Rae

┌(Flashback)┘

"Snowball isn't here Yil. That much I can guarantee because I've searched the whole area multiple times and I still can't find him," I huffed, wiping the beads of sweat from my forehead. "What makes you think he's at this side of the pack, anyway?" I questioned.

The power vortex whirled with thundering power again before it settled into its constant rhythmic swivel and I trembled slightly at it's crackling static energy. We were so dead if anyone found us here.

"Yil?" I turned around towards the hot spring and sought out her silvery-locks and enchanting facial features. "Yil? Where are you?" I tried to control the tremble of unease in my voice and moved closer to the hot spring. "I'm not in the mood for cheeky jokes Yil. Come on out," I groaned, surveying the surrounding area of the hot spring. "Yil!" I called out again but received no reply.

Instead, I heard a ruffle in the rose bushes, situated at the corner of my eyesight. However, before I could turn towards the disturbance, the familiar scent of lavender and orange blossom barreled into me and together we toppled into the warm, soothing embrace of the hot-spring waters.

Its waters dragged my figure to the bottom of the spring where corals of differing colours and shine lay undisturbed. The illumination of the sunshine lit up the springs' polychromatic underwater world and, noticing a pair of long, lean legs above me, I deduced that Yil had swam up to the surface ahead of me.

"Yil, what the hell was that about?" I sputtered, coming up for air. "Oh you better have a damn good explanation for that," I scowled just as she giggled, uncontrollably at my demeanour.

"Words darling words," she tutted, disapprovingly. "Can't you take a joke huh? Mr uptight," she laughed, swimming around me in circles. "This water was just too delicious to resist," she squealed, splashing water on my face.

"We are not even supposed to be here," I hissed, trying to calm the erratic beat of my heart. "Measer Fern is not going to like this and guess who's going to get scolded for not being responsible?..." I paused, letting my rhetorical question hang in the air for added effect as she practiced back strokes, unbothered by my unease. "Oh that's right...Me," I stated, raising my hand and letting it fall in resignation.

This unruly teenager was surely going to be the death of me.

"Also if I remember correctly, aren't we supposed to be looking for Snowball?" I questioned and stopping for a minute to look at me, she shrugged with an impish smile.

"Maybe. Maybe not," she winked and I stayed rooted to my spot in shocked silence.

"Oh no you didn't," I gasped as it dawned on me that I'd been misled, tricked, lied to, conned, deceived, fooled, bamboozled...

I mean what else was new?

"Okay that's it, party time is over," I announced, floating towards her with great difficulty. My clothes were soaking wet and thus, they weighed me down greatly.

"Catch me if you can then," she squealed, thrusting a film of water into my face and swimming further away from me.

Determined to get her out of the hot-spring and back at the pack where I was much safer from any type of reprimand, I swam after her. However, catching her was much easier said than done and for a good fifteen minutes, I swam around in circles as she evaded my every move.

"Ah come on, I bet you can do better than that, hmmm? A wolf of your caliber should have no problem catching a slight damsel such as myself," she taunted with a hand to her forehead before she gave into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

"Oh yeah," I mumbled as I discreetly manipulated the water by her sides into ring shapes. Directing the structures towards her, I fastened the water rings onto her wrists and pulled her towards me. "Got you!" I smirked as the laughter fell from her face.

"Oh goody, you cheat," she stated with feigned excitement as she moved closer towards me. "You were supposed to catch me," she sulked.

"Well, technically I did with the aid of water bending," I wiggled my eyebrows, tauntingly, at her and before I could throw in another smart retort to irk her further, I noticed, for the first time, that she wasn't fully clothed.

"Wha-a-at happened to-o-o your c-c-clothes?" I stuttered with a flustered expression.

"What do you call this?" She raised her chest to bare her lacy bra with a sultry smile. "I'd love to show you my bottoms but I'm tied up at the moment," she drawled, baring her water-bound wrists in support of her claim.

The titillating, vulnerable image that she painted in a pair of water-handcuffs evoked a surge of desire within me and jolted by the intensity, I lost my control on the elemental maneuver.

