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 me counter it. But it was always on the brink of failing whenever that scent hit me. Her scent.
Eira.
She was returning home 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 home alone? Why does her home have to be so isolated and away from others? Her family members are truly idiots. I frowned and decided to keep watch on her until she reached home.
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 home so I can go after that rogue. I frowned inwardly, my worry for her safety gnawing at me.
Leaving the road, she started to walk toward the woods, searching for something.
What the hell? I felt like dragging her back home 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 came in response, which took me 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 home, entirely isolated here in the woods, she hid the cat in the gaps between the boulders at the rear boundary of her home. 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 come out of the house. That small kitten seemed to be her priority.
Once she returned home 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 home, I went to hers. I sat at the same boulder where she hid the kitten and looked up toward her window. The lights were off, and she was sleeping.
I spent my time taking care of the kitten. The bandage she had put around its leg had come off. I secured it well and even fed and cared for it.
After that, once in a while I would come here in the dead of night and spend some time 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 me 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 someone existed who could affect me this way, almost pushing me to become 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 me stay away from her.
The first time I saw her at Lucian’s home, though tempted by her scent and beauty, I could barely control myself. So the moment we finished our meal, I left in a hurry, making an excuse.
I knew the moment 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 me.
But she was a minor, and I couldn’t lose myself to my desires. So my efforts to keep her away from me, to protect her from the kind of monster I could be, grew stronger—and at the same time, wrong. She hated me 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 me out of hell. When I saw him crying and howling in pain for the first time, that pain wasn’t just his—I felt it too.
When it came to Kael, I would go against anyone in this world, even if it meant 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 home 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 home 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 me and named her what I used to call her owner: Vixen.