It all happened in a blur: hurried footsteps, a shocked cry of fear, more rumbling and blood splattering. Himchan had been right after all, there were more of them, the hunters. Within minutes, around twenty of them had surrounded the pack, clearly outnumbering them. On normal days, they would’ve easily defeated them, but they’ve been travelling for the whole day. They’ve used up most of their energy. Only a miracle could help them now.

As if god had listened to their silent prayers, a figure in a black, hooded cloak suddenly jumped down from one of the trees. Whoever it was, this person was definitely a force to be reckoned with, because in a split second, the hunters were scampering away, leaving who seemed to be their leader behind. Even so, the man looked rather shaken, most probably out of fear and nervousness.

“Well, well, well, it’s fancy meeting one of Minsik’s lowly servants here,” the newcomer taunted.

It was a woman. She didn’t need to reveal herself, her voice was an enough indication that she was in fact a woman. She turned her head slightly towards the pack, before turning her attention to the hunter again. The man no longer seemed terrified by her presence. Instead, he looked more piqued. Her name-calling probably hit a nail and bruised his pride.

“Take the boy to my house. It’s just half a kilometre to the west.”

Her voice held so much authority they nearly did what she told them if it weren’t for Yongguk’s firm negation. If the hunters were terrified of her mere presence, then they shouldn’t take her lightly. There must be something powerful about her that they needed to be careful of. Besides, she’s a complete stranger, whom they only met a couple minutes ago. They couldn’t possibly trust her yet. For all they knew, it could just be another trap.

“Suit yourself then,” the woman said after a moment, seemingly receiving no response from the pack, “Don’t blame his death on me afterwards.”

“Hyung, we’re losing him!” Jongup suddenly shouted, fear and panic were evident in his voice.

Yongguk remained quiet as he tried to come up with a solution, but no matter how hard he tried to dig deep into his brain, nothing seemed to cross his mind. They’re on a foreign land and the nearest hospital would probably be miles away. Not that the doctors and nurses would know what to do with an injured werewolf, anyway. If anything, it would be a huge risk. Their covers could have been disclosed if they weren’t careful enough.

He was running out of options. As much as he hated the idea of accepting help from a potential enemy, it seemed like it’s the only solution to the problem at hand. But, would he take the risk and gamble their lives, the crown prince’s life? What if it really were a death trap? What if they all died before even getting to the white wolf? What if this one little decision became the cause of the extinction of their species? Grai would just be another island, left abandoned and forgotten. Yongguk could never let that happen, not when they’re barely accomplished their mission.

“Yongguk,” Himchan tapped his shoulder lightly, bringing him back to reality, “We need to take care of the crown prince, or we’d lose him forever. We made a promise to the king and queen.”

At times like this, Yongguk could not help but hate himself, so much. As the alpha of the pack, one who was supposed to take care of his men, he felt useless. He wished he could’ve done more to help. If only things were as simple as consuming a panadol when having a headache, they wouldn’t have the need to leave Grai in search for the white wolf, the so-called chosen one, to help the queen and the entire of Grai.

In the end, he decided to accept her offer. That seemed to be the best option at the moment – their only option. He just wished that this wasn’t a death trap as he feared, or he would never forgive himself. “We’ll go to her house,” Yongguk finally agreed, earning a little smirk from the woman, although they couldn’t really see it because of the hood that’s covering her face.

“Ah, wise decision. Like I said, it’s half a kilometre to the west. And all the first aid materials are in the kitchen. Just look through all the top cabinets,” she explained, her tone a bit softer this time, “I’ll be there in a minute. I need to take care of this trespasser first.”

With an okay signal from their alpha, the others immediately transformed into their wolf forms. They’d run faster this way. Daehyun helped put Junhong on Youngjae’s back and they then rushed to the direction they were told in a superhuman speed. With one last look at the strange woman, Yongguk also transformed and zoomed off, with Himchan following closely behind.

At least, they knew she wasn’t lying when they spotted a small cottage not more than five minutes later. They took the crown prince inside, lying him down carefully on the sofa in the living room. Being the only one with a medical background, Daehyun immediately went into the kitchen and rummaged through all the cabinets as instructed.

To his surprise, however, he found not only a normal first aid kit, but also various other medical supplies and equipment in there. He felt like he just ransacked a hospital room instead of a kitchen.

What was she, a doctor?

Well, that wasn’t really an important matter right now. Junhong was badly injured and he needed to do something quick before the silver spread throughout his body. Gathering all the things needed, he rushed back to the living room. After examining the wound, he’s relieved that it wasn’t such a big cut. Seeing how the boy out so fast, however, the poison must have been pretty strong.

Youngjae helped him clean the wound while Daehyun prepared the tube that he would use to extract the poison. It’s a risky procedure, having no extra blood for a transfusion in case he lost a lot of blood, but it’s their only option if they wanted to get rid of the silver from his blood faster. Junhong could’ve died if they didn’t do anything about it as soon as possible.

By the time he was ready to insert the tube, however, there was a loud slam of a door, and in came the owner of the house. A collective gasp could be heard as soon as the woman took off her cloak, finally revealing her face. Her hair raven black, her complexion pale and her eyes were glowing blue. They knew right then and there who she was, or rather, what she exactly was.

A vampire.

They have heard stories, legends about them. But they definitely had never expected the vampires to be real. Well, who were they kidding? The human species would probably think the same about werewolves as well – just another mystical creature that only exists in the fictional world.

“You don’t need to do that,” the female vampire said, a bit alarmed.

The werewolves were still in a state of confusion when the woman disappeared into the kitchen. All they could do was stare at each other in disbelief. Not a minute later, she was back, holding a syringe in one hand and a bottle of colourless liquid in the other. She took a seat next to Daehyun on the floor and looked at him, as if asking for his permission to come closer, and the latter nodded silently.

