WOLF MAN

EVANORA’S POV:

‘I’m a vampire, Evanora, and you’re one too.’

Even hours after King Demetrius had said those words to me, nothing still made sense. How could it? When just 24 hours ago, my biggest problem were the impatient customers who waited in line at the coffee shop I worked in.

But now, in just a space of hours, everything had changed.

I’d been forced to see things different, to be introduced into the supernatural world ruled by vampires and werewolves, to come face-to-face with the fact that King Demetrius Giovanni was my father.

The vampire king too.

You know, mother hated to talk about him. 

No matter how much I bugged her on who my dad was, she’d always say that it was best I didn’t know. Now, I wonder if she knew…about him being a vampire. Maybe about me being one too. 

I crawled deeper under the bed’s duvet, numb and wanting nothing more than to disappear and go back to a time in my life when everything made sense. When my mum was still here with me. 

King Demetrius had asked me to trust him, and even at the moment, I couldn’t help scoffing at the thought of that. Trust him? He might be my father, as he claims, but he’d abandoned us for years.

He’d walked out of our life in the name of ‘responsibilities’ and ‘duties’ to his people. Oh, for god’s sake! The only reason he wants me back right now was because he was in desperate of a heir. 

I rolled my eyes scornfully. Was I supposed to jump in joy that King Giovanni wants me to take over his empire? His very much vampire empire. Hell no! 

I didn’t even want to be a part of this. This was absolute madness! I didn’t want to be a vampire princess or whatever, and I sure as hell didn’t want to belong in the life of a man who most likely betrayed my mother’s love.

Doing that would mean betraying her as well. Therefore, I’d never see King Demetrius as my father or family. 

True family sticks together, but obviously that meant nothing to the ‘noble’ King. 

Sighing for the nth time, my fingers trailed toward the locket on my neck, seeking the solace it offered whenever I was troubled. However, when I felt my neck, it was bare. Empty.

I shot up from the covers and frantically touched all over my neck but it was truly missing. Oh, shit. I pulled myself off the bed and scattered the sheets and duvet, searching for this locket that meant everything to met.

My heart broke when the realization that I’d lost it dawned on me. No, no, no! I couldn’t lose it, especially not right now when I needed it the most.

I sank to the foot of the bed, drawing my knees up and burying my head into it. Tears fell now, and the weight of the last 24 hours tugged at my heart, filling me with so much exhaustion and pain. 

Where had I lost it? 

I had it on in the morning of the attack but now, it was missing-

It clicked. 

From the impact of my vampire ‘attacker’, it must have fallen off at some point. Cold hands gripped at my heart and they began to thud rapidly. Maybe because I knew that by all means, I had to go back to the woods and check.

The thought didn’t excite me, especially since I didn’t know who else might be out there, waiting to attack me. And also because I hadn’t fully understood what it meant to be a vampire.

King Demetrius had advised me to stay locked in for my own safety and because he had so much more to tell me. More bad news, I suppose.

However, before he’d left earlier, he’d forced me to drink a weird elixir. 

He said it’d mask my scent as a vampire and that way, no other bounty hunter would think of attacking me.

With a decision settled in my mind, regardless of my wildly beating heart, I refreshed and got dressed to go back to the woods.

I had to find that locket.

***

By the time I got back to the woods, the evening sun was already receding. Just like the last time, the forest was serene and the spot were the brutal fight had occurred looked immaculate, free of blood, like it never happened.

Again, I questioned my sanity.

However, I still had shivers down my spine and thus, that pushed me to quickly search the premises in desperation for my precious locket. 

I hated the more seconds I spent here and the chills it brought to my skin. Bu then, I knew that I just had to find my necklace by all means possible.

Searching felt like hours, yet I found nothing. Frustration paved it’s way into me and anger followed. What the hell? Where was my locket?

I needed it.

It was the last thing that held a connection to my mother - our bond. 

My fingers formed a fist and I kicked at a tree branch in annoyance. Ugh! I just couldn’t find it no matter how much I searched.

“Goodness, could this period get any worse? You know, universe, this is a pretty low blow!” I screamed at the sky, venting to no one in particular.

However, that was when I heard it. Or rather, felt it before I even turned around.

My heart skipped a soft beat and my breath hitched, bringing with it a rush of heat down my body.

“Well, it’s not everyday you see a beautiful woman in the woods talking to herself.” His husky voice vibrated through me, resulting in the flutter in my belly.

