Part 3: Paper Heart

If there are boundaries, I will try to knock them down... I’m latching on

- Sam Smith

         Something small sniffed at his nose. Chanyeol was lying lazily in his neat nest of heated clothes. He was dozing off actually, feeling achy all over, exhaustion brought over from his late night hunt. The seeking nose bumped against nose again and his face scrunched up when whiskers annoyingly slapped him. Reluctantly, he opened his eyes when he heard the equally annoyed meows – the one who disturbed him wanting attention fast. An expectant cub was looking at him.

         Chanyeol groaned and twisted his body so he was facing the other side, which was received by an indignant squawk from the kit. Before long, it jumped onto Chanyeol’s lax body scrambling ungracefully, climbed him (Chanyeol growled in warning when the cub’s sharp claws poked his belly, one of these days Chanyeol would find a way to trim those talons blunt) and its fuzzy little head tried to worm under Chanyeol’s front legs. Blindly, Chanyeol lifted his limb to accommodate the little brat that purred when he managed to cuddle against Chanyeol, its face happily smushed into Chanyeol’s snow-coloured bosom.

         However, it meowed again. Chanyeol mentally grunted. When Chanyeol made no audible reply, still wanting to sleep, it head-butted Chanyeol under the jaw and Chanyeol frowned with eyes closed. Another rough nudge made him sigh. Resigning to a fate of constant interruption, Chanyeol lifted his head and stared at the excited cub (properly snuggled in his embrace).

         Was wondering when I’d see your little again. Going off on your own when I tell you to stay put, Chanyeol’s voice was dripping with sarcasm and the little cub managed to look at him sheepishly. It meowed again and Chanyeol’s head instantly filled with bursts of colours – green, white and golden.

         It found a butterfly and was chasing it.

         Oh joy, said Chanyeol. If he could roll his eyes in his cat form, he would. He didn’t say anything else and stared hard at the cub to show how angry and worried he was when the little angel decided he was big enough to go off on his own and didn’t even reply to any of Chanyeol’s panicked calls some time ago. To show how irritated he was, Chanyeol shoved the little fuzzy head down, gently of course and got up. He walked to the other side of the small tent and plopped his hind down, fully intending to ignore his disobedient cub.        

         Sadness filled his heart all of a sudden and Chanyeol’s ear twitched. The kit was not above using his emotions to have Chanyeol’s attention. 

         The first time it happened, Chanyeol was feeding the babe and gently purring at it, his paw slowly brushing against the kit’s fuzzy newborn fur. Drowsiness hit him hard out of nowhere and the feeling of warmth and safety followed. It took awhile for Chanyeol to pick up on the fact that those were not his emotions and he looked at the then snoozing kit and marvelled at how the kit was able to project his thoughts. And he was only about three months old if Chanyeol calculated correctly. It made Chanyeol ached for his home, his parents and his siblings and wondered if he too could do the same when he was a cub. Did he project so early? Did his siblings?

         From then on, Chanyeol would see or feel something at the most random of times courtesy of the little one. Following the sentiment sharings, Chanyeol began to openly talk to the kitten, just sweet nothings and constant coos when Chanyeol found the cub adorable. Although it understood Chanyeol most of the time, it had yet to say something to him other than pathetic yowling and curious mewls. What a bundle of joy.

         Before long, seven months had passed. And Chanyeol became too attached.

-II-

         “Jagi?”

         “Eo?” Soeun replied, body still pliant and eyes shut. Her tiny body swayed when warm weight settled onto her bed. There was a kiss atop her mop of auburn hair and subconsciously she smiled. Strong yet gentle warm hand ran down her back and she shivered in pleasure, body arching in search of her mate’s body.

         “Good morning, honey,” Jaerim whispered in her ear. His scent enveloped her sensitive sense as his nose ran down the back of her neck – scent-marking the young dame as his.

         “Morning,” Soeun sighed.

         She blindly searched for Jaerim, and he snagged her cold hand into his. Soeun felt his lips, curled into a small smile, against her knuckles before he rubbed her chills away. Her ears twitched as Jaerim settled his powerful and bigger body beside hers, that his build almost ensconced her and he wrapped his toned arms around her flat belly.

