Chapter 2

Sharp knocks, in quick succession, bustling against the wooden front door woke Emma up. And for a tiny second, she thought she was still in Florida getting cozy on her queen size bed, until her eyes caught two cockroaches playing around on the floor and her back protested in pain at her for lying it against the kitchen table.

She winced, and rubbed her head dejectedly, noting that she had fallen asleep, while thinking about her life, and how she would go about the arrangements that would make sure she gets to the county’s university next week. The thoughts now rushing back like a river overflowing its bank still assailed her.

Now thinking about it again, Emma knew that she had to get a job or something that she could do to support herself financially. But for the life of her, She couldn’t think of any work she could do, she hadn’t worked for money in her entire 17 years of life.

Her father had always made sure that she and Amelia didn’t lack the cash, no matter how cruel he was to her. A part she had always scored him good in, even though Amelia’s weekly expense money was double of hers. But now, Emma thought tiredly, he has frozen her accounts too, after taking away her phone. He had told her that all she needed was already in place, and anything extra would have to be paid by her…

“…which means he even expected me to work, or how else would I get the money for the extra? Stealing??” Emma muttered to herself sadly.

At least if she had her phone with her, she could make some calls, Emma thought, scratching an itching spot on her hair.

For if she had learnt anything from her father, it was to keep connections. He had always told her and Amelia to make useful friends and keep them around too, no matter what.

“It could be helpful to you in the future” He would always say, then he would go off into tales on how he became a rich mogul that even lends money to the government officials. How he made friends that helped him keep climbing the ladder of Fame and wealth.

But then, he took her phone, Emma gnashed her teeth at the thought. She could remember vividly now that she had some friends on Instagram that lived in England, and she was totally sure that one or two of them would have known something about this county.

“But then, he took my phone,” Emma said, hitting her hand on the table in annoyance.

The knock came again.

Emma stopped the reverie and muttered a curse, wondering who could be here already. Her sister was far away in Florida, maybe surfing now. And her dad won’t be coming here till three months from now.

Rubbing her hands on each other, maybe, to dull the pain of hitting one of them on the table, she stood up begrudgingly, wobbling across the kitchen floor, while sighing heavily as she beheld the messy state of the rooms, till she got to the front door, still wondering on who could be at the door. Emma didn’t have to wait so long to find out.

She opened the door to see a very tall handsome guy standing in front of her.

He stood at 6ft and dome inches, with deep blue eyes. His skin was lightly tanned, and she wondered if a sea was lying around here, because she hadn’t seen any while on transit. His hair was richly dark, and tied in a ponytail. A wholesome meal in all. She whistled. If half of the male population in this country were as handsome as the dude in front of her, then this adventure that her father had forced her into wouldn’t be too bad, she thought smiling.

Yeah, she always had a thing for tall guys, with dark hair. He was sprouting a beard too, which seemed to be recently trimmed. Emma sighed dreamily.

“Hello” He said, while waving his hands at her face. His face all scrunched up, and his lips upped in disgust.

Emma blinked repeatedly, and clocked her head sideways as she caressed her forehead.

“What’s wrong with me?” She thought wistfully.

And looking up to meet the guy’s strong gaze, she could see, from the side view, that there were other guys too, hot heavily built guys with…

“…wait a minute,” Emma whispered to herself softly.

The guys were carrying cleaning equipment.

What is happening? Who had called the cleaning company? She just got here, a few hours ago. She thought wildly.

And then she concluded that it could only be her father, and for a second she was completely grateful to him. But she still had to confirm, she thought.

She opened her mouth to ask how and why they came to the house, but the handsome hot guy beat her to it.

“Hello again. I’m Derek, from Peipei Cleaning Company.” He said, with a forced smile, that still somehow showed off a set of white dazzling teeth.

But Emma didn’t take note of the dazzling teeth as she would have a lot of time if meeting a guy for the first time.

She had only noticed the forced smile, and she knew for sure that the smile was customary. The normal customer service smile, she thought; but on a forced terrain. And she also believed that Mr. Handsome would have preferred to be in a club watching ladies strip than here, talking to her.

“Hello, I’m Emma, and I don’t remember calling for a cleaning service.” She replied blankly, meeting his gaze strongly.

“Yeah, you didn’t, but the owner of the house did.” The guy, Derek replied scornfully, like he was talking to a kid sis.

He had watched the girl with dust speckles on her face fawning over him some seconds ago and scoffed inwardly.

Humans can be so pathetic he thought. Although her scent was very faint, he could still tell that she was one. But he couldn’t understand what she was doing in the area that was reserved specially for the werewolves in this county. He could also see her proud stance now, and he waited in anticipation to hear what she had to say.

But Emma scoffed, loudly.

“I’m the owner of the house, Mr.” She started with a sardonic smile.

Derek was taken aback for a moment. He looked at the tired looking girl in front of him, who had been ogling him some seconds ago, and who couldn’t be more than 18 years, and scoffed.

“I don’t know what you’re saying, Miss, but Mr. Jason called for us. Are you his mistress or his maid? Whichever one you are, just place a call to him to confirm then, we don’t have all the day to waste” He said disdainfully.

And then after some seconds, he purred in satisfaction as he saw the drastic change in her proud stance and haughty look as she fully registered what he had said.

The horrid look on her face pleased him greatly…

He would show her. Derek thought. If she had thought she could look down on him. Humans were so easy to play with.

And so folding his thick hairy arms against his chest, he gave her a daring look, with his lips turned up in a smirk.