King stared at the number written on a badly ripped piece of paper in his hands. "Thirteen," he mumbled.

"The paper you get—"

He stared at the cool-looking blonde woman who had a baton clamped under her armpit. She was wearing black aviators, was standing with legs apart, one hand on her waist and the other holding a megaphone.

"—contains your group number! Find your respective group!"

King's face was of utter disbelief. His gaze slowly raked through the messy clutter of people that bumped into each other, and his disbelief drilled deeper.

"This is bullshit," His face dulled. "I don't remember signing up for the army."

Constantine wrapped an arm around King's shoulder. He peeked at the paper in King's hand. "You got thirteen, eh? I got six."

Bryce walked towards them, rolling up a paper he just drew.

"What d'you get, Bryce?" Constantine asked.

"I got six."

"You got six?!"

"Yeah, what about you?" Bryce asked.

"I got six too!"

"Ay!"

The two bro-grabbed each other and whooped.

"Swap with me," King said, smiling at Bryce.

Bryce gave him a dirty look. "No way."

"Come on. I won't call you dork anymore."

"Shut up." Bryce kicked King's last resort away. King snorted at him.

"All who got six! Fall in line in here!"

Bryce heard it faintly, and he turned, seeing the signboard with the largely written "6" waving in the air. He pointed at it. "There's our line."

Constantine's gaze followed. "Well, time to go." He looked at King and roughly patted his shoulder. "You going to be okay on your own?"

King narrowed his eyes at him. "Course, why wouldn't I be?"

Constantine laughed. "Cause the last time I know, you got into a food fight—"

"Move it, wimps!"

Everyone cringed when Kain roared at the megaphone he snatched from the lady commander earlier.

"Talk about deaf." Constantine picked his ear. "Well, see you, King. Do your best! Number six here, peeps! Woo!" he cheered, attracting short-lived attention while he walked towards their line.

"Careful in getting your ass whooped," Bryce added.

"Shut up." King slapped him, and Bryce was about to go for one when King had already bolted away.

The lone werecat felt so lazy in finding his group. He sighed, looked around indifferently, and after a couple of flashes, he felt eyes on him again. He didn't even have to guess who. His eyes drifted back to Kain who was giving him a dirty look. They stared at each other, Kain glaring at him and King who had his eyes narrowed back at Kain. Then King blinked as he saw a long black-haired lady walked beside the man.

Kain turned his head when the woman latched herself around his arm like a koala. King watched the woman's lips formed words he couldn't hear. But based on her expression, especially how her green eyes flickered, he thought maybe she was drawing the flirt card, and when her fingers trailed down his arm, he was sure it was.

Looks like Mr. Playboy is in-game again, King thought. He snorted.

Just then, while talking with the woman, Kain's gaze drew back to King from the corner of his eyes. He smirked at the boy victoriously like he had won a big bone. Taken aback, an angry gush of pink exploded over King's face and he scurried away to look for his group. Screw that guy, he thought.

King finally lined up in the chain of the group "13". He placed a hand inside his jogger's pocket, scratching his nape with the other. His eyes slowly dragged around to look at his fellow members, all werewolves, all who were talking either with a buddy or their acquaintances. He felt unlucky to be alone.

Someone softly tapped on his bicep.

King blinked, turned around, and saw a shorter girl with dark pigtails. Another werewolf.

"You're also thirteen?" the girl asked, blue eyes big, wide, and twinkling. Her voice was filled with an energetic vibe.

"Yea—"

She swiftly clasped his hands, shaking it tremendously. King's eyes widened.,His head slowly drew back when her enthusiastic face arched closer to him like an ostrich.

"I'm Wendy, nice to meet you, King!" she greeted, brightly smiling at him.

"Uh, nice to meet you t—" King froze. His eyebrow rose suspiciously. "... How d'you know my n—"

"Line up!"

The group "13" immediately scrambled into a clean five-row line under the guidance of the strong-voiced blonde woman with the shades, baton, and megaphone from earlier. King brows knitted and he gulped as he saw the other guide, Kain, who was standing in front of them, a hand in his pelvis, and with dashing good looks and awfully ripped body that thrashed his rotten personality.

Oh, this wasn't good. So, so not very good.

Kain smiled at them. "Well, aren't you all lucky to have us as your leaders?"

