Business continued as usual, each day becoming busier as the official launch for Taleman’s eastern Europe venture. The number of meetings packed his schedule, and Richard didn’t know how many people he had to meet. The cheek muscles were aching badly from smiling for prolonged periods.
The two men found it harder to juggle work and private lives with the full moon approaching. Darren, who was normally not as active as Ludwig, was more feral while Ludwig’s activeness shot through the roof. Not even the thought of increased homework or grounding can stop him from climbing the walls and snarling. The two boys kept fighting over little things and sometimes nothing at all. Yet, they couldn’t blame the pups for behaving in such a manner.
The full moon was when shifters were the closest to the origin energy. It awakened primal instincts within
The launch of a business venture to Eastern Europe was an astounding success. Favian and Richard were exhausted by the end of the week, but there were more concerning issues. Both men immediately applied for leave with HR in the name of a family emergency, not caring about proper procedures, not that the HR manager they hired minded. Even though she was unmarried, she appreciated dedicated family men who were successful at their careers.Escaping the congratulatory party swiftly, the werewolves drove back at top speed in the middle of the afternoon back to the Blue Moon mansion. Unlike jostling with the evening crowd, they managed to escape from the airport in half the time they normally took. Ambrose has not texted them anything about the pups and their full moon process. It was worrying.Stopping by the side house, neither man bothered changing their suits. T
Avoiding the thorns to the best of his abilities, Richard eventually found a path to the dilapidated toolshed. The basket outside the door smelled like sandwiches, and the CEO even spotted a bottle of juice included. More curiously, there was a bottle of milk and some cooked chicken hiding at the bottom of the basket.Knock! Knock!Some shuffling sounds were coming from inside the toolshed, but the door did not open.“Oliver, it’s me. Can I come in?”Richard couldn’t hear anything from inside the toolshed for a good while. Normally, the passive pup would open the door for Richard immediately, no matter the situation. It didn’t matter if he accidentally wet his bed, cried, suffered a terrible black eye or had a nightmare. Oliver would always
When Richard entered the mansion with a sleeping child and a grey-furred wolf pup, Favian quickly offered to take the child from his arms, and the two boys crowded around to see their new brother.Unlike human children, werewolves are born as wolves influenced by origin energy after living in the Fenrir’s forest. They slowly evolved into creatures with higher intelligence and would gain their shapeshifting abilities over time. Once they could assume their human forms, their animal instincts would slowly become dormant. Shifting between both forms will take training.However, they were no less troublesome than taking care of newborn infants. Although newly awakened werewolves assumed a pup form, they had the intelligence of at least a human two-year-old and were curious about everything. Their desires to hunt, fight, play, eat, and hunger for affection cou
“You want to do what?” Favian’s tone was razor-sharp, even if it was soft.Richard wasn’t deceived. Despite the soft volume, the secretary’s words held a dangerous edge to them. It was simply the calm before the storm, but Richard could still salvage it and prevent a typhoon if he played his cards right.Nervously, Richard did his best to keep his voice steady and expression neutral. He might be the alpha of his pack, but Favian was still rather scary to Richard. Even Ambrose trod with caution when the secretary was enraged. He might not be physically powerful, but his devious mind could reduce even the president to a beggar on the streets if he wanted to.“We have too many pups now and too little time to care for all of them with the frequent business trips coming up for th
After speaking with his pups, the Fenrir and Favian, Richard looked at the list of criteria his pack had for the new governess. The CEO wondered if such a person existed in reality. Even if he were to compromise on his ideals, Ambrose and the pups’ criteria were way over what a governess or maid did.No, they didn’t want a tutor or a helper. They literally wanted a mate for their alpha or a mother. Neither of those was things that Richard could employ. These positions came with more responsibility than any paycheque.Ambrose wanted the human helper to be strong enough to lead the pack and nurture the young into promising warriors. The human helper must train the pups for whatever reason to fend against danger and hunt for them. Honestly, this wasn’t the fifth century. There was no reason to be doing these things. The Luna doesn’t actuall
It was ten in the morning, but already, Favian had used up all his patience for the day. After meeting the first two candidates, he wanted to cancel all the interviewees scheduled to come. If it wasn’t for Richard’s angelic personality, he would have sued the nanny matching agency for providing scam artists instead of professional caretakers.Not mentioning how the ladies didn’t match the pictures sent. Some didn’t even speak proper English despite graduating from one of the top universities in the world, majoring in English literature.How could they entrust the pups to any of these worthless interviewees? It was better for them to learn under Ambrose’s tail than to have stupidity rub on them. Favian refused to give any of the candidates they viewed a chance to even step foot into Blue Moon Mansion.
