I’ve learned that to expose oneself - to reveal yourself is a test of humanness.

I nervously followed CL down a heavily walked hallway until we reached the end of it. The huge steel door was surprisingly wide. The smooth steel door was a huge contrast to the dark, dirty, unventilated hallway.

When she opened the door, the lights we came again to another small set of stairs. The lights were dim and I could still hear the pounding of the music from the club above. At the base of the steps was another long, dark hallway where boxes and steel shelves lined the walls. It looked like an extra storage place and I wondered why Jae hadn’t shown me this room before.

“Where is this heading, CL?” I asked nervously.

“You’ll see,” she said as she pointed to a wide double door on the other side of the room. “This is just one of the passage ways towards that door. From the club, this is the way through there.”

“What’s there?” I asked.

“Jae.”

“Oh,” I said as I nodded and a deep breath into my lungs.

I’d hoped her words would calm me, but I was out of luck. I didn’t think my heart would stop beating so wildly even if I was miraculously teleported to a Buddhist temple. I was a ruin on the inside and a complete stone wall on the outside.

CL looked at me.

“It’s going to be okay, Dara,” she assured me as she set her hand on the double door handle. “I promise you…it’s going to be okay. Just…try to, um, have...an open mind about what you’re going to see. I did this not to scare you off but to let you become aware…in a way to welcome you as well.”

“What do you mean by welcome exactly?”

“Well, since Jae found you…you’re one of us now.”

I breathed out heavily. “Please just open the door, CL. Let’s get this over with.”

CL nodded. She looked up at the ceiling for a moment and I thought she looked like she was praying.

But for what? For me to be able to understand what I’m about to witness? For forgiving Jae with his secrets? For not blaming her?

My thoughts were quickly forgotten as the wide door opened and my every sense was assaulted.

Sweat, alcohol and warm metal burned in my nostrils.

The air was warm on my tongue and skin, making me need for a cool quenching glass of water. I instantly wanted a paper towel to pat my face dry. It was so hot down there.

Loud voices attacked my eardrums and it didn’t take long for me to realize they were shouting…cheering.

“Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!”

I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the noise but it was useless. The crowd was wild in their shameless demand – but for what?

Why did they want to someone to be killed? It couldn’t possibly be Jae. There was no way all these people were asking him to do that.

“Let’s move,” CL yelled as another loud scream burst into the space, echoing off the roof to beat down on every single person in the room. CL’s hand wrapped around my wrist as she shoved her way deeper into the open area, pulling me with her. I wanted to run back the way we’d come, but something forced me to push forward despite my mind’s objections.

The mass of screaming men and women parted like the red sea and I was frozen in place as the source of their cheering came into view. My eyes burned with revulsion as I stared at the middle of the room.

What is that?

A cage fight…a man standing…waiting…

No…that’s not a man.

Oh My God.

My eyes burned to the man standing in the middle of the cage…but only it wasn’t a man at all…it was…

A monster.

My eyes to the other side of the cage and saw 3 Thrones in the farthest side of the wall. The middle one was occupied but I couldn’t see who it was. Then my eyes were set on Jae, who was walking towards the cage, dead set on his target. I stared at the man I loved more than I ever thought possible transform into a human monster.

I gasped.

In an instant, I saw Jae the monster, walked towards the lone man in the cage who was desperately pacing back and forth inside like he was trying to find a way out. Jae’s shoulders tightened and I knew he was moments away from doing something I’d rather not see.

My breath caught in my throat as he approached the man and in fast lightning strike hit the man as blood splattered across the floor. I cried out in horror as the other one stumbled to the side, but didn’t fall. Jae bared his predatory fangs and used it to bite of the other monster. It grunted, bellowed, howled and blood spewed from his mouth. His eyes were unfocused and his steps were unmeasured. He was a mess. His body crumpled into an unmoving heap on the floor.

The crowd around me screamed and it disgusted me.

Jae’s face was stern. His jaw was locked tight and he didn’t smile at his violent feat. But for some reason, he suddenly became stiff. He started searching at his surrounding, straight into the sea of people and it didn’t take long for his dark eyes to find mine in the crowd.

The moment he caught sight of me, his face changed literally. Suddenly fear pierced his confidence and he wiped his bloody mouth with his arm.

I moved back slowly but CL held my wrist.

“Don’t go,” she said.

I pulled my wrist free from her and shook my head, too scared to even rationalize what I had seen. I turned and ran for the door, but I suddenly stopped in my tracks at the sight of my best friend Bom staring back at me. The shock on her face let me know she was surprised to see me there and I felt a new kind of betrayal bloom in my chest.

