"You are devouring that pizza like your life depends on it, yet you still accuse me of being suspicious and acting as if I am planning to harm you with food."
"See, just because you say that, you added even more suspicions to my brain."
"Zoren, if I really wanted to harm you, I wouldn't choose to ruin the food." Verena rolled her eyes and sat back down on the couch. "I spent my hard-earned money on that; why would I ruin it?"
"Alright, don’t start to yell; my ears are about to pop."
"I am not yelling."
"But you are about to, I could tell."
"Whatever."
"How fierce, especially coming from a woman who knows what kind of creature is in front of her."
Verena rolled her eyes. "Try to not sleep for at least three days and then get thrown into this weird situation. I bet you would also act in a way that you are not expected to."
"Humans are weak."
"Maybe," Verena said. "Or you are just too powerful."
"Yes, maybe."
Verena watched as the werewolf finished the last slice of pizza in the box and drank his cold juice.
"This world is interesting," he commented. "You put so much salt on one thing and then put so much sweetener on the other. Can't you decide on what you would want to taste?"
"Why do you want to taste only one thing?"
"I mostly eat meat alone; maybe that is why."
"Uncooked?" She instantly regretted what she asked. "Please don’t answer that."
"Got it."
"Wow, you listened to me once, tonight." Verena stood up and walked towards her room. "I will treat this as the start of our cooperation, alright?"
The handsome werewolf sat still, looking at her with his piercing and alluring eyes. He swept his hair back and smirked as soon as he realized that she was mindlessly staring at him.
"Are you trying it again?"
"What?"
"Your plan of seduction."
Verena did not even bother to answer. She was quick to rush into her room and lie down on her bed to cover herself with the warm and comfortable blanket. Everything that had happened to her was too much. It was not something that she expected. It’s actually something that could pass as her hallucination. And if she were honest with herself, part of her is still hoping that everything will go back to normal once she wakes up tomorrow morning.
"You can't escape; what are you doing?"
"Prince of the werewolves, I beg, please just let me sleep."
"Why are you suffocating yourself?"
"Because I want to sleep, please, just let me rest."
Verena closed her eyes without thinking of what the strange man might think of and do next. She was too tired to process anything in her brain. Not even minutes earlier, she was able to catch some sleep.
"Are you asleep that quickly?" Zoren whispered. He walked over to pull the sheets back to expose her face. "There is no way that you are able to sleep that fast. What is wrong with your weak body?"
He leaned in closer to take a better look at her face. Her eyes were closed, and she looked so peaceful as she softly exhaled. Zoren had never seen a human being sleep before. He did not expect to see someone look so adorable and harmless as they rested.
"How could you sleep when I am in the same room as yours?" He softly moved her hair away from her face as she dove deeper into her slumber. "You should be a little more careful next time, don’t you think? I may harm you at any moment; why are you giving me so much trust? I can easily end this for you right now."
He took a very deep breath and sighed. "I wouldn’t trust someone, but if they look like you, I might cave in."
Zoren sat next to the woman as he looked up and thought about what exactly happened to him.
"I was in the middle of the ceremony," he whispered. "I was about to meet my Luna, the woman who could help me become the next alpha of the pack. But now, here I am, stuck in this hell of a world, in the middle of nowhere."
Verena tossed herself around a bit. "Cold," she whispered. As the blanket shifted.
"Silly human being." Zoren pulled the sheets over her and covered her up. "How could you be cold? Another weakness of humans, huh?"
He smiled as she peacefully cuddled a pillow. "But if you are human, how did you do that? How could you pull me out here?"
Looking up once again, Zoren shook his head. "I would easily believe you if you told me that you were a princess in this world. You could even tell me that you own this whole place, and I won't question it. You look like it."
He glanced at her face once more, saying, "Fair and pretty, a beauty that deserves the best. How could you end up in this situation?"
Thinking about the stinky old man, he rolled his eyes. "Miserable," he commented. "If you were in my world, I would bet that you’d be treated better. If you were a werewolf, yeah, I forgot a huge issue."
"I almost forgot that you do not belong there. And that’s exactly what I am in this world." The werewolf prince lowered his head, placing his palm over his chest. "I need help," he whispered. "I need to leave before something dangerous happens. May it not be for my own safety."
A hint of worry pinched his heart as he took another glance at her innocent face. "I do not need to trust you to see that you are just as lost and scared as I am. So I promise to you, dear human, that I will do my best not to harm you. I will try my hardest to not hurt you. But I can never say that I will protect you."
He positioned himself to lie down in the small space beside her. "I’ll rest for now as well," he stated. "I wish that this is only a bad dream."