         Soeun turned so her face was buried into Jaerim’s taut chest. Giving into instinct, she inhaled deeply and rubbed her sharp nose against her mate’s thin shirt. If it wasn’t for the cold of winter, Jaerim would go around topless and with as little clothing as possible. Ah, it’s so unfortunate, Soeun thought.

         She opened her eyes. And Jaerim was looking at her face with an unreadable expression, eyes shining always so mischievously.

         “What?” Soeun asked amused. Jaerim was… a unique ailure.

         Jaerim grinned, his smile charming. “You’re so beautiful, it’s like Sol gifted you personally to me and you render me breathless.”

         Soeun couldn’t help but laugh. Typical of Jaerim. “My husband, don’t be so weird so early in the morning.”

         Jaerim only kissed the side of . “I like you happy, Soeun. You make me happy.”

         And Soeun couldn’t help thinking that she was happy indeed. When she allowed Jaerim to mate her, she couldn’t think of the time she spent before she was with him that made her insides fluttered. Jaerim made her happy too.

-III-

         Kris settled silently, camouflaging his tawny coat perfectly amongst the few dying bushes, thick and blackened. The rest with multitude shades of green provided cover from the cold wind. He stilled, shoulders hunched, making himself look smaller, as if he was biding his time stalking a prey and he waiting to pounce in for a kill. He had the perfect vantage point from his spot.

         He was hiding. Had been doing so for the past few days. He just had to wait.

         Just then, something up ahead moved, rustling up the green and if Kris could smirk, he would. A few more rustling, and a tiny brown head of a cougar youngling popped out.

         Ever since Kris met the mysterious cub, one that was not from his pride and smelt dangerously of outsiders, Kris began to worry. He began a plan to scout where the cub came from and to see if there was any threat or was there another pride that settled so near to his and that he didn’t know about it sooner was suspicious. The only thing he knew as of that moment was that the child lived somewhere downstream and on the opposite side of his own home.

         It wasn’t hard to hunt down the cub the very next day. Its scent reeked all over the place and Kris thought, perplexed, that there were only two ailure scents – the kit’s and another that smelt so sweet – a dame – that he supposed was its mother. He was in their territory now and he needed to be very careful. When he realised that they were pride-less, rogue ailures, Kris didn’t know what to do. He had never accepted any rogue ailures into his pride, and the ones who came into his territory were part of the exchange with other prides to strengthen their good relationships with others. Not just that, never before had there been any exchange of dames with younglings of their own. Kris backed out a little then when he realised there was no threat, just a tiny family carving a small spot in the forest to live.

But that didn’t mean Kris was not at all still curious of the cub. Their first encounter left a strong impact. It was not something he could dismiss easily.

Before long, he figured out the cub was a handful. It would come out to play some time mid-morning and Kris would shadow it as it moved in every direction it wanted, sometimes slow sometimes too fast and it would paw at anything that it found interesting enough. It would then disappear into the direction it came from when the sun was high up in the sky and would be back prancing around smelling content and full (so it went back to eat, Kris noted). Late afternoon, when Sol would go down for Wol, pink hue tinting the sky, the cub would then again go back. The cycle repeated and Kris became well acquainted with the cub’s schedule.

He found it amusing that the cub never noticed that he was there. What was more interesting was that Kris had never ever seen the child’s mother. Its scent was thick on the cub and the alpha knew that the cub was well loved; it always radiated happiness and Kris basked in its joyful thought projection (and sufficiently fed apparently, the cub was chubby and round but healthy).   

Kris realised gradually that he found a better way to spend his days.

The cub he was stalking currently began to move, first contenting itself by playing with the ground and tumbling around, climbing trees it could but then it perked up and began to run. Kris blinked in surprise. He frowned mentally.

This was not the direction it usually went to. Apprehension dawned unto him as he followed the cub as it made its way to the river. No no…

Kris hastily followed the young as it made its merry way toward the river. When the scent of fresh breeze that wafted from the body of water got stronger, Kris came out of his hiding. The cub still had not noticed him, its small steps nimble as it jumped onto the first stone.