It was him.

The wolf-man.

I quickly swirled around, panic shooting up my spine as memories from the last time engulfed me. However, the second our eyes met, a warm sensation wrapped around my heart, giving me a sweet sense of peace. Of pure, unadulterated tranquil.

“You…” I breathed out, taking a cautious step back. 

“The one and only.” He tilted his head to the side, regarding me in a perceptive way, curiosity dancing in his icy blue eyes. “What’s your name, love?”

Like the last time, he was shirtless, and unashamed at that! He reeked of superiority, like he had every goddamn right to be naked if he wanted and no one could question him. Handsome, dark and dangerous.

He looked like trouble in a tea cup, yet my heart called out to him.

“Get the hell away from me, you…monster!” I backed further away when he took a single step forward. 

For defense, I picked up the first stick I found beside me and pointed it towards him like a knife. 

He rose an amused brow, putting up a hand to his chest in mock hurt.

“Monster? You wound me, love. Last time I checked, I saved you from being that leech’s early morning snack.”

“And don’t call me that.” I scowled. “What makes you any better than he was? You’re all the same; monsters.”

His eyes twinkled in mischief, and he gave out a dark chuckle that sent delicious tingles down my body. 

Before I could figure out what exactly he found funny, he bolted to me in a blink - in an unnatural speed - and caught me by the waist before I lost my footing and almost fell from how much I tried to get away.

“You’ve got a sharp little tongue, don’t you?” He whispered into my ear, his breath grazing at my sensitive skin. 

My heart raced. 

He pulled me against his body and the heat oozing off him rubbed against me in waves, skin to skin, while his intoxicating masculine scent filled up my lungs in an addictive way. 

I found myself wanting more and more.

I gulped. “Let me go… I have had a really terrible week, a-and I swear if you’re here to kill me because of what I saw, I promise not to tell a soul. My lips are sealed a-and…and-”

“Kill you?” He drawled out, his eyes holding mine in a lock as he trailed a finger up my spine. “I’ve waited my whole life for you, sweet heart.”

“W-what?”

“I’m not your enemy here, understand that. You’re my mate. Mine.” His voice grew huskier and the light in his eyes subtly glowed gold. 

I was captivated by his words, by his fingers tracing patterns down my skin, by the raw emotions dancing in his eyes.

I was beyond captivated by this strange man. 

“I…don’t understand anything you’re saying. Who are you? What are you? What is this ‘mate’ you speak of?”

His lips broke into a devious smirk.

“Well, aren’t you curious? First, tell me your name.”

I frowned, considering it. “Fine, I’m Evanora. Eva for short.”

“Evanora.” It rolled off his tongue in a seductive whisper. “It sounds exotic. I love it.”

I blushed. “Thank you. Now, answer my questions.”

He chuckled and tilted his head subtly.

“I’ll give you your answers on one condition.”

“Hey! That was not the agreement.”

“Hmm, I guess I lied. Do you want to know the condition or not?”

I scowled. “You know what? Fuck you and your answer. I’m going home.”

I tried to set myself free of him, even against my heart and body that craved for me to remain in his arms, where everything felt safe and warm. However, he held on to me even tighter, his eyes never lacking the glint of danger in them. 

“Are you sure about that? Cause…” He dug into his pocket and brought out my locket. “I’ve got a little present here for you.”

My eyes grew wide. “My locket!”

I tried to grab it from him but he easily stretched it out of my reach, almost making a mockery out of me from the way I jumped fruitlessly to reach it. 

“You’re wasting your time.”

I glared. “Why won’t you give it back? What do you want?”

“I just want us to talk.”

“We’re talking now, aren’t we?”

“I know you have questions. About me and everything I said. I’ll give you back your necklace if you’d accompany me to see my mother, and I’d explain everything to you.”

My heart raced and the look in his eyes seemed to hold truth in them, like his next breath hung on my agreement. 

“I do need my necklace back… But I don’t trust you, wolf man.”

His eyes darkened and he leaned forward. “Don’t say that you don’t feel it too. The tug in your heart whenever you’re around me. I knew from the second that I felt it that you were mine. For what it’s worth, you should trust that.”

My heart skipped a beat and I was pulled into the warmth of his words once again.

Hesitantly, I nodded.

“Fine, I’ll come with you.”

Maybe I was crazy but deep down, I knew he was right. As unexplainable as it was, I felt it - the spark, the pull, the hunger.

I trusted it.