She then grabbed Junhong’s right arm and lifted his sleeves carefully. Daehyun helped swab some alcohol onto his skin before the needle was pushed through his skin. Everyone watched closely as the liquid disappeared into the unconscious boy’s arm.

“That should do it for now. If he didn’t wake up in the next few hours, then we’ll take him to my brother,” the woman explained, standing up.

“What was that?” Daehyun asked, genuinely curious; and the vampire couldn’t help but feel rather uncomfortable all of a sudden when all eyes were on her, she wasn’t used to such attention.

“This? It’s just one of the vaccines my brother invented over the years,” she replied after regaining her composure quickly, looking at the bottle of vaccine brought back some awful memories but she immediately pushed the thoughts away.

“Why would he do that? I mean, you guys are vampires, why would he invent a vaccine for werewolves?” it was Himchan who asked next.

“My brother’s a scientist and he makes all kinds of vaccines.”

The look on the werewolves’ faces told her that they weren’t a bit satisfied with her answer. Thinking back, it’s only natural for them to be confused. From the reactions the hunter gave earlier, it seemed like nobody here knew the existence of werewolves until the six appeared. To them, that could only mean two things: the vaccine had never been tested before and Junhong might or might not die of side effects, or a poor werewolf was kidnapped from Grai to be their lab rat.

As if she could read their minds, the vampire added, “Don’t worry, we’ve tested all vaccines and my brother has a 90% successful rate in almost all his experiments, and no, we didn’t make a werewolf as a lab rat. We did, however, tested it on another were-being.”

That last word managed to get everyone’s attention, especially the alpha. Once again, they all looked like some lost sheep in the middle of a desert, to which the vampire laughed. Mentally, of course. Did they really think they were the only species of were-beings in this world? Oh, how naïve could they be.

Daehyun helped her gather all the tools that he had magically scattered all over the place and put them back into their respective boxes. Youngjae also helped them carry the things back into the kitchen, placing them in the cabinets where they belonged. Seeing that the two young men were doing a good job, the woman went back into the living room.

“There are two guestrooms down the hallway to your right, you may stay here until your friend wakes up,” she offered kindly.

After receiving a nod of approval from their alpha, Youngjae immediately helped Jongup carry the unconscious prince inside. Daehyun followed soon after, leaving Himchan and Yongguk behind with the vampire. There was an awkward silence for a brief moment, as the two observed the latter move to the kitchen, seemingly preparing to make a pot of tea.

Seeing that they were still on their spots, the woman invited them to join her for tea. Himchan looked at his friend, as if asking for permission, but Yongguk remained aloof. He was acting really. Although it’s natural for him to be suspicious and careful, it was unlike Yongguk to show his uneasiness so openly like this. The guy was obviously reading each and every situation thoroughly.

Sighing, Himchan shook his head and headed towards the kitchen, ignoring the daggers thrown at him from the back. After a long day, a warm cup of tea just sounded so good at the moment. To his delight, not only he was served tea, there was also a tray full of homemade muffins. Chocolate banana muffins!

“Would you like some milk or sugar with your tea?” the woman asked politely.

“Oh, one spoon of sugar, please,” Himchan replied, still a bit taken aback by her kindness.

“Very well then,” she smiled, pouring a spoon of sugar as he requested, before handing the cup of tea to him, “Here you go, enjoy your tea. And you can have some muffins, too, of course.”

Himchan was about to take his first sip of the drink when they heard noises from the living room. Both of them craned their necks to see what the commotion was all about, only to witness Yongguk falling over a stool that was in the middle of the floor and landing upside down. They had totally forgotten about him. Embarrassed, the man immediately got up, rubbing his bum as he waddled away, his face flushed red. That was so uncool of him.

The atmosphere turned silent again before the two people in the kitchen burst into a hearty laugh. That was such an unbelievably funny sight to see, Yongguk – the much respected and feared alpha – falling flat on his . Himchan, especially, enjoyed the incident very much. He could add another one to his long list of Yongguk’s embarrassing moments that he might or might not use to frame him in the future.

So just like that, the werewolf and vampire bonded over Yongguk’s misery. In that short period of time, he learnt that vampires weren’t as cold and vicious as they were normally portrayed in books. If anything, they were the complete opposite. But then again, he’s only met one vampire. He knew very well not to generalise things based on one case. He did, however, hope that the rest of them were just like her, if there were more of them.

He had also learnt that her name was Dal, the eldest and the only girl among her siblings, and that she loved chocolate banana muffins – a surprising similarity with the crown prince. Although they wouldn’t call themselves as friends just yet, they surely think of nothing but good things about one another.

Author's Note

Hello, my dear subbers. I'm back! I know it's been a while since the last update, I'm sorry it took me a while to publish a new chapter. I've just been busy with work. My boss entrusted me with new projects (which means I've got more classes to teach) and I am also now a head of a new department. So my workload has increased quite greatly over the months. I recently started working day and night so everything was just too much that it's taken a toll on my health. I lost around 7 kilos within a month. My mom even told me that I looked like a zombie. -__-" So yeah, I took some time off to rest. But don't worry, I'm feeling much better now. No more fever, no more flu or cold. Still a bit tired, but other than that, I'm feeling fine! And I decided to start writing again! :D Although this might seem a bit rushed, I still hope that you enjoyed the chapter! A new character has been introduced and you'll see a lot of Dal in the future too. :D

Until then, have a great week ahead! :D

Love, A.

Poster and Background by: ＣＨＩＮＧ Ａ ＬＩＮＧ