THREE - damien
Lia's pov

It felt as if everything had frozen when I caught the eyes of the wolf. All I could look at was it, and the way it looked at me made me feel like prey. I couldn't look away, I couldn't move, I was stunned. All I could do was stare into the terrifying black eyes as they came over to kill me.

"Don't just sit there- fucking move," I felt someone tugging me away and blinked my eyes away from the wolf to see that the others had begun to surround me, perhaps in a way to scare off the wolf. No one made a sound, however they all stood firm even as the wolf continued to roar out louder, angrier.

I let whoever it was drag me inside of the training building, feeling my heart still beating like crazy. I had never encountered a wolf before, but that thing looked monstrous. There was no way that was regular size. I looked back at the person who had dragged me inside - Callie. She was looking at me with a horrified gaze and realization overcame her.

"Donnie, Deke, they're going to be killed if we don't..." reality was kicking in and I knew we had to go out there and do something, anything to keep the beast from eating them.

Her hand came up and held the door closed and as hard as I might, I could not get the door open. "They are going to be fine. You're what he wants, so you need to stay here so that he can calm down." She tried to say calmly, but the irritation was evident in her tone.

"Are you crazy? That thing is a wild animal, I doubt that it was just trying to attack me," I said to her, although my voice trailed off. It was kind of staring directly at me, but again it was a wild animal. It would see any human and try to maul it, not just me. I tried to pull the door again but her hold was firm.

She reached over and gave me a gentle shove, which allowed her to put her whole body in front of the door and block me in. She crossed her arms over her chest as she looked at me with disdain in her eyes, "You don't know how things work around here, but trust me, this is the only thing keeping everyone safe."

Yes, sure, having us hold up here is keeping everyone safe. I wanted to scoff, but didn't say anything. This girl was straight delulu.

"We can go get changed, combat is going to be canceled after this," Callie offered after a few moments of silence. She slowly walked away from the door, giving me a death glare that said, 'don't even think about going for the door.'

I would've tried to run for it if I hadn't seen the way she almost immediately took out Deke during combat. The way she leapt at him was something I had never seen in my entire life.

I walked into the girls locker room with her following behind me. We both got dressed in silence and I kind of wished I had Ande in here instead of Callie. She and I just didn't really click.

Once I had pulled on my coat, I followed her out of the locker rooms. Surprisingly, the guys and other two girls were headed into the lockers rooms as well. Unlike when it had been filled with conversation previously, it was down dead quiet. However, there was this sort of buzz in the air, filled with anticipation.

My eyes scanned over the guys before I saw Donnie and Deke. I went over to them and Donnie had this unreadable expression on his face and didn't seem to want to reach my gaze. "Hey, what the hell happened? How did you get that wolf to-" I voiced my concerns and although I didn't see any sign that anyone had been mauled, I wanted to hear it from them.

"It ran off after awhile," Donnie said, his voice coming out so quiet I almost didn't hear him. I furrowed my eyebrows at his attitude. What's wrong with him all of a sudden?

"Lia," I gave Donnie a look before turning to look at Deke. His face was unreadable as he looked at me, Callie already pulled close to his chest. "There's someone you need to meet."

"Um... who?" I asked him, wanting to ask if he was crazy, but didn't. There was a huge wolf outside and no one was talking about it. It was like this was something that normally happened. And now he had someone who I needed to meet? What even was today?

He didn't answer my question, but I could see him and Callie look at each other for a moment before they both looked back at me. "He owns pretty much the entire town."

I blinked slowly at him. This felt like an outer body experience. None of this was making any sense and to top it off some guy who 'owns the whole town' wants to meet me? "Is this a cult?" I say seriously.

This time they all look confused and Donnie finally lifts his head up to meet my gaze. "What?" They say in unison.

"This whole situation is so weird... it's the only thing I could think of." I murmur, although my suspicions were dissipating with their obvious confusion.

"No, it's nothing like that... he likes to meet everyone new in town." Donnie said before dropping his gaze once again.

"Oh, so is he going to meet Tristan too?" I asked.

Silence.

Finally, Callie says, " Um, yes."

"Is he meeting with him now, or will it be later?" I asked, hoping Tristan could be there with me. I had a feeling he might be the only one I can trust right now.

"He will later, can you just come on already?" Callie finally grumbled , giving me a look to stop asking questions. I bit my tongue from saying anything rude and just nodded. At least I could forewarn Tristan when he meets with this man.

I followed behind them as they walked with me to the front of the school. I was going to suggest that the guys should go get changed, but felt that I would be ignored so didn't say anything. If they get in trouble for not having shirts on, that wasn't going to be on me.

We turned a corner and I saw the back of a man standing away from us. He didn't have on a shirt and I easily see the outline of each muscle from his back and the back of his biceps. I didn't think I could find a back so attractive.

We all came to a stop a few feet away from him and the others dispersed to the side and left me standing in the middle of the hall; however I didn't focus on that. I was watching the way his body tensed, as if he could feel I was staring at him. I even glanced down at his butt and thought back to what Tristan said yesterday.

