The Mission of The Damned

"Why? Were your feelings hurt? Fuck off and focus" Rania said to Jihoon, her voice full of scorn like she wanted Jihoon to fuck off. Of course, the feeling was mutual, but at least one of them was sane enough to admit it, right?

"You realize you threatened the king of all werewolves?" Jihoon asked, like he was trigon to make sure Rania knew what the consequences were. But then he was still failing to remember that the woman had nothing to lose.

"He made the first threat. I just returned the favor," Rania said nonchalantly. Nothing about what she had done at the royal palace spelled red flags for her. If anything, she had just made a deal with the devil himself.

She had given the king a choice.

She had ensured that the king would protect Dalrae at any cost. 

Even king Seojoon knew that if anything so much as happened to Dalrae, Rania would burn down the whole of Obren, and if the other supernaturals were involved she wouldn't waste time in bringing them all down and to ashes.

That was also one of the reasons the king admired Kim Rania. She never hesitated to tell what he wanted and how she wanted it, braised, Rania had always been a loyal wolf to Obren, so the king had no reasons to doubt her.

While Rania was crazy, she would fulfill her part of the bargain. No matter how long it took, because as long as she accepted the mission, as long as she had said yes to walking the cove lands, Rania would always finish her mission.

"By calling his son weak?" Jihoon asked, almost like he wanted to confirm whether Rania was in the right mind to go on such a dangerous mission. The more they talked, the more Jihoon was worried about the sanity of his mission partner. 

Everyone had heard of Kim Rania, and they knew her by name, they knew what she was capable of and they were all aware of how brutal the young miss was. It was almost like they never wanted to cross her.

The winds always paused at the mention of her name and the skies cried whenever Rania wanted to talk to them. It was all a sight so common, but the most important thing was that Rania had a lot of enemies. Not that she had made them herself.

The only enemy she knew of and one she was aware hated her was Jihoon, and funnily enough, they had been trusted with the safety of the crown prince. She never acknowledged other enemies, because she didn't care.

What could go wrong, right?

"Isn't he a coward?" Rania asked.

"What is it with your hatred for weak people?" Jihoon responded quietly, almost showing his vulnerability. 

His voice was different, like he wanted to understand what it was about Rania and the weak people that made her so angry. Then again, was Rania mad at weak people? Or was Rania scared of being weak, and what weaknesses made her do?

She was cruel and knew her people would spread the word about her cruelty. She knew they would let the world know and she knew she would be judged and even then, she did it anyway.

Kim Rania always did things with a reason, so what reason had it been this time?

"Why do you care so much?" Rania carelessly responded to Jihoon, before adding, "don't tell me you felt bad for them. That's low, even for you."

Jihoon looked at Rania again, this time, putting their baggage and food that the king had given them on the ground. They were not even that far from the palace and this woman was already acting all more unhinged than him.

Maybe Rania was broken, but what if she loved making people suffer just because she could? Rubbing salt on the king and queen's wounds had been a little too cruel. She shouldn't have done it, but Rania didn't care.

She always did what she wanted, but did she?

"I don't know why you're so difficult," Jihoon sighed.

"Shut up. Okay? Just shut up if you have nothing to say. My brain is already thinking of ways to make sure we finish the mission. If you're not going to help, then shut it, or I may just have to kill you before the day I set to murder you reaches.

"Let's finish this mission first, because if you push your murder date to today, I will still have to deal with every annoying being along the way, and I don't have that much patience," Rania scowled at Jihoon.

She didn't know why he was acting all like the temperance of peace when he was just like her, cruel and crazy.

They were not saints, and they both knew that.

"Okay, fine. Whatever floats your boat, oh high priestess of zero fucks." Jihoon said before they continued walking in silence.

"No matter the cost, bring my son home," the king's words rang in Jihoon's ears.

He had been wondering what it was, or who had suggested their names to the Obren kingdom. Surely, two alphas known for their carelessness and pure spite for each other weren't exactly a good fit for any mission whatsoever.

Much less, a mission that needed both of them to work together. It was risky and probably not worth the time and effort, yet they had been summoned to the Obren palace.

Jihoon knew he wasn't in the right state of mind to work with Rania and yet when his father had shown up and told him of the mission, he knew he had to go. No one had forced him, if anything, they had choices.

They could agree and not go to the alpha camp, or they could refuse the mission and go to the alpha camp. He would have been free of Rania. He wouldn't have had to deal with the wicked wife of the devil, but he hadn't disagreed.

'What was her crime?' Jihoon thought to himself as he watched Rania walk before him. 

The two of them were impossible allies, and the king surely had to have known that. But why would he pair them together? Then again, they had both shown up when they were called, so it wasn't like they would be able to back out now.

Granted, Jihoon had shown up to the Obren palace for the mission details, but he had more pressing issues. His main reason for coming on this mission was to get information from Rania.

He wanted answers; but he knew he would never be able to get if it was just him and Rania at the alpha camp. Sure, they hated each other, but Jihoon needed closure. He needed to know what had angered Rania so badly, that she murdered his mate.

On that battlefield, Jihoon hadn't seen them have any issues. If anything, there was never a day when Rania and Yanna had interacted, and yet the first time they were on the battlefield, Kim Rania hadn't followed the rules of war.

Rania had not challenged the future Luna of Calindra. She just identified Yanna among the hundreds of Calindra and Incayon wolves and dug her sword into her. It wasn't a fair fight, never had been. There had never been a fight.

Just his beautiful mate, murdered in cold blood, by the psychotic alpha female of Incayon, without any provocation whatsoever. Yanna's shocked eyes haunted Jihoon to date and if he could he would murder Rania. But he needed to know.

"Rania."