Werewolf Prince's Secret Luna

"Beautiful! Hey, come sit here first, keep us company hahaha ...." The tallest boy among his friends shouted at Penelope.

It had been more than half an hour since the girl had tried to cover her ears from the catcalling and flirting of the boys in the cafe. Penelope rolled her eyes and focused on wiping down the tables. The smell of liquor was everywhere.

The girl covered her nose with one hand until the table was wiped clean. "Excuse me, can we speed things up? We're tired of standing here," said a customer about her mother's age, waiting behind the girl's back.

Penelope apologized and quickly excused the patron who had been standing waiting for a table, then bustled around taking and delivering orders.

"Hufh ...." She grunted rudely, feeling that the contents of her head were no different in noise from the café where she worked. The music from the live band, the buzz of people talking and laughing, and the calls from customers and colleagues, made Penelope's chest feel tight.

She staggers back from the kitchen to the main room of the cafe. Her limbs felt tired. In the middle of winter, even without heating, the café is already making Penelope hot.

"Ah, why are you selling so expensive? What's your name, Pen who?" That flirtatious young man again really provoked the emotions of the café's servant girl. He had already stood up and grabbed Penelope's hand who was busy carrying a tray.

Automatically, the girl's steps stopped and she raised her head. Penelope swallowed, she was very reluctant to deal with all of them. The caramel-haired girl had only worked four hours at a café in the center of the city where she lived after the course, but it felt like her body was breaking down. Especially that night, because there was a group of young men celebrating their basketball team's victory.

One of them kept flirting with Penelope, which of course she ignored. "Sorry, I'm busy." Penelope looked at him from head to toe. According to her father's teachings, if she wanted to fight someone brave, she had to make him wonder about his self-worth by looking at him like

"Could you please let go of my hand? I don't want to drop these glasses and hurt the other patrons," Penelope added coldly.

"Wuooooo...," the basketball team members roared, responding to one of their friends being flat-out rejected by the café waitress she'd been flirting with.

The face of the young man who had flirted with Penelope was crimson with embarrassment. He released his hold on the girl. However, he still held a grudge against Penelope for the way she had treated him.

The young man walked past the pretty cafe waitress who was still standing there and deliberately slammed his arm into Penelope's shoulder. As a result, the young punk spilled the drinks on the tray onto Penelope's shirt.

"Aaah!" squealed Penelope who was gaping at her pathetic situation.

The basketball team ended up clapping as if they were proud of the boy who had teased Penelope. Luckily, the girl always wore an undershirt, so that her cafe uniform didn't show through and become a target for the Heavy's gang.

Penelope was forced to put her tray on the bar table and told her friend to take her place to deliver the order. Then she returned with a mop and bucket in hand.

The girl tried to keep her emotions in check and mopped the floor, which was wet from the drinks. She was already very grateful that no glass had been broken that night. However, when she bent down, her gut feeling told her that there would be a worse scene.

A second later, someone touched her ass. Immediately, Penelope slammed down her mop and turned around. Her eyes bugged out as the same young man who had been teasing her stood there with a wide-eyed look on his face.

Without thinking, Penelope smashed her fist into his jaw, knocking him to the ground. She then untied the apron around her waist and handed it to her friend behind the bar. "Sorry for the mess tonight and thank you for being my friend."

After that, Penelope quickly exited the café and ran with all her might in the opposite direction of where she lived. She realized she had made one of the riskiest moves ever. Not only had she lost her job, but she had also put her own life in danger.

Penelope continued to run down the farthest route to her home, occasionally looking back. It wasn't the first time the girl had come out of her part-time job with problems with unruly patrons. However, that night she was outnumbered. She calculated that even if they all chased after her, they wouldn't find where she lived, since she had veered off into the rat race.

Once he entered the forest's outskirts, he felt safe. It was strange that the location that gave her goosebumps a few months ago now felt much more reassuring than the crowded city. Penelope slowed her pace and began to catch her breath.

Living on the outskirts of this forest made Penelope no longer afraid of anything, except humans. Because she had already met the worst of them.

He shook his head remembering the annoying incident that night. "Ugh ...." Penelope's body ached in every joint. She dragged her feet to her house. She had a lot of visitors that night, and with the incident and the running around, her energy was practically drained.

