I became aware of my surroundings when I started feeling something very wet on my face - all over my face. It took me a second to realize I was being . Without really knowing how, I jumped to my feet, feeling fully awake.

"He must be a shifter, normal people can't have quick reflexes like that." I heard someone say amidst the loud barks I'm hearing.

I looked down and was greeted by probably the dirtiest dog I've laid eyes on. The creature had its tail wagging and it had its brown eyes on me. I wrinkled my nose at the sight of what I could only assume as dried mud all over its body, making it look like it had a brown fur.

"Ugh," I groaned. "Go away, shoo!"

The dog barked once and suddenly went on its hindlegs with its front paws on my chest. To my horror, it started my face!

I stepped back to get away from the dog and all that stuff. "Ugh!" I groaned.

"She likes you," I heard someone say.

I looked up and saw one of the two girls a while ago. I felt heat crawl through my face but I cleared my throat as I tried to get the memory of her ness off my mind. "Is that your dog?" I asked.

"She's not a dog," she snapped, looking upset. "She's a wolf."

"Sorry," I mumbled. "I didn't mean to offend you." I seriously didn't know, why did she have to get so upset about it?

"You should apologize to Muddy," she said.

"Muddy?" I repeated with a snort making the girl shoot laser beams at me again. What the is she so grumpy for?

"Let's go Muddy, he's not worth your time," the girl grumpily said and then turned away to leave.

"What the just happened?" I asked no one in particular when she was gone.

"Dog is relatively considered a great insult to most wolf-shifters," Youngbae said.

"I seriously didn't know," I said, nibbling on my lower lip. Now I feel guilty. I looked down at Muddy. "I'm sorry, Muddy. I seriously had no ing idea you're a wolf. I really thought you were. . . you know."

Muddy whined and rubbed the tip of her nose to my leg.

"She likes you," Youngbae observed.

"And so I was told."

"It's rare for ordinary wolves to show that much affection to a human or a shifter."

I stopped short. "She's not a shifter?"

"No," he answered. "Just an ordinary wolf."

"Oh," I let out. "Maybe she likes me because she's just like me. Ordinary person," I said, pointing at myself. "Ordinary wolf," I then pointed at Muddy.

"I think you're a latent shifter."

"A ing what shifter?"

"You have no filters huh?"

"Habit," I said with a shrug. "What am I again?"

"A latent shifter," he repeated as if repeating it explains everything. I could only stare at him blankly. "You don't know what a latent shifter is?"

"Hey, is the faint guy still unconscious?" Daehyun's loud voice came in. I immediately recognized his voice. "Oh, you're awake," he said with a grin and then went to call Mino.

The latter came in with a huge grin on his face. "You're up!"

Obviously. "Yeah," I mumbled.

"So. . ." he started. "Did you faint because of what you saw? Was it your first time seeing female shifters shift? Or have you never seen a woman's body before?"

Muddy started growling at them but they ignored her. They all had their eyes on me. I felt my face turn red. Well, I don't know why I fainted. And although I've seen pictures of women and. . . well, from videos but I haven't seen one in the flesh. There's no way I'll admit that to them though.

"Pay up," Youngbae suddenly said, chuckling.

"Aww," Mino whined. "I thought you're a man of experience," he said in an accusing tone.

"What?" I asked. "I did not admit or deny anything!" I defensively said.

"Your face said it all," Daehyun informed me. "Never thought you'd be more innocent than Kangmin."

"Wait!" Mino suddenly exclaimed. "So you're still a ?"

Before I could say something, a sound similar to a snort caught our attention. Our heads turned to Muddy. The female wolf looked like she was shaking her head. "What does that mean?" I asked the wolf, offended.

Of course the wolf didn't answer but what she did next made me drop my jaw. She started prancing, literally prancing with her head and tail up in the air.

"I think Muddy got turned off," Youngbae muttered.

There was a moment of silence before all three of them burst out laughing.

"I'm no longer a , okay?" I burst out, making them laugh louder. "I'm telling the truth!"

"I need to tell the others," Daehyun said in between his guffaws.

"Hey! I'm telling you, I'm not a anymore!"

But they didn't listen. I was left on my own fuming while they go and spread the word about my ity.

Great. Just what I needed right now. As if fainting from seeing two women was not enough, a wolf suddenly had a crush on me who got turned off because she thought I was a and now everyone's going to make fun of me because of it.

