In the middle of the night, her doorbell rang—followed immediately by urgent, frantic rapping on her front door.
Jennifer had been skimming through her Darkfall Werewolf webnovel. You know, because it was deeply unsettling how Damien Darkfall looked like he had stepped straight out of it. Adrian and ALIVE were also—purely coincidentally—uncannily similar to the band in her other novel.
Which would have been worrying.
Especially since Liam was the antagonist.
And nothing ever went well for guys like that.
At some point, while checking stats and comments, she must have dozed off on the sofa.
The noise jolted her awake in blind panic.
Shilem—
No.
Wait. That was twenty years ago. She hadn't seen him since, except occasionally on the news during election season.
"Ms. Jen? Ms. Jen! Come out! It's an emergency!"
It was an energetically youthful male voice.
"Come quick, Ms. Jen!"
There were more than one of them.
"Ms. Jen! The werewolves are fighting in the lobby!"
What.
Jennifer shot up from the sofa.
No—wait. That wasn't possible. It wasn't like her webnovels could come alive and start brawling in her lobby.
…Right?
"Ms. Jen, hurry! Boss says he needs you!"
Boss.
That was what the boys called their incredibly sexy band manager, wasn't it?
Jennifer stumbled to the door and opened it.
"Oh good, Ms. Jen, you're awake!" one of the boys exclaimed.
"Hurry!" Another grabbed her arm.
Something crashed downstairs.
Jennifer didn't argue.
They didn't even take the lift. They bolted down three flights of stairs, Jennifer getting jostled along, barely able to see where she was going because the boys were all so damn tall.
They hit the ground floor to the sound of snarling.
Claws clacked against polished tiles.
One wolf lunged at the other, slamming them both into the wall.
Nothing broke—mostly because everything that could be broken was already shattered across the floor.
Other wolves stood around them, hackles raised, their combined growls rumbling like a row of idling motorbikes.
Adrian stepped forward, planting himself between Jennifer and the chaos.
"I told one of you to go," he said coolly. "One. Why did all five of you run up?"
"Hoihoi—sorry, sorry!" The redhead bounced on his heels. "It was just too exciting!"
The other boys laughed sheepishly.
Liam rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, Boss. We just… reacted without thinking."
Adrian shook his head at them, wry and resigned.
Excuse her, but was no one noticing that the wolves were still fighting?
They were now rolling across the lobby, snarling and snapping.
Adrian subtly shepherded Jennifer and the boys back onto the lowest steps, positioning himself in front of them in case one of the wolves bulldozed their way over.
Jennifer wasn't sure what Adrian expected her to do.
Call wildlife services?
Okay. Calm down. There had to be a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Jennifer was dead and had been isekai'd into her own webnovel. Jennifer was having a very bad dream.
"Any ideas, beautiful?" Adrian leaned closer, voice low and amused.
From this distance, Jennifer could see the late-night shadow on his jaw. He was well within kissing range.
But Jennifer was made of sterner stuff.
And now that she had accepted she was either dreaming or deceased, she felt far less concern for her personal safety than she probably should have.
She stepped straight into the middle of the wolf fight.
"Jen—!" Adrian reached for her, too late.
Behind him, the boys gasped dramatically. Honestly, give them 3D glasses and popcorn—because like the other wolves, they were clearly enjoying the show.
The two wolves snarled at her.
Jennifer planted her feet.
"No," she said firmly. "Bad wolves."
She spotted the shattered vase of flowers on the floor.
Did these new residents not realize those were probably the last fresh flowers the common areas would ever see? It wasn't like Jennifer would buy replacements—or knew how to arrange them.
Didn't they get the memo that the original landlady had retired?
Wait.
Did that mean she had to clean this up?
"Seriously, guys!" Jennifer pressed a hand to her forehead. "Look at this mess!"
The wolves hesitated.
Then—miraculously—looked ashamed.
"Which one of you is Damien?" Jennifer demanded.
The wolf nearest her shifted.
"I am," Damien said.
He was also completely naked.
Jennifer snapped on her firmest kindergarten-teacher expression and nodded without looking directly at him. Not even an iota.
"I can explain, Ms. Jen," Damien said, stepping forward.
Jennifer stepped back.
Please do not explain in the nude.
Unfortunately, that was when every other wolf also shifted back into human form.
The largest wolf became an even larger man.
"Ms. Jen, was it?" he said with a voice like a smooth jazz baseline. "Allow me to introduce myself—"
"Introduce yourself after you put clothes on!" Jennifer practically screamed into his chiseled, infuriatingly gorgeous face.
Now that was a man.
Well. Technically. A werewolf.
But wait—what was Jennifer even doing here?
"It's late," she said tiredly. "Get dressed. Come back tomorrow. I have class in the morning."
She pointed vaguely.
"The rest of you—go back to bed."
She was sure that in other people's dreams—or deaths, or whatever—this scene would have ended with much higher drama.
But this was her dream.
And Jennifer was too tired to deal with it now.