"Where a-are your c-clothes? Where did you put them?" I rushed out, turning away from her and stumbling towards the hot spring bank.

I won't succumb. I won't succumb. I won't succumb, I kept chanting, internally.

"I can't swim in my clothes, silly," she laughed, controlling the water current so that I slipped back into the hot spring and floated towards her. "Besides I don't need clothes around you. They never stay on, anyway," she breathed, when I was facing her.

Her sweet scent encompassed me in their entirety and I fought hard to keep my focus on her face and not on the alluring cleavage, encased within the confines of her red, lacy bra.

"What's got you so flustered huh?" She placed her hands around my neck and whispered into my ears. This caused her soft form to mold into my rigid structure and my breath hitched at the contact. "Red's your favourite colour, isn't it?" She placed a soft kiss to my nape and I shivered, involuntarily. "I also don't mind being bound at the wrists seeing as it turns you on so much," she added, grazing my nape with her teeth before she sucked on it.

"Yil," I groaned, trying but failing to disengage myself from her embrace. "We can't do this, not here. What if we get caught?" I growled, finally moving away from her as my iris turned even darker than usual.

"Not if I've already encased this area in a camouflaging forcefield," She purred, catching up to my slow pace and hugging me from behind.

Stopping dead in my tracks, I realised that the ear-splitting sound of the vortex had dulled out to a repressed note, the once clear sight of the greenery beyond the hot-spring had blurred to almost nothingness and stretching my fingers above my head, I felt the aqua lining of the forcefield. There was certainly no way anyone would see us.

"So is it a question of whether we can't or you're too scared to?" She teased, trailing her fingers, slowly down my torso and into my pants as she placed feather light kisses on my neck. "Because your body says something entirely different," she shuddered, feeling my hardened member.

My eyes rolled to the back of my head in ecstasy as a guttural growl escaped my lips. Turning to face her in a trance-like compulsion, I pulled her closer and wasting no time, she wrapped her legs around my waist and slammed her mouth onto mine. The action broke past my resolve and I found myself responding to her sensual demand.

Her pert nipples strained against the fabric of her lacy bra in arousal and annoyed by the barrier that it presented, I ripped it off and proceeded to shrug off my wet shirt. As I busied myself with the task, she dry humped my form in an excruciatingly slow pace and I growled, lowly, at the sexual frustration she was purposefully putting me through.

"Awwwn lighten up Rae," she giggled. I'll move faster only if you say the magic words," she coerced, slowing down even further.

"Two can play that game, mi amour," I grunted, hoarsely with a smirk and so grabbing her butt, I thrusted rhythmically between her folds.

"Rae," she trembled, digging her nails into my back muscles.

I smiled, smugly, into her hair and with one hand undid the fly of my pants. They were fast becoming an inconvenience. Suddenly, for some unknown reason, her earlier statement began to replay in my mind. One word, in particular, struck out as odd and fixating more on its persistent phonetical essence, I understood why.

The word "lighten" reminded me of a lamp setting tradition which was synonymous with a certain ceremony, taking place today.

"Shit!" I cussed, unwrapping her legs from my waist. "Today is the mate ceremony. You just turned sixteen and you need to be present," she rolled her eyes in exasperation and sighed as I tried to regulate the hammering of my heart as well as quell the excitement that brewed, tempestuously, within me. "We are going to be late," I swam speedily out of the hot spring before I began the frantic search for her clothes.

"Where did you put them?" I asked, turning back to look at her.

"I don't remember," she replied, simply with an impish smile as she sauntered out of the hot spring.

She pushed her silver locks to the side of her neck and bared her bosom, unabashedly. Placing both hands to her erect nipples, she toyed with herself and moaned, softly.

"Besides, the mate ceremony is for wolves who are unmated. Why do I need a mate when I have you?" she attempted to wiggle out of her G-string when I turned away from her and walked straight into the rose bushes. I wasn't going to last long if she kept this up.