Ahhh, shit, King mentally cursed.

"Just in missed any greeting sessions, this," Kain pointed a thumb at the woman beside him, "is Sentinel Dragnea."

The shaded woman, Dragnea, stood like a gargoyle statue. Most shrugged as a reply. Of course, they knew. The aggressive, no-nonsense, yet dubbed as the large-breasted goddess was no recent news to the pack. And King would admit, even her jaw strikes up a powerful air around her.

Kain's head snapped around, looking at each one of them. His eyes particularly drilled longer at the only werecat in the group, and a mischievous grin failed to hide away from his face. He began to circle them.

"You people are the T squad. T for thirteen and T for twerpbags. Add that in the dictionary." He stopped beside King, who's eyes swooped to glare at him. "From now on, you will do as I say— eyes in front." He poked King's cheek, and the latter stared straight with a grimace. "So when I say something, you obey it... Right, Mr. Stefan?"

King clenched his jaw, refusing to look at the man who bent over to stand at his height. After a couple of heartbeats, Kain stood straight again and continued rounding.

"Now... why don't we start with a little stroll around?" he said with the most innocent smile he could manage.

Before fifteen minutes of preparation drills and another for recovery drills, when King heard running, he was confident. His previous jobs were all fast-paced, and cycling daily around blocks, including the fact that he was also a half werecat, made his confidence and determination for this nonsense blaze higher... Until now.

"Let's go, let's go!" Dragnea's robust voice reached meters away as she yelled at the wobbling asses of the sweat-covered and oxygen-thirsty group. "We gotta get you, babies, some stamina! Move it!"

"D-dang sadistic a-apes," Wendy caught up beside King.

King's thought rewound to earlier. "H-hey..." he said, huffing. "H-how d'you know my name, by the way?"

Wendy looked at him. "I-I heard a lot a-about you."

"Me? From who?"

"From Uncle Yusef."

King raised both his eyebrows.

"You're his mate, aren't y—"

King immediately clasped his palm in the wrong sides of her face in one swift tilt of his limbs, halting himself and her in the middle of the track. His expression was of sole panic and deep red.

"That's my eyes, you know?" Wendy said, seeing deep red in his palm. King drew his hands away from her in realization.

Wendy looked at the flushed King. "Don't worry, I'm not a chitter-chatter," she said, followed with a contracting look of a second thought as she looked up, two fingers pinching her chin. "... Although I do have some tendency sometimes, but worry not, my lips are tightly sealed as zip bag... Although zip bags are easy to open, so maybe it's a wrong choice of words—"

"Oy, move it!"

The two flinched and their legs wound again against Dragnea's voice. After running for five miles, King's legs were wobbling like jelly. He was a hundred and one percent sure that he wasn't the only one due to the occasional weak bumps that brushed on his sides.

"All right, stop!"

All the time they'd known each other, King didn't expect hearing Kain's voice would sound so heavenly. Immediately, his legs crumbled, and he crouched to the floor, gasping for air.

"Finally... Where's the water?!" Despite her expression that suggested no better than King, Wendy charging off like a bull to search for water shocked King. On the other hand, Kain, who was on the sideline, gulped. He wore a small frown as he intensely watched King, who was covered in sweat, his skin visible against the thin fabric that had clutched onto his drenched skin while he heaved for air in an awfully cliche slow-mo. And Kain... was obviously getting a boner.

The thirty-year-old man, who was dubbed as the greatest warrior in the pack, crouched, burrying his head between his legs, and for the first time, he screamed like a lady in distress. In public.

Kain gasped at what he did, and his head snapped up, seeing wide sets of eyes that was pinned on him. His lips pulled back in a threatening snarl. "W-what are you looking at?!" he growled, cheeks slightly flushed, and the crowd scurried away.

King didn't, he just narrowed his eyes at him like the alpha was a suspect who denies charges despite being caught red-handed. Kain glared back at him, and when it didn't take effect, he cleared his throat, took his time to recollect his composure, and calm his... well, you know, before he stood up.

Not backing out from the challenge, Kain walked towards the werecat, who had now averted his eyes. He crossed his arms and tilted his head to look down at the crown of the boy's brown hair.

"Still doing good?"

"Of course," King replied, refusing to look at him.

Kain smiled."Alright then... two minutes of pullups in ten minutes!"