After three painful weeks of searching, shortlisting, interviewing, Richard and Favian were forced to admit it was futile.Logically, they understood that it wasn’t the pups’ fault that every single candidate who turned up for the trial ended up resigning after a day. They weren’t very good candidates and couldn’t meet even half of the criteria everyone wanted. However, good talent was hard to find.“Could you tell me why the most recent caretaker decided that she didn’t want to show up anymore?” Richard asked over dinner as the three unhappy boys stared at their plates.William was starting to show signs of minor transformation, getting more used to human speech and walking on his hind legs. Everyone was excited to see William’s transformation, but the grey-furred shi
With every passing day, the Taleman empire’s handsome CEO and secretary duo looked more haggard. The office ladies frowned and whispered in pity at the pathetic state of their eye candy bosses. Despite the efforts to look fresh and professional, the tell-tale sign of sleep deprivation beneath their eyes could not be hidden. Their perpetual coffee breaths and lackluster smiles broke hearts. However, the stubborn CEO and his aide wouldn’t accept any help from concerned employees.Only the HR team knew the true reason for their haggard appearance. Ever since the search for caretakers began, CEO Taleman and Mr Beowulf looked more irritated and lifeless. Many candidates came and left the Taleman CEO’s office but none of them stayed long enough to lighten the personal burdens of the single father. The HR manager wouldn’t be surprised by their fickleness. None of them was qualified for the
In a blink of an eye, two years passed quickly. Richard and Favian deliberately took some off time from work to attend the important occasion that afternoon with the boys who took special leave from the boarding school.Oliver, William, Ludwig and Darren sat proudly on their chairs as the presenter announced the names of the graduates. One by one, they watched the cohort’s graduates walk up to the stage and shake hands with an old man before posing for pictures and walking down the stage with their certificates.“Where’s Emma?” William asked, and Oliver pulled his brother to sit on the chair properly. The youngest of their pack was still rather ill-mannered.“Patience,” Ludwig smiled. “They will call her name soon. You’ll see.”
The purple sunset on the horizon made a beautiful backdrop for their candlelit dinner date. Richard outdid himself and arranged for a romantic beachside set up on the sand and under the sky so Emily could enjoy the sea breeze and sound of waves during the low tide. The venue looked like something out of a magazine, giving off a magical atmosphere.“Enjoy your meal,” the waiter smiled and left after serving the couple some fancy seafood pasta.Richard grinned at how Emily marvelled at everything. It took him a few days to organise this with some string-pulling after Ambrose insisted he put more effort into wooing his mate. Things were gradually changing in their lifestyles for the better with each day Emily was around in the Blue Moon Mansion. The Fenrir changed so much around Emily. The werewolves could hardly believe their lazy and bigoted founding
Two months passed quickly after the family meeting. Emily was slowly getting used to the shifter lifestyle, although there was a lot of compromise and arguments between her and Ambrose over the children’s education.Today, it was no different.“They need to learn how to defend themselves!” Ambrose growled, and Emily raised a brow.“There will be no robbers with guns in the boarding school that they need to disarm or kill,” she reasoned. “Rich- Mr Taleman doesn’t choose schools with poor security. If it happens, they will have to go out of business. If anything, they need to learn how to eat with proper dining etiquette more than disarming a robber. You might not care about it, but bad dining manners signify inferior upbringing among humans.”
