"Why are we leaving so early?" I asked, walking with Professor Lee in the forest back toward the university on Monday morning. He glanced around, almost nervously, spotted his warriors near the trees, and continued forward. I arched a brow. "And why are you looking around so nervously? If you didn't want anyone to see me with you, you should've let me leave after you."

"Quiet down," Professor Lee said, tugging me closer to him. From a distance, I spotted university grounds, then Jasmine and Levi waiting for us. He intertwined his fingers with mine and squeezed. "You're going to stay with them all day."

"Why?"

"Because, Bria."

"But I was with them all weekend, when you were working and weren't fucking me."

"Bria," Professor Lee almost scolded.

"Callum."

He rubbed a hand across his face and sighed. "Someone is looking for you. Promise me that you're not going to wander off today. I don't want you getting hurt and taken from me, and I have work to do here. Stay with them, please."

"Who's looking for me?" I asked, my stomach twisting into knots.

"Don't worry about it," Callum said, taking my chin in his hand gently. "I'll handle him, but I have to go. Promise me that you'll stay with Jasmine and Levi today. No roaming after my class."

While I wanted to roll my eyes at him, I gave him a smile and nodded. "Sure."

Thirty-minutes later, I sat in Professor Lee's class with Jasmine and Levi by my side, like they had been all weekend, with my stomach in knots because someone was looking for me, and with a great need to pee out all the orange juice I had this morning.

Well, that's what I told them I needed to do.

Jasmine insisted that she needed to come with me, but somehow I convinced her that she didn't and that the school was safe. Really, I needed some time to breathe, alone. This entire weekend, I hadn't been left alone once. And being the introvert that I was, I fucking needed it.

At least a couple moments.

So, I walked toward the bathroom quickly before class started. We had an exam today.

"Bria," someone said from behind me.

My body froze. I knew that voice.

I turned around slowly to see the one and only Adan hurrying toward me. Before I had the chance to respond, Adan grabbed my hand and slipped into the women's bathroom, locking the door.

"What are you doing here?!" I whisper-yelled at him, smacking him on the shoulder and shoving him back. "I told you when I left not to come and find me, and you did just that! You need to leave."

"I can't," Adan said, glancing at the door. He pulled me further into the bathroom and into the furthest stall from the door, where we could get the most privacy. "Listen, you're in trouble. Your parents—"

"Did you lead them here?"

"No, but they know where you are and they're looking for you to bring you home."

I crossed my arms. "They will never find me, unless you bring them to me. I've cut off all communication and have even deleted all my old social media. I'm fine, Adan. I don't need your protection anymore."

Adan grasped my chin tightly. "You do need my protection. You don't understand the first fucking thing you're getting yourself into with them. You don't really know who your parents are, Bria Benton."

After shoving him hard, I poked him in the chest. "If you know it all, then tell me. Who are they? Hmm? Because I'm tired of being their fucking toy that they can use whenever they need me. I don't deserve that."

He pressed his lips together and glanced down. "I know you don't."

"Who are they?" I asked, tapping my foot and not having time for these games.

Silence.

"You're still not going to tell me? Not even when I'm in danger, supposedly?"

"If I could tell you, I would."

"No, you wouldn't." I seethed, shoving him back again, so hard that the bathroom stall door swung open and the bottom hinge came off completely. "This is why I left and didn't stay with you. You keep too many secrets."

Adan widened his eyes at the force of my push, then furrowed his brows and sniffed me. That man fucking sniffed me like he used to, his nose in my hair and his eyes glowing the slightest color of gold. He clenched his jaw and went to push some hair behind my shoulder.

But Callum told me to hide my mark at school, because humans lived here too.

So, I stepped back and away from Adan before he could touch me.

"What happened to you?" Adan asked. "What has Callum Lee done?"

I arched a brow. "I don't know what you're talking about, Adan. Lee is my professor."

Adan growled, so faint but the sound resembled the way Callum did in my ear every night this weekend. "His scent is all over you."

"He's my professor."

"I must've not been clear, Bria. Why the fuck is your professor's scent all over you?"

Narrowing my eyes at him, I stepped closer and refused to let him intimidate me. "And how can you smell another man's scent? I haven't even seen him today yet, so stop being jealous. It's never looked good on you, not even while we were—"

Adan let out another ferocious growl. "I have to go. Stay away from Lee. Hell, stay away from everyone in this fucking school. I'll see you tomorrow." He started toward the locked bathroom door.

"No, you won't."

"Yes, Bria." He turned back to me, nostrils flaring and teeth bared. "I will."

"Well, I'm not leaving my dorm room."

"Well then, I'll fucking find your dorm room, because we need to fucking talk." Adan furrowed his brows at me in an angry stare, like I had done something wrong. "You're in some deep shit, Bria. All I'm trying to do is protect you."

"No, all you're doing is suffocating me."

Adan blew out a breath, shook his head, and stormed out of the bathroom. I glared at the wooden door, my hands clenched into tight fists by my side, and marched back to the classroom in time for class to start. When I reached the auditorium door, Professor Lee clenched his jaw—again, another man being angry at me for some ungodly reason—and gestured to the front.

"Where did you go?" he asked quietly, voice tense.

"To the bathroom."

"I told you that you're not safe alone," he said.

Jasmine and Levi glanced at each other, and I glared at Lee. It was wrong, and I was taking my anger from Adan out on Professor Lee. But all this weekend, I had felt suffocated from him forcing someone to be at my side at all times. Part of me felt like this back home, and that was one of the many reasons that I moved away.

I had come to college to start over and to be my own damn person.

Yet people still tried to push things on me.

After giving me another hard stare, Callum stood in front of the class and cleared his throat. "Clear your desks and take out a pencil or pen. We have our first exam today."

Aimlessly, I pulled out a pencil and stared at the wooden desk, my mind reeling with thoughts about what Adan had said. He wasn't lying about protecting me from my parents; he had done that for the past four years. I just didn't know what they were up to this time.

Professor Lee placed an exam paper on my desk. I stared down at the questions, not really able to comprehend any of them, because all I could think about was this weekend, being turned into a wolf, and now Adan and my parents.

I could feel it in the pit of my stomach. Something bad was about to happen.