Chapter 1
It was a particularly wet and humid night when Lele returned home from hunting. Dragging the corpse of the kill from its hind legs behind her, she stopped dead in her tracks once she saw the front of her home in flames. The food she caught for her family slipped out of her hand when she ran into the house to see if someone… anyone was still alive.
After removing the barricade from the front door and suffering burns on her hands, she coughed violently as the intense heat and smoke filled her lungs while she did her best to scan the space before her. There, in the corner of the stairwell, not yet consumed by flames, she laid eyes on her older sister.
“Kirsi! Oh my, Kirsi, what happened?” she exclaimed, making her way over to the stairwell.
“Shh, they’ll hear you. You should leave here before they get you too, sissy,” her voice wavered with each word before letting out a cough.
“Who are they? Who did this?” Lele asked, tears welling up in her eyes.
“Lele, you have to go. Please leave! Promise me and the rest of the pack members who didn’t make it that you’ll survive,” Kirsi pleaded before coughing again, this time with blood.
“Kirsi, you’re talking crazy. We ca—”
“For goodness’ sake, leave already!” her sister demanded while pushing her away before a support beam cloaked in flames fell in front of her.
Panting heavily, her eyes shot open in a cold sweat. Lele took in her surroundings, noticing a male figure in the corner of the room she was in. With a flicker, the lights came on, leaving a not-so-pleasant look on Lele’s face.
“Oh jeez! Who are you?” the guy, who had his hair pulled back into one, questioned, anger hiding behind his dark grey eyes.
Lele said nothing as she looked at the six-foot-tall figure standing in front of her.
“Huh? Are you not going to talk after you broke into my bar?” he asked, looking over her disheveled petite frame.
“Your bar?” she questioned, taking another look around the place, noting that there were only stacks of boxes in the room. “It doesn’t look like a bar,” she added.
“Hey, don’t ignore my questions!” the man protested.
“You’re obnoxiously loud,” she said, patting the back of her head.
“What?” The man let out a defeated sigh, realizing that he wasn’t going to make much progress with her. “At least I know you speak. Can you please tell me how you got in when the door downstairs didn’t seem to be messed with?” the guy asked, still confused by the female in front of him.
Lele, instead of choosing to answer him using her words, opted for pointing at the open window to the left of the room—the only window that wasn’t locked or barricaded by boxes.
“You expect me to believe that you climbed all the way up here?” he asked, a bit perplexed that she was suggesting she had scaled the wall all the way up to this room.
“Look, I’m sorry I broke in. I needed a place to sleep for the night,” Lele answered, getting up from the floor.
“Hmm. Homeless, I see. So let’s say I did believe you managed to scale the wall up here. What would that make you?” he stated.
A weird question to ask, it took Lele by surprise. Now, both of them were baffled but for different reasons.
“Tell me, have you heard about werewolves?” she asked him, tilting her head to the side slightly.
Five days had passed since their initial meeting in the attic. The only thing that the owner of the bar managed to get out of his disheveled intruder was her name. Now, attending to the patrons of the bar, he found himself lost in thought.
“It’s almost New Year’s. So tell me, Kenji, what did you do this year?” a man with white hair asked the man behind the bar, who just took out a fresh bottle of whiskey, effectively breaking him out of his thoughts.
“I’ve successfully managed to not have any bar fights for an entire year for once,” the bartender answered, now cleaning a glass. And despite wearing multiple rings on the hand that he held the glass with, it surprisingly made little to no noise when he twirled it against the cloth.
“Yeah, well, the year ain’t fully over yet, so don’t jinx yourself. I, for one, got to see a lot of naked chicks this year. Quite the accomplishment, if you ask me,” the guy smirked.
“Tsk.”
Both men looked over to where the audible disapproval came from and laid eyes on a female with smoky beige hair styled in locs and pulled into a high bun.
“Apologies for the bloke over on the other end, miss. I believe he’s reached his limit for alcohol consumption for the night,” the lightly tanned bartender apologized, suddenly slipping the young woman another bottle of the drink she was already nursing.
“I’m not drunk!” the man with honey skin and curly white hair yelled.
“Anyway, what about you, miss?” Kenji asked, completely disregarding the man’s outburst.
“I’m not drunk, if that’s what you’re asking. Besides, if you thought I was, why would you slip me another one of these drinks in the first place?” she questioned, gesturing to the bottle he slid to her earlier with the one she held in her hand.
“Pardon the misunderstanding. I was only asking what you did this year that you consider an accomplishment. Though if you don’t want to answer, that’s—”
“Survived. That’s what I did this year.” With that, she placed a handful of loose change on the bar’s counter and left.
“Do you know her, Kenji?” the guy asked, looking over to the bartender once the woman exited the bar.
“Only know that she’s a lone wolf. This is her third day here, and that’s all I managed to have gotten from her ever since she broke into the bar’s attic five days ago.”
“I see... In that case, I’ll be off then. Take care, man,” the white-haired fellow said before putting the half-empty glass of whiskey to his head.
“I wasn’t lying earlier. I do believe that you’ve had enough alcohol for the night. The last thing I want is for you to pick a drunken fight with someone on your way out,” Kenji asserted with a hand on the man’s wrist, stopping him from drinking the rest of the alcohol.
