Usually, Bria visited me during the day at around 4PM, before she and Levi left to go back to the packhouse. But today she didn't show up, and I was getting worried about where she could've gone off to.

Maybe nowhere. Maybe someone took her.

A growl rumbled from my chest, my canines lengthening. If anyone took my Bria, I would rip them to fucking shreds in front of whoever was around. I didn't care if the humans saw. Nobody touched her, except me.

Tearing off my shirt and changing into sweatpants, I stormed out of my office and ran toward the quad where Bria used to sit when it was a bit warmer. Now that the fall breeze was rolling in, I doubted that she'd be there.

I ran around the quad twice and didn't spot Bria once. Instead, Jasmine stood with one of her friends, coming out of class with her books in her hand. Though I didn't want to make it suspicious, I walked up to her anyway.

"Have you seen Bria?" I asked.

She excused herself, walked with me a few feet away, and widened her eyes. "No, I haven't. What's going on?"

"Fuck," I growled, running a hand through my hair and inhaling deeply to see if Bria's scent lingered anywhere nearby. "I haven't talked to her since this morning. She comes to visit me before my last class every single day at 4PM on the dot. Where the fuck is she?"

"Calm down, Alpha, before anyone—"

"Don't tell me to calm down," I snapped at her, rage rushing through every one of my veins. "She's my mate, and there is a fucking group of fiends who want to kill her for some fucking reason. I need to find her."

If I fucking lost that woman, I would lose myself too.

"Maybe she's in the library," Jasmine said, glancing in the direction of the library on the other side of the quad. "She told me that she was going to keep busy today after what happened between you and her last night. She said that she... kinda went crazy on you. She's scared it's going to happen again."

Fuck. That was another thing.

I thought I would have more time to prepare and teach her how to control herself.

With Bria being stronger than other wolves, she might start losing control here. Her body might try to make her shift in front of humans, and I didn't even think she knew that she was shifting into her wolf last night.

By the way she acted, her human side must've blacked out almost completely.

Almost as if on cue, Bria walked out of the library very tensely with Holden fucking next to her. I stormed over to them, wanting to get her out of that conversation as quickly as humanly possibly. I didn't want her near that boy.

"Hey, Professor Lee," Holden said when I approached. "Bria and I were just studying for mythology class."

"Yeah, Holden is taking this really cool course," Bria said, giving me a get-me-out-of-here stare. "It's called the Mythology of Wolves with this weird textbook that has a wolf on it. It kinda reminded me of that myth we learned about in your class."

"Yeah, the textbook is called One Alpha," Holden said, smirking at me.

From the look in his eyes, I fucking knew that he knew we knew about him.

Something must've happened in the past few hours because he didn't look like he had a clue this morning during class. Maybe Bria slipped or... or she shifted into her wolf, even if it was only a change in eye color.

Her ever-changing gold irises weren't something one can look at and ignore.

They screamed wolf.

Powerful wolf.

"Well, anyway, I'm off," Holden said, turning his back to me and glancing at Bria. "If you ever reconsider the whole boyfriend thing, I have a friend that I could introduce you to. He's seen a couple pictures of you, and let's just say that he's very interested."

I bit my tongue and held back a vicious growl that clawed its way up my throat.

To my surprise, instead of shrinking back in fear, Bria hugged her books to her chest and stood tall. "Really? That's weird. I don't have any social media anymore. Where'd he see the pictures, Holden?"

Holden shrugged and stared at her, a golden glint in his eyes. "You know. Around."

"What's your friend's name?" Bria asked.

"Thiago."

My heart dropped, a chill running through my bones. Thiago, leader of The Council.

"Well, why don't you tell Thiago that Bria Benton isn't interested in a man who has other people do his dirty work?" Bria said, pushing her shoulders back and staring him right in the eye. "Because I'm not interested in him, nor afraid of him. If he wants me, tell him to come get me himself."