Learning the Ways of the Night from the Wolf - Chapter 32

“It hurts…”

The next day, Tina woke to every part of her body howling in protest. As if she’d spent the previous day hauling firewood, even stretching out one arm brought a dull ache.

When she glanced down, she saw the mottled marks that covered her body from the neck down.

“……”

Tina quietly traced the marks scattered across her skin, one by one. The rosy bruises felt like seals the man had left behind, as beautiful as pressed flowers.

After tracing those marks for some time, Tina suddenly realized that the heat was rising in her again, just as it had the day before. The sensation welling from deep in her belly was too vivid to ignore.

Alarmed, Tina got out of bed at once. The abrupt movement drew an involuntary moan. She hurried to the bathroom and began filling the tub. She felt as though she needed to douse herself with cold water to quell the heat that had surged without warning.

“Hah.”

When the tub was full, Tina stepped in and submerged herself completely. The warmth enveloping her body gently unknotted the parts of her that had been clenched tight.

Floating in that drowsy, tender state, Tina’s mind was drawn, as if pulled by a familiar comfort, and drifted naturally to memories of the man from the previous night, as effortlessly as sinking into sleep.

[You may sleep a while longer.]

The night before, when the man had carried her to the bed, she had drifted off atop it.

Between the layers of Tina’s memories, Cain’s voice grew steadily clearer.

The previous night, Tina had been unable to shake her chronic insomnia and had woken again. But unlike all the times before, this time there had been a man keeping watch at her side.

The moment she opened her eyes, relief flooded through her, and Tina wrapped her arms around the man’s waist. He hadn’t vanished. He was simply sitting beside her, quietly stroking her hair. As if to say he would stay with her, always.

Amid the storm-like waves of comfort and relief, Tina pulled herself deeper into the man’s embrace.

“You should sleep.”

When she refused to fall back asleep and clung to him instead, the man gently cupped her chin and spoke.

Their meeting eyes were tender.

“Mmh.”

Tina felt the light pressure against her cheek and shook her head. She didn’t want to close her eyes right now. She was afraid that if she fell asleep, the man would disappear.

“What will it take to get you to sleep soundly again?”

When Tina wrapped her arms around his waist and nestled deeper into him, he wound a strand of her brown hair around his finger and pressed a light kiss to it.

“Look at me, my lady.”

At last, with a quiet sigh, the man guided Tina onto her back so she was looking directly at him.

“Just this once.”

When Tina stared up at him with wide, round eyes, he continued in a low murmur.

“Ah…nnh.”

Before she could even grasp what was about to happen, the man’s hand descended to the juncture of her thighs. His fingers grazed the fine hair just above, then found her exposed peak and began pressing firmly, rubbing in tight, insistent circles.

The sudden intrusion startled her below into a moment of tension, but her body soon adjusted as naturally as accepting something that had always belonged to her, falling into the rhythm the man offered.

“Hah…”

The fingers stroking near her entrance felt so exquisite that Tina kept grasping the thick forearm of the hand that touched her. Whenever he curled his fingertips and raked across her with a scratching motion, goosebumps erupted and her back arched.

Just from the rubbing alone, her entire body twisted of its own accord, and an unbearable pleasure spread from deep in her belly. Without realizing it, Tina guided his hand lower. She ached inside, much deeper down. She wanted the fearsome thing that only he could give her to scratch the itch within.

“Aahh!”

The man didn’t ignore what she wanted. A moment later, his thick fingers drove deep inside her. He grazed the delicate folds at her entrance, then began to press and stir against her depths.

The heat that had been trembling at the brim surged all at once, and as naturally as a reflex, her inner walls clenched tight around what had entered her.

“Mmh— nnh!”

It went without saying that the slick arousal pooling inside her spilled over, running in warm rivulets down the man’s hand.

“Mmnh… I— I want to, too.”

“Yes. Tell me.”

As she hurtled toward the peak, Tina opened her mouth in a rush. Drool ran from her lips, which had fallen shamelessly open.

“I want… I want to touch you too! Mmh, hah… I want to touch you.”

Tina spoke through shallow, desperate breaths. Even as she found herself rocking her hips to the rhythm of his hand, even as the stimulation left her dizzy, she wanted, somehow, to get what she craved.

Translation notes:

Throughout Chapters 27-32 Cain addresses Tina using formal, polite Korean speech (존댓말/hapnida-che) even during intimate moments, calling her 아가씨 (“my lady”) and using deferential verb endings. This creates a deliberate tension between the formality of his language and the rawness of the physical situation, reinforcing the power dynamic: though he is physically dominant, his speech maintains the pretense of a servant addressing his mistress. Tina, by contrast, uses informal speech (반말), which reflects both her noble status and her emotional vulnerability.