After the movie ended, Jackson led Areum to his room and stood by the door as she walked in. Areum could feel the tension when he refused to talk or meet her eye.

He swung the door open and walked in. He grabbed some clothes from himself and scanned the room before pointing at the bed.

"You can sleep here. Just…don't touch anything."

Areum rolled her eyes and sat on the edge of the bed and hugged the pillow to her chest. "Are you worried that I'm going to find your stash?"

Jackson sneered at her. "I should've made you sleep outside."

Areum shrugged like it didn't bother her, "I would've just bunked with one of the others."

Jackson glared at her before rolling his eyes, "Whatever. Just go to sleep."

He flicked the lights off, not caring if she still needed them on and opened the door to leave when he heard her quiet voice echo in the room.

"Thank you."

Jackson just grunted and closed the door behind him, but his inner wolf was jumped around, completely ecstatic that his mate appreciated him. He could feel his wolf's ego inflate as it purred in delight.

'I like her.'

'She's not that great. Not when she thinks she can tame you. How dare she.'

Jackson groaned and forced himself to walk down the stairs and away from her. He desperately needed her to come back and calm down, but he'd never admit it.

Being around her seemed to shut up the thoughts in his head, but the problem was that he didn't like being around her.

He grabbed a blanket and pillow from the storage space under the stairs and tossed it on the couch before sitting on the floor and staring at the fire place that Jinyoung lit for him.

He propped his arm up on his knee and stared at the crackling flames as he thought of the girl sleeping a floor above him.

He needed to court her…fast. This was getting too much and he knew that if it followed Mason's prophecy than he could die without her. He could feel the voices in his head get more aggressive and angry which only meant that if he didn't do anything about it, he'd be on burrowed time.

He thought of his parents.

A lot of people told him the story of how his father found his mother wounded, a lone wolf, in the forest and the two of them clicked.

His father stayed by her side as she healed and was running around, trying to help her get better faster. They told him stories of how he'd bring her flowers when she was resting and shift into a wolf and jump around to make her laugh.

Jackson knew his parents were in love but he couldn't imagine that feeling with someone else. That sort of love seemed so real and so intense, he couldn't imagine it with his own mate.

The one that was rude and took sides with everyone but him.

He didn't know how he was expected to court her.

He barely saw her other than the times when he'd follow her to work or walk with her to school. He knew nothing about her personal life or who she was, other than a pain in the .

God, it was the worst.

And it was too much work.

She wasn't even worth it.

He tilted his head back and closed his eyes.

How was he supposed to spend more time with her?

-----

Areum was laying on Jackson's bed, dressed in his clothes, under his sheets, with one of his pillows under her head and the other in her hands.

She knew it sounded weird.

But the boy smelled good.

It was a mix of pine and oak and it was so strong, earthy and minty that it was calming. His room was simple and warm. His blankets were thick and cuddly and she felt more comfortable than she had felt in a while and the fact that she was covered in his scent didn't bother her or overwhelm her as much as it should've.

It was actually kind of soothing.

She shifted further under the covers and just stared at the ceiling. She tried counting sheep and saying th alphabet backwards, but none of it was working.

She was tired beyond belief, she knew her body was still a little worn out from being in the cold for so long but she couldn't close her eyes and let sleep take over her.

Maybe it was because she wasn't used to sleeping somewhere else, but either way she was wide awake.

She flopped around on his bed a few times before sitting up. She just couldn't sleep. She ran a hand through her hair and grabbed one of the pillows before slipping out of the bed and padded for the door. She bit her lip and let her hand linger  on the knob before turning it.

She slowly looked both ways down the hall and saw all the doors shut with the lights out under them. She slowly crept down the stairs and stopped halfway when she saw Jackson's back turned to her as he stared at the flickering fire.

Oh my God, this was a bad idea. Abort! Abort! Retreat!

She took one step backwards when his gruff voice spoke up and cut through the silent night. "Why are you up?"

Jackson picked up the spike in concentration of her scent when she stepped out of his room. It just reeked of his exhausted mate. But what he couldn’t understand was that even though she was obviously tired, she still came down the stairs.

His whole body flinched but instead of letting her go by unnoticed, his brain reacted on its own and called out to her.

Areum shifted on her feet, when he kept his back to her. She quickly moved down the rest of the stairs and stood near the sofa, unsure what to do with herself.

"I couldn't sleep."

Jackson frowned at the fire. He could smell fatigue all over her. Why couldn't she sleep?

"Are you feeling sick?" He asked evenly, remembering how she had passed out when he found her in the cold.

This time he turned and faced her. Areum bit her lip and stared at his face and how the fire made it glow and that his eyes were so sharp that they felt like they were drilling into her.

For an , he was ridiculously good looking.

Jackson's skin started to feel prickly when he felt her tiredness mix with…attraction. His eyebrow twitched, he smelt it off of her before, too but it was always during the weirdest moments.

"No." She mumbled, hugging the pillow to her chest like a child.

Jackson's eyes flashed to the pillow and his inner wolf barked obnoxiously.

'She should be holding you like that.'

'You don't want her filthy human fingers touching you.'

Jackson nodded and looked away, hoping that she would go back up the stairs, but his body froze when he  heard her footsteps get closer and her scent get stronger until he felt her shoulder bump his.

He turned his head and saw her sitting beside him, staring into the fire, like him. Her knees her bent and she placed her pillow over them and rested her head on top of it.

Jackson watched the orange glow from the fire make her dyed hair look like it was made of sparkling flames and they reflected into her eyes, making them look like gems.

Areum looked over at him and felt too tired to look away.

Jackson felt his mouth dry out when he scanned her face. God, he hated how beautiful she looked. He wondered if she was naturally like that because he couldn't believe that a non-supernatural creature could look that…perfect.

He hated her face even more at how flawless she looked.

"What university do you go to?" Areum mumbled while staring at him.

Jackson's knit his brows and gave her a look, "What?"

"You're always around me and my school and it's like you have nowhere else to be. Don't you have school?"

"Why do you care?" He snapped.

Areum shrugged sluggishly, "I feel like I should know more about you since you seem to be determined on being around me."

Jackson stiffly looked back at the fire, prickly because he wasn't used to thinking up cover stories. Hell, he barely knew enough about humans to make the story sound legit.

"I just moved here from China, I'm not enrolled anywhere though." He said vaguely.

Areum scooted closer to him and the couch and curled into a ball on the ground. She peered up at him and it made his insides flip when she blinked up at him with large, tired eyes.

"Don't go to Daegu University." She mumbled, while hugging the pillow.

Jackson frowned when she rested