The Wolf [A Yandere Tale]

Ch.4: Belladonna.

Song: Aftermath - Caravan Palace.

“B-Bal?”

Balthazar’s eyes softens at the sight of the scared princess and takes his hand off her throat. Tilting his head on confusion, he leans down to place his face on her neck. He starts sniffing her from her neck to her shoulder and then down to her hand.

“What are you doing?” she mutters.

He frowns and looks at her eyes “Why do you have his smell on you?”

“What smell?” she was a little intimidated at his strange approach without mentioning that he had his face a few inches away from hers.

“Don’t play dumb with me!” he then groans and takes a step back while holding his side.

“What?” she sits up and notices that he was bleeding “Bal!” she gets closer to the man.

“I’m fine” he mutters and looks at her eyes “You didn’t answer my question”

“Bal, let me heal you…”

“Answer me” he frowns.

“I don’t understand what smell you are talking”

“You have the smell of his blood on your hands”

“Blood?” she looks down at her hands “I’m a healer, Bal” she looks at his face “And when I heal people, my hands tend to stain with blood”

“You healed the bastard that stabbed me” he glares at her. He felt a little betrayed.

She stands still for a second “You killed my knights, didn’t you?”

He sighs and looks to the side “They were trying to steal Atropa Belladonna”

“Atropa Belladonna?” she thinks for a second “That’s an extremely poisonous plant… Why would they do that?”

“Hell if I know…” he looks at her “Those were your knights, you should know”

(Y/n) stands up and walks towards her horse. Balthazar never took his eyes off her, he knew that now she wouldn’t visit him anymore, but he couldn’t let those guards get away with destroying his woods.

However, (Y/n) grabs a bag that was on the saddle of the horse and walks back to the man sitting on the ground.

She kneels in front of him and looks at his wound “Please let me heal you”

“It’ll heal on its own”

“Balthazar” she looks at his eyes.

He was too proud to ask for help, but it was true that the wound felt like it was burning him. Sighing, he takes his hand away from the wound and lets her work on it.

“Do you need a somniferous?” she cleans his wound.

“No” he grumbles. He didn’t want to admit it but he felt glad that she was treating him like this.

“Okay” she starts suturing the wound.

“Don’t you hate me?”

She shakes her head “The Raven Guards only follow the direct order of the highest royalty… if they entered The Somber Woods to take that plant is because someone on my family asked them to do it”

“Why would they ask that?”

She looks at his eyes and smile gently “To kill me, of course” she finishes the suture.

His eyes widen for a second as his protective instinct starts to kick in.

“Why!?”

She flinches for his sudden outburst and looks at her bag searching for bandages.

“Because I’m the future queen, of course. Three of my older brothers still live on the castle and they don’t like me”

“Aren’t you blood related?”

“We are”

“Then, why?”

“Hatred, greed, envy… If I wasn’t born they would fight with each other for the rights of the crown but when I born my father knew that I was the more fitted to be the one who held the crown” she then sighs “I don’t have a bandage here”

He really couldn’t understand the human kind, her brothers were trying to kill her just for a stupid title, and she… she wasn’t afraid, he couldn’t smell fear nor panic on her. She had a determinate look on her eyes.

“It’s okay” he mutters looking down at her.

“It is not” she then takes her hood off and grabs her dagger ripping it off “I don’t like leaving my jobs unfinished”

She gets closer to him wrapping her arms around his torso and starts bandaging him.

Balthazar feels the speed of his heartbeat getting faster at the gentle touch of the woman.

“There” she takes a step back “See?” she showed her hands “I healed you and now I have your blood on my hands”

He looks at her hands, he rather having his smell on her than that bastard’s smell.

She stands up and walks to the lake to wash her hands. He looked down where she bandaged him, it was the first time that someone had done this for him. Looking up, he sees the woman standing in front of him.

“What?”

She was looking at his wolf-ears “…Can I touch them?” she mutters.

He blushes and nods.

She smiles and slowly touches his ears “So adorable!” she hugs his head closer to her chest while playing with his ears.

He tried so hard to not appear exited for her closeness but his tail was betraying him.

“Is that your tail?” she sees something moving under his cape.

He groans and pushes her gently away.

“Don’t you know anything about werewolves?”

“Not really, I was too busy learning about the human body” she walks closer to him and plays with his ears again “So I’ll just assume that you are like a big, angry puppy”

He glares at her and grabs her wrists pulling her down “I’m not a big, angry puppy”

She giggles and looks at his eyes “You look like one”

He rolls his eyes and pulls her to his chest sitting her on his lap.

“You are the smallest human that I’ve ever seen” he pats her head.

She rolls her eyes and laughs “I’m not small, you are extremely tall”

He pinches her cheeks pulling them gently “And you’re so squishy”

“Stop” she holds his wrists with a smile on her lips.

