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However, Ruby wasn’t done talking. She wasn’t going to give up so easily without even pleading her case.

So she shouted with haste, “You’re the one who bit me and turned me into this thing!”

Everard suddenly stopped his foot in midair. He turned to look at Ruby again. But he thought that this was another lie of hers because he had no recollection of biting anyone ever.

“Er... Miss... Look...” Everard ran his fingers through his shiny black hair in agitation. “I don’t want to keep on standing here and listening to your lies. I don’t know why you are trying to latch onto me like this. Maybe it is because I showed some kindness that day. Or maybe because you know my real identity that I am a-”

“I’m not lying!” Ruby said defensively. “You are my only hope in surviving what I am running away from. So, please, will you please listen to what I have to say?”

“Why should I... Ugh!” Everard couldn’t say no when Ruby was looking like she was going to break down into tears any second now.

He sighed and said, “Okay, okay. I’ll give you a minute then. Go on.”

Ruby gulped and mustered up the leftover courage in her before beginning her sad story. And she started explaining in a shaky voice.

.....

“I don’t know if you don’t remember or if you are denying to remember but we met for the first time in the woods of Sorvando. It was a few days prior to our second meeting in that town. I heard the agonizing scream of a man in the woods and went to see if I could do anything to help. But when I got there, instead of finding a man, I found a big black wolf with shiny yellow eyes.”

Ruby glanced at Everard’s eyes. And for a split second, his eyes glowed amber in color. “Yes, those same eyes.”

Everard furrowed his brows and tightly shut his eyes. The bits and pieces of memories of his first transformation were slowly coming back to him. He recalled hearing Ruby’s voice when he was running around in pain.

Ruby inhaled deeply and summarized what he had done to her, “And that wolf – you – bit me on my stomach, dragged me around the woods, and left me to die.”

Everard covered his face with his palm because as she kept on speaking, he kept on recalling everything that he did to Ruby.

He recalled seeing a terrified woman in the woods. He recalled chasing her. He recalled how she had stumbled to the ground. And he recalled pouncing on her even when a part of him was screaming not to.

“I lost my consciousness after that. But somehow, when I came back to my senses, I got up and went to see the doctor. And I survived after almost dying again.” Ruby’s pupils dilated as she kept on recounting everything. “And now, I am turning into the same thing as you. I can run faster, heal faster, hear things that humans can’t, and see things that humans can’t.”

“I can grow fangs and claws! And what’s more shocking than that is that I can even fight vampires now.” She scoffed at herself and kept on speaking, “And because I am becoming this thing, I was tortured repeatedly by that monster King. He kept on digging his claws into my heart, asking who bit me.”

Streams of tears rolled down her cheeks as she recalled how much pain she was in. “I knew it was you who bit me. But for some reason, I felt this unexplainable sense of...” Ruby scavenged in her mind to find a word to explain how she had felt. And she came up with one word that almost fit, “Loyalty.”

She stroked Everard’s right heartstrings when she uttered that word. He had also felt this strange sense of loyalty towards her; this strong urge to protect Ruby at all costs. And he was amused when he heard that it was the same for her.

Ruby looked into Everard’s eyes which were filled with guilt, and she said in a soft voice, “I felt this sense of loyalty towards you. I just couldn’t give you up to those monsters even when I was on the verge of death.

I can’t go to my home because every vampire will be looking for me. And the only person I could think of was you. So I came to you after wandering around Xanmar for days.”

“How did you know where to find me?” Everard asked in a tamed voice.

Ruby shrugged and replied, “I don’t know. I just did.”

She sniffled and continued further, “But I didn’t know that the man I traveled with was that very King’s cousin. If he finds out that I ran away from the King’s clutches, he might drag me back and throw me into the same dungeon or somewhere worse.”

Ruby suddenly fell to her knees and pleaded while joining her hands and crying, “Please! Save me from all those monsters. I don’t know anyone else whom I can ask for help.”

“What are you doing? Please, get up.” Everard held Ruby by her shoulders and made her stand up on her feet.

He felt his heart tearing apart after hearing Ruby’s agonizing story. And he felt even guiltier upon realizing that he was the one who caused her all that pain to her.

And he even wondered, ‘Was I sensing her pain?’ But he instantly brushed off that thought, ‘How can I? That doesn’t even make any sense.’

Although some of the things weren’t adding up like how she turned into a werewolf from his bite, he was also a new werewolf with limited information. So he pushed all the questions aside thinking he would ask Lorenzo later.

And he apologized to Ruby while stuttering, “I- I’m really sorry, Ruby. It-It was never my intention to harm you. But I was not in the right state of my mind that day. Hell, I wasn’t even in the right body.”

He took a step back from her and said, “If I could take back what I did to you, then I would gladly do so. But I don’t know if that’s possible or not. I didn’t even know that I could turn a human into a werewolf by biting them.”

“I’m really sorry that I got you all tangled up in this werewolf and vampire’s enmity. I’m sorry that they tortured you. But...” He took a deep breath in because he couldn’t believe that he was actually going to say it.

However, he did anyway, “But now that you are here with me, I won’t let any vampire lay a finger on you. I turned you into a werewolf, so it is my responsibility to keep you safe from now on.”

Ruby couldn’t be any happier when Everard actually behaved like the angel she had imagined him to be. She smiled through her tears and gratefully said, “Thank you for saying that. You have no idea how much it means to me.”

Everard surprised her even further by saying, “And since I turned you, or created you, or whatever you want to call it...” he heaved a sigh again and said, “I will consider you as a part of my Crestfire clan from here onward.”