Just as Alexander had promised, he arrived at around 8:00 the next morning, a pile of clothes in his arms and a weary smile on his face.

"Good morning," He said, offering the clothes forward.

In response, I held up my hands, still chained to the bed.

Realisation dawned on him as he fished out a key from his pocket, carefully sliding it into both cuffs, and clicking them open. I huffed as I ran my hands over the irritated skin. I gave no response or word of thanks as I took the clothes and walked into the adjoined bathroom. Once the door was firmly closed, I let out a sigh of relief.

I'll admit, I was hoping that me stabbing myself would be the trust factor, that I wouldn't be able to leave because of my injuries and they would be concerned about who had actually done it, perhaps a bigger threat to them than me. Hell, I'd wanted to give them the delusional thought that I was trustworthy, that I wasn't even that bad. Of course, maybe if I'd had a little more time, I could have come up with a more extravagant, believable story.

Finding my mate hadn't even occurred to me, and I certainly hadn't expected for it to be the Alpha.

And I wasn't pleased.

I couldn't develop a relationship with him, not even one of mutual agreement or even friendship. I would collect my information, destroy evidence and then be gone at the end of three months.

No matter what tricks this Alpha had up under his sleeves.

I hated him, he would kill me if I wasn't his mate, he destroyed the very livelihood of other wolves.

That was my mantra, even if I wasn't entirely sure whether or not it was true.

I slid myself into the clothes he had brought, a pair of crisp, white jeans and a long-sleeved, v-neck crop top decorated with small yellow flowers. Bandages were wrapped around my torso, a small protruding of stitches sticking out from the gauzy, white material. From where I stabbed myself. I gagged, I looked like a barbie doll with issues. I didn't want to braid my hair today, the ache in my fingers being a menace to work with. Instead, I just brushed it through, tucking it behind my ears and moving on.

I pushed through the door, Alexander waiting dutifully like a lap dog.

He looked as if he was holding back a laugh, "Sorry, Harmony was the only one willing to let you borrow her clothes. Your styles are obviously very different."

I rolled my eyes, picking up my duffel bag and gently swinging it over my shoulder.

I was starting to get antsy. My injection was due in an hour. I knew after my late administration yesterday, I had to be on time or else I would start properly lapsing. It was different last time since I had been asleep, or essentially unconscious for the first day. But now, I was awake, and everything needed to be on time. My body would immediately take it as a sign of defiance, and it would punish me accordingly. I know what happens when you start missing injections, and it was something I certainly didn't want to repeat.

"Are we leaving yet?" I snapped, becoming increasingly impatient.

"Just waiting for you," He said, holding his hands in mock surrender, "We'll be heading straight back to my house, I've told the others to act civil."

I sighed, "I don't care. Let's just go." Civil, as if I was some monster to be tiptoed around, as if I would bite their head off from the slightest aggravation.

I obviously couldn't lead the way, so I waited for Alexander to walk forward. He offered his hand, but I ignored it.

The hall of what I would guess was a hospital was completely empty. Occasionally, a doctor or nurse would walk by, bowing for Alexander and sending curious glances my way. I held back the urge to stick out my tongue at them. I'm sure I looked like a sight, airy-fairy clothes, a gloomy expression, metal piercings and bandages everywhere. Almost like a wolf dressed up as a sheep, yet you could always see his pointed canines, no matter how much you focused on the fluff of his costume.

I found myself constantly gravitating towards Alexander's side, whether it was because my wolf wanted to be there or because I was slightly overwhelmed with the environment, I don't know. I spared a quick glance, Alexander's shoulders had been pushed back, his chin held high. His face was set in a hard, blank expression. Since it was still relatively early in the morning, not many people were up and about, but there were some wolves roaming the street, setting up shops or cooking breakfast in the kitchen. I would have thought that at that exact moment, we looked like mates. Two powerful wolves with a bad resting bitch face.

This pack had a reputation as bloodthirsty, disgusting killers. And here everyone was, so domestic and homely. Even this Alpha, who seemed so docile, one would even say kind. Perhaps this pack was all talk, though, I still found that unlikely.

Finally, we approached the house. While I recognised the general shape of it, I had never properly seen it. It was a dark grey house, the pillars and fences all a blinding white. Large windows and three storeys with a sloping roof. Green hedges ran around the outside, blooming flowers in every possible spot that twisted around the house into the backyard.

It was so typical, so... homey.

I didn't know exactly how I felt.

"What do you think?" Alexander asked, watching me.

I shrugged, "Not my type, but fine."

I wish he would just... shut his mouth. Was it so much to just wish that he would just be silent? It's certainly not that difficult.

Alexander walked up the front steps of the porch and opened the door. I could hear the slight echo of peoples voices, but that stopped the moment that the door opened.

As expected we headed straight upstairs to supposedly, the Alpha's level. We headed up the same stairs that I had gone under when I had robbed the witch's storage. Once we headed up the stairs, the voices started to talk again.

As we walked through the large open corridor, the office door was wide open. I peered in and gulped. The carpet was still stained with my blood.

As if he hadn't even noticed, Alexander opened up another door, leading into his bedroom. It was extremely simple, with dark blue walls, a large king-sized bed in the centre of the room. Other than that, there was little decoration or anything.

"So, the bathroom is just there, and any clothes you can just put in the closet-"

"I don't have any clothes." I interrupted, "Where did you put my needles?"

Alexander raised an eyebrow, "I threw them out? They're completely destroyed, you're not getting them back it's impossible." He said it like I was stupid, which only caused my blood to boil more.

I dropped my duffel bag to the floor, "You're kidding?"

"No? You wouldn't tell me what they were, I couldn't confirm what they were, so they needed to be destroyed." Alexander shrugged casually, having absolutely no idea what he had just done.