I heard her mumble, incoherently about what a kill-joy I was. However, I focused on finding her clothes behind the rose bushes where she had jumped out from in an attempt to clear my mind of the naughty things I wished to do to her. Odin wasn't helping matters as well for he kept trying to take over in making our desires a reality.

Sighting her belted summer dress together with her sandals, I sighed in relief and walked backwards towards her scent. "Here you go," I handed out the clothing items to her and waited for her to collect them. "Come on Yil, Alpha and Luna aren't going to be happy if you aren't present at your first ever mate ceremony," I persuaded, praying that today wasn't one of her stubborn days. Lord knows the she-wolf could be strong headed at times.

"I need your help with the sandal straps because I don't want to walk barefoot on the grass," she whined. I could imagine the petulant grimace on her face and I chuckled, softly at the image.

"Fine princess," I closed my eyes before I turned towards her and crouching, I motioned for her to put her feet forward.

All I had to do now was help with her sandals and then she'd put on her clothes and finally we could go back to the pack...

If only I knew how wrong I was at that very moment.

Without warning, she pushed me onto the soft grass and straddled my form. "Is this position more tempting then?" She slurred, attempting to rid me of my wet shirt.

The steely determination in her emerald eyes told me all that I needed to know and with all surety, I was certain that this had been her plan all along. Snowball was just a distraction. In other words, there was no way I was getting out of this and frankly, I didn't want to. However, I still made one last feeble attempt to deflect my fate.

"You're playing with fire, princess. I'm a man of flesh and right now I've only got a thin string of resolve that you've stretched beyond its limit," I growled as I tried to keep the hem of my shirt tucked into my pants.

"Then consume me Rae. What are you waiting for?" She purred, summoning a ball of fiery energy in her palm. Placing it to the tip of my shirt, she burned straight through it. "Why the hell are you holding back anyway? You know you can never win," She continued her plan to break my will when she wiggled against my erect member and moaned, softly from slightly parted rosebud lips.

The lacy G-string that she wore couldn't even be classified as "bottoms" as the friction between our bodies left little to the imagination.

Clasping her hips to halt her actions and receiving a fiery growl of protest, low in her throat in response, I rolled her onto the soft grass beneath me and placed a knee between her legs to stop her movement. Grasping her wrists, I placed them above her head and brought my face closer to hers. Her chest rose up, rhythmically, in eager anticipation as I trailed my tongue up her belly and towards the tip of her breasts where I sucked hard on a nipple.

"More, give me more," she panted and I chuckled low in my throat. Try as I might, she was an addicting drug that I could never get enough of. I was hooked for life.

"Oh, I'll give you more than more, princess...." I promised, darkly as I eyed her in lust. Reaching over her, I grabbed her belt and tied her wrists, firmly, with it. "...because you're all mine just as I am yours," I breathed as she smiled and capturing her lips between my teeth, I bit her, hard, before nursing the sting away with a euphoric kiss.

┌(End of flashback)┘

Abruptly, the holographic depictions of time past drew to a close as I stood up from the soft grass and turned my back to the hot spring.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

My eyes were positioned in tightly shut forms and my wrists lay folded, rigidly, by my sides.

What exactly was I doing, thinking that I could ever forget about Yil? She was a part and parcel of my whole existence. Moving on from her would only be possible if the Sky Lordians were to rewrite my life story. She was and would always be my everything and it hurt to think that "he" had her now.

Did she moan out "his" name just like she had done to me, several times? Did "he" give her ecstacy just like I did? Most importantly, was she in love with "him" the way she had been with me?

The answers to these questions drove me insane and clutching my pulsating chest, I put a fist to my mouth and muffled the sounds of my wails. I could never move on from her, at least not like this. I had to take the final route. It was the only way I could live again.

A moment passed by in slow intermission before my hyperventilation finally quieted. I gathered my discarded satchel from the grass and levitated myself over the forceful suction of the power vortex. The kaleidoscopic walled division had assumed a gloomy aura. It's dull colours brightened closer to the surface and then dimmed again as they retreated into its eerie essence.

