Quin groaned when she thumped at the floor and realized she fell asleep for a minute while leaning on the wall beside the bed. She gently massaged her head to alleviate its pain, and to wake herself up to remain focused on the man sleeping in front of her. It was already six in the morning, and the bright rays of the sun escaped through the tiny spaces in the window, striking her eyes.

She was awake for the whole night, watching over the mysterious man who just appeared in front of her in a blink of an eye last night. She feared that when she falls asleep, the man – or the alien – might do something to her and she might wake up crawling in the soil of the moon, or Jupiter, or wherever in the outer space.

Empty sachets of coffee smashed her face as the wind blew harder which made the window slam and shut. She couldn’t picture herself now – a supermodel carrying a frying pan for defense and a nipper for a sword. Well, it’s better to be prepared than let something bad happen to her. Anyway, the frying pan and the nipper look expensive when she’s holding them.

She could hear her bones cracking when she stood up to get her seventh cup of coffee. Her vision turned blurry, and her head seemed to be spinning, but she never let go of her self-proclaimed defensive weapons. 

She was in the middle of turning the electric heater on when a shadow peeked in front of her.

“Who are you?”

Her spirit flew away when she heard a baritone voice from her back. Her reflexes were fast, and her hand with a frying-pan flew to the man’s face, making him fall to the floor as the sound of the smash still echoed in her ears. Fear showed in her eyes, and she couldn’t think of a way how the man got there so fast.

She watched the man on the floor naked, again, and unconscious. Her eyes grew bigger when she witnessed how the wounds healed fast and vanished before she was able to blink her eyes.

“This is...unbelievable. This man is not a human,” she said as she emptied the contents of the cabinet under the sink to find something to tie the man up. “Bingo!” she cheered when she found a ducktape.

Squeaks of the ducktape blended with the whistle of the wind as she tied the man’s hands and leaned it into the wall. She dashed away from the man as soon as it finally settled in a stable position. She took the broom with an extended handle and poked the man in the face until it woke up, and promptly retrieved her arm before it gets eaten by the handsome alien, she thought.

The man grunted and groaned when light struck his eyes, making it look fiery. He looked around every corner of the kitchen until his gaze landed on Quin, who was standing there like a warrior with a frying-pan and a broom. Their eyes met, but Quin could not look directly into the man's eyes as if she was blinded by it.

She cleared her throat and acted like she was the bravest woman in the world alive. Her gaze went to the clothes on top of the chair near the table, took it, and threw it to the man to cover its private parts.

“Your body makes me feel uncomfortable.” She cleared her throat, again, and straightened her posture. She took a deep breath and calmed herself before speaking. “Who are you? What is the planet of your origin? Why do you want to take over the earth? How long have you been roaming around our planet? Are you planning to get me and offer me to your king? Or are you planning to study our life here and make us subjects for your experiments?” she asked rapidly, her hands shaking. “Tell me!” Her scream made the man look at her with terror in his eyes.

“How dare you talk to the Alpha like that!” the man shouted back. “I don’t even know what you are talking about.” He tried to break the thick ducktape wrapped around his wrists, but his strength hasn’t fully restored.

Quin pointed the broom at the man's face and warned him. “Don’t move. If you keep on trying to escape, I will stab you with this,” she said, showing the nipper that was smaller than her pinky finger. Annoyance flared within her when the man laughed like she was telling a joke. “Do you think I’m joking? Listen here, crazy man, there are police officers around here, so if you will not tell me who you are, you will end up in jail.”

“That wouldn’t kill me, will it?” the man answered blatantly. “Tell me, human, are you one of those who killed my pack?” His eyes flared up with red glowing colors, frightening Quin.

“What...what are you talking about?” she stuttered, nervously refusing to look at the man’s eyes. “I don’t know what you’re saying.”

She stepped back, and carefully took the frying-pan, putting the broom in front of her. She thought that maybe the man was mentally ill and was having a hard time determining reality from fantasy, and maybe, just like her, he was once a fan of werewolves and vampires.

She took her phone and planned to call Monique, but what happened last night came flashing back to her mind – the glowing sphere, the moving painting and the vision she saw when she touched the painting on the wall – and thought that maybe the man was telling the truth, that werewolves do exist. She turned around to look at the man again, but the man was no longer in the kitchen. 

She was barely able to breathe, knowing that the man escaped. Thoughts of him gnawing her into juicy pieces made her knees quiver. She wanted to run as fast as she could, but the man was already behind her back when she turned around to the door.

“Going somewhere?” his deep, baritone voice was creepily sexy, his eyes were lustful.

Quin fell to the floor off guard and screamed like she was being tortured. The man was on top of her, sniffing her neck lusciously, and growled like a predator scaring his prey. 

A knock on the door stopped him from lavishing Quin. They both shifted their eyes to the door and saw an old couple standing there with jaw dropped and eyes widened, seeing a naked man on top of a woman lying on the floor. 

“Goodness gracious!” the old woman yelled in awe. “Our sincerest apology for disturbing you. We thought someone needed help, so we ran here. ”

“I told you they were just enjoying, like what we did when we were younger,” the old man giggled and tapped his wife on the shoulder.

“Shut up, Fernando,” she nudged her husband and smiled at the two on the floor. “I’m sorry. Please continue with your honeymoon. It’s really good to have someone who can give you warmth every day.” The old couple closed the door in slow motion and ran away with footsteps echoing.

