How I manage to sneak off while trying to keep the bandage on my hands clean is news to me. Since I cannot use my hands, I am stuck escaping using my human form. It’s pretty hard to be stealthy with how slow I am running on two legs. It’s a good thing that I decided to run off early, which allows me to reach the meeting point with Midnight. I feel cold and exposed because I am in my human form out here in the woods, not to mention that my hands are still healing. Since the blade that cut it is made of a special metal forged by hunters, it is taking a while for it to heal. It’s such bad timing, really. ‘Are you trying to get caught by coming here in your human form?’ The black wolf that I’ve been waiting to see for the past few days showed itself behind one of the trees. I knew that he was massive, but I never actually knew how massive. Even when I am standing on two feet, he is almost as tall as me. ‘Wait, no…’ He starts to move closer, bringing his nose close to my right hand. ‘Y

I can’t shake off the feeling that there’s something about the scent that I caught on Ajax earlier. I feel like I should know the answer if I get another sniff of that scent. However, I could not smell anything from him anymore. Was it my imagination? “What’s wrong with you? Are your wounds hurting?” When Ajax realizes I'm falling behind, he pauses and turns around to look at me. “I brought some pain relievers with me if you want to drink them.” “Um…is that what you have in your backpack?” I can’t help but wonder while looking at the atrociously large backpack that he has strapped to his back. I have not seen him carrying anything other than his weapon. In fact, I don’t even see him carrying anything when attending classes. “Didn’t you say that we’re going to town with Holly? You look like you are about to go on vacation. What do you have in there anyway?” Ajax purses his lips and looks away. “Just stuffs…” “Stuffs? Stuffs like what?” “Nanya.” “Nanya?” “Nanya business!”

Even though our clothes are drenched, I still can’t help but feel good. I mean, compared to Ajax, who is so wet from head to toe that he has to change clothes, I’d say that we got the better end of the rope. “Welcome back!” I greet Ajax with an innocent smile after he gets back with a new set of clothes that he packed in his bag. Ajax’s response was a devilish glare—he obviously more than hates me at this point. “Whose fault do you think this is?” He almost growls out the words. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” I say, averting my gaze from him, but still keeping a knowing smirk on my lips. I am fully aware of the rage emanating from him, and quite frankly, I enjoy it. “Your bandage got wet. Give me your hands.” He suddenly orders me and pulls me by the wrist. He carefully removes my bandages and grabs new and fresh ones from his backpack. He even applied medicine before covering my hands. Before he closes the bag, I manage to peek inside and see that there’s a whole me

It is like waking up from a dream—or a very perplexing nightmare—to find Ajax right here. Seeing the human hunter before me change so drastically has left me with conflicting emotions and mind boggling questions. Why are his eyes like that? Why are they glowing? Human eyes shouldn’t be glowing! With swift movements, Ajax leaps and is now standing a few feet from us. He drops his blades to the floor and cautiously makes his way over to us with his hands in the air like he is showing Max that he means him no harm. As he draws nearer, I see that his eyes have returned to normal, and I begin to doubt that what I saw was real. “Let the Belle go, and you can go back safely to your pack.” The calmness in his voice is more frightening than the fact that he is facing a lycan with no weapon at all. The three of us are alone in the woods with no one to stop these two aside from me if things end up in a fight. Having that thought in mind, who would I side with if things ended badly? Normally,

Brick clad roads lined with wooden houses are what caught my attention. It is possible that this is the first time I have ever seen such a technologically advanced wolf pack, though still not on par with human civilization. From what I can see, construction in this area has only recently begun because there are some roads and houses that are currently being built. Even though the place is still developing, there’s a lot to see. It seems that housing for the families has been established first, along with another shed for medicine and food. They even made a poultry farm a few blocks down. The wolves in this area are all properly attired, not just in some shoddy animal felt that has been twine-sewn together. Every member of the pack also smells fresh and clean. It’s so different from the smell of sweat, urine, and blood that I am so accustomed to. As I walk along the road with Ajax, I notice a few lingering stares in our direction. At first, I thought that it must be due to Ajax b