Had my sadness in any way affected it's once lively aura?

Peering closely at the viel, I noticed that there was an inconspicuous tear, not far from where the power vortex lay. Frigid mists of air, flittered through the opening in a gust and the more I stared at the oddity, the more it assumed the structure of a person.

The snow-white hair was the first noticeable aspect of the silhouette before a ruby-coloured bodycon tube dress snared my attention. Her small waist led to the slender formation of her womanly curves and looking towards her pert bosom, I saw a familiar detachable heart necklace around her neck.

"Rae," she called out softly and my eyes automatically gravitated towards her face.

Surely, I had longed for her with all my being. So much so that my body's defense mechanism sought to protect me from the devastating effects of grief and as such had thought her up to life.

"Y-yil?" I choked out with a rub to my eyes in disbelief and she smiled. I took small, cautious steps towards her, wanting to feel her touch when she began to transform right before my eyes.

Silvery-tresses turned ravine black like the midnight sky and her alluring features changed into the innocent yet darkly calculating demeanour of an enticing seductress. Her waist narrowed even further and her voluptuous hips stretched the fabric of the bodycon dress into a short, sultry, high-neck evening gown.

Repressed memories poured into my consciousness, rapidly and looking back at her, I found myself staring face to face with the female who had attacked me at Faerie Kingdom.

"We meet again white-wolf. Aren't you happy to see me? I mean, I know I am," she stated in a controlled, emotionless tone as her eyelashes flickered upwards, slowly, to reveal a pair of translucent, shiny irises.

I growled a restrained warning as she sauntered forward and she smiled, slowly.

"Ah, I see," she breathed, softly. "You didn't take kindly to me coming as her, now did you?" She mocked, arching a perfectly shaped eyebrow. "The plan was for her features to act as a disguise for easier access into your pack but seeing as you are here already, then they'll be no need for that," she explained, quite relieved that she didn't have to waste her time.

"What do you want from me, you fiend?" I snarled with raised hackles.

This creature was dangerous, whatever she was, and for some reason she was after me.

How had she even known about Yil? What were the extent of her powers? And how had she gotten into the pack?

I looked back at the tear behind her and refused to believe the speculations that buzzed fervently within my mind. Surely, it couldn't be.

"I'll let that statement pass just this once seeing as you are unfamiliar with my rules," I snapped out of my internal musings just in time to catch her words. Snaring my attention, she tossed her hair behind her back, daintily, in an effort to hide her irritation before she held my stare. "Firstly, I don't take kindly to being called names," she warned with a cold chuckle as I stood transfixed by a hypnotic gaze. "Secondly, I answer to no one much less a mere mortal such as yourself," she continued, moving closer to me as my oxygen supply began to deplete.

Try as I might to force the air down into my lungs, my body refused to heed to my instructions and I found myself involuntarily holding my breath at the command of her compelling mind control.

"And lastly, the less talking and resisting you do, the better for you and I....." she paused, letting her words sink in as my heart rate dulled to an almost non-existent beat. ".... because otherwise, they'd be severe consequences," she whispered, eerily.

Internally, I fought hard to claw at the pressure that continued to weigh down heavily on my tired heart. However, externally all I could do was stand and stare, expressionlessly as the dark, peaceful depths of unconsciousness nursed me into a soothing slumber.

The power technique she employed was similar to the Airian elemental trick of induced unconsciousness. It worked just like a sedative and watching her serene, unbothered expression, I deduced that rather than finish up where she had left off, she in fact needed me alive this time. But for what reason? And why the change of heart?

My muscles turned lax, the weaker I became and swaying on my feet, I dropped to my knees.

"It won't be long now and you'll be in a much peaceful place," she soothed, coming to crouch just a few paces from where I was hunched over in pain.

My eyes lifted up of their own accord at the sound of her voice. However, even that gesture was too much for my ailing body and trying not to lose my grip on reality, I directed my gaze in haphazard patterns about her face. It was here that I noticed the vial of red substance dangling freely around her neck. It's glowy exterior matched the colour of her eyes as well as the familiar gold chain that lay underneath it.

