Atlas opened his lips with the wine glass right before him. Unfortunately, he didn’t move the glass towards his lips.

“I am sorry, but I’m not thirsty. I told you I’m not in the mood to drink. Please drink it in my stead.” With an innocent smile, Atlas pushed the glass of wine toward the lips of Lia.

The glass touched her lips, prompting her to step back hastily. As she suddenly moved back, the glass dropped from the hands of Atlas and Lia.

The glass filled with wine crashed on the ground, filling the silent room with the noise of glass shattering.

“Hmm?” Atlas was even more sure that something was wrong with this glass. Why else was she so scared to drink it?

“What happened?” Atlas inquired as he went to the table on the side. He picked a piece of paper and returned.

“Was something wrong?” he asked, going down on his knees to collect the glass pieces, so they didn’t stab anyone.

“N-not at all. I was just surprised by this sudden closeness. I apologize.” The woman responded; however, finally, her calmness was gone, and some worries were visible on her face.

“She’s so cute.” Lilith burst into laughter, observing the reaction of Lia. “Atlas, ask her which Clan she is from.”

‘Clan?’ Atlas took a subtle glance at the shadow. What was it about a clan? Unfortunately, he couldn’t ask Lilith here. However, he also didn’t want to go on blind and ask this question? What if there was some secret associated with this word that could create trouble if she knew about it?

He had enough of running blind. Now it was time for him to get an answer before he did anything.

He placed the paper filled with broken pieces of glass to the side. He didn’t ask the question that Lilith wanted him to ask though. Instead, he asked a question of his own.

“Can I use the bathroom here?” he asked.

Lia nodded and pointed towards the door on the left.

Atlas swiftly ran to the bathroom and closed the door from the inside.

“What are you doing? Why aren’t you asking her the question?” Lilith grew angry at Atlas. Instead of asking, he came here and was walking back and forth instead of doing anything? It was as if he was just wasting time.

“I’m not going to ask her anything,” Atlas let out, rolling his eyes. “Not until you tell me everything? What is going on? What was that invisible wall at the entrance? What’s this odd feeling I’m getting from the lady? And what was with the Wine? I’m not running in blind this time. If you don’t answer, I’ll straight away leave this place and select another lady.”

“You! I told you that I will tell you when I’m sure of it. All you needed to do was ask that question, and I would’ve known for sure!”

“I told you, I’m not asking anything. You expect a man to enter a battlefield without knowing who he’s fighting? Not happening. I already did enough.” Atlas folded his arms and refused to listen.

He wasn’t going to listen to her this time until he got his way. He wasn’t someone’s puppet.

~~~~

Out in the room, Lia was sitting on the bed with a deep frown on her face as she observed the spilled liquid on the ground. ”

“This bastard, did he know something was wrong in this? His actions weren’t right! This has never happened before. What am I going to do? If he didn’t drink, then he isn’t going to be under… Do I really need to take more drastic steps now? If I do, my identity would be out. But if I don’t, I’ll actually have to sleep with this man. I can’t let that happen.”

“I need guidance!” She was determined. This was an important decision, and she couldn’t decide alone.

She stood up and glanced towards the bathroom before she left the room. She went to the room right beside where she believed she was going to have some privacy. Atlas couldn’t barge in on her there.

Even after entering the room, she didn’t forget to lock the door from the inside.

She sat on the ground on her knees and brought out her pendant, which was hiding under her clothes.

She opened the dark pendant, which seemed to be filled with a red liquid.

She dipped her finger in the red liquid and made a circle with it around the pendant, which was placed on the ground. After making a red circle around the pendant, she placed one finger from both her hands inside the red circle and closed her eyes.

Gentle winds started circling around the lady. The red liquid inside the pendant started shining in a mysterious white light. The circle she had made also started shining, but it shone in green light.

~~~~

Lancaster kept running far away from the city without stopping. He had already started getting tired. Fortunately, he had a lot of stamina even though he wasn’t awakened as a Werewolf. This helped him run for hours straight with only minimal wait.

He was already extremely hungry and could even hear the growling of his tummy, which he kept ignoring, waiting to reach any forest or town where he could find something to eat.

