Chapter 7

Cole：

The yoga pants gluing to her body perfectly shows her body shape. She’s not skinny but more curvaceous. I see a tattoo on her lower back when her t-shirt rolled up as she raised her hands to coil her black hair into a bun. Every time she moves, the tattoo ripples on her silky skin.

My wolf growls. I feel dizzy again.

She suddenly turns around with her fear blowing to me. I become alert and tense my body.

“You shouldn’t be here now.” It’s my shift to patrol around. I realized by scent that someone was in the gym. I thought it was because of the distance that the scent was ambiguous. She must have walked along the path near the forest to the gym. And dawn is dangerous for a human girl, especially here. We have wolves everywhere; besides, God knows what those witches would do.

“Then why are you here now?” She steps down from the treadmill and towards me, with her fear replaced by angry.

“I am sort of the owner of this university, remember?”

“Oh yeah, The Paradigm Royalty. You know what, you don’t have to invite us to this camp if you’re not willing to.” She picks her bottle of water and I see her throat moving as she swallow. 

My wolf is going insane batting against me to hand over control to him but I shove him aside. She is the most and first alluring girl that I’ve met, yes, but she’s just a human. It’s not good for my wolf to be so interested in her. 

Grrr!

OK, he doesn’t agree.

She widens her eyes. “That IS you.”

What? I look at her warily.

She stares at me for a while. “Nothing.” I like her sexy voice with pant, but dislike her chilling words: “You’re creepy. Your camp is creepy.”

“What a coincidence!” 

Emma and I both turn to the gym’s door. Gryphon just jumps in from the outside.

“You’re so self-disciplinary, Emma. I never thought there would be anyone sharing the gym with me at such an early morning.” He turns to me, “And you too, dude. No wonder your bodybuilding is enviable.”

“Why are you here?” Emma frowns. So do I.

“Well, I want to join the profiler team but Detective Bates said I have to learn more skills on my own time.” He hands out to me, “Never introduced myself: Gryphon Alonso.”

“I know everyone of your people. And you know why.” I reply coldly.

“Sure. So how about having a dinner together? We might become best friends given that we know each other so well.”

Emma looks at him doubtfully: “You have much better social skills than yesterday.”

“Well, I’ve learned a lesson from you.” Gryphon keeps his annoying smile.

“Our agreement does not mean we have to socialize with you.” 

“What agreement?” Emma asks me.

“It’s none of your business. You need to learn when NOT to be so curious.” Humans cannot be involved in the issue between the witches and us.

“Then you need to watch how you speak to me!” 

Her eyes starts to flare with anger. A small growl escapes with my frustration. 

She widens her eyes again. “You’re totally abnormal.”

What does she mean? My body tenses. “You’ll regret for what you’ve said to me.”

“Of course I will. Because your uncle is the president here! It’s the only reason why you have the authority to threaten your guests!” She turns to pick her stuff up as if she’s leaving.

My wolf roars and I grabs her arm: “We are not done talking here.”

“Hey--” Gryphon tries to pacify us but we blurt out at the same time: “Fuck off!”

“Get your hands off me, you entitled asshole.” She glares at me making me squeeze her arm to show I will not be dismissed.

Next second, she bends my wrist backwards causing a bit of pain. As I am still in shock, she moves so fast and spins around me putting her knee against my spine.

“I said get your hands off! I don’t care about any of your punishment. No. One. Touches. Me!” She says as she presses her knee deeper in my back.

I push out with my back causing her to stumble off me and then turn around to face her as she sends a kick to my chest. I catch her leg and pull her towards me, but she uses my movement to fling her other leg over my neck and flip me over. I kick up my legs to get her to fall onto me, and then I turn upside down to restrain her with my body. 

But she head-butts me, starting another fight. “Would you stop?!” I growl at her with my wolf. Her wriggling under me trying to free her limbs says “No!”

Lucky for me, with my weight and strength, there is no way for her to escape.

“Get the fuck off me, you monster!” She tries to bite me this time. I move my face away from her teeth. “What did you say?”

“You’re not a human. I can hear your growl. What’s your purpose to hold this camp?”

Her words causes me to freeze. “How can you hear my growl?”

“I don’t know.” She glares at me with tears in her eyes and stop struggling. “And I don’t want to. Your growl haunts me for years. What are you? A beast? A wolf?”

I grip her neck stiffly. “What do you know?”

“Nothing. What should I know?”

My mind is racing. She doesn't smell like a wolf but she's clearly not a human. There aren't many creatures in the world that can hear wolves’ growl, not including witches. That’s why they could destroy my family. And now, the only ones on campus who can hear wolves’ growl are...

“You bitch, what the hell are you?” I squeeze my fury from my teeth.