My Ultimate OP System: Summoning All Dragons, Gods, Heroes & Villains-Chapter 89: The Werewolf Tease (Bonus)

"Heh," Ethan smiled and said, "I’m not entirely sure how to carry on with a conversation that hasn’t happened since we were kids."

Hayley’s expression changed, becoming a bit serious.

"You could start by telling me why you ignored me in my own house," she said. "You didn’t even say hi. It felt like we were strangers... when there used to be a time we knew everything about one another."

Ethan shook his head in amusement. "First of all, I came to your residence that day in preparation to fight your brother. Speaking of which, does Perc know you’re here?"

It was a lazy attempt at steering the conversation away from having to talk about themselves in that regard.

"Urgh! Stop talking about Percival!" Hayley groaned dramatically, throwing her hands up in exasperation before placing one hand on her hip. She even stomped her foot once for effect. "I’m the older one, remember? Why do I have to tell him where I’m going?"

Ethan smiled and said, "You haven’t changed one bit."

She leaned on the side of the car beside him. "Maybe....But you’ve changed plenty. The Ethan I knew would never have stood up to Percival."

"Yeah..." Ethan said quietly.

After a moment of silence between them, Hayley spoke again. "You know, it’s my fault we drifted apart."

Ethan said nothing. Deep down, he didn’t want this conversation. The memories he had of Hayley were from a blissful time, but the soul in this body was not the same.

Because of that, he couldn’t feel things the way the werewolf might have expected.

But Hayley continued anyway. "And I never apologized for leaving the way I did—"

Right then, Ethan cut her off in the most gentle and polite way he could manage. "Hey, hey," he said softly. "You don’t have to, Hayley. That was almost ten years ago and I really don’t care about that right now."

He chuckled just a bit and added in an amused tone, "I mean, we were kids. It’s never that serious."

"Yeah... maybe," Hayley said, looking like she had a sad expression on her face for just a moment. Then she chuckled and said, "You really have changed, Ethan."

Ethan said nothing in particular except smile.

Hayley followed up again. "So where did the character development come from? Dating or breaking up with the vampire?"

Ethan turned toward her with mild surprise on his face. "You knew about Beatrice?" Then he paused and shook his head. "Oh, of course. Percival must’ve told you."

She nodded and said with emphasis, "And boyyy did I hate that girl. You know she was the reason I didn’t come around a lot sooner?"

"Oh?" Ethan muttered.

"Yeah," Hayley continued with disdain in her voice. "When I came back, I heard you were dating a Morgenstein vampire and..." She stuck her tongue out in exaggerated disgust. "Yuck. I just couldn’t."

Ethan chuckled at her reaction.

She continued. "It was only until your fight with my brother that I knew you were now with the Princess."

Ethan gave a subtle shrug but said nothing further.

There was a brief pause before Hayley pushed herself up from where she’d been leaning against the car. She turned toward Ethan and crouched down directly in front of him.

The sudden shift in position forced his eye level downward, and he found himself caught between staring at her beautiful blue eyes or the open cleavage that was now directly in his line of sight.

Ethan’s gaze widened just a bit.

She leaned in closer and spoke in a certain menacing tone that carried playful intent underneath it.

"I’ll be in this city for the foreseeable future," she said with slowly, "so expect me around a lot, Ethan."

Then she stood up and walked past him without another word. As she did so, her white wolf tail curved and deliberately rubbed past his cheek.

The motion forced Ethan’s gaze to follow the sway of her hips and backside for just a moment before he caught himself and turned his head away.

Hayley glanced back at him with the side of her eye, smiled even wider when she noticed his reaction, then continued walking toward the manor exit gates without looking back again.

Ethan sighed and shook his head.

Hayley had been his first heartbreak. As kids, they’d spent a great deal of time together, often joking about marrying each other when they grew up even though Hayley was three years older than him.

But at some point during those years, Mr. Marvin had decided to send Hayley away to another country to stay with his sister.

This decision had been partly owed to her unruly behavior as a child.

She had known she was going to leave but never told Ethan about it until she suddenly disappeared for almost eight years of their lives without warning or explanation.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

——

As the sunset for that day...

Joe had just ran through an alleyway and turned sharply around the corner. He stopped and glanced back to see he had finally escaped another set of assailants after his life.

He was still breathing hard when he raised his head to the sky and heaved a sigh of relief. Then, he turned to look at his gauntlet crossbow and saw there were only a few arrow shots left.

He also knew he was running dangerously low in the mana department.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a voice broke the silence.

"I was really going to kill that Madam Seraph if her foretelling failed this time."

The thick voice belonged to a grinning man who stepped out from around the corner ahead of him.

This was Wade Hogan. He was a large, muscular man with tattoos covering both arms. He wore sunglasses and a black polo shirt.

Behind him, was his female assistant, Louisa. She had blonde hair pulled back into a neat bun and wore a sharp business suit. Her expression was calm and professional.

"I knew we could trust her, Mr. Hogan," Louisa began. "She said we would find him here, and alas."

Joe’s eyes widened in shock as he watched them both approach, blocking his path forward.

But his greatest fear wasn’t even that two people had cornered him right now after he’d been dealing with this chase the whole day.

It was the sheer amount of mana that the man with the tattoos had oozing out of him.

Even Joe, who had reached the peak of an S-Tier Ranger, could not help but take a step backward with terror flooding his eyes.

But how had he not sensed his presence in this area? Mana that size should have never gone unnoticed.