The cub was trying to cross the river and the tide was high. It was an accident waiting to happen. Time began to slow down as Kris watched, in dread, as the kit tumbled down into the water and its head gone under. The water was rushing it down.

Without preamble, Kris dove into the freezing river and managed to see the cub wriggling trying to stay afloat and frantically crying out. Giving his all, he tried swimming closer and closer, calling out to the cub but the current drowned his attempts. The cub could barely hear him. After what felt like forever, Kris managed to reach the youngling and he strongly clamp his jaw around the kit’s body and Kris’ arms burned from exertion as he made his way towards land.

The kit whimpered as Kris collapsed on the bank. It fell when the alpha dropped it from his maw. The poor shivering mess curled itself smaller and Kris’ chest rumbled to sooth it. Kris nudged it and sniffed to check if there was any injury and he thanked Sol nothing worse happened. The cub was only traumatised, no permanent harm done.

Emotions he couldn’t dissect filled Kris. Pitying the cub, Kris picked it up again and found the closest spot he deemed fine and settled the cub down. He rearranged his massive body to make a fort against the wind as he shared his body heat with it. The cub was quiet, only its sniffles told Kris it was fine and breathing.

Kris shushed it, you’re safe now, cub. Go to sleep, you’re exhausted.

The kit complied and before long, Kris got a sleeping cub, slightly wet but breathing calm and deep. Kris wanted to sleep along but he was afraid something wrong would happen when he’s unconscious.

A threatening growl made him jumped in defense, the cub hidden behind his bulk and his chest rumbled back, strong that commanded an Alpha’s power.

But Kris was instantly frozen.

In front of him was a magnificent ailure, fur golden and snow white as if reflecting Sol’s rays standing proud and elegant, whiskey-coloured eyes narrowing at him in a barely controlled rage. There was a diamond on its forehead like a crown on a king, amplifying its breathless magnificence. There were black marks on its legs that Kris had never seen before. Exotic.

Stay away from my cub, it snapped at Kris; hackles bristling challengingly.

It’s a sabertooth dame and it was very, very angry.

Kris’ eyes widened in surprise. This was the cub’s mother. And Kris was in trouble, in her territory and Kris had touched her child without permission. She’s prepared to fight him, her long sharp claws out.

And it looked like she’s not backing down.    

Author's special thanks to:

waakira_  - I hope you waited long enough but not too long (I have no idea what I'm trying to say here honestly). Thank you for loving this story when it's still just a seedling. I hope you enjoy this chapter and I cannot answer your question or it'll be a big spoiler lol. Thank you for reading and dropping a comment.

ofpurpleskies - Thank you. I keep thinking of how to make my stories interesting and I hope this chapter is done well enough for it to garner a good rep from you again (I'm a er for compliments lol. Nah, I just like getting feedbacks and I don't discriminate against critical ones and the complimentary ones). Hope you enjoy this chapter!

WuYeol90 - Hello, haven't talked to you in ages. How you doing, love? I hope you'll continue reading and unfortunately, I cannot answer you question. Read more and anticipate my coming chapters (fair warning, they come out once every blue moon) to have your musings answered. But for now, please do enjoy my chapter and thank you for commenting on the last one.

Inaneidolon - Hello there. Do you know how hard it is for me to spell you name? Lol. I had to break it down into 3 syllables. Anyway~ Thank you for reading and it's a pleasure to... uh... 'get you' I suppose. Please don't go mentally unstable on my account, it'll be on my conscience forever. For the love of Krisyeol haha. Thank you for things in general, I hope you'll like this chapter too. Happy reading.

decims - Hello~ love the name btw, it's a good... huh... what's the word? Substitute doesn't sound right, a word play? Anyway, I'm getting off-topic. So, thank you for reading and commenting. I hope you'll enjoy this third chapter of Limerence as well.

To the lovely 40 subscibers, thank you very much for liking this story enough to follow it. And to the voters, massive thanks to WUPARK92, prettykidinyellow, Kaynne, WuYeol90, anieina and --chanyeolla. Thanks so much, it means a lot to me!

That's all from me and enjoy life and today!