Chapter 170 - A Favor

"Miss Clara?"

Hearing the sudden soft voice behind her, Clara lifted her chin up from her desktop and glanced at Maria, her colleague, who had summoned her.

"Oh, Maria? Yes?"

"Well, someone is asking for you in our office lobby." She had a mystic smile on her face while murmuring her words. 

"Looking for me? Who?" She frowned her brows, seeming a bit startled since it's the very first time someone from outside was looking for her in the office.

"The person is deadly handsome! How you are always surrounded with handsome men around, Miss Clara?" She winked answering cheekily before heading back to her desk. 

Clara skeptically stood up from her seat and quietly started walking towards the lobby. Her mind was crowded with several anxious thoughts as she was fidgeting.

"I am sure it's not Mr. Czar since Maria already recognizes him... So who is it this time? Damn...I am getting a bad feeling about this..." She was wondering.

All of a sudden her feet halted as she reached the lobby. Her jaw dropped in surprise, swirling her eyeball wider she heaved a deep breath out.

In front of her, wearing a long oversize coat along with a white turtle neck shirt and blue denim, Zeus was standing right before her resembling an extremely charming masculine man. His face, with his hair down and gaunt cheeks somehow seemed a bit pale. But amongst every other man passing around them inside the office, he stood out the most attractive.

"You...You are..." Her stuttering voice trailed off as her throat was already choked with awe.

"Miss Clara, I came here to see you." Watching her getting all anxious, he murmured out first.

"You are...Zeus Ro-Romano, right?" She narrowed her gaze before asking him bluntly.

"Yes. It's the first time we are meeting each other. Eva told me...a lot about you." He asserted with a small simper.

Clara was fidgeting anxiously scanning him from head to toe with her skeptical gaze. "Why are did you come here, Mr. Zeus? Wh-What business do you have with me?" Her voice sounded a bit gruff as if she was somewhat displeased with him.

"Well... I have a favor to ask you." Gently he put his hands inside the pocket and straightened his posture, gawking at her intensely. "It's an important issue and...I don't have much time left. So...I had no other choice rather than coming here." His sullen eyes seemed much darker as he cited his remark.

"Don't have much time left? What is this punk talking about? Is he going somewhere away from Eva's life?" Furrowing her eyebrow ridge, she was wondering deep inside.

.

"WOAH! Who is that man? Oh my gosh...he looks like a model! Maybe he is a celebrity... Should we ask for his number? Damn...he is so hot! Just look at his face...oh gosh! I am already falling for him..."

.

All the whispers and mumbling started circulating around them among the female workers gathered around the lobby. Their mumbling voices were so clear that both Clara and Zeus could hear them evidently. Glancing around the area, she saw several female employees were walking past by them shifting their hungry gazes towards Zeus. She turned her grimace and noticed he was getting quite uncomfortable by the awkward atmosphere.

"Errr, I think we should...go somewhere else and talk there. We won't be able to focus here with so many desirous women craving for you." Her voice was deep and low as if she was getting annoyed with those mumbling and mutterings.

"Yes." He nodded.

.

They chose to head inside the cafe located a bit far from the office to avoid the unnecessary attention of women from her office hovering around him. It was already past the afternoon, the cafe was quite desolated and the atmosphere was perfectly suited to hold a serious conversation between the two. 

Sitting opposite to each other ordering Americano, both of them held a deep silence for a few seconds before beginning any conversation. 

"Well... I...think...we won't be interrupted here..." Clearing his throat, Zeus chose to break the deep silence.

"What did you want to talk about? I...can't stay out for a long time since the workload is pretty heavy." She asserted hoarsely, taking a sip of her Americano.

He lowered his head down and squirmed his feet beneath the table, looking a bit nervous. "Is...Eva...doing well?" In a low, fidgety voice he asked.

Eva frowned her temple and sharply raised her chin up to glare at him. Looking pretty vexed, she snapped out, "she has been bawling her eyes out every day and every night with those memories buried deep in her heart... Is it evident for you to understand how she has been living or should I elaborate it furthermore?" 

"I know...you must be offended with me, Miss Clara. But--"

"Offended? Hah! I am so damn pissed off with you! Why the fuck you approached her even after knowing she disgusts wolves? I...I know you have done so much for her already...but... you knew it...she would never be able to accept a lineage who had snatched her family! Then why...why did you have to break her heart like that? How badly she has been wrecked by your truth...do you have any idea?" 

Apprehending her intense grumble, he stayed silent for a few seconds taking a deep sigh out. "I wanted to confess the truth by myself...but...I never realized it would happen at such an unfortunate timing... I know she must be broken from inside but, I never intended to move our relationship forward keeping her in the darkness. As a wolf yourself, I know you can understand how painful it has been for me to watch her getting scared of me!" His voice crooked a little.

All of a sudden, hearing his intense proclamation, she flinched a bit, clenching the moonstone bracelet lingering on her right hand. She lowered her eyes down, sighing heavily.

"It must be tough for you too to conceal your real self and stay beside Eva. There are certain times, we can't suppress the wolf within us and the same thing happened that night when my inner wolf emerged out right before her eyes... I...I know this all might sound like vague excuses but...I really love her more than my life! I know you can understand my turmoils...Miss Clara." His dark eyes were immersed in the gloom as he whispered.

She lowered her eyes down momentarily and took a deep sigh out, looking a bit distressed. "I know, I have been deceiving her keeping myself hidden from her but I have no other choice left within! Can you imagine what would be her reaction if she ever comes to know that she herself belongs to a wolf lineage? I know someday everything will come out but still, I wanted to keep her away from this world of wolves! Her father...wanted me to take care of her because he had sensed it earlier that the wolves won't be kind to his beloved daughter. To be honest, Eva is the only family I have left in this world and I am scared of losing her. So I don't have a choice rather than keeping my disguise.

But...you have your own family, your own pack! You are the alpha of Romanos! You have a whole freaking life ahead of you! Then...why you had to fall for a human? Meddling with a human is forbidden in the world of werewolves! Despite being an alpha, how could you neglect such a crucial law? Why did you have to make her life harder than it's already been? And why didn't I realize earlier that she is gonna commit the same mistake as her mother? Oh gosh, it's so darn frustrating!" She stroked her hair upwards tugging her face in her palms, looking much perplexed with the situation.

He had a guilt-stricken expression over his face as he lowered his eyes down before reciprocating. "I am sorry... But...I love her so much that, I won't even flinch if I have to sacrifice my life for her... You know it well, once our heart chose someone as the mate...we will cherish the person till eternity... Even if she disgusts my presence, I am devoted to loving her..." He had a small sad sneer on his roseate lips while reciprocating his answer.

Clara continued contemplating deep into his poignant gaze as somehow, her heart was throbbing with a stinging pain watching Zeus confessing his emotions helplessly in front of her. Straightening her back against the chair taking a deep sigh out, she slowly mumbled, "what favor you wanted to ask me?" 

He softly placed his arm inside the pocket and took out a golden, shimmering bracelet. He stretched his arm over the table and placed it right in front of her. Clara was intensely gawking at the bracelet and saw it was embroidered with a shiny ruby stone in the center with red fox fur thread surrounding it as a lace.

But something else piqued her curiosity when she witnessed several reddish burnt scars on the backside of his right hand. The scars were quite scary to look at and wearing a full long sleeve coat, he was trying hard to cover them.

"Here...I want you...to give this bracelet to Eva..." He mumbled out, looking at her.

Fretting her face, Clara raised her chin up from the bracelet and sharply stared into his eyes. "Hey, aren't those wolfbane scars on your arm?" She asked.