The healer academy is this isolated building yet still part of the mansion–or should I say 'Palace.' It's separated from the main building by a small forest and is located south of the mansion. Although there is a road where a car can snake through the forest to the academy.

I thought Lyall would at least see me off before I go. It's probably just my wishful thinking. Why would the lycan king take time out of his busy schedule to make sure I get into the car safely?

Who am I to him?

'You're his mate!' Sasha has been wailing inside me. She's being overdramatic that I have to roll my eyes for her. Even though I feel a little disappointed.

This is the first time I have ever been in a car. There were several cars and motorcycles in my old pack that the warriors used. But they were rarely used because... why would we use cars when we could have just transformed and run so fast with our own paws? The only place where the werewolf warriors use the vehicles is to go to the human realm.

Even then, females are not allowed to drive one. Mason told us that it was for our own safety. Driving these vehicles is dangerous. Deep down, everyone knows they were afraid we, women, will run away if we learn to drive.

Grey opens the door to the academy for me. He nods at me encouragingly, and I appreciate it a lot. I need that.

"Are you the new girl?" someone walks toward us in the empty hall. She has a pair of round glasses in front of her face, a stethoscope around her neck, and she's wearing a pair of sneakers.

"Yes–"

She throws at me a set of light brown scrubs, which I catch just a sliver of a second before it will hit my face. "Change to this," she says without missing a beat. Then she eyes me from head to toe and smirks. "Only pre-clinical students can wear whatever they want. Ganesh has put you straight to our clinical class since you're older and everything."

I freeze on the spot. Wait, Nari told me about the academy being a fashion battleground for influence... yet I am asked to change into this plain scrub. Did Nari mix it up?

Or was she trying to sabotage my first day in the first place?

Wait... surely, Nari wouldn't do that... I look at Grey, wondering if he has known about this. His face remains impassive.

The girl looks at the watch in her hand as if I'm already wasting her time. When she looks at me again, she clicks her tongue in annoyance, then she kicks open a door to her left. "Don't look at me with that blank face. Go change here. Fast! Everyone else is already in the village."

Before she'll gets more annoyed, I go into that room, which turns out to be a bathroom. Changing my clothes is easy. Thank the Goddess Nari didn't put me in a tight-fit dress. Although I can't stop wondering what went wrong this morning. I trusted Nari like an instinct.

When I get out of the room, Grey offers to carry my previous clothes. Our hands touch a little, but he wouldn't look me in the eye.

"Um... what's your name?" I ask the girl.

"Call me Lola," she says, "I'm your team leader and you are late." There is no warmth or honey in her tone.

"Come." She turns to walk from the way she was coming. I follow her and Grey is following behind me. "The clinical students will have rotations in four major villages in this kingdom. We're expected to already know the basics of healing and we can observe the real healers take care of patients."

Why did no one brief me about this?

"You can ask the senior healers to let you do one or two patients on your own," Lola says, "Though our task mainly is to do history taking and categorize the patients into groups according to their level of emergency."

History taking... I can do that. I have experience as a healer in my old pack to at least interview patients.

Still, my mind drifts to the thought that this is the first I have heard of how it's going to work. Then again, I went straight to bed yesterday, so it was my fault for not asking Ganesh first.

"Where's Ganesh?" I ask.

"He's already in the village," she says, "Also, just friendly advice. Don't think you can have it easy in the academy just because you're the king's or Ganesh's new favorite now. Every one of us has to work our butt off from the bottom."

"I have worked before as a healer." I just want Lola to take it down a notch, give me room to breathe, and stop with the cynicism.

"And we have people already licensed to be healers for decades. When they come to the academy as first-year clinical students, they are first-year students," Lola continues, "You don't talk to Ganesh unless you're at least a third-year clinical student."

She stops slightly and turns to look at me from head to toe. "Also, all those makeups will get in your way. Just saying, other students might find you annoying because it turns out you're late for putting up makeup."

"I didn–"

"It will look that way regardless," Lola cuts me off, "None of us even try to look pretty for our patients."

We reach a big door on the other end of the building. There's a table on the side of the door full of boxes containing masks, gowns, gloves, head caps, and many more.

