*Ring, rrrrring!*
Mary's father's phone rang loudly on the table. She stopped eating with her spoon hovering over her bowl in mid-air. She casually glanced at the man, expecting him to hang up the phone. Instead, his face only paled once he saw who was calling, and he quickly jumped out of his seat, giving his family a sign that he'd be right back.
That's unusual... Mary thought.
Mary glanced at her little brother, confused, who just stared right back at her with seemingly the same expression.
When she then directed her gaze back at her mother, the woman averted her eyes and retreated to just play with her fork nervously. It seemed like her mother was hiding something, but Mary didn't know what. She decided to continue eating while trying to bear the awkward silence that filled the room.
Mr. Emmet was a happy and considerate man who would never take a work call in the middle of dinner, much to Mary's surprise, since he was one of the richest people in the country and very busy. It was like nothing could come between him and his food.
After a few minutes, Mr. Emmet came back into the room, face still pale as if he had just seen a ghost.
"It's...Gone." He mumbles, looking down at the floor. It was all that he could muster up to say.
"Wha- All of it?!" Mrs. Emmet suddenly interjects, slamming her fork heavily onto the table. "How is that possible?! Isn't there at least a few hundred left?!"
What's happening...? Mary thought as she started to panic. She had never seen her mother scream so loud nor did she ever see her this panicked, even though she nagged her father on a daily basis. Her screaming kind of reminded her of a banshee.
Her father just shook his head.
"What's going to happen to our children...!" Mrs. Emmet suddenly sank down to the floor, the family's fluffy white pet dog coming to lick her face. She just laid there, motionless as if giving up on life.
"Shh...! Not in front of them!" Mr. Emmet squeaked, hurriedly pulling up his wife up to her feet and carefully leading her to their bedroom.
Mary held back a snort while covering her mouth with her free hand. VERY discreet, she thought sarcastically. But she was still very worried as to why her parents were acting so weird.
***
"What happened now?!" Mrs. Emmet asks, rage filling her voice.
"There's nothing left of the fortune." Mr. Emmet says apologetically.
"What do we do then...?" Mrs. Emmet was about to fall again, but her husband caught her once more.
"I have an idea. But you might not like it..." Mr. Emmet whispers.
"I'm all ears." His wife said gently for once.
***
Mary peeked through the wired fence separating the human part of the city and the werewolves, hoping to see at least a glimpse of a real live one. But the only things she saw were the outlines of some blurry figures. She huffed. Her sea blue eyes looked curiously at the other side as her red hair fluttered slightly in the wind. She was really curious about them, but there were rules against humans and werewolves having any form of contact. Rules that if they were breached, would be punishable by death.
She would be lying is she said she wasn't scared of them. It's rather the opposite - she was terrified of the idea of having to talk to one. So she was mostly grateful that rules separated them. But as they say, curiosity killed the cat.
It wasn't always like this. In the past, werewolves and humans all lived in harmony, and even had families together. But it all changed when the werewolves suddenly became violent and hurt some humans. Humans then decided to build a magical fence separating the two sides of the city so that everyone could live in peace without having to deal with each other. This had happened a few centuries ago, so Mary wasn't alive when all this happened.
How would it be if I lived among them...? She dared to think.
She casually glanced back at the security guard guarding the fence. He was pretending to not notice her. If she payed him off, he would allow her to peek at the other side of the fence, which wasn't exactly playing by the rules. But Mary was, as said, a cusious girl.
She looked back at the fence. Suddenly, her watch's alarm rung.
"Time to go..." She mutters under her breath.
She reluctantly left the fence, and walked towards the guard.
"Thank you." She wishpered to him as she gracefully walked past. She could hear him hum in response.
She then left to go to her university.
***
"S-sir...!" Yano Yuu's servant scurried over to his boss, with his tail hiding between his legs and his ears drooping down close to his head. It was a sign of respect. "You have a request!"
"Do tell me more~" Yano asked, offering his servant an intrigued smile as he sat comfortably in his chair. He had sharp, yellow eyes with perfect features and flawless skin, standard for an alpha werewolf. His silky black hair was slightly ruffled under his perfectly shaped wolf ears.
"Someone is requesting for you to marry their daughter." His servant claimed, adjusting his large glasses.
Yano squinted dubiously at his servant. "Why?" He was now standing up, and he was significantly taller than the lower classed werewolf. .
"He promised to pay you 1- no - 10 million dollars!" The servant answers. "It's for his daughter. Their fortune's apparently been depleted."
Is that guy selling her or what? Yano thought. "What's her name?" He asked, curious.
"Mary Emmet."
What an unusual name for a werewolf. Almost sounds like a human name! Yano thought, but he knew that it was impossible for him to have any contact with those so called 'well mannered' beings.
He just smiled again, not bothering to give his servant an answer. It would be a good arrangement, since having a female by his side would lift his status even more, and it would facilitate his business arrangements. He was really considering it.
But Yano Yuu didn't know that the female that he was going to marry was actually a human, and an attractive one at that.