Paradise ✾ A Wolf's Rain Story ✾

Chapter Seven

Kiba gazed out over the horizon, the light of the moon easily showing him where everything was. The rest of the pack was asleep behind him and, if it wasn't for their need for sleep, he would press them to continue. He was so close, he could feel it. Cheza, the Flower Maiden. The Lunar Flower. Their key to Paradise. She was so close yet, with all of this stopping they were having to do for various reasons, he felt as if she were so far away.

The sound of feet shuffling behind him soon caught his attention and he turned to look over his shoulder, his dark brown hair blowing in front of his blue-green eyes which widened slightly when they landed on Kairi's form.

The shorter female came to a stop next to Kiba, crossing her arms over her chest and causing the tie that she wore to shift around. Kiba quickly flicked his gaze forward once more, not wanting to get caught paying her any kind of attention like that. He didn't want her to think that he thought of her like that.

"You should let me watch out for us," Kairi stated softly, glancing up at him curiously.

Kiba stood there silently for a few moments before he shook his head, shutting his eyes.

"There's no need for that, Kairi. I'm not tired," he stated, opening his eyes and gazing down at her once more.

Kairi looked up at Kiba with a confused expression on her face. She couldn't understand why Kiba didn't care for himself as much as he cared for his pack; wouldn't that basically be the same thing anyways? Kiba may not say it out loud, but pretty much everyone was well aware of his Alpha status in their pack. If their Alpha was hurt, then they were hurt as well.

"Should it matter if you're tired or not?" she questioned, turning to look out over the dark landscape right along with him.

Kiba found himself smiling, tucking his hands in his jeans pockets. He liked that Kairi was acting so concerned about him, but he truly was fine. Kiba would rather stay up all night himself than to have all of the others grow tired with staying up like he did.

"It doesn't matter to me, so long as you and the others aren't tired," Kiba stated simply, although there was much more emotion in his voice than his words let on.

That was one thing that Kairi liked about Kiba; he could say something extremely simple yet he would still put more emotion behind it than any human poet ever could have done in their own works.

"Besides, tonight, rest is definitely needed for you and your sister. She was injured and your worrying caused you to become stressed and physically exhausted," Kiba said softly and when Kairi tried to protest, he raised a hand to cut her off, turning to face her and resting his hand on her shoulder.

"Please, go back inside and get some sleep. I'll be fine and should I need anything, I'll let you know," he said, practically whispered to her, as his hand moved of it's own accord to take a lock of her dark purple hair between his fingers, twirling it softly.

Kairi stared up into his eyes, not able to look away, until Kiba seemed to realize what he was doing. Once more, his eyes widened and he quickly dropped his hand away from her, turning and walking further out of the cave and away from her.

Frowning slightly, both at the feeling of being abandoned by his lack of presence and the fluttering she had felt because of his actions, Kairi turned and did as he requested, curling up next to Roja and Hige to fall back to sleep.

|*|*|*|

The sound of an annoyed growl had Kairi waking up hours later. Blinking groggily, she lifted her head and looked across to the other side of the cave. What she found had her blinking even more, this time in confusion.