Theodulf felt his butt heating up against the chair because of friction, and his sight glued on Quin’s door like wanting to shred it into microscopic pieces. It has been an hour when she told him to wait for her outside, but she still hasn’t come out. His right fist turned iron-hard as he gripped so hard on the glass with water and broke it into sharp bits, cutting his palm and let drops of his blood and water blend with the dry sand on the floor.

“Damn woman!” he rose, ready to smash the door. “ Is she playing tricks with me?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw shadows in a familiar shape of wolves dashed on the left side to the pile of wooden boxes in front of the warehouse. He thought of crawlers, but he had to be mistaken. How could those creatures follow him? His plan to break the door was interrupted by his will to check if what he saw was real.

His calloused sole absorbed the heat of the sand as he walked to the direction of where the shadow he thought went. His heart raced like horses in the wild, and he’s ready to shift to his wolf form if ever some creatures will attack him.  Sharp nails popped from his fingers like blades thirsty for prey blood when he heard something was moving behind the boxes.

“I said, wait for me here,” Quin yelled from his back, diverting his attention to her. “What are you doing there?”

“Umm, I just thought I saw something, so I checked it,” he answered, turning his eyes from her to the boxes, and his claw quickly drew back.

“Aren’t you going to wear the clothes I gave to you?” Quin darted him with stares like that of a dangerous predator. “ And you even walked on the hot sand with barefoot. Come on, Theodulf. Can you please behave like a real human for this day at least? I can’t withstand seeing you like this. It honestly creeps me out when you are exposing too much of your skin, and those hairs from your legs and thighs are unpleasant to watch. So technically speaking, your nudity detrimentally drives me nuts. Look at your penis, it looks like a sloppy snake.” She rolled her eyes and sighed, handing the clothes to him.

“Why? What’s wrong with hairs on the legs and thighs? Girls in my pack find it very attractive. Don’t you find me good looking?” He stretched the sleeves of the white T-shirt and wore it, and stared at Quin like he’s seducing her.

“Well, let’s just say that I am not a wolf, and you are not my type,” she smiled at him sarcastically. “So, with all due respect, Mr. Alpha, can we get going now?”

A wide smile drew on Theo’s lips, brightening his face up and made his heart leap like a free deer. Being called “Alpha” by a human hit him so differently, and he felt like he could listen to it his entire life.

“And one more thing, since you are begging me to help you, you have to follow my rules. I don’t care if you are a king, alpha, or the most dangerous creature ever existed. My rules are my rules, and whether you like it or not, you have to obey them, or else you’ll get no help from me.” She narrowed her eyes and stabbed him with a dominant stare. “Are we clear?”

Theo bobbed his head and smiled like agreeing with her wholeheartedly. “How many days of running till we get there?” he asked, facing Quin with a serious face.

“Days of what?” her forehead wrinkled. “Running? Why would we run?”

“Oh, should we just walk? You didn’t tell me that the owner of this house lives just near here,” his face screwed up.

“Do werewolves don’t know that cars exist?” she chortled while showing him her car key. “Or they’re just too busy living their unsophisticated life in the dark forest, howling under the moon every night like crazy bastards.”

Theo’s cheeks dropped heavily, and he looked downward. Thinking about how Quin described his kind made his hands turn into fists, crumpling the shoes he was holding. He felt like a lowly creature stabbed with sharp words coming from a harsh human. Shame corroded his insides. What Quin said shattered his hopes to reconcile with them. Maybe his members were right, that there is no way for humans and werewolves to live in harmony, and that humans do not just consider them a threat but also lowly creatures that need to vanish and just remain a myth.

“ Sorry,” he said, his voice weak and lifeless. “We don’t know that much about things humans use. We spent our existence in the forest, trying to stay away from your kind because we know that our kind is a threat to yours. We hear machines and engines, but only a few of my kind know what it looks like. Our life in the forest isn’t what you think it is. Yes, we do not live a sophisticated life as you have, and that is because we do not have a chance to live in that way. Humans are always looking for us to kill us, so we have no choice but to dwell in the forest humans can’t dare go to.”

Quin’s arms dropped to her side and said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to –,”

“It’s okay. There’s nothing new about it,” he muttered. “We have to go now. I shouldn’t be wasting time.” He drew in a long breath and sighed heavily as he paced forward.

Just as when Quin stepped on the sand and opened the door to the driver’s seat, Theo sensed a strange smell from mysterious creatures mingled with the humid sea breeze. His eyes turned glowing red when he sensed something is coming in their direction from behind, awakening his werewolf side. Sharp claws replaced his blunt nails, and his body conditioned to tear enemies in halves.

“Hey!” Quin shouted from a distance. “What are you waiting for? Hop in!” Her head peeked in the car window.

Torn pieces of the shirt he was wearing scattered in the air as he shifted into his werewolf form before Quin could blink her eyes and pounced in front of Quin’s car, blocking the attack of the two crawlers, and caused him to lean on the hood and broke the bumper. A screeching sound made the crawlers step back as he left a mark on the hood. His arms traveled at a speedy pace to smash their head, but they dodged, not leaving a single pawprint on the sand. The crawlers’ shadowy appearance made them look like black wolves with smoking furs and less opacity, which normal people can’t see.