“It was one time!” the man retorted before slamming dollar notes down on the counter and storming out. “Let’s see, now, where did you run off to?” he asked no one in particular before taking a deep breath, trying to focus on the scent of the woman that was in the bar a minute ago. It was faint, but a smirk crept across his lips when he got it. “Found you,” he whispered to himself.
As Lele passed the open coffee shop, taking in the aroma of the freshly brewed coffee, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being followed. Quickening her pace slightly, Lele turned the corner leading to an alleyway and waited to see whoever was following her. A minute passed, and no one showed up. She let out a sigh of relief, turning around to find a resting place for the night.
“Guess it was all in my head,” she reassured herself.
“It’s not safe out here for lone wolves like you. Yuh know that, don’t you?” the white-haired man from the bar questioned from behind her.
“If you’re planning on raping me, it’s going to be over my dead body, you perv.”
“Rape you? Why the hell would I do something like that? I’m also not a perv,” he said, taking a few steps closer toward her, now showing off his icy blue eyes.
“Says the guy whose accomplishment for this year was seeing multiple females naked,” she retorted.
“Uh...” He took a deep breath in and pondered for a few seconds. “Look. Winter is coming, and there are rogue wolves roaming this province, so excuse me for being concerned for a lone she-wolf’s well-being,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“I can handle myself. I don’t need your pity. I can only assume that you found out my status from the bartender. Humans can never be trusted,” Lele snapped.
“Leave Kenji out of this. He might not have said it, but he was also concerned for you. Since Miss Independent wants to act like a pretentious bitch, I guess I won’t talk to my alpha about letting you join. Maybe that way you’d have a better chance of surviving the winter.”
As if on cue, white particles floated down in front of Lele. Putting out her hand to catch one, she knew it was a sign of the first snow. Winter had officially arrived.
“How are you so sure your alpha will accept me anyway?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“He can be intimidating sometimes, but he does have a heart... at least, I think so,” he replied, placing a hand behind his head.
“That doesn’t give me much comfort,” she mumbled.
“Are you coming, or would you rather let the winter’s cold have you? This is the last time I’m offering because I have no problem forgetting this encounter ever happened and leaving you to be a victim of frostbite. Wolves don’t do well in winter on their own without a pack.”
“Fine. I’ll come, but I won’t be joining your group. I just need a place to stay for one night. The last thing I need is for more people to pity me.” She reluctantly agreed, already pondering where she might sleep as the snow began to fall.
“Suit yourself,” the man replied, rolling his eyes and turning to walk away.
Sometime later, in the Kanagawa province…
Upon arrival at the estate, Lele’s eyes widened in awe. There in front of her, a centuries-old mansion stood tall, its weathered brick façade and majestic columns hinting at its grandeur. The front entrance beckoned with massive mahogany doors, flanked by arched windows that promised elegance within. Lush gardens surrounded the property, while balconies offered glimpses of a picturesque landscape. The mansion radiated a timeless charm that seemed to welcome visitors into its historic embrace.
“Chase, you’re back!” A child with silver-white hair exclaimed as they walked through the doors, before she jumped on the man from the bar.
At that moment, Lele had a flashback of her sister Kirsi and shook her head to snap out of it.
“Hey, Vel,” he greeted her, picking her up and twirling her around before placing her tiny feet gently back on the ground.
“So his name is Chase? And this… this girl looks so eerily similar to Kirsi,” Lele thought to herself.
“Hmm?” Chase hummed as his ear twitched.
“Chase, you’re late. Vel has been waiting patiently for your return to go hunting, yet—who is this?” A slightly larger male inquired, cutting himself off as his eyes snapped to the female standing behind Chase.
“That voice...”
Even though Lele could hear the person, she dared not look at them, knowing her face would reveal discomfort. As a result, she kept herself behind Chase, staring only at his back. She noticed his hair was curlier than she had perceived at the bar.
“Yeah, about that. Do you mind if she stays for a while?” Chase asked, giving the guilty smile of a child caught red-handed.
“What did I tell you about bringing your toys to our den?” the Alpha gritted through his teeth.
“She isn’t my toy, and that’s why, as your Beta, I’m asking you to be so gracious as to let her stay here for at least one night,” Chase practically begged.
“I don’t know what you’re playing at. I don’t know this person, so at least tell me her name if she isn’t your toy,” the Alpha stated flatly.
“There’s no denying it...”
“See, we never exchanged names,” Chase admitted, shifting his gaze to the ground.
“Excu—” the Alpha began, a bit ticked off, but was interrupted.
“My name is Lele.”
Lele finally spoke, making eye contact with the Alpha of Chase’s pack, whose eyes were pure gold. He was tall and solidly built, with a cream skin tone. Compared to Chase’s light build, he was broader. He had a diamond-shaped face and a sharp jawline with a perfectly straight nose. Yet his face betrayed no emotion.
At that moment, it was the first time they had ever seen each other, but somehow, they felt connected. Lele’s chest began to feel warm, and her heart raced. Despite the butterflies in her stomach, she chalked it up to the rage she had been building up for the past six years.
“Well, Lele, you are free to stay as long as you like. My name is Lucian Lyall, but feel free to call me Lucian.” The man with silver-white hair smiled. His personality seemed to do a complete one-eighty after Lele made eye contact with him, and she noticed his once-golden eyes had changed to cognac-colored ones.
“His voice reminds me of dark rooms and broken bones,” Lele thought through gritted teeth.