Even though he didn’t reach any town, he had a glimpse of a Forest in the distance, which was where he started advancing, hoping that he was going to find water and some food there.

After a long run, Lancaster finally entered the forest. It was already dark by now. He couldn’t see many things clearly either. Fortunately, the moon was providing at least some light.

He kept entering deep and deep into the forest, trying to find any fruit tree. Unfortunately, he didn’t find any fruit despite a long search. He did, however, find a pond.

He hastily ran to the pond and drank some much-needed water to satiate his thirst. After having plenty of water, Lancaster laid on the ground, letting out a sigh. “Water… Never knew water should taste so good. I feel like I’m full with just water.”

He kept glancing at the moon in the sky. “I still need to find food though. Why is it so hard? I’m supposedly a Werewolf. Shouldn’t I be able to find food in a Forest? This is our habitat. So what if I’m not awakened yet? I should still have some instincts.”

“Sigh, enough talking with myself. Time to get back to search again. This forest is so big; there is no way it won’t have something to eat. It’s only a matter of time to find it.” He rolled his body on his stomach and pushed himself up to stand.

He prepared to search again. He took one step away from the pond, only to freeze in his place right there.

Sweat appeared on his forehead as he frowned.

Grrrr~

He could hear the growling of something as if a beast was here. He had no experience of facing a beast. Other than the extra stamina, he had no additional advantage of being a Werewolf at this point. He was just an ordinary human, and he was scared as he heard the footsteps of the beast coming closer to him.

He knew that if he tried running, the beast was going to chase him down and kill him for sure.

“Pretend to be dead?” he muttered, hearing that in some cases, pretending to be dead was better than running before a vicious beast. He didn’t know which beast it was or how accurate this theory was, but that’s the only thing he could come up with.

He dropped to the ground swiftly, still keeping his eyes open. He could see a beast that had a muscular body with powerful forelimbs, a large head, and a tail that was about half the length of its body. The beast kept stepping closer to him in proud steps.

The beast had orange skin with white ventral areas and distinctive vertical black stripes that were unique to him.

‘A tiger?’ Lancaster was so scared at the moment as he realized the beast. It was once of the fiercest beasts that could be found in the forests and a powerful hunter.

He was sure if he had tried running, he would’ve been dead by now, but even now, he didn’t feel safe. He was told that this trick mostly worked with bears. He didn’t know if a tiger was going to be fooled.

His heart kept thumping fast as he watched the tiger moving closer to him. His heart had come to his throat in fear, facing a tiger from this close. The growling of the tiger was even more worrying.

The tiger’s eyes rested on Lancaster as it stopped a few meters away from him.

The Tiger took a few steps back in anticipation, making Lancaster even more worried. It was as if he was preparing to jump. Just as he had thought, the Tiger jumped in his direction with his claws out.

“Argh! This didn’t work!” Lancaster yelled as he rolled his body to the side, barely avoiding the claws.

He started running towards the pond, hoping to fool the Tiger by going in the water.

The tiger chased after Lancaster, being much faster. Within seconds, the Tiger caught up to Lancaster with another jump. His claws stabbed the back of Lancaster, bringing him to the ground.

Lancaster’s face landed on the ground as he screamed in pain at being stabbed. The Tiger was sitting on him. The Tiger roared as he opened his mouth out loud, bringing his sharp teeth towards the neck of Lancaster.

Lancaster’s vision turned blurry as he kept screaming in pain. The pain was just too much. He tried freeing himself, but it was impossible. He was sure this was his last day in this world. A tear trickled down his cheeks as he realized that he was never going to meet his parents. He was scared, he was in pain, and he was anguished at the thoughts of not having a future.

It was unclear what it was, but one of his feelings changed something inside him. The tattoo on his shoulder started shining in a bright white light. Lancaster’s eyes started shining in a beautiful Golden light as he felt a beastly urge of his own.

His painful cry for help changed into a mighty roar.

Awooooo~

A mighty roar echoed in the forest, making each and every animal in the forest tremble before that mighty roar. Even the tiger who was just about to bite the neck of Lancaster jumped back in fear for some reason, landing in the back.