Quin pushed the man and stood up so quickly to get her frying-pan and the broom. She swiftly ran to the bathroom and locked the door for safety. Her hands were shaking and she couldn’t think well, frightened by the man with supernatural abilities. She took her phone from her pocket to call Monique for help, but it fell to the toilet bowl and shut down.

“Oh shit!” she cursed.

She jumped in horror when a thundering knock on the door broke the silence. She pulled the pail full of water and blocked the door with it.

“Get out of there. I won't eat you. I just want to ask for help,” the man said.

“Go away!” she shouted. “My flesh is disgusting. My organs are not healthy and my blood is full of toxic substances. If you are going to make me your snack, you’ll die.”

“I said, I am not going to eat you. I just want to know why the portal brought me here,” he stopped knocking, and his voice was profound. “There must be a reason why I teleported here, and why the portal brought me to you.”

Quin harshly shoved her fingers to her hair, and breathed heavily, trying to convince herself that she’s still sane and she’s not going crazy. She may be fond of reading novels with mythical creatures, but never in her wild dreams that she wanted to meet one.

“Please, I promise not to hurt you.”

“If I’ll come out, we have to maintain our distance, maybe four meters away from each other,” her stomach knotted as she slowly moved the pail aside, and slowly twisted the knob to open the door. She carefully stepped out of the bathroom and walked sideways into the sink.

“I want to know if –,”

“Please cover yourself up first. Your naked body makes me uncomfortable,” she commanded. “Get those clothes and wear them.” She pointed to where she tied the man lately.

The man went to get the clothes in a dash and went back to where he was standing. He can feel that his strength was slowly regenerating because he was able to move in a fast phase.

“My name is Theodulf, I am an Alpha. We were ambushed by the wolf hunters and moon mages in the forest.” Rage flashed in his eyes as he was narrating what happened to his pack. “They killed my mate and the other members of my pack. Fortunately, there were three who escaped, including me. I can still remember everything that happened during that night. I was severely wounded and I fell to the cliff. Then I woke up in this strange place.”

As Theodulf was narrating everything, Quin was able to see through her vision what happened during that night.

“I had this vision of people carrying bows with flaming arrows, hooded figures with glowing hands, and wolves fighting. I heard their howls, screams, and cries. I am confused about why I had visions like that. I thought I was just hallucinating, but I felt their pain and I know it was real. Maybe my visions are related to what happened to you and your pack,” she stated, her face muddled.

“The portal appeared when I prayed to the moon goddess, and it brought me here, to you. Maybe the moon goddess intentionally wanted me to meet you. Maybe you hold the answers to why the moon mages turned their back to the werewolves, or to why it happened to us.”

“What, what?” her askant gaze directly landed on him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have no idea about where you came from or what happened to you, all I want you to know is that I had those weird visions, that’s all.” She reached for a mug and made a coffee for herself.

“Those aren’t fixed visions, those are fragments.”

“Fragments or not, I don’t know anything about it.” She sipped her coffee and sat on the chair while he was standing in the doorway. “By the way, my name’s Quintessa. Just call me Quin if you’re not comfortable with my real name.”

“Quin, those vision fragments were sent to you by someone who can do so. And that only means that you are part of these happenings,” Theo insisted.

“You know what, I love reading books about werewolves, but I have no plan of meeting real ones, not even a single mythical creature that’s –,”

“We are not mythical creatures. We exist, but we just chose to hide in the shadow of the forest.” Theo wanted to come closer to her, but she stopped him with a pinning stare.

“Let’s just say that I am part of whatever happened to you, do you think a human – a weak human – like me would survive if I go along with werewolves, or whatever?” She put down the mug she was holding and decided to approach Theo and see if he would eat her alive, but he just stared at her. “Well, you’re not as scary as I thought.”

She can’t help herself but be mesmerized by his glittering onyx eyes that give her lustful thoughts. His thick eyebrows gave his eyes more emphasis. His pale-red lips were like telling her to kiss it. She shook her thoughts off when she realized that she was staring at him for quite a moment.

“If you have nothing else to ask, you can leave now and find answers to yourself,” she adamantly said.

“I will not leave. You are the answer I am looking for,” Theo insisted, his voice deep again. “I know there is something about you that I need to know, that might answer all of my questions.”

Quin continuously sauntered to the stairs as if she didn’t hear Theo. She realized why is she even talking with this stranger, and instead of forcing her to answer all those questions, why don’t he thank her and leave peacefully. All she wanted was a life away from people, but now this guy appeared and ruined her plans.

“When did you had your visions?”

Quin paused, took a deep breath, and faced Theo with a blank expression. “Last night, when I touched that painting,” she blatantly answered, pointing her finger to the painting on the wall.

Theo dashed towards the painting in a flash, scrutinizing every corner of it. “Who did this?”

“How would I know? That is already here when I bought this house a month ago.”

“Do you know the owner of this house?”

“Can you please stop asking me all these bullshit questions? I wanted to have my peaceful life away from the city, away from the people, so that I could give myself some time. But you showed up and ruined everything. You ruined my first night here and probably my whole day.” Her eyes welled up when she let her heart out. She wanted to help, but she knows that it would be so dangerous if she will, knowing that Theo is not a human. “Go find someone who can help you. The person you are looking for is not me.” She turned her back and stepped forward until she reached the door of her room.

“Please, bring me to the previous owner of this house. I just want to know everything,” Theo’s voice was heartfelt. “ You can leave me after bringing me there. And I promise not to bother you anymore.”

Quin gazed back at him with tears still dripping from her eyes. Her heart softened when he saw Theo kneeling with tears wanting to fall.

“Please,” he begged.