The man turned around slowly and I trailed my eyes back up his body, seeing his abs looking almost glistening, to his strong and broad shoulders, and his taut jawline. I let my eyes take in all of his features, enjoying the sight of his oh-so kissable lips, his flawless olive colored skin, until I came up to his eyes. My breath caught in the back of my throat as I stared into the bluest eyes I had ever seen. He stared at me so intently, as if I were the only one in the room.

He took a step closer to me and I stood in my place, forgetting how to move my legs. The way his eyes stared at me made me feel like I was suspended in space. I feared that if I even moved the tiniest bit, he would look away and take the warmth that had overcome my body from just his gaze.

"Hi," managed to make its way out of my mouth and I blink, feeling my face getting really hot. 'Hi?' That was all I could think of? I wanted to go slam my head into my locker and end this embarrassing misery.

"Hello," he offered me and I didn't think a voice could affect me so much, but I'll say the shiver that traveled down my back wasn't because I was cold. I couldn't take my eyes off of him as he came to stand in front of me. He was so close I could smell him... tangerines. Delicious. "You must be Ophelia. I'm Damien Andreas." The way he said my name... I can't describe how nice that was.

He brought his hand up and I stared down at it for a moment before bringing my hand up to place it in his. I don't know why I was anticipating this so much. Once I placed my hand in his, a sudden shock coursed up my arm and I yanked my arm back. It scared me, even still I wanted to put my hand back in his.

A strange sound came out from the back of his throat. It almost sounded like a growl. No, I was just hearing him wrong.

"A lot of static," I mumbled to him with a smile, but noticed that Damien's eyes seemed darker. It looked just like how Donnie's looked yesterday. Could it be the lighting? "It's nice to meet you too, Damien. Was there anything in particular you wanted to discuss with me?"

He didn't answer for a moment, simply staring at me with narrowed eyes, but an almost... hungry look? I was probably just imagining it. "It is only customary for me to meet any outsider." He finally said after a moment of silence. "How are you liking it in Monkshood, Ophelia?" He leaned a little closer to me and I swear I thought that my knees were going to buckle.

"It's great. There's a lot of cool people here. Except, it's really fucking cold ," I said in all honesty to him. That might be the worst thing about this place; how cold it was. On the bright side there was literally never traffic. "Are there any fun places you recommend that I visit?"

"The pack house," he said with a straight face, as if it were the most obvious thing. I was just confused.

"What is that? A club?" I asked, half-joking about it because I didn't expect this town to have a club.

He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He looked as if he was calculating something in his mind. After a moment he turned to look to the side, and I suddenly felt cold at the loss of his gaze. I followed his stare and saw that he was looking to the others - who I had completely forgotten were there. It felt like it was just him and I.

I took a step away from Damien and felt my face flush at the fact they had seen me do that. I never acted like this, so I don't know why I'm acting like such a love-sick puppy.

"The pack house is kind of like a gathering place for the younger generation," Donnie said after a moment and I turned to look at him, although he still wasn't looking at me. "Kind of like a rec ro-"

Damien made another sound that made me jump and turn back to look at him. He was now glaring towards Donnie and Deke. "You two need to go get dressed," he said, with so much anger in his voice I really wondered if this was the same man who I had just spoken to.

I kept my eyes on Damien, watching as his once calm and stoic features turned to frenzy. How could he get so mad so quickly? And what are these guttural sounds he keeps making?

His eyes turned back to me and once again it seemed like he turned into a different person. He became more calm, keeping his eyes on my own. I wanted to say how crazy he was acting, but the thought drifted to the back of my mind as I looked at him. "We are having a banquet at the pack house on Friday. You should come," he said to me, his voice lowered and it almost felt like we were the only two in the room again. However, I could feel Callie's awkward stare on us.

I could feel my heartbeat thud harder in my chest at his invite. I had to stop myself from immediately agreeing and ponder on it. This man had some type of hold over me, not that I'm complaining. I just don't think I can trust myself to be near him and make sound decisions. An idea came to mind. "Sure, if my brother can come. Don't you still have to meet with him too?"

He didn't show any signs of emotion and took a moment to reply. "That is... that is fine. As long as you're there," he said with a nod and stared at me with a look that made me think he wanted to hear me say that I would be going.

"Okay, cool. We'll be there," I couldn't stop the smile from coming to my face and wanted to slap it off. I didn't want to come off as too eager. "I'll get the details from Callie or Ande. Was there anything else you wanted to discuss? If not, I'm going to try and find Tristan to head home."

My body was eager to be closer to Damien and I knew that was my cue to leave. I wasn't in the right mind and my hormones were acting up. Curse him for being so gorgeous.

He frowned at my question but slowly shook his head. "I will see you Friday then." He murmured and I expected him to walk away, but he didn't. He stayed put where he was and continued to watch me.

I could have stayed there forever just staring at him, and I think Callie knew that too because she grumbled and began to tug me away from Damien. "Listen, I don't plan to stand and watch however long that was going to take."

I heard Damien make out another sound behind us, but Callie simply ignored him and pulled me along. I was thankful for her strength, but also just wanted to go back to Damien.

This town was really beginning to mess with me.