Chapter 581 - CUTE

"Why are you mad at Lana?" Hope was being held on her waist tightly by the furious lycan when they walked back to the Loris' house. 

Kace didn't shout or anything, he just kept ignoring the girl and this made Hope feel guilty, no matter what, it was her who had pushed Lana to follow Kace, though Kace didn't seem to mind to agree with her suggestion. 

"It was me, who told her to come and help you." Hope glanced at Lana, who was walking a few meters away from them, her stoic expression didn't give away what she was actually feeling inside, but her eyes showed how disappointed she was with Kace's silent treatment. 

"Hope. She left you and I will not accept any excuses for what she did." Kace stopped walking as he faced his little mate. "You can go first," he spoke to Lana and the siblings as they walked past the couple. It seemed this would be another quarrel. 

Mr. and Mrs. Lori had reached their house and opened its door as they were still shaken by what was happening in the village. Bree, in her mother's arms was sleeping peacefully, didn't care for the world. 

Lana threw another glance at Kace before she followed the siblings to enter the house. 

"You don't make any sense Kace," Hope hissed. "I am fine. You should stop treating me like a child."

Kace gritted his teeth when the searing pain on his back returned and his voice became hoarse, yet Hope thought the man was only trying to hold back his anger. "We are in a strange place, in the realm where I don't even know which place is safe for you. With some creatures there, holding a grudge against me!" because he killed their mates.

Kace didn't need to add that explanation, as Hope already knew what he meant. 

"It is you, who is holding a grudge towards yourself. The centaurs could kill me countless times, if they intended to do so, I would have died by now!" Hope remarked. 

It was hard to talk to Kace when he didn't even realize that he had clouded his own judgment with his own fear of those creatures' revenge. The creatures that he had hurt so badly in the past. 

Kace was taken aback when Hope talked about her death. It was hard to hear and even so hard to imagine when the lycan was forced to envision what Hope was talking. He shuddered involuntarily. 

Kace hugged her immediately, pressed her head against his chest. "Please, don't talk like that, you don't know how afraid I am," he spoke softly against her hair. "I will not be mad at Lana anymore, but please don't ever talk like that." 

As odd as it sounded, the lycan was afraid what Hope was saying could actually happen somehow, someday. And he didn't want it to happen.

On the other hand, Hope was speechless. They were in the middle of an argument when out of the blue, Kace was hugging her like this, at this point, and how could she continue to get angry with him?

However, when Hope was about to hug him back, Kace's breathe hitched. "What happened?" Hope frowned, she wanted to free herself, but Kace held her even tighter. 

"No, nothing," He said after taking a deep long breath.

"Your wounds, right?" Hope was quick to realize it. "This is your wound!" It was a statement. "Let me see it."

"No, you don't have to see it. I am fine." Kace buried his nose on the curve of her shoulder, but Hope groaned, annoyed.

"Can you stop saying that you are fine, when you are not? You will not get anything from lying to me, so stop that kind of habit." Hope reprimanded him lightly. 

However, instead of denying her once more, Kace was chuckling upon hearing her berating him. 

"What are you laughing at?" Hope carefully put her hand on his h.i.p.s, she couldn't circle her hand around his waist as she was afraid that gesture would make the pain from his wound get worse. 

"I am sure you pick that bad trait of scolding people from the witch." Kace caressed her back. 

"She taught me well," Hope chuckled. 

It was weird that their argument ended like this in a short amount of time. Because at first, it seemed they wouldn't come into any settlement, when all the tension dissipated the moment Kace acted this way to appease Hope. 

"We need to meet Chiron first thing in the morning," Hope said and this earned a groan from Kace. "We need to find the priestess and he said I can find her."

"Let's talk about that later," Kace grunted. 

Ignoring what Kace was saying, Hope continued. "Your wounds seem to have become worse after the battle earlier, and we still need to find Lidya." 

"Hope, you know." Kace released her body and put her in an arms-length distance to stare into her black obsidian eyes. "If you are a lycan, you will be the female version of the Alpha."

Hope scrunched her nose. "Is that a compliment?"

"Of course," Kace kissed her forehead that made the girl giggled. "Let's go back to the house. We will carry out your plan tomorrow morning."

"Hm… my plan…" Hope hummed. It sounded like she was a leader of this small team. "Kace, do you know what your beast wants to do the first thing he takes over your body?"

Kace scoffed, of course he remembered that. 

This imbecile beast…

Hope laughed when she saw his reaction. "Yes, he wanted to mark me."

"Don't worry, I will not let that thing happen again," Kace mumbled. 

"No," Hope shook her head. "Quite the opposite."

"Huh?" Kace tilted his head to look at his smiling mate. 

"Why don't you mark me?" Hope said casually, as if she was asking for extra allowance. "I was afraid when you suddenly acted like that, but to think about it again, actually, I like your beast. He is cute."

"Cute?" The corner of Kace's lips twitched as he heard that. "You hurt my pride."