"Mine," I wheezed in a hoarse whisper when I noticed that she had my detachable heart gold chain in her possession. Now that I thought of it, I never did get the chance to dispose of it in the well.

The feelings of resentment began to brew, strongly, within me at her audacity to take what was rightly mine and channeling that fury towards the compulsion that weighed, heavily, upon me, I broke through her mind-control barrier with force.

"What the hell!" She hissed as the gust of wind propelled her backwards into a tree.

The rush of oxygen into my system burned my nostrils and lung passageway. The cloudy dots, lining my vision cleared, somewhat, and I staggered up to my feet with difficulty.

"I have rules of my own that you must obey as well and one of them is refraining from taking what is mine," I growled, baring my fangs.

"Oh is that so?" She jeered, rising to her feet and placing one of the detachable hearts between her teeth.

"Don't you dare," I warned, poised for attack.

"Make me," she goaded just as I lunged for her with a series of rotatory whirlwind balls.

Arching her back, she dodged the attack and sent a flash of fiery lightning my way. Its static energy crackled towards me with vengeful intensity just as a prickling sensation engulfed my hands. Moving of their own accord, I formed a deflective pose with their structures and conducted the lightning. Its ravenous essence pulsated within me and engulfed my whole being. However, rather than burn in its ignited flames, I stood unscathed and looked around my body in confusion.

I was a hybrid, gifted with the elemental magic of water and air. Fire and earth could never be under my control so why was I able to conduct fiery electricity all of a sudden? Was it an extreme defense mechanism?

Ridding myself of my thoughts and staring heatedly at her, I caught the transient emotion of amazement across her features. I channelled the fiery energy within me in her direction and with a deafening thunderclap, it consumed her whole being in a cloud of thick smoke. Once the power had left my body, I fell to the ground in exhaustion.

The atmosphere reeked of burnt ashes and my throat burned from the continuous gaseous inhalation. My eyes stung from the smoke and I settled into a convulsive cough that racked my whole form.

I had to get back to the pack to warn the others of her presence.

The clouds of smoke finally settled to reveal the veil of dividence and looking around in confusion, I noticed that nothing was amiss. It was almost like the encounter never happened.

Where was she?

The roar of the vortex drew my attention back to the wall and I noticed that the tear had now grown even wider than before.

The veil between our world and the outside world had begun to weaken. Our magical protection was beginning to wane and with time we would become more visible to every creature we had purposefully separated ourselves from.

Grave times were upon us and I needed to alert Measer Fern and the Alpha immediately.

I scrambled up to my feet, disorientedly and began to sway towards the pack's direction. The more steps I took, the shallow and more difficult my breathing became. My insides twisted, instantaneously, almost as if someone had turned me upside down. I tripped on my own feet and fell face forward into the dirt.

My muscles refused to move and a cool haze of euphoria descended upon me. The feeling was oddly similar to an experience I had at Faerie Kingdom. Just before I woke up in one of Queen Liras' chambers.

The visual memories that had just unfurled a moment ago began to evade my senses in a flurry of activity. They escaped my grips just like sand in an hourglass and almost like someone had pressed a rewind button to my life, I watched the encounter with the mystical female fade away to be replaced by a final frame of me by the hot-spring, reminiscing over Yil.

Distant agitated voices could be heard as they moved, closer, to where I laid. "I swear on my life, you all have to believe me. I saw the strike of conducted fiery energy coming from this direction. I have sincerely never seen anything like it in my life,"

"I can vouch for his word because I heard it as well,"

Combined murmurs of agreement reverberated all through their nearing group but all that concerned me was the reason behind my crippling weakness and the overwhelming heat sensation that pulsed sporadically within me.

I desperately needed to get over Yil before I lost my mind and I knew just how to go about it. It wouldn't be easy but I'd have to try.

Now I just had to think of how to get up from this murk.
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