“Grandpa, why would you ask such a question?” ignoring Selena’s inquiry, Zaden frowned at his grandpa
“She has the marking, see!!!” he pointed at the jet black moon tattoo on Selena’s neck, earning a laughter from all of them except for Selena, who put on a serious face.
“Grandpa kai!!! Anyone with money and guts can get a moon tattoo” Zaden sarcastically answered his grandpa
“Son, I might be old, but I’m not stupid!!! True, anyone with money and guts can get a moon tattoo even in their butt but this is not a tattoo” he turned to face Selena “Is it, child?” everyone’s eye is now focused on Selena. She dropped her head and mumbled an answer, almost inaudible to the others.
“No…” Zaden looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Mind explaining, baby girl?” Finally, Zaden spoke to her.
“It is a birthmark. My grandma told me they started as a dot and developed over the years. We had been to the doctors, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. We finally settled it as a simple birthmark, you know, just like strawberry birthmark only mine didn’t fade away, and about a few years ago, it stopped developing more” she shrugs her shoulder.
Grandpa Kai crossed his arms over his chest and threw a smug smile at Zaden, who is now wide eyed and jaw dropped.
“I can read aura, Selena. Some people omit aura from their body or heart, some from their head but yours concentrated on your neck or to be exact your marking, connecting both body and mind. Meaning, you are not only a Samrat, but you must have had some sort of ability to control other body and mind” Grandpa Kai explained with a cool expression and hands inside his pocket, oozing wisdom in every inch of his being.
“Can someone tell me what the hell is a Samrat?” throwing her hand into the air, Selena exclaimed in frustration. Zaden stretched his hands and grabbed her’s, tugging her behind him into the house. For the first time, she is on the second floor.
“We need some privacy” he motions everyone to leave except for Grandpa Kai.
They walked to the end of the corridor, entering a spacious room, complete with bathroom, a mini fridge with a bar counter. Couches with round table scatter here and there. High bar stool arranged along the bar counter. There was also a wall with a built-in bookshelf, filled with books from different topics. It looks more like a communal room. Zaden walked Selena to a single, green velvet couch at one corner. Once she is seated, Grandpa Kai and Zaden looked at each other worriedly before Zaden excused themselves and went a bit further, discussing something seriously.
They returned back to Selena and Grandpa Kai pushed Zaden to the front. He exhaled sharp looking at the floor and took off his jacket, folded his sleeve up to his elbow. He then looked straight into Selena’s eye and sighed softly as he crouched down in the most stylish way in front of Selena, held her hand that is on her lap, caressing his thumb across her knuckle, making her feel like a child.
Grandpa Kai was standing right behind him
“See, Samrat is an ancient bloodline of kings with special abilities…” he paused for a second, reformulating his statement. Grandpa Kai cleared his throat as a push to proceed further.
“Kings of…. wolfs…werewolves precisely,” he said with much hesitation and doubts. Selena inhaled sharply before tilting her head slightly to the side.
She narrowed her eye “What was that again?” her voice faded into her.
“Bloodline – I mean Samrat is the surname of a werewolf king’s bloodline” Zaden patiently explain again to her
“Zaden… I think I was hallucinating a few seconds ago. Did you say werewolf?” Grandpa Kai and Zaden nodded frantically as she darted her eyes back and forth between the 2 men.
“Werewolf as in half human and half-wolf” they nodded again.
“The mythical creature from folklore?” again, they nodded.
“Sharp canine, slicing claw, man-eating gigantic wolf?” her reaction is mellow as she goes question by question.
“Now, that is not completely true” Zaden stood up, clutching his hips.
“Did you say he was a king?” again, they nodded the same way
“And he had special abilities?” they nodded again
“And I am a descendent of that bloodline?” they nodded again
“Are you trying to say that I am a werewolf?” her eyes are now glaring at those two and they nodded in slow motion with pursed lips. Selena spring to a standing position.
“Are you crazy? Did you just overdosed with drugs or something?” she stalled slowly towards him as he paced backward
“Do I look like a wolf to you? Or do you think I wouldn’t have noticed if my parents were wolves?” Selena asked in a low voice while Zaden still pacing backward
“I got news for you chief!!! I don’t believe in God, I don’t believe in sorcery and I certainly don’t believe in supernatural creatures, understand?” she pointed her index finger at his face with anger.
Instead of scaring away, he let out a low chuckle and pecked a kiss on her finger.
“Fierce things do come in little packages!!!” he chuckled, thinking how well she manouevered them into fearing her.
“That is nonsense!!!” Grandpa Kai exclaimed from behind her, referring to her whole belief system
“OK!!! Fine” she threw her hand into the air
“Prove it to me. Not behind a cloth or from a hidden closet but right in front of me, while I’m watching. Prove it to me!!!”
Grandpa Kai and Zaden exchanged look before he shrugged, with no option left.
“Wait here” he ordered seriously and walked out of the room with Grandpa. He leaned over the second floor handrail before calling out for Makeala.