"So tired... it's not even the weekend. Hufh... at least I won't have to deal with drunken punks anymore after this, but I'll have to find a new job soon," the girl complained as she banged her shoulders and arms once she arrived in front of her house. Penelope reached into her pants pocket and pulled out her keys.

"I just want to throw myself on the bed, but ugh... this alcohol smell...," Penelope whined inwardly, as she couldn't stand the physical exhaustion and the headache-inducing smell.

That night, Penelope thought it best to strip off her alcohol-smelling clothes in the living room first, so as not to bring the smell of her booze into the bedroom. Only in the last few weeks, the girl and her mother had moved into a small flat downstairs.

Since they only have one bedroom, Penelope changes in the living room, aka the multipurpose room. Sometimes it's the dining room, the living room, or even the dressing room like that moment when someone was in the bedroom.

Penelope quickly took off her work uniform and dumped it in the living room even though it was pitch black. "Tsk ...." She chuckled, as her throat felt barren.

She needed water to drink, so she needed to turn on the light. The girl stood combing the walls until her fingers found the light switch. Click!

As soon as the room became bright, she found a handsome man sleeping there. "Aaaaa!" Suddenly, Penelope screamed and fell backward in a half-naked position.

"Aaaaa!" Suddenly, Penelope screamed and fell backward half-naked. She was only wearing her underwear and the cafe uniform was too far out of reach.

Hearing her daughter's scream, Liv opened her eyes. "Was that Poppi?" She was still trying to convince herself that she wasn't dreaming.

The caramel-haired girl's breath caught. Penelope's brain refused to agree with the facts captured by her two nets, how could there suddenly be a young man sleeping in her house?

The handsome man lying in the room seemed to be sleeping peacefully and undisturbed. "AAAAA!" Penelope cried out again while closing her eyes as she realized again that the man's body was not wrapped in a single thread.

It was only this second scream that woke Liv up and rushed out of the room. She opened the door and her eyes went straight to Penelope's figure in the living room.

"Ah, geez... are you home yet, Pop?" asked Liv with a gasp.

Penelope couldn't move or answer her mother's question. This was the first time she had ever felt so shocked beyond the annoying incident she had experienced at the café.

The girl could only reflexively cover her half-naked body with her palms. But her eyes remained closed and her body, which had been in the same position after falling over, became trembling. Her back was half leaning against the wall of the room, and the other half was slumping down onto the wooden floor.

Liv took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She shook her head at the scene in her living room.

"M-Mama ...." Penelope stuttered out a call to her mother. She tried to scan Liv's location with her eyes half-closed. Meanwhile, to her surprise, her biological mother calmly crossed the living room.

"Ssh... it's okay, let's get up!" Liv helped her daughter who was unable to get up from her fall.

Penelope opened her eyes slowly, looking at Liv with astonishment. "Why are you so calm and not as surprised as I am to find a naked boy in our house? Can't you see it? J-don't tell me it's a ghost?" Penelope thought, making her body shake even more.

She could only surrender when her mother lifted her and righted her sitting position. "There, there," she said.

Penelope, who still hadn't gotten over her shock, was even more dumbfounded by her mother's casual demeanor. "M-mama?" However, this was the only word that came out of her mouth.

Whether it was the trauma of being teased by that punk at the café or all the worst-case scenarios drawn together in her mind, Penelope didn't even know if she could trust her mother now. "W-what during the time I was out of the house to go to courses and work, Mama was with that boy...? N-no... no way. Mama is not that kind of insane woman. Stop your silly thoughts, Poppi!" the girl argued inside her head.

"Yes, dear? Oh my... look at you. Wait here for a moment, okay," Liv said before leaving Penelope who was staring intently at her back.

Liv entered the room with a heavy sigh. "Hufh ... it's true what they say, no matter how covered up, the carcass is bound to smell," the middle-aged woman muttered softly.

She quickly opened the closet, grabbed Penelope's clothes from the top of the pile, then pulled the blanket off the bed and draped it over her left shoulder. In the blink of an eye, Penelope's mom was in and out of the room, pajamas in hand and blanket over her shoulder. Then, Liv handed one set of pajamas to her only daughter.

The girl grabbed it before her mother turned her back again. Penelope's tanned eyes could only follow the movement of the figure in front of her across the living room.

