A gigantic head.

Elegant black fur all over.

Huge paws...

Sakura shook her head to get rid of the unconscious thoughts that were invading her mind so she could focus on Mr Hatake's lecture, but two seconds later, she lost it.

She had met a supernatural being. It wasn't a dream or a fantasy. It was real life. She could still feel her heart beating frantically. It hadn't stopped its aching throb since yesterday, even after she'd escaped from his room. She had jumped out of his window, risking her fright of heights and not caring if she bruised herself in the process. It was a matter of life and death for her. She felt as though she was in the predator-prey association but he hadn't come after her nor had he chased her with the intent to kill considering how that would've easily been in his favor. It was too easy and Sakura was suspicious but at least she had made it out of there alive.

When she'd asked Gaara if he had really talked with Sasuke, the redhead had confirmed it, telling her that he wanted to tell her something. Which brought up her next question: why did you let me get taken away by some stranger?

He told her he would talk to her sometime later, and she was left with the craziest assumptions that her siblings were also lycans. But she has never seen them transform or tried to kill her. They have looked over her all her life, so it wasn't possible. But Sasuke had also taken care of her while she was in his house, and he hadn't abused her.

She sighed and dropped her pen. Scratch that, she couldn't focus. My head's so messed up.

"Is there a matter, Ms Haruno?" She heard her professor's voice and turned to look at him. "Is the neuroanatomy of the substantia grisea in the medulla spinalis dispiriting?"

Feeling the attention of the whole class on her, especially his, she answered quickly. "No, Mr Hatake. I apologize for interrupting your lecture."

She looked down and picked up her pen as Mr Hatake continued, trying to ignore the heat from the obvious stare of the ravenette, who was few seats behind her. Since he was a coursemate, the first thing she did was to secure a seat far away from him. Taking chances with someone who could possibly snap your neck with his claws was not something she messed with.

When the time came for the lecture to end, Sakura was first to reach the door, surpassing even the professor.

Kakashi, shocked at how overwhelming her speed had become like that of a cheetah, looked back at Sasuke, letting other students walk past him. The Sakura Haruno he knew would never bother herself in reaching the door first after lectures.

What have you done? He could smell fear radiating from her.

Sasuke closed his eyes and sighed as he walked to the other door at the back of the class, exiting the classroom.

"Foreheaddddd."

Sakura rolled her eyes when she heard Ino sing the questionable nickname, looking away from the screen of her laptop and searching the surrounding. She was in a secluded area behind the campus, sitting under an evergreen tree and talking with her two friends via zoom.

"We didn't see you after the funeral." Ino continued as Hinata giggled. "Where were you?"

Sakura turned her attention to the screen. "Didn't Gaara tell you anything?"

"Hmm." Hinata hummed. "J...just that you had s..something to take care of."

Gee, thanks Gaara.

"Was it a guy?" Ino gave her that look. "I know you wouldn't get hooked up at a funeral."

"Ino..."

"And if you went to get wasted, you wouldn't have left us behind."

Sakura bit her bottom lip as she stared at her laptop. Should she tell them? They were her best confidants. But it might sound like she's crazy and just seeing things. They won't believe it. Ino, for one, will make sure I visit some voodoo place to get rid of whatever's making me sound and look insane. This isn't something to discuss on the phone anyways.

"I needed to be alone so I just went to theriverbank to soak in my tears."

"Sa...Sakura."

Ino's gaze softened. "Oh you broad headed begonia."

Sakura shut her eyes. What's that even supposed to mean? Begonias are flowers. How are they supposed to... She sighed. "Sometimes you make figures of speech suck."

Ino laughed it off, waving a dismissive hand. "When we come back we're going to drown in alcohol."

Of course! "Where did you say you were off to again?"

"The united states. We have explicit fashion to parade on the walkway, and we need to practice."

"M..my team and I are going for the usual international business. I'm not sure when we'll be back."

"You sure you'll be good?"

There was a heartbeat, before Sakura replied. "Yeah."

I will just face it. It's my reality now. She had her bag slung over her shoulder as she walked to the dorm. A dry laugh escaped her mouth and she shook her head. I'm a lycan's mate. It still sounded so surreal.

Suddenly, the hair on her back rose and she frowned, stopping in her tracks and turning around. There was a tingling feeling in the air and it wasn't a good one. She slowly observed the girls that were chattering in the hall, as if searching for the looming danger but she found none. That disturbing tingle was still shooting through her bone marrows.

Her body acted on its own, turning to glare at the door infront of her. The unshakable tension was coming from inside her room.

A sound suddenly pierced through her ears, like sirens wailing, attacking the semisecular carnals. She closed her eyes and shook her head. It got worse. She felt her brain was going to explode. That's when she felt something long snake around her waist and her body being smashed into a hard but protective wall.

Before she knew it, she was outside the dorm and a loud explosion replaced the piercing disturbance in her ears.

She coughed and looked up at who had her at the mercy of strong, manly arms. Her eyes caught sight of a long, veiny nape and trailed upwards to see chiseled jaw set in concentration and dark eyes intensifying which each stare they gave the dorm before them.

He smelt demons. They were just here, and there was one with a stronger obnoxious scent. His eyes roved to the side.

Lilith.

What was she doing here? He had sensed them from a mile away while he was following his mate but they had only committed this silliness after she had entered the dorm.