“Makeala, I need you here” Makeala rushed to the second floor as Zaden opened the communal room door, guiding her inside but before she walked past him, Zaden whispered to her.
“She needs prove of werewolves” only to receive a wide eye from her.
After closing the door, they waited outside the door. Inside, Makeala approached with hesitation at the now irritated Selena, crossed arms over her chest.
“You wanted proof of werewolf?” she asked as Selena nodded
“What kind of proof?” she asked
“I don’t know, maybe bring a werewolf in front of me!!!” those words were dripping with sarcasm. Makeala sighed out and went to a corner. She started stripping down naked, making Selena turn away in embarrassment. Then she heard finger-snapping at her. A thug look in her eye as Makeala said
“You wanted a prove? Then look here, baby” the next second, slowly her fingernails extended out of her fingers, forming a claw. Her teeth extend to fangs and a coat of shiny burgundy fur replaced her once shiny caramel skin. Selena’s breathing started to accelerate as she paced around the edge of the room, towards the door, safety precaution.
Bones started snapping and protruding on her skin as she decent to a crawling position. Her nose extends to a snout. A few seconds later she became a complete wolf, bigger than any regular wolf. She shook her body, and gave out a howl. Selena screamed at the top of her voice, but her friends couldn’t hear her when she is in the room. The wolf looked straight at her with a panting breath, eyes as dark as night.
Selena ran as fast as she could out of the room, opened the door to slam against Zaden’s hard chest, falling straight into his arms. He immediately hugged her with worried eyes focused on hers.
“Makeala!!! Makeala, she…Makeala she…strip off” Selena started stuttering frantically, panicked at Zaden’s arm. She turned around to face Grandpa Kai, but Zaden didn’t let go of her. His hands are around her stomach now as he rubbed her arms, trying to calm her down
“Her nails!!! No–No, claws. Bloody claws….” She looked at her own nails before turning back to Zaden with a wide eye.
“And teeth–fangs–fucking fangs” she turned back at Grandpa Kai, swallowing down her dry throat.
“And her skin…not skin anymore…it’s fur. Do you understand what I’m saying?” Grandpa Kai just nodded calmly.
The communal room door opened as Makeala walked out in human form, dressed in a hurry that her top buttons are undone and hair as messy as a bird’s nest. When Selena saw her, she wrung her hand and turn around in a snap, burying her face in Zaden’s chest while grab holding his shirt in a fist, breathing heavily. Zaden looked at the other two hopelessly as his arms still embracing her.
“Take your time,” Grandpa Kai said as he gestured Makeala to follow him. When they went out of the side, Zaden pulled her tighter to him while rubbing her neck gently
“Shuu…calm down, calm down, baby…” he whispered to her ears. She snapped her head up, face pale and filled with panic.
“You don’t understand!!! You have a werewolf in your house. She–She–” Zaden leaned forward and softly placed his lips against hers.
A quick but stern kiss, diverting her at the spark surging through her body. She closed her eye and remained closed for a while even after he let go like she was hypnotized
“Calm down, ok… Just listen to me” he caressed her cheeks with his thumbs.
“I know she is a werewolf. I am a werewolf” her eyes snapped open
“Grandpa Kai is a werewolf. Orion, Sitka, Xavier, and the whole village is werewolves” she paced away with a wide eye, slipping out of his hands on her cheeks.
“And you–you are a werewolf of Samrat,” he said in low voice filled with care and affection towards her.
None of his reasoning entered her head, thou. An alarm blared in her head
“Stay away from me” she warned him as she ran away, down the stairs to her friends. Zaden followed behind her, calling her name again and again but she ignored him
“We need to get out of here,” she said to her friends as she rift through them, to the room given to her, and started packing her stuffs. Orion barged into the room, but Selena ignored him as she continued packing. Her hands and lips were trembling.
“Selena…” she kept packing
“Selena…:” this was Zaden. Soon, she was joined by her friends
“Selena, what’s wrong?” Jeffry pulled her by her arms, facing him
“We need to get. out. of. here, do you understand?” with great punctuation in her words, she gave him stern eyes, making her point across loud and clear.
Jewel gave in and started to pack her things. The guys shrugged and tried to retreat from the room to their room when Xavier blocked them.
“Lock her up” Zaden, obviously the Alpha of Mount Manuka, ordered Orion in a low voice while he has leaned against the door, hands in his pocket. Orion nodded and walked over to Selena, grabbed her hand to make her turn. He then bent down to clutch her knees as he plopped the 5. 2 feet, small-framed girl over his shoulder and casually walked away to a room on the second floor.
Her friends protested heavily while she punched and kicked him, to no avail. Once in the room, he gently placed her down
“I don’t want you to leave either, more than Chief probably” he frowned with a sad face and walked out of the room, locking the door behind him. She ran behind him and slammed her fist against the door, again and again to no avail. After a few attempts, she gave up and slide down the door in frustration. The last 15 minutes was hard to process.