Well, I'm no longer a but I haven't seen a woman in the flesh yet.

Admittedly, I've only had twice. First one was with a fellow and since we were too shy, we did it with the lights off. Second time was with a senior at school in the storage room. She was fully clothed then. I just got pushed to the floor and had my pants and underwear pulled down enough for my to breathe air. I gotta admit, she did almost everything on her own. She even put the on me herself. I can't really remember if she wasn't wearing any underwear or if she was wearing one of those which got a hole at the crotch. I didn't really pay attention to the details since my brain went haywire when she started riding me.

I felt something twitch in my pants at the memory. "Easy boy," I murmured.

Great, now I'm talking to myself.

With a sigh, I finally looked around me. I was in a mud-made hut. There wasn't that much to see, really. It only had a stack of hay at one corner and a coverlet which looked like made from wool on top of it.

"Hey !" I heard someone call. "Come out here and eat! You need to replenish your energy after fainting a while ago."

Great, just ing great. Just what I ing needed.

With another sigh, I stepped out of the hut and was greeted with giggles and chuckles. I tried my best to ignore the warmth rising to my cheeks as I went to check my surroundings. Surprise, surprise! Trees. And they're everywhere. It looked exactly like the one we were dropped to a while ago except perhaps for the obvious signs of the place being inhabited. There were a few huts with various sizes here and there.

"Hey , aren't you hungry?" someone called, I think it was Daehyun.

I grimaced and finally faced them. Siwon was seated right at the center, on a wooden log. Similar wooden logs were also scattered around the area. Women were seated on around him on a similsr coverlet I saw from the hut. The rest were seated a few feet from Siwon - some of them were sitting on the ground, some on the wooden logs and some on the wool-made coverlet.

I started heading towards Youngbae, who was with Mino and Daehyun on the wooden logs. They may have teased me but they're the people I'm most familiar with. I was on my way when I heard a snort. I stopped and looked down at Muddy. She was lying on her side and had one eye on me. My eyes narrowed at her. "I'm seriously not a anymore," I told the wolf in a whisper which earned me a round of loud laughter again.

Great, they heard me.

Giving the wolf one last glare, I went to sit with Youngbae, Mino and Daehyun.

"Help yourself," Youngbae said, nodding to the food laid in front of me. Different type of grilled skewered meat and vegetable stew.

"Why are all the women with Siwon?" I asked as I grabbed the closest skewered meat I could reach.

"He's an alpha," Mino answered with a shrug.

I kept my eyes at him as I started eating, waiting for him to explain further. "Okay?" I questioned.

They all looked at me and then at each other. "So you're not just a latent shifter, huh? Your parents are packless, too? Loners?"

"Man, how is he going to survive if he doesn't even know a thing?" Daehyun asked Mino.

"Beats me," the latter shrugged.

"Survive?" I asked. "Survive what?"

"They didn't tell you anything when they brought you to that container?" Youngbae asked.

"I was kidnapped," I told them. "I was just walking, doing my thing when I suddenly felt like I was in danger and then the next thing I know, I felt five tiny pricks in my body - I think they were mini syringes or needles, not really sure and then bam, I just out. Then I woke up with you guys in that container."

They all looked at each other again. "They shot you with tranquilizers?" Daehyun asked, disbelief and amazement coloring his loud voice. "Siwon needs to know this," he said then jumped to his feet.

"Daehyun, wait!" Youngbae called but the other was already jogging towards Siwon. "Damn."

"Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

Youngbae sighed. "It would have been better if Siwon didn't know about that," he said in the barest whisper I almost didn't hear him.

I frowned and was about to ask him why when I started hearing angry growls. My head turned towards the source the same time I sensed the others did. Muddy was growling at Daehyun who had his hands up in surrender.

"Okay, why are you so angry?" I heard him asked the wolf. "I'm not going to do anything to Siwon, I just want to tell him something."

Muddy looked even angrier and started lowering the upper part of her body, looking as if she's about to spring or jump on Daehyun.

"Looks like you've found yourself a protector," I heard Youngbae say, sounding amused.

