9am – Morning

I didn't know it, but being mated to Onyx meant I was stuck in here with him.

My chemistry and soul changed. Nothing I could feel immediately, but the door burned me when I tried to touch it, so I knew something happened to me on the inside.

And while that morning Onyx paces back and forth with a smirk he can't wipe from his face, I'm left naked and scratched up and bruised with love marks from his claws and teeth.

And through the mirror, once the lights came back on... the shame begins.

I could feel the gazes of my whole Lycan Control team – staring in at me.

I had never felt so ashamed in all my life.

I was a Lycan's bitch in front of everyone, on display. But what else could I do? I could not fucking hide while stuck in confinement.

It didn't help that they kept pressing the intercom to talk to me in the cell, but would let go of it, too unsure of what to say.

Eventually.

The boss does it.

After who knows how long of them staring, the buzz turns on and I hear his voice.

"You're fired."

I blush beet red at the disappointment, shock and disgust in those two words.

Onyx, now I think of him as my Lycan, hears the disrespect as well, and immediately launches at the mirror to shred his claws down the reinforced glass, making that awful noise.

He's vicious and drooling with hunger.

Every time I want to sit down and just bury my face into my knees, Onyx just strides back over and lifts me back up onto my feet, refusing to have me cower.

Even with his back to me now, I try turning away.

But Onyx sees again.

A growl permeates from his throat. It's one I've come to recognise over the past few hours.

It's not lethal. It's protective.

"Don't turn from them," Onyx snarls his command, "Do not cower."

"I'm not," I squeak out, even while facing the wall.

"You should be ashamed," I hear Tim's voice come through the speakers, "This is fucking disgusting. I thought I knew you, Silvia. We've called the docs. First chance we get, you're going to an asylum in which you belong for the rest of your life, for your own safety. What the hell is wrong with you –"

"Come take her from me," Onyx dares them, "Come in here. I'm hungry."

"We will take her from you," my boss now speaks, "Don't doubt it, beast. You will never see your new mate again. You're ours. We caught you."

We – it wasn't we.

It was me!

And there was a protocol.

I learned it.

I studied it.

I suddenly turn back to them, eyes wide.

"You didn't catch him, I did! And by your own law – Onyx is mine," I state, "No judge will side with you. And you can't trap me in here with him. You can't imprison me to be used against a Lycan, it's against the law to use humans like that. That's why the C069 project failed. I was a part of it. I won't be used that way again. You must. Open the door. To let me out. It's the law."

"We will be, Silvia," my boss talks down to me, like I'm the stupid one, "We will be opening the door to allow you to cross, right into the hands of a mental health team."

"I'm not crazy! I was just horny!" I blurt it out, in exasperation.

Onyx is watching me this whole time, interested in every word I say.

I had forgot he was there for a moment while I talked of the legal jargon I learned.

I hear my boss sigh through the speakers.

A silence ensues, and now I pace back and forward near the door.

I await for them to free me.

Only one of us needs to be out to free the other.

Onyx quietly observes me as I wait by the door.

"Why do they call you crazy?" Onyx asks, curious.

"Because I'm attracted to you," I murmur back.

"Lycans are human born," Onyx counters, "You didn't know that?"

I look at him wide eyed. No I did not know that! I read and studied at least a hundred books on Lycans and that was never published!

"You're human?" I whisper.

"Born. Human," Onyx corrects, "I prefer this form –"

"Get her out of there. Quickly."

I hear a familiar voice hissing impatiently through the door.

All at once.

The door is slammed opened, arms reach in and Onyx pounces over to stop them grabbing me.

But they've got me by the ankles, aiming low.

I fall forward and they drag me out.

I'm sprayed with blood, wondering if it's mine.

But when I look up before the door closes, Onyx has an arm between his fangs.

He is full of rage.

"Let me go!" I scream and try to kick, but there is a whole team holding me down, "Please!" Doctor Vos appears at that, smiling over his thugs keeping me down as they pull a straight jacket over my body, "I'm not crazy!" I yell at him direct.

"Oh, Silvia," the Doc shakes his head, "You say that every time."

I start to scream my frustration, but they inject me with a substance to get me off balance.

They fucking tranquilized me!

I lose all my senses, and then soon my consciousness.

I know exactly where they're going to take me. Fucking hell, not this again!

****

This time I don't wake up in a doctor's office. Or a lobby. Or a pretty ward.

This time I'm in a blanked out space, with one door, and no information.

I'm left like that for hours, all tied up in the jacket, perhaps the whole day and night, no food or water, until I'm made weak.

Once I'm dizzy and delirious, that is when I'm hauled out for interrogation.

Two burly security guards enter out of nowhere and strip the straight jacket off me, my limp arms flop out and they escort me to Doctor' Vos new office.

