"Did you kill him?" Verena was panting as she checked on Nelo, now lying in his bed, passed out still. Zoren rolled his eyes as she looked up. It’s obvious that he hates how Verena was so worried about a man who literally just tried to harm her.
"Youre scared that he’s dead?" he asked, still wincing. "Did you not realize how badly you’ve been treated by this disgusting human being?" He plugged his nose with his fingers and shook his head. "I hate having this insane sense of smell right now. He smells nothing but a dark, painful curse. This is such a torture."
"Come on, just tell me, is he alive?"
"Look at his inflated belly!" Zoren pointed at it with a blank expression. "Can you not see how it moves up and down? He’s breathing; relax."
"But-"
"Even though I am a monster in your eyes, I wouldn’t end someone’s life without thinking about it," Zoren stated. He walked a few steps back to save his nostrils and sighed. "Although he deserves it, based on the fear that I could sense from you, But I can't ignore the fear you have of losing him. Even though I don’t relate to it, I could still try to understand your side."
Verena was shocked. She slowly turned to check on who was talking for a second. When her eyes met the alluring eyes of the werewolf, who was leaning back against the door with his arms crossed, she began to chuckle.
"Since we’ve met, I've never heard you say something so heartfelt," she whispered. "I wouldn’t have expected such a soft spot from the werewolf prince."
"And that would make me a fraud again, doesn’t it?" He rolled his eyes and took a deep breath before starting to tell her off again, but Verena stopped him.
"No, it’s making me believe you more," she said. "I mean, after seeing your teeth grow like that, I don’t think I can still deny your existence in this world."
Verena was about to say something else, but she was completely interrupted by a loud grumbling sound.
Her eyes immediately landed on Zoren’s stomach, and she chuckled at how flushed his face had gotten.
"What?" He raised his voice and walked out.
"You could have just told me earlier if you were hungry," Verena said. "I can grab you something if you want."
"I would never eat something that came from you," the tall man said. "I wouldn't be dumb enough to trust you with the food that I eat. Who knows what you could do to those? Are you going to poison me?"
"Please," Verena exhaled deeply, "I am too tired to poison a werewolf from a magical book tonight. I won't do that."
She reached over her pocket to search her phone to see what options she could get delivered directly to their doorstep that late at night, but all she saw were pizzas, sandwiches, and burgers.
"Have you had pizza before?" she asked, not looking up at him. The silence that filled the living room made her feel awkward. "It’s good, I promise. Look at this thing!" Verena handed him her phone.
The man grinned as soon as he felt the weight of the gadget on his hand. It glowed while he studied the circular thing that came from heaven’s kitchen and was being shown on it. As he accidentally swiped the screen, Zoren laughed out loud.
"No matter how much you try to hide it, your power still shows," he said. "Now tell me, how are you going to explain this sorcery?"
Verena chuckled at his amazement. "It's not magic, Zoren. It's a phone."
"A what?" Zoren asked, his voice tinged with disbelief as he reached out to touch the screen. "It's like a mirror, but it's so much smaller! And there are a lot of things being shown; they move when I interact with them too."
"It's a smartphone," Verena replied, relieved that Zoren was finally starting to believe her. "We use it to communicate with other people, take pictures, listen to music, and even watch videos."
Zoren continued to examine the phone with curiosity, poking at the screen and turning it over in his hands. Verena smiled as she watched his childlike wonder, glad that she could show him something new and exciting.
But then, to her surprise, Zoren's expression suddenly turned skeptical again. "I still don't understand how something so small can do all of these things," he said, his brow furrowed. "It's like magic."
"Well, sorry to tell you, I really am not a magical being like you believed me to be." She grabbed her phone from his hand and proceeded to order their food. "It’s going to be clear to you once you realize how bad and difficult my life is. Come on, look around, I said, to show him how rundown the place looks. "Do you really think that I would choose to live in this situation? Look at my uncle; didn’t you already see how much I fear him? If I really had the powers that you think I possess, do you think I would still choose to be in this hell?"
Zoren squinted, thinking of the plausible reasoning that the woman in front of him had been spurting out.
"I see," he said, nodding. "I guess you do have a really great point. But I still do not believe that you are a pure human being."
"Sure, just believe that," she replied. "I don’t really care what you think; I just want the two of us to understand each other and at least trust me for a bit."
"Why do you want that?"
"To be completely honest with you, I am scared."
"As you should be, I am a werewolf."
"I know," Verena whispered. "And you are in my world, the land of mere human beings... I wouldn’t want you to harm anyone, so please just trust me when I tell you something."
"You are still worried about your uncle," Zoren smirked. "I won't kill him if you don’t want me to," he said. "I guess I could do that. But do I really need to pledge my trust to you?"
"It’s not just that," Verena said as she walked closer to Zoren, who had just watched her cluelessly. "Zoren, this is still a very dangerous world for you. You know nothing; you don’t know how different this is from yours. Look, just a mobile phone sent you into spirals. It’s going to be a lot of learning."
"I see what you are trying to do now," Zoren sat down and crossed his arms on the couch. "You are trying to tame me, pull out my fangs, and turn me into a submissive little dog. But no, you won't be able to do that."
Verena sighed. Everything that she tried to explain to this man always ended up in the same dilemma. They can't compromise. He won't be able to swallow his pride and just let her guide him.
"Tell me, do you have somewhere else to go?"
Zoren rolled his eyes. "Do you really think that I would go and leave you alone when you are the main reason why I was summoned into this world?"
"See! You will be staying with me; you need to listen to me to survive normally in this world," she argued. "I just want the both of us to promise that we won't kill each other and for your identity not to be revealed. You can't hurt any human being, and in return, I promise not to let you get into any trouble."
"I don’t need your help to protect myself."
"You know what, whatever!" Verena sat on the couch and closed her eyes. "I am too tired to argue with a barking dog." But suddenly she felt movements next to her. She opened her eyes in surprise and found Zoren looking down on her with an angry expression. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"A dog?" he growled, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "You dare treat me like a dog?"
Verena scrambled to sit up, feeling her heart racing in her chest. "I-I didn’t mean it like that," she stammered, feeling confused and disoriented. "I was just trying to stop the conversation."
"Is this part of your plan?"
"What?"
Zoren leaned in closer to check the slight pink flush on her face. "Did you summon me here to seduce me?"
"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
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