Verena tossed and adjusted her position in bed, annoyed that she was not able to move around much. Even with her eyes closed, she knows that she has a lot of room to at least move a bit on her bed, but it felt like she was being pushed to the corner of the wall by something.She used her hand to softly reach over to her side and tap on the mattress to check if she had accidentally left anything lying around, perhaps her bag or pillows, but there was nothing but something hard."Huh?" She was confused at first as to what it could be. She rubbed her eyes and slowly opened them, only to be surprised by something so unreal lying beside her. Oh, my God!" she covered her mouth quickly. She tried to close her eyes and get back to sleep.Finally, Verena decided to slowly open her eyes, feeling disoriented. Her heart raced as she looked over the handsome young man lying beside her, half naked. Her mind raced with questions—who was he? How did he get here? And why was he sleeping beside her?Ju
Verana stood outside of her uncle's room, afraid and shaking. She has been worried about him and his safety since last night. It's been an entire night of him staying quiet since Zoren stopped him from harming Verena. It was well deserved; she knew that much, but she was a bit scared that he wasn't going to wake up. It was actually eating her alive, the truth that she's somehow feeling relieved of how he was unconscious throughout the night, but the real her kept on reminding her brain to care. After asking him countless times, Zoren had enough. He would often shrug or roll his eyes, but he kept on insisting that he was just resting, taking in a good night of sleep. He would phrase it as if he were the sole reason that the old man was able to get some good sleep in his system."This must have been some sort of misunderstanding or something.""What are you talking about?" Verena asked. "Don't be too dramatic; I know it's not that bad.""Are you serious?" Zoren yelled as he stepped out
Verena sat still, trying to calculate her breathing as she sat in front of her uncle. In his hands, three pieces of precious gems were being clenched. A really creepy and suspicious grin was plastered. It gave Verena nothing but the chills, as if she already knew that something bad was going to happen soon. The old man's eyes grew big and glowing whenever he peered at the new stones that he just got."I guess now that I have given you those gems, you will be able to stop pestering this woman," Zoren said, sitting like a king on the couch. He sat tall, as if he owned the whole place—even the man's soul. "You won't be able to get anything from me ever again; this is the only thing that my generosity could offer.""I've seen you keep a lot," the old man whispered. "You can't just fool me like that.""I can also take your life," Zoren casually said. "I chose not to, and I hope you'd give me a fair trade for that."Nelo grinned and shrugged. "You are threatening me in my own home?""I am n
"Verena, I think it's about time you got off work.""It's too early, no?" Verena looked at the clock, showing that it's at least thirty minutes before her shift ends. "Yeah, it's too early, auntie. I still have to wash the dishes."Oh, my goodness, you do not need to worry about that right now," the older woman chuckled. "You have to spend time with your boyfriend.""My boyfriend?" She noticed how the old woman pointed at Zoren, who is leaning at the door of the restaurant, waiting for the time to pass."I've noticed how girls kept on coming in since he chose the entrance as his spot," said the owner. "We've got at least five times more customers than usual. Letting you off early to have fun is a thank-you gift!""I... he's not my...""My love!" Zoren had cut off Verena's words. Not only Verena, but the entire restaurant's attention was caught. His voice was loud enough for all the girls' to crumble as soon as they heard him."What did you just call me?""My love, my lovely girlfriend
Zoren looked down on his hand, feeling a bit numb at how hard Verena was clenching it. At any moment, he has a strange guess that the tips of his fingers would turn blue, but he can't really tell the woman to leave him alone or let go of him since she's clearly scared and confused by how a man suddenly appeared out of nowhere in her eyes."Are you sure that you saw someone?" he asked. The way she nodded so quickly made him believe how serious she was. "Then what happened?"Verena looked at him with confusion. "What do you mean?" she asked."What happened to the guy that you saw?"Verena grabbed his whole arm, scared to her core. "Nothing happened to him, Zoren, nothing!""Where did he go then?""He..." Verena hid her entire face behind him and pointed at the bench. "He is still there, sitting and watching us! What do you mean?"Zoren looked back at her with a ton of questions about to pop out of his brain, but he could tell, based on her breathing and the sound of her heart beating, t
"You can stop looking at me like you just saw a talking worm," Galen said with a huge, youthful smile on his face, looking at Verena. "What's so confusing and unbelievable about me when you have the future king of a different world sitting right beside you?" he added while taking a sip of his iced tea.He then grabbed his fork and knife to obliterate the thick steak that was sitting on his plate. He intended to treat the two to a nice meal for lunch with hopes of being able to get to know them better, especially since he really wants to be close with Zoren."You heard the guy; go ahead and eat," Zoren said, tapping Verena's knee. She hasn't given Zoren's arm back since they met up with Galen. She desperately hugged his arm to make sure that he wouldn't be able to leave her alone with the scary, cursed spirit. "He's treating us to such a nice meal, woman, don't let it go to waste.""I-" Verena struggled to speak. "I don't think that I'll be able to digest.""Don't worry about me," said
"Isn't this awkward?" Galen asked as Verena continued to try her best, acting as if she couldn't hear or feel his presence when the two of them had been standing side by side for the past ten minutes. "You can talk to me; I won't harm you. You know that, right?"The two of them have spent time together, roaming around the mall. The guys were able to convince Verena to take a day off and use their time to buy what Zoren needs at the mall. The first thing that the prince wanted was a new set of clothes, and of course, as his follower, Galen couldn't reject him. All they had to do was drive to the nearest mall and grab all the expensive-looking stuff off the mannequins, and Zoren would be happy. He did not like the number of people walking near him still, but he appreciated the classy and fresh-smelling clothes."Verena, you can talk to me; he won't hear you from here," Galen whispered. "I saw his fitting room; there is a really loud speaker behind it. I think he won't be able to hear an
"Zoren, you don't have to buy clothes for me as well," Verena pushed away his hand, holding up a beautiful periwinkle dress that looked like it would suit a woman in the top 0.1% of the social status. "Do you not see how much this costs? I would need to work without a break for at least nine months before I could afford that. I wouldn't dare wear it.""You won't need to pay for it; Galen is here to do that.""I would be paying, that's right.""Still," Verena sighed. The two kept pressing on her, trying to make her pick anything so that Galen would pay for something, but she would do the most just to avoid paying and save the old, young man some pennies. "I really can't make you spend that much money," she said. "I don't want you to give your hard-earned money to someone like me. First of all, I do not deserve it, and second, I am not going to be happy if I receive it. I would just feel burdened and guilty."Zoren sighed. He rolled his eyes as he placed the dress back on the rack. Perh