Alex swallowed hard. She should have jumped into the Charles River when the thugs first surrounded her. Fighting them was the worst idea possible. With each touch, she had drawn the pain she caused them. Bruised cheeks, bloodied lips..her bones were still sizzling as Gabriel carried her out of his car.

Panic crept up her throat, goading her to push away from him, but it was useless. Even back at the river bank, she had not been able to stop him from touching her. And now, there was little point left since she had drawn all his pain. Thankfully, it was just his hands that had been throbbing from all the bone breaking he had done.

He saved her. Somewhere in her head she understood that fact, but her mind could not put the rest of what had happened in order.

Werewolf. He couldn't be a werewolf. They couldn't be real. It was laughable. She must have seen wrong. She must have been drugged. Was she drugged?

They passed through a revolving door and warmth hit her frozen skin. She took a shaky breath and almost chocked on the sent of bergamot that filled her lungs. It wasn't Gabriel's scent, it was all around her! Alex forced her eyes to open and looked around.

They were at the entrance of what looked to be a tall company building. The glass walls and marbles floors were squeaky clean and large gold disks on wires hung from the ceilings. Despite the lateness of the hour, the building was full of employees. Employees that smelled like bergamot. Werewolves.

"Mr Moncrief!" Two security guards rushed forward, but froze at Gabriel's look. Everyone stood back, watching them as Gabriel carried her past the information desk and the elevators beyond.

She closed her eyes. If she hadn't been in so much pain, Alex might have been embarrassed.

If her mind was working straight, she might have been afraid.

"Are you awake?" Gabriel's voice was gentle as they rode the elevator up. Alex tried to think past the pounding in her head. If she was mistaken, if she really had gone crazy for a moment back at the hotel, then all this man had done was save her from the bastards by the river.

She opened her eyes, licking her dry lips, "Yes."

He looked down at her, his blue eyes full of concern, "Does it hurt a lot?"

The elevator doors slid open and a voice stalled her answer. "Mr Moncrief, we thought you would be at the cocktail..." the red haired woman's words slowed to a stop as her eyes landed on Alex's blood stained clothes.

"Anna, I need Bertie in the Cleaning Room." Gabriel moved them past the startled woman.

"The Cleaning Room? I - Ok Sir, I will let the Professor know!" She rushed off down the opposite hall.

After a few moments they entered a small room lined with long white counters and tall cupboards. Gabriel put her down gently into what looked like a dentists chair in the center of the room. The movement sent shockwaves through her back and aching cheek bones. It's going to pass, she told herself pressing her lips together to hold back a groan.

"What's going on!" A man in a lab coat burst into the room, two black-cross earrings dangling madly on his earlobes. Bertie's brows rose as he looked from Gabriel to where Alex lay. "Who-"

"Stop standing there and check her for injuries," Gabriel interrupted. "She received a cut on her right arm, but there seems to be something else wrong."

Alex might have been annoyed with the way they were talking about her as if she didn't exist, but she was in too much pain to care.

Bertie took a few steps towards her then went slack jawed. "Wait wait wait, you can't read her?"

Alex didn't hear Gabriel respond, but his look must have been enough of an answer, because the professor was suddenly looking excited. "I see, I see, I see." He reached out then, his movements gentle as he touched her eyelids to check her eyes.

"Ahh," Alex moaned. The sudden throbbing in her shin burned through her already sensitive body. "P-please. Don't touch me."

Bertie raised his eyes to Gabriel's over her head. "My pain is gone!"

Gabriel grabbed the professor by the collar of his lab coat "What the hell are you saying?"

"Calm, Alpha. Calm!" Bertie lowered Gabriel's hands. "I bumped my leg in my rush to get here. It was throbbing, now its gone." Bertie spoke quickly, his voice rising with his excitement. He leaned over Alex, his red spiky hair smelled like minty wax. "You're a special one aren't you luv?"

Alex narrowed her eyes on the young scientist, her mind trying to keep up with what was being said. Alpha? What did he mean Alpha, was that some type of slang?

"Bertie, what the hell are you saying?" Gabriel sounded like he had run out of patience.

Bertie just kept looking down at Alex, his brain working overtime, before he blinked and his eyes cleared. "Do you draw pain?"