Head Psychiatrist. So he's moved up the ranks. I'm not surprised. He was a snake.

I'm sat down on a chair, and on the desk is a glass of fresh water with ice.

My throat. Is so. Parched.

I reach for it and Doctor Vos picks it up and puts it out of reach. I knew he would do it, but I couldn't help but try.

The security stays close by.

Not that Vos needed the help, since he was a vampire, but he likes to show off his new power.

I don't say anything, this time I wait for him to explain.

He lets me wait a torturous few more minutes as he pretends to do some work on his computer and sifts through some pieces of paper.

"Tut," he clicks his tongue to the roof of his mouth, "Onyx escaped an hour ago."

"Yes," I hiss it, "You're dead."

"So confident?" Doctor Vos licks his lips and his fangs as he looks me over, "Mated pairs always act so brash. No need to worry. We're safe in here," I smile anyway, "You think he'll come for you?" Doctor Vos raises a brow, "Lycans mate and run. They don't care about anything but sex. They won't raise your baby. We will be terminating the one you –" he trails off, "If... but we'll see as time goes on if you're..." he sees the look in my eyes, "Anyway. Tell me how you're feeling."

Fuck him.

I didn't want to think about what he just implied.

"Thirsty," I whisper.

"Only vampires get thirsty," Doctor Vos makes some kind of inside joke with himself. Laughing at his overgrown nails, "Mortals have no idea," he looks at me, pitying me, it seems, "You're a lost cause, and therefore we're all out of options. You'll be an inpatient for life. Which is a drain on these facilities. So..." Vos kicks his legs up now, as if conducting a business deal, or selling a car, "Do you want to die?"

I blink.

I blink again.

"What."

"Do you want to die?" Vos waves his hand about, showing off a sharp fang, "You'll be released from the Asylum Act if you're not mortal or werewolf," Vos smirks, "And I'm always looking for more recruits. That is why I'm in the business. Making vampires from the lost causes. You pretty much have no choice at this point. It's my generosity or life behind these walls."

"I'm not interested in becoming your next vampire project," I reply, dryly, "Unless you plan to drink my blood against my will and kill me, in which I can't fight, because you've starved me. So, what will it be? You risking your job again? Or you waiting for me to agree?"

"I can wait an eternity," Doctor Vos speaks like a snake, full of patience, "I'll feed you every third day. We'll talk in two weeks."

"I belong to Onyx, not to you. I know if you turn me, I serve your will," I tell him straight, I'll never agree. "Why do you hate Lycans so much anyway?"

Vos tries not to sneer.

"No reason," Oh there definitely was a reason. And suddenly he can't help himself, "They are the only supernatural creature that can revert to mortal form at will," Doctor Vos raises a brow, "They choose neither here nor down there. But they get the choice. And still they choose... a path no one understands. I don't like things, that I don't understand," he lies at the end, about to say something else and then just saying something generic. But I do believe him about the choice. And I believe he doesn't like that Lycans have such a choice. When vampires don't. They're just dead. Forever. So, he's simply jealous?

"If a Lycan really is born mortal, then I'm not insane for falling in love with one," I try to reason.

"Mates of Lycans... tend to have special abilities," Vos states, "You're a witch, Silvia."

"I'm a mortal. I've met witches. I am not a witch."

"Well, sort of yes and sort of no. When you mate, which you already have, you'll slowly start to go insane, like... most witches," Vos blinks and smiles.

"Onyx told me Carmen would go insane from the mark," I've said too much already, too tired to think different, but now it's too late, so I just finish it, "I mean... the mark of a mate... it can only be put on the mate."

"Onyx lied to you, sweetheart," Vos doesn't sound like he's lying now, although he's always enjoying the power trip, "You will inevitably lose it. But if you agree to being turned – I'll preserve your sanity a bit longer, and you'll be eternal like me."

I lose my smile thinking of the women crawling around after Lycans in the Nightclub.

They didn't seem to be acting.

They seemed to be... entranced.

Had they all gone insane?

"...but... what special abilities are you talking about?" I ask, curious.

"Usually it's being turned into guides in and out of... other realms," Vos doesn't want to tell me much, "Nothing powerful. But now you're linked to evil. So... congratulations, you're linked to magic like the rest of us. Just... indirectly... a mother of a pup as they call them, gives you access to... places... like hell."

"Why would I go to hell?"

"To die," Vos shrugs.

"You really want me to die, don't you," I state, point blank.

"Yes, I really do," Vos regards me with the same truth.

"Then starve me, because I rather go starving, then give into you," I grit my teeth now.

I would not succumb.

Never again.

I would not bend.

At least.

Not to him.