"I think he's going to die." One of the boy idols whispered, worried over the young alpha bleeding on the settee.
"Shut up," Damien growled. "I won't die from this."
Nobody looked convinced.
Someone had pressed a tea towel into his wound, but it only served to show that the wound hadn't stopped bleeding, not even with Damien's Alpha wolf healing abilities.
Sebastian was on the phone.
"Don't call anyone!" Damien growled at him. Growling seemed to be all Damien could manage right now, so Jennifer decided it was probably safe to ignore his wishes.
"…I have something."
The voice was quiet. All heads turned.
Quintin stood there, shoulders still drawn in, but his hand was in his pocket.
He stepped forward.
Carefully.
In his palm was a small glass vial. Clear liquid. Faintly luminous.
"I—I don't know if it'll help," he said. "Someone dropped it during the third fight."
Wait. THIRD FIGHT?
"How many fights did you get into in one night?" Jennifer demanded.
Apparently, the men were more shocked by the little glass tube Quintin was holding than the fact that Angus and Damien had been getting into multiple fights.
Sebastian stilled. Adrian went very still. The band collectively leaned forward.
Sebastian took the vial and turned it slightly. The liquid caught the chandelier light and refracted in soft gold.
"A Class-A restoration," he murmured.
Adrian's brows lifted slightly. "Pandora-issued."
Jennifer blinked. What were they talking about? That sounded suspiciously like a healing potion. Which was impossible. There was no such thing!
Then again, there was no such thing as werewolves, but that didn't stop one from bleeding on her settee.
"How do you know what that is?" Angus demanded.
Sebastian did not answer. Instead, he uncorked the vial. The scent in the air shifted—clean, sharp, almost electric.
He poured it carefully over the wound.
The reaction was immediate.
The darkened flesh lightened. The bleeding slowed. Then stopped.
Damien inhaled sharply. Color returned to his face in slow waves.
The band collectively exhaled.
"…Okay, that's cool," EJ whispered—but loud enough that everyone in the lobby heard him.
"Uh-oh," Jennifer breathed—and immediately regretted saying it aloud.
Then again… she hadn't meant to unleash another one of her novels into the world. But that was exactly what had happened.
"What is it?" Adrian's tone snapped instantly sharp. All eyes turned to her. All except Damien, who had already slipped into an uneasy sleep.
Why did she have to write about alien portals? She was an idiot! Anyone else in her shoes would've written something smarter—like… Jennifer had no idea what exactly, but anything would have been better than alien portals opening in her neighborhood.
"I'm such an idiot!" Jennifer groaned.
The rest of the night blurred into a strange, stressful dream.
Alpha Drake arrived with his warriors, demanding to know who dares to attack his son.
Damien, now fully recovered, stubbornly growled that it had been his fight, none of anyone else's business. The two wolves shifted and tried to chew each other out because that was how werewolves dealt with disagreements.
Luckily, there was still some Class-A Restoration left. Let's just call it a healing potion—but the two alphas refused treatment. They also refused clothes. They were fine. They were alphas. They were strong. They were stubborn like mules. Jennifer, who was utterly fed up by now, told them to so. Yes. In their faces. And then she told them take their fight out to the backyard. Her kindergarten teacher mode has accidentally been switched on at the shock, and she just automatically started sorting out the mess of humans. They were much bigger humans who should know better than a 5 year old, but here they were, a messy group loitering in her lobby.
Now that the wolves had been sent out, Jennifer had the bright idea of dabbing a little healing potion onto a tissue and wiping off Angus's scratches. The marks rubbed off like chalk on a whiteboard.
She also told Quintin to stay the night, in any empty apartment. He was anxious about the money, but it was late.
"Aren't you being bullied?" EJ asked, as the ALIVE boys had now re-seated themselves and resumed eating fried chicken. At least they weren't live streaming.
"I will remember this kindness," Quintin said. "I am someone who will repay kindness tenfold, and evil a hundredfold."
Jennifer didn't have a response. She just told him, "Thank you."
"Come share our fried chicken," one of the boys offered. "And when you make it big, buy us ten fried chickens."
Why was an idol group trying to get free fried chicken off a poor college student? Jennifer had no idea.
Anyway, with everyone either fighting in the backyard or eating fried chicken, she felt safe heading back to her apartment. Actually, she desperately wanted to check her laptop. What the hell was going on? But it wasn't like she could say, "Hang on, let me check if the webnovel I was writing bent reality and came to life." That would make her sound crazy.
She would have run up the stairs, but the doorman insisted on pressing the lift button for her—and it opened immediately.
And then Adrian came over.
Uh-oh. Jennifer was already tired, possibly crazy, and definitely not ready to be trapped in an enclosed space with Adrian. She could feel embarrassment looming like a storm cloud.