"Here," Lola throws at me a mask, a pair of sterile gloves, and a gown. Then she throws the same things at Grey after instructing Grey to put my original clothes in a zip-locked plastic bag and tells him to leave them on this table. After that, she wears the gown, mask, and lastly, gloves.

I follow her.

"It's going to be hot, clammy, and uncomfortable there," she explains, "Thick makeup will only make you uncomfortable."

I don't really feel the gravity of her words until I follow her outside of the door. Right in front of the door, two huge tents have been set under the sun for the healers and students to work.

People flock to the tents. Some are laying on mattresses, some are sitting on the chairs lined up before the tents. Everyone is wearing these paper bracelets on their wrists in different colors; I see black, red, and yellow.

A couple of feet from the tents, I can see buildings being shattered to pieces, some are also being buried by mud and landslide.

At first, I am amazed by the fact that this much damage is happening behind the academy and I didn't know when I first entered the building. But Lola laughs at me, then she explains the real purpose of the door we just went through.

It turns out to be a magical door leading everywhere. Only the person with the special keys can change the destination of the door. In the academy, Lola tells me, that she is one of the seven people given access to change the locations of the door.

"Welcome to Fidre Village," Lola says, "the village was attacked by rogue werewolves a few days before and now a landslide has destroyed the village even more."

My heart sinks and it's beating faster at the same time. I look at the people coming and going out of the tents. If they are not full of wounds, they look defeated, as if they've lost everything they have in this life. And it's all because of a rogue attack.

The last time I check, I still smell like a werewolf... will I be fine now?

Just when I ask myself that question, a few healers, or perhaps students, have spotted me and they start to burst into laughter. One healer taps another healer to see me, and that other healer relays the message to another healer. All of them start laughing at me.

Lola is also laughing, but she masks it into a cough.

"Why are you all laughing at me?" I whisper to Lola.

My question only brings Lola to can't stand to hold her laughter even more. "Just look at you. Big earrings, heavy eyeshadows, tall boots. You look like you're going to a fashion show instead of treating people."

"Is this how you treat people in your small pack?" Lola's question comes with a burning mockery. "You have to look pretty for them first?"

"Just because I wear makeup, it doesn't mean–"

"It's the intention that counts, missy," Lola doesn't let me finish my sentence. "We're doing emergency medicine to a village that your kind had destroyed before. What would people think if you show up late with thick makeup and runaway clothes? Most of the time, we use masks, so who are you trying to look pretty for?"

Lola's eyes are devoid of any makeup. Her shoes are just a pair of comfortable crocs–that sandal or shoe sandal company that is so famous in the human realm, also it costs a fortune to bring it to our realm. So, even without makeup or trying to look pretty, I can already tell that Lola comes from an influential family who can afford the shipping costs of a pair of crocs and a phone.

She takes out a square device where she types something on the screen. I have only seen the same device on Mason a few times. It's a phone. Something that Mason usually used to contact other packs and even their connections in the human realm.

A chiming sound is heard from Lola's small electronic box. Then, the next second, the students in the tents start laughing again. Only two students have the same electronic boxes there, and they make sure to show whatever is written there to everyone else.

They are all laughing at me.

"But I didn't know anything about what I'm going to do today–"

"It doesn't matter." Lola again cuts me off. This time, she does it with a sharp gaze directed at me. At least Lola is not laughing at me. She looks rather... annoyed.

I get the message loud and clear now. It doesn't matter what I do, they'll find a fault in me because I am a werewolf. I am the sore prick in their eyes now and they will try to pluck me out.

"Mars!" I whip my head to see Ganesh waving at me with a warm smile. He doesn't seem to care about my makeup and big earrings, too. It's obvious now that even if I hadn't come fashionable-looking, the students will find something else to laugh at me about. Because the moment Ganesh walks toward me with big open arms, those students' faces turn into ugly sour faces.

"I trust that Lola has reached out to you yesterday about what we're going to do today, right? I sent her the moment Lyall told me you're going to my academy. I'm so excited for you to be here!"

Oh, it's going to be a long day, isn't it?

–to be continued–