“She’s here!” Ambrose announced tipsily as Favian sighed in frustration at the chaos.In the short span he left to find the home tutor, Richard managed to engage in a drinking competition with the other alphas. They might be going easy on him by choosing a less destructive method of competing as alphas but dealing with a drunk Richard Taleman was almost as troublesome as having ten Ludwigs high on sugar.“Emily!” Richard beamed and waved uncoordinated to the copper-haired human.Almost at once, everyone turned their attention to the little protection squad around her. Emily nearly froze on the spot. If it wasn’t for Favian acting as a shifter barricade, she might have suffered a heart attack from how predatory everyone looked.Ev
“Stinky one-eyed bastard!”“Old furless mutt!”“Bring it on, you fangless faggot!”Of all the things Emily mentally prepared for, the slew of vulgarities and flying furniture was not one of them.The front yard that was brilliantly decorated was reduced to a mountain of trash with shifters growling at each other. The expensive handmade tapestry was torn, the special ordered outdoor carpet was ruined with mud, the steel chairs were bent at different angles, and Ambrose was organising a gambling den for the makeshift fight ring full of rowdy shifters.Emily wasn’t even fazed by the sight of wolf ears, swishy tails or exposed fangs during the day. They reminded her of the boys when she f
Escorting Emily from the beauty parlour was a whole new experience. Although she looked wonderful whenever he saw her, the beauty parlour lived up to its reputation and turned Emily into a goddess. Richard almost dropped to his knees there and then to worship her but remembered that they were still among humans.He stood before her and said nothing, taking in her scent and appreciating the difference good clothes and makeup did to her. Wolves were particular about strong human scents, so Richard was happy how the beauticians did not use products that hid Emily’s earthy scent. He liked how the colours complimented her natural beauty without changing who she was. It was perfect!“You look stunning,” Richard finally breathed after his mind caught up. The wolf inside was howling in delight at the fine mate they had.
Richard was nervous. He had reasons to be. Favian shared his pack brother’s feelings as well. Ms Gwayne was more than a roommate. According to the more detailed private investigation, the older lady took Emily in when she was homeless for months and treated her like a daughter. Ms Gwayne was Emily’s foster mother in some ways, and making a good impression on the future mother-in-law was a higher hurdle than winning the approval from all the packs at the family meeting this weekend.“Are the preparations ready?” Richard whispered, fiddling with his seatbelt.Favian sighed. The excitement from the pups through the bond did not help Richard ease up. If anything, the CEO checked his hair for the fourteenth time since they left the company. He texted Emily to let her know they would be back soon, and she replied that her foster mother was get
Family meeting…Emily had no idea what she should do at the meeting. As someone who was considered an outsider to their secret society, Emily did not want to make enemies. Richard was the prophesied child who was constantly under Ambrose’s protection. There would be countless shifters who might be envious or simply unhappy with Richard, right? Would it truly be alright for her to attend such an event when she wasn’t fully ready to give Richard her reply? What if she could not give him a reply to his confession before this weekend?The more Emily thought about it, the more confused she became. Even if she liked her boss in a romantic sense, Emily did not know what to do with those feelings. Richard had children even if they were not biologically his. Ignoring the supernatural secret, they were too different. What kind of funny fate tied
As whimsically as he decided to come, Ambrose finished his promised egg tarts and disappeared into thin air. He kissed her copper strands and promised that they would be seeing each other again rather soon over the weekends at the family meeting.“Don’t forget to bring some treats. I’m sure the other packs would appreciate your gifts!”As Ambrose dematerialised, Emily stood dumbly in the kitchen. The fridge door was still wide open, so she closed it, feeling as if she had aged ten years from the brief encounter with the mysterious Fenrir. Exhausted, even if it wasn't even time for dinner, Emily dragged herself to the living room to check on the boys’ homework.From upstairs, four pairs of curious eyes studied Emily. Their tutor had been staring at the same page for the last five minutes