She knew.

She’d let me live in the dark when she knew all along.

Anger swelled in my chest as I bolted for the door.

“Dara!” Jae called out for me and it echoed inside the vast room.

People started turning around, looking for the source of Jae’s panic voice. I didn’t wait around and ran harder and faster. I couldn’t do this. I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to listen. I was so afraid and so confused.

“Dara!” he yelled again. Men started blocking the door but Jae's voice vibrated around the room. "Nobody touches her!" Then men parted like red sea once again.

I cried out in pain. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was scared or I was hurting from what I just saw.

I heard footsteps following me and before I even reached the stairs, I felt Jae’s breath against my shoulder as his arms wrapped around my waits. I screamed and kicked. He held me against him as he pulled me toward another door on the other side of the large steel basement.

I cried and struggled against him and he pushed me into the room, shutting the door behind him. For a minute there was only blackness and then there was light.

Jae didn’t look like the monster I just saw a while ago. Jae looked like the man I loved. Jae looked like a ruined man.

“Stay back,” I screamed as I moved away from him.

“Dara…”

“Open the door, Jae,” I begged as I cried, trembling.

He shook his head. “You’ll run.”

“I should run,” I spat and he flinched.

“You promised you would never leave me,” he whispered and I felt as though my heart was being squeezed by a fist.

It hurt.

“You…you said there would be no more secrets…what…the hell was that…what are you?” I stuttered. I sounded scared and broken – but that was how I was feeling.

“Now there are no secrets left,” he said as he looked to the floor and when he lifted his eyes, they were in tortured agony. “This is me, Angel. This is my world. Exposed at your feet.”

My breath caught.

“It’s not real,” I cried.

“It is. It’s very real.”

“No…it’s not. Those are just from books and movies,” I sobbed.

He shook his head. “No, Angel. This is as real as it gets.”

“Wh-what am I supposed to do, Jae?” I whimpered.

“Love me please,” he spoke with desperation of a scared child and my heart wept even more. “Just love me like you promised you always would, Dara.”

“I…I’ve always loved you…always love you,” I sobbed as I trembled. I still tried to stay away from him,

“But?”

“But…” I said as I shook my head and forced the words from my mouth. “I…I’m…I’m afraid of you.”

His eyes widened and he took a step toward me. I moved back.

“ no, Angel,” he begged and I raised my hands to stop him from coming towards me. He paused mid-step. “Please…I’ll never hurt you. Ever.” He took another step and I flinched.

“Stop, Jae…please stop. Don’t come near me,” I begged. I felt my knees grow weak and I crumpled to the floor. “Just stop coming closer to me. Please I beg you.”

Jae winced. “Don’t tell me not to touch you, Dara. It’s all I know. You’re all I know. You’re all I need. So please ask me anything but that. I can’t do that.”

His words broke the dam of my emotions and I felt my shoulders shake with more tears.

“I’m so angry with you,” I said as my words were filled with pain. “I’m…so confused…so disappointed…and I’m so afraid.”

“Why, Angel?” he said as he lowered himself to his knees but maintained the distance I’d asked for. “It’s who I am…what I am.”

“No…that’s not you…that was a monster!”

He looked to the floor sadly. “It was why I was trying to keep you from finding out.”

“So you just hide the things you think I can’t handle?” I spat. “Haven’t you realized that it will always come out? Secrets always surface, Jae!”

“I know that,” he replied. He inched closer to me and when I didn’t object, he moved closer and closer until he was only a short few inches away from me. “Please don’t be scared of me. I can’t take it if you look at me differently. I hid it because I didn’t want to risk losing you, Dara. I knew you weren’t ready for me.”

“Is that why you keep telling me those words?”

He nodded.

Daniel’s words echoed in my mind and I closed my eyes, breathing in deep measured breaths. He’d told me to listen before I walked away. I had to honor his one request.

“Tell me, Jae…”

I opened my eyes and found a confused expression on his handsome face.

“Tell you what?”

“Tell me why Daniel made me promise to listen to you before I walked away. Explain to me what I just saw in there!”

He nodded, his jaw clenching and unclenching.

“I am a hybrid werewolf, Dara.”

“What is that?” I gasped. “How? This is insane…so surreal.”

Random flashback realization hits my head and it almost made me dizzy.

The Parking lot - bumping into Jae – how he affected me.

How his voice sent shivers on my spine when I first met him at the Club.

Th