"Sasuke..."

The soft voice of his mate met his ears and he looked down at her. Pools of glistening emeralds stared back at him, pulling him into their hypnotic spell, with lips full and pouty and so inviting, he could...

He closed his eyes. Stupid mate bond.

We need to mark her.

That's not the important thing.

He had other things to think about, like why were demons after her life? Why would Lilith come after her?

As if electrocuted, Sakura shot up, prying away from Sasuke's hold and staring at the burning dorm before her. People began to gather and scream, some working in vain to quench the fire with the buckets of water they could fetch and some calling the ambulance and firefighters.

Sakura watched the scene unfold before her, her eyes visualizing everything. Her parents house and burnt skeletal parts glitched in her mind. There are people inside.

Sakura took few steps forward but was held back when a hand dropped to her wrist. "What do you think you're doing?"

"There are people inside." She tried to fling his hand away but he held it tight. Alarmed, she looked at him.

"And you think you can save them? The fire's already spreading to the corridor..."

"THERE ARE PEOPLE INSIDE!" She said with urgency.

"Do their lives matter? Humans will be reborn and this is just a part of their other four."

Furious, she flung his hand off, ignoring how hard it was that it left a red mark around her wrist. "Their lives don't matter? You think a hunan's life is just something you can discard recklessly?" She seethed, sending him a bloody glare before running towards the from door. The fire spread out through the windows, sending out a sizzling sound. Her line of sight became obstructed and her hand was grabbed again.

"Look, I don't care if you're a freaking Alpha, I will..."

"We've evacuated them." His dark eyes bore into hers as his hand drew up and tightened over her elbow. While she was being stubborn, he had mindlinked his Beta and his Gamma to make use of their speed and save the other people in the dorm.

We've? Of course there are more. She closed her eyes and sighed heavily. "So there's no one in there."

As the firemen and paramedics drew up, Sasuke turned to her. "You say human life shouldn't be treated recklessly, yet you chose to treat yours that way."

She stared as the firemen tried to put out the fire. "I would've been able to do something." Since I couldn't for my own parents.

Sasuke watched her, noticing how the fire reflected a dull light on her features, even exposing itself in her deep green eyes. Gaara's words came back to him. His mate had a trauma problem. He wanted to know what had happened in her past, why she was like this or why she was foolish enough to sacrifice her life when she possibly couldn't do anything. He could dig up her background but he wanted her to tell him by herself. "Demons are after you."

"Demons are after all humans. They don't like us, I've been told." Sakura breathed a sigh of relief when the fire was finally put out. When she didn't hear anything else, she turned her head to look at him and found him staring at her intensely. That's when realization dawned on her. "They caused the fire to take my life? People would've died because of me?"

"Not because of you, because of them." He told her. One thing he knew about Lilith was that she was an expert in getting what she wanted, meaning she was messing around with this one. He clenched his fist but kept a straight face. Those ugly, distasteful nuisances. "You are staying with me from now on."

Her eyes widened in disbelief. "Wait... what?"

He glanced at her knee and found a pink plaster glued to it, just staying there like it was its right and facing him like it was daring him. He frowned.

She didn't escape safely?

I... Naruto's voice sounded uncertain as it came through the link. I can explain.

He didn't need it so he cut off the link. Shaking his head, he picked up her school bag, which had fallen to the ground earlier, and flung it over his shoulder. "Let's go."

"Chotto matte!" She walked after him as he started to leave. "You can't just force me to come live with you?" She could get a room in another dorm within hours or make use of her savings and get an apartment outside the campus.

When she saw the glare he gave her, she swallowed but didn't back down. "I can't live with a stranger, mate or not, and there's nothing you can do to make me."

Few minutes later, she was seated on one of the couches in the living room of Sasuke's mansion with crossed arms, glaring at the three men who stood before her.

"Eh?" Lilith eyebrows shot up after watching the interaction between the Alpha and the sacrifice from her realm. The realm was an endless vortex of suffocating darkness, which was invisible to the human world but humans are watched and observed from it."The Alpha's mate is the sacrifice?" Her hand tightened over the black staff she was holding. Interesting.

"Were you trying to take her life again?" A voice echoed in the darkness.

Lilith didn't need to turn to know who had spoken. Besides her and the other demons, only one had the ability to penetrate into the protective force surrounding her realm. He was the same person who had watched over the sacrifice since she was a foetus in her mother's uterus.

She chuckled. "Of course not, I've not even started." Even if she tried to, he will always be there to stop it. He wasn't the Sacrifice guardian for nothing. "What are you doing here anyways? Her mate had to save her from the fire."

"She has a mate?" He sounded astonished, even in the darkness.

"Oh", the demon queen turned around with a toothy smile. "You didn't know?"

It was pitch black but she could still see how confused he looked. A normal human being wouldn't even be able to discern the details of the darkness.

Shikai didn't tell me anything. "Now I do." He turned around and disappeared without saying another word.

Lilith frowned and scoffed. "Why are beings mannerless nowadays?" Then a sly smirk appeared on her face. "Now, what do I do next? Ah! What about her friends? Oh it's so petty, I love it."

She walked further into the darkness, humming and bopping her head to a toneless melody as the realm dissipated, like endless evaporation of puddles of water on the ground.

...

Chotto matte- wait a second.