Theo set himself to dash to the creatures, but they sprinted away when they saw Quin got off the car and bolted beside him.

“Please tell me I am not hallucinating,” she panted.

“Have you seen it?”

“Clear as a crystal. What are those creatures?”

“They’re called crawlers. They are shapeshifters controlled by the whisperers. They caused nightmares to normal people and sometimes they attack in the dark,” he replied. “Let’s get going now.”

“There are spare clothes inside the car. You can change there,” fear splintered in her eyes, making her uneasy.

Grains of sand flew with the wind as they rushed to the car, creating a dusty trail. Scenes of the crawlers wanting to attack Quin still played in his mind. He heard Quin’s heart beating so loud and hands trembling as they reached the concrete road. His mind perplexed. Why did Quin saw the creature when only werewolves, moon mages, and wolf hunters can see it?

 “Did you really saw the creature?” he broke the silence inside the car.

“I did,” she yelled, her face still perplexed. “Why are these strange creatures suddenly pop out? First, a wounded werewolf in his human form appeared in front of me, and now, a wolf with a shadowy appearance showed up. I am really going crazy! Am I in the middle of a movie shoot or what?” She chased her breath and she can’t ease her trembling hands.

“A normal human like you can’t see creatures like that.”

“What do you mean?” she glanced at him and returned her gaze to the road.

“Crawlers can only be seen by werewolves, moon mages, and wolf hunters. A normal human’s sight is limited, unlike ours. Unless you are not a human after all.”

“Do I look like those creatures to you? Of course, I am human. I was born from the human species.”

Trying to believe that Quin is really a human, Theo came up with the question of why the crawler headed in her direction, wanting to attack her. He knew right when he saw her for the first time that there is something about her that he needs to know, and now, those creatures have proved that she is not just an ordinary woman.

“I still can’t explain why the crawler wanted to attack you,” he muttered, his attention was on the clothes he was trying to wear. “Maybe the owner of the house knows the answers to all of these.”

“Why would an average old man know anything about this?”

“Because the painting on the wall depicts what happened to my pack. It’s like a picture and the reference was the real event that happened in the forest. If the man was able to paint that then that only means that he was there when that event happened.”

“Theo, we are not a hundred percent sure that the owner of the house painted it. What if he just bought it from someone?”

Theo stiffened hearing Quin’s doubts, his eyebrows furrowed and jaw clenched.  There was indeed a possibility that the owner of the house doesn’t know anything about what is happening. He sighed heavily, disturbing his mind through looking outside the car.

If ever they can’t find the old man, or if the old man just bought the painting, it would be hard for them to start putting a dot into their questions. But he shouldn’t lose hope of finding the truth and knowing the reason why he teleported to Quin’s place.

“...Then we have to find where that painting came from. It is the only way we can do to at least start finding pieces of answers to our questions,” he said, facing Quin then back to see the view outside.

Quin suspired, “Fuck! Why do I have to be in this situation? This is not the life I wanted to have.”

Theo sensed fear in her voice and glanced at her to ease her, “I’m sorry if you got into this. Trust me, we can get through this.”

“What if something will happen to me?”

“Nothing will happen to you. I am with you, and I will protect you at all cost,” he tapped Quin’s shoulder and he saw her tears falling. “I will not let them hurt you. Trust me.”

His thoughts shifted to the night before the ambush happened, and he imagined how Liana’s tears fell down when he told her to trust him. Vexation recoiled inside him, realizing his impotence for not being able to save her from death. He knows that he was the one to blame for the death of his mate and others. He is nothing but a worthless alpha with sheer weakness.

A long hour drive brought them to Skaneateles, New York. Darkness already crept in, covering the orange sky, as they got off the car in front of a seemingly aged house. Dried leaves and tall grass behind the wooden fence were freely dancing with the cold twilight wind, creating relaxing rustles.

“Is this it?” Theo broke the silence. “This house seems abandoned.”

“I think so too. But let’s try going inside.” Quin opened the small wooden gate, the squealing of the corroded hinges jolting her taut nerves. “This house looks creepy, honestly.”

Theo stepped ahead of her and held her hands, placed her behind him to protect her from possible attacks. Quin's grasp tightened as he put her hands to his wrist. The crashing sound of the leaves and the sound of their breaths were audible as they paced closer to the door of the house.

“Don’t be scared,” he said when he felt her hand was shaking, transferring Quin’s hand to his and found out it’s a perfect fit. “I’ll protect you.”

The eerie squeak of the old wooden floor aggravated Quin’s fear as they reached the door front. “This place looks different than the last time I came here,” she said, trying to stop her fear.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Theo whispered.

“Yes.”

The cold sensation of the knob gave him shivers as he opens the door. The dim light of the outside crawled into the seemingly empty space of the inside covered in curtains of darkness. His clear night vision hovered from one point to another, finding a sign of life. His strong sense of smell filtered the air to know if someone’s inside, but there’s none. He couldn’t feel any presence from the inside. They were about to step backward and return to the car when an old voice broke the uncanny silence.

“Just as I expected. Cursed creatures of incompatible virtue will seek light together.”