Him. Not the wolf. Him.

He should not be thinking of her as much as he does. Reacting to her. Craving her.

Not when they agreed to just sex with each other, for their own benefits. Not when he does not plan to ever take a mate, or have children.

So, what are all these about? These need, these craving, to be with her all the time in any way and every way?

He took a deep breath, his eyes closed.

It's just sex, he said inwardly.

Lust. No matter how intense and obsessive these feelings are, they are just lust and they will go away with time. His lust will be satiated when he has gotten his full of her sexually, and the feelings will depreciate too.

Then, everything will be alright in his world again. Then, he will be able to let her go when the time for them to part ways comes.

It's just lust, so more sex with her will cure it. It has to.

"Alpha King?"

Degar's voice penetrated his thoughts.

"Mmh?"

"I just spoke with the men on the phone. They are getting the jet ready for our journey back to Naturiah."

"Alright. Thank you, Degar."

Fuck, even the way his heart fluttered at the thought of seeing her again in Naturiah is not a good thing. Shit.

CHAPTER 19. THE OCEAN WHERE THE HEART LIES...

"Eline said, she'll be back from work before noon so that all of us can go out and get some fresh air together." Sandra reminded her best friend as she paced the floor restlessly.

"Well, I'm tired of being indoors, I wanna go out for chrissake," Ismena grumbled.

"You mean the same 'out' you went and was chased by a big Cougar who happened to be a child of barely twelve years old, right?" Eline's eye arched up as she mocked her friend.

Ismena stopped pacing and glared at her friend. "I see that you and Eline have been talking huh?"

Sandra grinned, "What's a girl supposed to do? You've been carrying your big, cranky ass around the house for the past few days, it's so hard to have a reasonable conversation with you."

Unable to say anything about that, Ismena pursed her lips and continued pacing. She HAS been cranky, she admitted to herself inwardly and it's for no other reason than the fact that she misses Wolfaraine badly.

It's been two weeks and two days. She misses him too damn much, so much that it's getting hard to function daily. The thoughts of him practically live with her every time. Even in her dreams.

God, she misses him so much. Her body misses him like an addict in withdrawal will miss his drugs. It's that bad.

"Eline, bless her heart, has been good company." Sandra continued, flipping through a new page of her novel, "If not, what would I have done in a strange land, with only my cranky best friend as a companion?"

Ismena snorted, "Says a woman that has made it her mission in life to explore the whole of Naturiah since she came here. She has even made more friends than I have, and I've been here first."

Sandra grinned from ear to ear, "What's a girl supposed to do? These people love me so much, and it's so easy to mingle with them. God, it's still hard to believe that they REALLY existed all this while and I didn't know they did. Not even a hint. Just my babies..." She raised her novel, "...to keep my hope alive."

Over the cause of the week, Sandra has explored a good path of Naturiah with Eline while she was at home sulking for nothing. Although the people of Naturiah don't like humans that much, Sandra has managed to become good friends with Normah and Kara—two human females who were mated to cougar changelings.

Ismena has to admit how glad she is that her best friend is adjusting to this place, even though she hasn't seen Alphose after that day they came back from the human world. He dropped them off here at Eline's place and laid an unconscious Sandra on the bed before leaving.

It also surprised her how accommodating Eline was of Sandra. Frankly, she'd expected some kind of problem between them because of...well...because of Eline's relationship with Alphose, but there was nosuch problem. Instead, she'd made things easy for Sandra, even took her around Naturiah.