I stared at him, and then at my hands. It was nearly nine now, and my hands were beginning to shake. "Do you have a cellar?"

"For wine?"

"No, for me," I snapped, "You don't have my injections, that's fine, but I need to be in isolation."

The thought of doing a three-month operation sober scared me, but what scared me more was the idea that I had to through withdrawal again. It would be more painful this time, the more years you receive the injection, the more it hurts. Just thinking back to the three days I spent in withdrawal made me wince. It took a week for the injection to be flushed out, and I dread to think about what would happen over those last two days.

"I'm not locking my mate in isolation," He argued, his eyes a fiery blaze.

I grabbed onto the collar of Alexander's shirt and shoved him into a wall. Regardless of how much taller he was, he put up no struggle as I pressed my entire body onto him, keeping him completely trapped underneath my arm.

"You take me into isolation, you lock me in some form of prison, and you keep me there for at least a week. Do you hear me?" I ordered, practically spitting in his face.

In a quick moment, Alexander swapped our places, trapping me on the wall with his face leaning over mine.

His hand was wrapped around my neck, not applying any pressure, but keeping me pinned against the wall with zero struggle at all.

"No,"

I maneuvered my head up to the side of his head, placing my mouth dangerously against his ear as I ran my hand up to his chest.

"Then I guess when I destroy your entire fucking house, and I'm three seconds away from ripping your pretty face to shreds, it'll be your fault."

Alexander let out a deep chuckle, "So you think I'm pretty?"

I pulled my elbow upwards and managed to force myself out of his grip. I then charged into the bathroom and locked the door before Alexander could do anything.

I breathed heavily as I rested my hands on the bench.

A slow sick feeling starting at my stomach was spreading up my limbs and causing my head to pound. I looked up in the mirror,

Why the hell was my face red?

I let my entire body slide down, granted, the bathroom was gorgeous. Silver and blue metallic tiles with a bathtub the size of a jacuzzi and interconnecting showers that made up an entire half of the room, hell, this bathroom was the size of my room back at base, and that told you a lot.

Alexander started banging on the door, "What's going on, Nightstalker, let me in!"

"No," I shouted back, "And if you don't give me some privacy, I think you'll find that those three months will suddenly be over!"

That, for some reason, seemed to do the trick, as the next thing I heard was the door slamming shut, leaving me completely and utterly alone.

It was only then when it hit me properly.

I started to moan, my limbs, especially my arm where I usually receive my injection. Hours passed like minutes when I was like this, my head leaned over the bowl, completely emptying out my guts.

It felt like my entire body was on fire, and there was nothing that could stop it.

Except for my injection.

From what I could remember, day one was sickness, day two was sickness and aggression, day three was sickness, aggression and open sores. It would continue like that, something new added across five days.

I was banging my head against the wall, tears streaming down my face. I don't know why it started off so strong at the beginning of the cycle. But that's just how it was.

Goddess I didn't want to deal with this.

---------------------------------------------

"She locked herself into the bathroom, how do you think that made me feel about myself?" I said, pulling out the mug from the cupboard.

Vance leaned forward, "Maybe she got her period."

I gave him a look, "She didn't get her period Vance, please, have some decency. She asked me to lock her in the prison or some sort of cell, and then when I refused, she locked herself in the bathroom. That doesn't seem like period moodiness, that seems like I want to murder my mate so I never have to spend another moment with him."

"I don't think you should take it to heart Xander," Harmony said kindly. "Look, I may be wrong but... Nightstalker went crazy only a few minutes after she woke up, and the only thing that stopped it was whatever she injected herself with, I'm not saying she's a druggie or anything, but maybe she's got some sort of reliance. imagine how you would act if you found out we'd gotten rid of all the coffee."

I poured the fresh coffee that I had just finished making into the two mugs I had gotten out. "Maybe you're right,"

I pushed the black coffee towards Harmony who added just a dash of sugar before taking a long sip. "You know, maybe you need to be a little gentler with her."

I poured in some milk, "In what way, brush her hair, kiss her cheeks and tell her how much I love her? I'm not that sort of guy,"

"When you're next to her you act like that sort of guy, Are you ok? Tell me, please baby what's wrong?" Vance mocked.

I rolled my eyes, "Tell me when I said that. Regardless, my mate has locked herself in my bathroom and there is nothing I can do about it."

"You know what might be an idea?" Harmony started, "Giving her a second to adjust. This is a globally known thief and killer who has suddenly been trapped in a life of mating and... lunaship, and hell you haven't even told her about that yet. Maybe, she's locked herself in the bathroom because she's overwhelmed and needs a second to breathe, without an overly attached Alpha male breathing down her neck.

"Trust me, it's her who's breathing up my neck," Literally. "You're probably right, she hasn't even told me her name yet. She's just told me to call her Nightstalker and moved on from that subject as quickly as possible."

"I think you're moving too quickly Xander," Vance said, "Just take it slow, The moon goddess wouldn't bless you with your mate after ten years only to take her away so meanly."

I sighed. "I hope you're right Vance. Harmony, do you think you would be able to take her shopping at some point? She has no clothes at all, excluding that leather suit she arrived in."

"Of course!" Harmony smiled, "I know Farren hates her, and Myra is still too caught up over the whole thievery thing, but I personally like her. I think she's a good person, you know, underneath all of her fronts."

I smiled at Harmony's words. Out of all of us, she was the kindest, most likely because of the fact that she's human. She wasn't always part of our world, an experience that perhaps gave her a different mindset from us.

I took a long sip of my coffee, finding comfort in its bitter taste.

I thought I was going crazy, but if I truly listened in, it was almost like I could hear my mate crying.

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