He looks down at her eyes while smiling “I think you are more adorable” he lets her cheeks go and holds her hands.

“Oh, don’t be so over-confident, I can beat you up if I want to”

“I want to see you try” he smirks and pins her down on the ground holding her hands over her head.

“Do not test me” she had a sly smirk on her lips.

He leans his face closer to hers “Or what?”

She didn’t take her eyes off his yellow ones. They were mesmerizing, it was like two bright lanterns on the middle of the night.

And for him, he never thought that he would see something more beautiful than the woods that he loves so much.

The hold on her hands loosened as she frees one of her hands to caresses his cheek.

Balthazar leans at her touch and closes his eyes. It has been so long since he felt this kind of peace.

He sighs and sits down laying his back on the tree as he holds her close to his chest.

“I have to go, Bal” she mutters.

“They want you dead” he covers her body with his cape as well.

“I’ll never die without a fight” she yawns.

He chuckles and pets her head “I know you won’t, but I just want to make sure that you are going to be safe tonight”

“Bal” she starts to feel sleepy.

“Just for tonight” he looks at her.

She cuddles on his arms “Just for tonight”

He rests his head on hers and closes his eyes. For the first time on his life he sees a human different of the ones he encountered before. If someone like her gets to be queen then maybe humanity will get better.

He closes his eyes. He felt comforted with her on his arms.

~

When the rays of the sun hit her face, (Y/n) groans and hides her face on a chest, she hears a low chuckle and opens her eyes to see a pair of gray eyes looking down at her.

“You talk when you are asleep”

She blushes and looks down “I-I would like to get up now”

“No, it’s too cold and you stupidly rip off your hood. You have to wait a couple of hours”

“It wasn’t a question” she demands.

He shrugs “Okay” he opens his cape as she quickly gets up from her comfortable place, and just like he said, it was freezing.

The cold wind runs on her body making her shiver, her body begged her to run back to the man’s arms and go back to sleep.

“So?” he smirks.

She glares at him “I-It’s not even that cold”

But he wasn’t the only one with a big pride.

She walks towards her horse that was drinking water and gently pets his head “Let’s go, Sable”

The horse takes a step back and gets ready to get going.

(Y/n) hops on the horse and looks at the man that was sitting under the shadow of the tree. He didn’t have the wolf ears from before.

Balthazar, stands up and walks closer to the woman.

“Are you sure that you aren’t cold?”

“I’m fine” she avoids his eyes.

He smiles at her pout and then sighs “(Y/n)…”

She looks at him.

“If your life is on danger, just yell my name”

She tilts her head “And?”

“And I will come to your aid”

Her eyes widen for a second “Why do you care?”

He frowns “I-I don’t! It just…” he tries to think an excuse “You healed me… It’s only fair if I aid you when you need me”

She smiles “Okay” she pats his head “Good puppy”

He glares at her “How dare—!?”

“HYA!” the black horse starts running away from the mad man.

He looks at her as she gets away with a smile on her lips.

He places a hand where his wound is and smiles at the thought of the woman. He then starts to worry for her.

She didn’t tell him that she was going to come back.

What if she never comes back? What if her family kills her?

Anxiety starts building on his chest as his calm gray eyes were slowly turning on an alarming yellow.

~

(Y/n) enters the castle and tries to sneak back to her room when a voice stopped her.

“Where were you?”

(Y/n) silently groans and turns around to face the queen behind her.

“My queen” she bows and looks at the woman “I went to the garden to collect more Poppy” she raises the bag on her hand.

The older woman raises an eyebrow “You don’t have to do those kind of things, we have servants for that reason”

She wanted to roll her eyes, she knew that arguing with the queen will be useless “Yes, my queen. I will think of that next time, now, if you excuse me I have to check on the damaged knight” she turns around and starts walking away from her.

She enters to the medic room and sees her friend sitting on the bed, ready to get up.

“Damian” she sighs and walks closer to him.

“Love” his face lights up when he sees her.

“Don’t get up, you aren’t fully recovered” she places a hand on his shoulder.

He holds her hand and places a kiss on her knuckles “I’m feeling fine”

“It’s an order” she opens the shelf and takes a bandage “I have to change your bandage”

He looks at her and nods as she takes his old bandage.

“Damian” she starts speaking.

“What is it?”

“Who sent you for the Atropa Belladonna?” she looks at his face.

“Why would you ask that?” he smiles at her “Did you spend the night worrying about me?”

“Damian…”

He chuckles and caresses her cheek “I’m sorry, princess but I promised under oath that I won’t give details of the mission”
She sighs “I understand” she starts wrapping the new bandage around his chest.

He didn’t take his eyes off her “So… How did you know that we were searching an Atropa Belladonna?”