Her mother then spread a blanket over her shoulders, apparently to cover the young man's body. Penelope almost glared at her mother's movements from behind.

"How can Mama be so calm when a man is naked in front of her daughter?" Penelope asked herself. She hastily pulled her pajama top over her head, so she could still see the scene in front of her. Then, she stood up to put on her pants.

Liv had already turned around when Penelope had finished dressing. "Well, good to have you in your pajamas. We need to talk."

Deg!

"That's the perfect opening to start a conversation about something bad," Penelope thought.

Liv was already sitting cross-legged in front of her, while Penelope looked at her with an accusing gaze. Liv chuckled, "Can you stop whatever's on your mind first?"

Penelope's eyes bulged, feeling like her mother had penetrated her mind and knew all about her arguments. She didn't reply, just tried to neutralize her expression.

"Son ...." Liv took both of Penelope's hands, before continuing, "He's the same person you helped five days ago. He's changed."

Penelope, who had struggled to calm her shock, was shocked again. Quadratic.

"WHAT!"

***

(Flashback)

The sky has darkened. The orange clouds in Buana slowly turned to purplish, until the deep dark blue was evenly distributed.

A middle-aged woman who had been hunched over a sturdy tree root straightened up. "Aauw ...." she moaned as soon as she fully stood up.

"My waist feels like it's going to fall off. Oh my, how appropriate! It's getting late," Liv joked as she tossed the last handful of mushrooms of the day into her already full basket.

Liv, who was hunting mushrooms for a living at the time, quickly loaded the last basket onto her pick-up truck. "Not bad, two full baskets today," she muttered with satisfaction.

"Ah, where's my pocket knife?" Liv realized that she was missing one tool. She returned to the bush area and combed the edges of the forest in the dim light of the emerging moon.

"There it is!" exclaimed Liv as she spotted something shimmering in the moonlight in the middle of the bush.

She immediately took a step toward the glittering object she thought was her pocketknife. However, suddenly .... Brukk!

Liv tripped over a mound of grass and fell forward into the tree roots. "Ugh...," moaned the middle-aged woman in pain.

She looked back to see what had knocked her down. At that very second, her eyeballs seemed to want to jump out of their sockets.

Liv found a wolf's body lying wounded on the edge of the forest. Blood immediately rushed to all corners of his body. Liv's goosebumps also bristled.

Meeting a beast this close was one of the things she avoided the most. Moreover, the wolf was too big compared to the average wolf.

"OH MY! This can't be right. He's...." Realizing the size of the beast, instead of dissolving into fear, Liv crept closer to the wolf's body.

Her fingers extended towards the wolf's neck and she was shocked because it was exactly what she expected, "I-it's alive...."

Liv couldn't bear to leave the big wolf alone. "Ah... it's a beast, but if it's in this much pain, it doesn't have the strength to attack anyone, right?" the middle-aged woman monologued, trying to convince herself of her safety.

Her hunch earlier said the beast was still alive because usually, the biggest wolf was the leader of a wolf pack and the most powerful. It could be that if the leader was already down, the rest of the pack wouldn't survive an attack or anything. So, the wolf also had nowhere to go back to.

Liv swallowed, moistening her barren throat. She closed her eyes, hoping that all her decisions wouldn't backfire on her. She didn't want to die silly, especially not to the point of harming her child.

There was a strong past bond that made Liv close and affectionate to mammals, even if she needed to strengthen her heart to get close to carnivores. However, she imagines how hard it would be to live as an outcast with nowhere to return to. Especially in the middle of winter, the competition for food to survive must be fierce.

He approached and first touched his fingertips to the furry mound.

Deg!

That's right, it was still warm. As it turned out, Liv wasn't dreaming, the poor beast was indeed still alive. Until someone had the heart to help it, the wolf's life could have been saved. Unfortunately, Liv already knew that around the edge of the forest, no one roamed without a vehicle anymore when it was dark.

"One... two... three ...." Liv counted silently before encouraging her to touch the animal's arm. She opened one eye and found that the animal didn't budge.

In this time of winter, the temperature can drop dramatically during the night. The animal might get hypothermia and die, if not helped immediately.

The woman then gently put down the wolf's arm and tiptoed towards her pick-up truck. Liv started the engine once she was behind the wheel. She intended to bring the car closer to where the wolf lay. Because after all, Liv was aware of her already meager strength.

