The next morning, I sat in the school library with my face stuffed into the mythology textbook for Callum's class. Since last night, after I nearly choked Callum to death, I wanted to forget. I didn't want my wolf to come back out for a long time, because I didn't have control over her. So, I read every single page of the two-hundred-page textbook twice this morning already.

Anything to keep my mind occupied.

I didn't know why I kept losing control. By the look on Callum's face and what I heard from Jasmine, it wasn't natural to show this many signs of shifting before the first full moon. And as much as I wanted to control it, I didn't even know when it happened.

My human half seemed to black out completely.

"Hi, Bria," Holden said, taking a seat on the other side of the table.

Fuck.

What was he even doing here? Jasmine had left to go to class, and Levi wasn't even supposed to be here until 4PM, so we could walk back to Callum's packhouse. I didn't want to be left alone with this asshole.

Swallowing hard, I stared at him with wide eyes and forced a smile on my face. "Hey."

"So, what'd Professor Lee want yesterday?" Holden asked, pulling out his laptop.

I anxiously rubbed my hands together under the table. "Nothing."

It was obvious that Callum wanted something, especially because I didn't meet them for lunch after he held me back at the end of class. And I didn't doubt that terror was written all over my face now, because I sat across from a man who had access to The Council. If he didn't know that I knew about him, then, fuck, he would know now.

"Jasmine told me that you don't have a boyfriend," Holden said, glancing up from his computer screen.

"Nope."

"We have mate."

My wolf spoke up for the first time since last night, and I tensed. God, she couldn't be back already, could she? I didn't need her transforming right here in front of Holden and all these other human students.

"Tell him that we have a mate."

"No boyfriend," I repeated.

"What's a girl like you without a boyfriend in a school like this? You see how many couples are crawling all over campus." He chuckled and ran his hand through his thick hair. "It kinda freaks me out."

"Yeah, it freaks me out too."

Actually, he freaked me out more.

"Thank god that I'm not the only one," he said, pulling a textbook out of his backpack, and not just any textbook, but a book about the One Alpha that Callum and Adan both stated was banned for the werewolf species.

Holden wasn't a werewolf, at least I didn't think he was.

But why the hell did he have that, especially if The Council banned it?

"What's that?" I asked, playing stupid. "Is it for a class here?"

"Yeah," Holden said, eyes glinting gold.

I inhaled sharply at the sudden change of color in his eyes that I only ever saw in wolves. My stomach twisted and knotted, and I suddenly had the urge to puke up my lunch. Something felt terribly wrong.

God, I wished Jasmine skipped class today.

"What class?" I asked, looking at my computer and acting like this was small talk.

He stared at me intently. "Mythology of Wolves."

This man was fucking with me.

Repeating to myself that I wouldn't slip up, I pressed my lips together. I didn't know what kind of game he was playing with me, or what he was doing here from The Council. Was he patiently waiting for me to make a mistake? To blindly trust him?

Fuck no.

They must've thought I was stupid.

"Mythology of Wolves?" I asked, raising my brows and looking up at him. "Never heard of that class. It sounds kinda boring. Who teaches that?"

"Freddrick," Holden said without a pause, lying straight through his teeth.

Oh, he was good.

"Hanny Freddrick?" I asked.

"Yep. That's him. Pretty cool guy."

"He doesn't teach mythology," I said, continuing to type as if it was nothing, like his lie didn't bother me, nor me pointing it out. All I wanted was for him to fucking choke on his own words. "He teaches engineering."

"He's a new professor," Holden said, shoving the book back into his backpack.

There goes his studying for his mythology class. This guy was a joke.

"Cool," I said, not looking over at him and continuing my third go at the mythology textbooks for Callum's class. No matter how hard this guy tried, he wouldn't fucking break me. I refused to go back to The Council and see Thiago's ugly face.

That man thought he was a god or something.

I balled my hands into fists under the table and stared angrily at the words on the page, not really reading them but focusing all my energy on coming up with a plan on how to get the fuck out of here. Holden obviously knew that I was onto him. He would become more aggressive soon.

And I didn't want to be anywhere near him when he did.

I refused to risk putting myself in danger of being alone with him somewhere not in public. But I had to get out of her without him following me. I had to contact someone, but Levi sucked at texting back, Jasmine didn't check her phone during class, and Callum was teaching.

I was all alone.

With this idiot.

For the next damn hour.