jihoon had so many questions, most of which he would probably bang his head against the wall a thousand times from.

He could tell that he had been having a hard time with all of this ad for the hundredth time, Jihoon wanted to strangle Yanna himself. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Sure Jihoon had contributed to her pain, but none would ever be as great as the damage that Yanna Petrova had caused the woman that he loved, and as he gently bent over and close to her, Jihoon made himself another promise.

The promise to bring Yanna to the books. He didn’t mind that Rania wanted her dead.

If Rania killed her first, then that would be a closed case, but if Jihoon got to her first, he would make sure the woman felt the pain ten times worse than what his Rania had been going though.

Maybe that could explain why the Calindra alpha had been willing to be a prisoner for Rania. Love did have a way of making people its prisoners, though, was John a pensioner for love, or was he a willing captive?

"It’s okay, I’m here now. She won’t hurt you, she won’t hurt them, not when I’m with you," Jihoon whispered earnestly as he carefully snaked an arm around Rania’s waist as she slept and lay beside her.

He knew that this wasn’t how he had damaged the first time sharing a bed to be like, but there weren’t that many options for them. Expectedly, Rania caused a fit, in her sleep, given she hadn’t been used to someone holding her as she slept.

It was all so new to her, and she wanted to defend herself, but Jihoon held her tightly yet gently, breathing softly into her ears as if that was supposed to be a distraction. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

It didn’t seem to work and for a moment there, Kaia was sure that Jihoon had to be the most useless mate of all time. How a man couldn’t be able to make his mate calm down and feel safe was something beyond him.

What the hell was happening, and how were they to fix this with Rania right now?

Oh, but they had so many worried, and maybe the sun could simply do them a favor and rise right now. But that was impossible because it was almost midnight. And the hours of agony had just begun.

"You’re not helping her. Get the fuck up," Kaia said and Jihoon let out a low possessive growl in warning. He may have been a bastard, but his mate was hurting and he wasn’t going to leave, until Rania was well.

Chang Wook and Dalrae could see that Kaia was about to tear through Jhoon, so they held him back, as they tried to make him see sense and understand that no chaos would give them a better solution for their current predicate.

Love and life were one thing but to be there and not see the experiment through was another. Besides, there was just no way to tell if it worked, especially if they didn’t let Jihoon try his luck.

Maybe he was a lucky bastard, right?

Or maybe he was just another target for Kaia to fuck around with, yeah?

"He just growled at me??" Kaia said even though it was more in shock than disappointment or disapproval.

Maybe this would work.

Oh, but they all were hoping that it would work because they hated seeing Rania in pain. Eventually, they would have to face a new reality and hopefully, when that happened they wouldn’t have to worry about what the world was brightening to them, right?

"Shh, you’re okay. Listen to my voice, Kiki," Jihoon whispered lovingly and Kaia felt like he wanted to throw up, and this time, Chang Wook was feeling the same way too.

This shit was cringe as fuck, however, Dalrae didn’t share the same feeling with them. Instead, she was focused on Jihoon calling Rania, Kiki.

It was a name that only Rania and Dalrae had known, along with one of their oldest friends, a little boy that they had been playing around with.

For years they had never asked each other their packs, because they wanted to face the reality that Obren was one big home that wasn’t divided into seventeen other homes that could rival each other and fight each other.

That boy had always called Rania Kiki and he had been her safe space.

Dalrae didn’t want to believe it, but the fact that Rania was slowly responding to Jihoon though, not because of even the mate bond, was something else.

"Jun... She’ll kill them. Tell her she can’t... Please tell Mother she shouldn’t hurt my friends. I promise I’ll leave with them," Rani whimpered once again and Jihoon felt his heart shatter for the girl in his arms.

He loved her, wholly, and wished there was anything he could do to ease her pain. She was his lifeline and no matter what happened between the two of them, he would fight for her.

No, he wouldn’t fight her this time.

He would give her what she wanted and if a burning Calindra was what she wanted, the Jihoonwoud give it to her. She was important to him and he was going to do his best to make up for his shortcomings.

"No, Kiki. She didn’t... She can’t even harm them because they are a fortress. Your friends and always going to defend you from her, don’t worry, she won’t do anything to them," Jihoon said reassuringly, and evidently, Rania was coming down.

It was a strange sight. But then it was one that they had never thought would ever be this clear.

"But—"

"They can fight Kiki. You don’t have to be scared anymore. Besides, you have Kaia and Han, no magic can work against them. They will always protect you," Jihoon whispered softly.

He hated how vulnerable Rania was, not because she was weak, but because he couldn’t stand seeing her in pain.

"Do you think I’m broken, Jun?" Rania asked as she was slowly fading into a peaceful sleep. Whatever Jihoon had done had worked and they could all let out breaths of relief.

However, at Rania’s question, her friends glared daggers at Jihoon like they were waiting for his answer so they could decide whether his head was useless on his neck and help him with the burden.

"No, Kiki, never. You’re the brightest star in my universe. Sleep, baby, tomorrow awaits," Jihoon said, as Rania subconsciously nodded even though she had already drifted off to sleep.

"I’ve done my part. You had better do yours," Jihoon said to Kaia.