About a step away from the wolf's body, Liv stopped the car. "Phew ...." She sighed. The action just now was indeed very risky, because she backed the car too much, she might run over the poor creature.

She risked killing it instead of helping it. Hence, Liv continuously craned her neck backward out the window, while backing up the car.

"Okay, this is it!" she muttered as she got on top of the wolf's head to shrug her shoulders. Liv tried to drag it and was successful to the back of her pick-up.

She quickly loaded the helpless beast into the car to take it home. "One... two... three... hup!" Liv counted again, as she exerted her strength to get the heavy furry body onto her pick-up.

"Phew!" Liv was relieved and clapped her palms together. She then scurried into the car and came out with a patchwork quilt in hand. Liv wrapped the unconscious wolf's body to keep it from freezing. Then, she drove the car to her house.

It only took five minutes to arrive at her tiny house. She felt grateful that she lived on the first floor of the flat, so at a time like this, Liv could easily drag her quarry into the house.

Liv quickly got out of the car parked right in front of her door and left the engine running. Then, she turned the key to open the door and left the house open to give her access.

She then counted again silently and prepared to drag the poor animal into her house. When she reached her living room, the fur of the beast was already a bit damp and half wet. Liv hurriedly wiped the furry body with the blanket covering it.

Then, she quickly turned up the heating temperature in her house and put the half-wet blanket in the laundry bin. Liv quickly attended to the wounds on the wolf's body and bandaged them with whatever rags she had.

"I'm home!" exclaimed Penelope, who walked in from the open doorway. Much to Penelope's surprise, she found a mummified wolf lying in her living room. "AAAAAA... WHAT IS IT?"

Penelope is the only daughter of Liv, the mother who helped the wolf and bandaged the wounds all over his body. Liv finally explained the chronology of the wolf's discovery. Penelope's mother persuaded her daughter out of love for others and the girl complied.

After five days of lying unconscious, both Liv and Penelope took turns caring for and feeding the wolf. Until they felt it was time to remove the bandages from the wolf's body.

***

As it turned out, unbeknownst to the two of them, the wolf whose condition was getting better was transforming back into a human figure. Liv was shocked to conclude that fact, but she only tried to calm down in front of her daughter who was shocked to death.

"T-no way. Mama, don't joke around!" Penelope exclaimed angrily.

"Son, I understand now too. There is such a thing, child. I'm the one who can't tell the difference between a real wolf and one that can change," Liv explained honestly. "That's it, I've told Poppi the truth," she mused.

"Then let's wake her up and tell her to get the hell out of our house, Mom!" cried Penelope.

"Geez, kiddo, be patient, be patient ...." Liv tried to calm her daughter's hysteria.

There was an argument between Liv and Penelope to keep the werewolf in their home. "Leave it alone? What do you expect him to do in return for eating us?"

"Son, I'm sure it's not like that. Please, just calm down!" Liv's tone rose.

"Not like that how? Do you know?" Penelope had provoked again.

"I know!" Liv then tried to explain to Penelope that this wasn't her first time experiencing such a thing, so she still wanted to help the magical figure.

"Imagine, kiddo, it's winter. It's really hard for her to survive out there if she's not fully recovered. We might as well kill her!" Liv insisted, asking for her daughter's understanding.

"Oh, then you'd rather he killed us first, wouldn't you?" snapped Penelope.

"Poppi! He's not a murderer! I've met them before!" Liv repeated.

Penelope, meanwhile, thought that her mother had been dishonest with her from the start and was putting their lives at risk with the presence of a werewolf in their home. "M-mama... Mama... s-had lied, right? How can you be so calm? Hiks ...." Suddenly the girl's tears melted down both cheeks. She felt betrayed.

Liv explained once again, "Oh my gosh, Sweet Poppi Mama, I swear to God, I'm telling you the truth that I didn't even think that the wolf that I saved was a werewolf. But, because I've been through something similar, I wasn't as surprised as you were, kiddo."

"Hiks... Mama ...." Penelope's lips trembled with anger. "Why are you telling me about it now? Huhuhu... I know I've had a wolf phobia for months and have only recently recovered, but I'm just now telling you everything. Why, Ma? Why? Huhuhu ...."