It wasn't noticeable unless you're focused on him but Daehyun made a slight movement of going forward. Muddy noticed this and she wasn't happy. She launched herself on Daehyun the same time he shifted into his wolf form. My heart started pumping inside my chest. They were fighting and it wasn't that type were you playfully hit the other. They looked like they're trying to finish each other off - ok, not really because only Muddy looked like she's in for the kill.

"Enough," Siwon's harsh voice came in, standing up.

Daehyun immediately went submissive and Muddy seemed to have taken advantage of this because she went and bit the other on the neck, making the wolf howl in pain.

"I said enough," Siwon ordered, his eyes focused on Muddy. With a growl, Muddy let go of Daehyun's neck. Siwon then ordered the women to tend to Daehyun. They scrambled to follow his order. I watched them carry him to one of the huts with the help from his packmates.

"Is he going to be okay?" I asked no one in particular.

"He will be," Mino answered. "Muddy wasn't really going in for the kill."

"She wasn't?" I asked, flabbergasted. "Looks like she actually was going for it from where I'm standing."

"She wasn't," Youngbae confirmed. "I could tell she's an experienced fighter. If she was going for the kill, Daehyun would have had died already."

"Leave," I then heard Siwon barked, eyes still focused on Muddy. The wolf snapped her teeth at him.

"Okay, I want to know how she's doing that," I heard Mino say.

"Doing what?" I asked them.

"Leave," Siwon repeated with gritted teeth, turning redder by the minute.

"Defying Siwon," Mino whispered, eyes on the two.

I think I heard Muddy snort as she turned around and started kicking dirt into Siwon. The guy started freeing all possible profanities ever invented from his mouth and was about to grab Muddy when the wolf started prancing again, with her head and tail up in the air. But she suddenly broke into a sprint into the forest when Siwon started charging after her.

The guy didn't pursue her any further and started heading towards the hut where Daehyun was brought to with a very grim face.

"I need to have a wolf talk with Muddy," Mino said in awe.

"Hmm," Youngbae thoughtfully murmured and gave me a quizzical look.

"What?" I asked.

Before he could answer, I was suddenly jumped on by something heavy, making me stumble on my back to the ground. Muddy was on top of me, barking but it wasn't the same with how she did it with Siwon and Daehyun. I don't know why but she sounded. . .playful.

To my horror, she started my face once again. "Hey," I called her off, trying to push her away. "Stop!"

The wolf, I think, gets off in doing the opposite of what you wanted because instead of stopping, she started rubbing her head against mine. I groaned out loud when I felt mud sticking to my face. I think the wolf went into the forest to escape Siwon and found a muddy place and thought it would be fun to roll over it to cover her body with wet mud again and do the same to me. "Why do you love covering your body with mud?" I asked her, giving up in pushing her away. "You still had dried mud on you and now you rolled over on it again. You should take a bath."

The wolf jumped away from me. I pushed myself up to a sitting position and frowned. "Let's go take a bath," I said, slowly enunciating each word. The wolf growled once and then turned her back on me. Just like what she did to Siwon, she kicked dirt to my mud-filled face first before trotting away.

"I'm starting to really like Muddy," I heard Youngbae said, chuckling. He didn't even bother hiding his amusement.

"You should go take a bath too," Mino said. "You're starting to smell."

With a sigh, I stood up. "Where on earth am I going to wash this off?"

"There's a large pond at the end of that trail," Youngbae said, pointing to the trail which starts at the left hand side of the hut where I came from a while ago and leads into again, the forest.

"Okay thanks," I thanked him with a nod. I then called Muddy to have her join me but she only rolled over the ground in response. "I think she's allergic to water," I observed, making the other two chuckle.

"More like she's allergic to being clean," Youngbae joined.

I don't know how but it felt like the four of us just shared a bond right at that moment - me, Youngbae, Mino and yes, even perhaps Muddy.

With that thought in mind, I waved goodbye as I went to follow the trail that Youngbae pointed me to. It was then that the feeling of being watched came over me again. I stopped in my tracks and looked around only to find no one. Surely, I won't be attacked her anymore?

I didn't move from where I was standing as I tried listening to my surroundings. I can't really find anything unusual so I shrugged it off and went on my way. Maybe my senses aren't really that good. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. Maybe. . . ok, there's really something weird going on. My gut is kicking me to stop and look at my surroundings closely.

