"Enough!" Carina's voice rang through the clearing as she watched how this situation would unfold, once both parties were not willing to back down. "Step back!"
"Carina! You can't do that!" The centaur, who was standing next to her grabbed her upper arms and glowered. "Don't you remember what that beast had done to our kind?!"
The white lycan took a defensive stance as he tried to wriggle his neck from Hope's tight hug, if his mate kept doing this and the battle broke out, he wouldn't be able to move freely.
However, that was not the thing that Hope wanted. Whether the beast Kace could handle those centaurs--despite his injuries, or not, the aftermath of this battle wouldn't bring benefit to either the two of them.
"You don't need to remind me." Carina swatted the hand that grabbed her. "But, we oblige to our chief's rule and perspicacity, and that's what exactly I am doing now."
Chiron didn't wish to kill the lycan or his mate. Thus, despite her objection to such an idea, Carina would trust her chief's judgment regarding his decision.
Hope sighed in relief when she heard what Carina said. If she didn't step forward, the situation would turn really ugly.
"Step back Zerrn," Carina spoke solemnly, and didn't leave any room for further argumentation.
They were staring at each other's eyes for a while before the centaur named Zerrn nodded his head rigidly and raised his hand wordlessly, as a gesture for the other centaurs to follow him.
Their hooves stepped on the ground heavily as they turned around and left that place, leaving their female centaur near the beast that had ruined their kind centuries ago.
When there were only the three of them, Carina turned around and faced Hope once again. She still averted her eyes from the beast.
"Now, can you ask him to shift back?" Carina talked calmly, but the light in her eyes said more than what she showed.
Hope nodded and stroked the spot on the back of the beast's ears. "Kace…"
The beast's hard gaze softened when his mate touched him and those centaurs were nowhere to be seen, but he still, stubbornly, didn't listen to Hope.
"Kace, we need to treat your wound." Hope frowned when Kace didn't give the response that she wanted. "Your wound keeps bleeding."
His wound wouldn't heal if the arrow wasn't pulled.
Throwing a wary gaze at Hope and slightly snarling at Carina, the beast finally took a step back when it felt everything would be alright once he shifted back to his human form.
Hope watched how his bone cracked and his fur dispersed until it only left Kace's human form with an arrow stabbed on his upper arms. It looked painful to see.
Hope wanted to go to him and hug him, but she was afraid she would hurt him. "Kace, let Carina treat you, your wound…"
However, before Hope could finish her sentence, Kace had grabbed the body of the arrow and pulled it out viciously. He only slightly knitted his brows when he did that, without showing any other sign that he was in pain.
"Let's go." Kace threw the arrow away and let the blood drip from his wound as he grabbed Hope's hand to take her away from there.
"Kace, but your wound needs to be treated." Hope complained.
"Just give it some time, it will heal," Kace spoke in a flat tone, he didn't even stop to look at Carina.
"Carina, I am sorry," Hope couldn't stop Kace from dragging her away, thus she only could look at the female centaur apologetically.
Carina didn't move, her expression didn't even change when she watched how Kace walked away. She didn't reply to Hope's apology and just turned around to go in a different direction.
"Stop," Hope pulled her hand from Kace's tight grip, not tight enough to hurt her, but it was still impossible for Hope to free herself. "Stop!" Hope almost screamed when Kace didn't even listen to her.
They were walking back to The Loris' house, Hope assumed since she really couldn't remember the way back home, the trees around them looked similar, yet with Kace's remarkable sense there was nothing to be worried about.
"Kace we need to talk! You cannot treat me like a kid forever!" Hope let out a frustrated groan when Kace didn't even budge, that man walked straight like a soldier being called for duty.
In the end, Hope grabbed Kace's shirt and bit his hand as hard as she could. Really, Kace's hand was the hardest meat that Hope ever bit, she felt her tooth fall off upon trying it.
Fortunately, that method worked for the lycan as he stopped walking and glanced down at the top of Hope's head, her black long hair covered her face.
"I stop walking, you can stop biting me." Kace said impassively, but there was a flicker of amus.e.m.e.nt that crossed his ocean blue eyes. "What do you want to talk about?" He asked when Hope stopped biting him, touching her teeth as if she was afraid she would lose them.
Hope didn't miss the chance to glare at him first before she vented out her frustration. "Why did you treat Carina like that? She just wanted to help you!"
"I don't need her help." Kace showed his left arm, which had stopped bleeding. It seemed he, indeed, didn't need Carina's magic to heal him.
But, still…
"You can talk to her or at least you can treat her better than just walked away without saying anything." Hope complained, she felt bad for Carina, when all the female centaur did was to help them.
"There is nothing that we need to talk about." Kace crossed his arms in a defensive stance. The gesture that could be interpreted as someone who didn't wish to talk about what they really felt.
Hope narrowed her eyes, "Kace, do you know? When you shut people out, you will just lock yourself in a box that makes you feel a lot worse."