As my righy foot move forward, I pivoted and was greeted by Muddy not too far from me, baring her teeth as if she's about to snap. "Hey," I called. "Have you been following me?" I asked. Of course the wolf didn't answer. She looked to her left and right before running beside me. "Have you been checking my ?" I asked.

Why am I even bothering? As if I'll get some answers. I patted her head gently as I continued on my journey to this oh-so-great pond.

It probably took five or ten more minited before I finally reached the pond. "Do you want to get cleaned too?" I asked Muddy. She barked once and suddenly rolled over the ground before pausing, her ears twitching. She suddenly jumped to her feet and broke into a run. I followed her with my gaze and found out she was chasing what looked like a hare. With a shake of my head, I took my clothes off and washed them first before placing them on a large rock to let them dry. I then started heading back towards the pond. When I was waist-deep into the water, I took a deep breath and submerged into the pond.

After washing off the mud, I swam a few laps before heading back to where my clothes were. They were still wet of course but I went ahead and wore them anyways. I'll just let them dry in the hut and maybe borrow some clothes or another coverlet or blanket to wrap around myself.

I just finished putting my wet clothes back on when I noticed a ripple in the pond. Curiosity made me stay put. Something flowy and dark started emerging from the waters. I held my breath, my heart pounding hard against my chest. Relief washed over me when I realized it was a girl or maybe a woman when she finally emerged from the water. She had her back on me and I could only see her bare shoulders and a bit of her .

I blinked several times when heat flooded my cheeks. Okay, why do I always end up running into women? I immediately closed my eyed and covered them with one hand while I raised my other arm. "Uhm, hey!" I called out, my closed eyes still covered. I started waving my other hand. Okay, this might have been a stupid idea. What if she's an enemy and attacks me? "I just want to let you know that I'm here, just in case you didn't know and start going out of the water ."

Great, I'm ing rumbling. And I sounded like a creep.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be a creep or something and I wasn't really peeping. I was just washing off some dirt a while ago and swam a few laps and I seriously didn't know you were there as well. I swear I didn't see anything! I mean, well, I saw youe hair and your but that's it! I haven't seen anything else, I swear!"

"Do you really talk this much?" a soft voice asked right in front of me.

I stumbled back from surprise, my hands dropping to my sides and my eyes opening by instinct. I was greeted by the lightest and brightest brown eyes, palest and smoothest skin, and a very very pretty face. I was too captivated that I could only stare at her face.

"Cat got your tongue?" she asked in a chuckle.

"What's your name?" I asked in a daze and I sounded pretty breathless.

She tilted her head to the side and smiled. And of course she has cute rows of pearly white teeth. I'm seriously done for. "Sandara," she said.

"I-I'm J-Ji-Jiyong," I stammered.

Her smile grew wider. "I know."

My eyes, as if having a brain on its own, decided to wander down. I immediately covered my eyes when I realized she was . "You're !" I exclaimed, my tone sounded accusatory. Well, how could she casually approach a guy like that? I'm just a normal guy who gets seeing and all that. She should not get offended if she starts noticing my hard-on.

I heard her chuckle again. "You act as if it's your first time seeing a woman."

"Are you a shifter, too?"

"Yes," she answered.

"Oh, how come I haven't seen you with the other women a while ago?"

No answer.

"Ahm, and how did you know my name?"

Still no answer.

"Are you putting your clothes on?"

Silence.

"Sandara?"

When I was greeted with nothing but silence again, I slowly pulled my hand away from my eyes and opened them.

She was gone.

I stared blankly ahead of me for a few minutes before deciding to swim a few laps again. I need to cool down because I was damn aroused. I immediately started taking my clothes off and jumped into the pond. I grabbed my the moment I was waist deep into the water again and started pumping it up down. My eyes closed involuntarily as I let the memory of Sandara's body invade my mind. It didn't take me long to find release. I suddenly had no energy to swim so I just stood there and let the water cool me down.

I turned around when I heard Muddy's familiar barks. She had a dead hare in front of her. "Nice catch!" I complimented her. She barked once in response and wagged her tail. "Do you want to take a dip with me and take all that mud off from your body?"

She lowered her head to pick up the hare with her teeth before turning away to leave.

"I guess not," I chuckled. "Wait up!" I called as I started heading towards the dry land.

🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎

Aaaaaaaaand they finally met! And he saw her ! Mwahahahahahahaha