An animal.

I found an animal in the depths of the woods. He crawled toward me in all fours. Sweat gathered on my back as I tried to escape from him. Every turn I made bought me nearer to him. He smelled my flesh and my fear altogether.

Bells rang. The wind grew stronger, sharper, picking everything up on its way. My heart thudded hard in my chest. I tried to breathe but couldn't. My lungs ached.

I woke up with a painful throb in my chest. My eyes burned as I looked everywhere. For a minute, I studied my surroundings, noticing how I was no longer trapped inside the woods but rather a room.

My heart stopped racing. I pressed my palms deep into the soft mattress I sat upon. Cold air brushed against my naked skin that had been stripped off clothes. I was only left with an underwear and a bra covering my bits.

Bright rays of sunshine fell in from the tall windows beside the bed. Images of the night appeared in my head. I recollected the memories and found myself solving out everything.

King.

The wolf.

Creases formed on my forehead. I still couldn't get what had happened or what I had seen. Who could? A man, a man I barely knew for a month had turned into a wolf, into an animal, right in front of me.

When I heard a breath being blown into the air, I screamed and grabbed the soft comforter before pulling it toward my bare, cold body.

"Good morning," King said, standing near the other window, one my eyes hadn't clicked to yet. He had watched me the entire time I was awake and hadn't said a word.

What was I doing here?

I gave my head a shake and stood up while wrapping the rest of the comforter around my body.

"Don't even think of coming near to me," I said, bringing my index finger and stretching it wide toward him. "Did you really just kidnap me?" Tears welled in my eyes.

"If I had kidnapped you, you would be tied and strapped onto a chair or probably shoved in a basement." He explained while rolling his eyes. "You were quick to lose consciousness and I couldn't leave you alone there."

"Yes. Because of you!" I snapped, tucking in the top of the comforter into my breasts. My head felt light and I felt nauseous even being around King, someone who was a literal animal.

"Eos. You need to sit down."

"I need to leave." I turned around, looking for the door. There were two doors, one was surely leading to the washroom and the other one was leading to my freedom.

I didn't know how long I had been out or how much time had it been since I saw the animal. I didn't care. I just wanted to get out and go home and forget any of this had ever happened.

It was too much to take in—understand.

As I stepped away from the bed and near the door, his heavy footsteps thudded through the wooden flooring and he reached me.

"I can't let you go, Eos." He said, almost grabbing my elbow.

I smacked his hand away and pulled myself to the corner. "Don't touch me." My lips cracked and my voice filled up with fear as the scene from last night flashed through my head again.

When I saw his face, close to mine, I remembered everything and I couldn't shake off the fear King's presence bought in me. He was a wolf—something different from the normal. He had bitten me at the cemetery and that bite had tormented me for weeks. He was an animal and I wanted to get away from him as soon as I could.

"I won't touch you," He moved his hand behind his back where his other hand rested. "Not unless you want me to." He continued. There was nothing on his face, no guilt or sorrow. His spirit seemed free and full of life as if turning an animal didn't make a difference.

A few tears slipped down my cheeks. I heaved in heavy breaths and asked, "What do you want from me? I just want to go home. For all it matters, I will act like I didn't see anything but I don't want to be around you for another second. You're a monster." My voice was low, raspy, full of fear and sadness when I spoke.

"I can't let you go home, Eos. It's for your own sake." He said.

"I am leaving." I hissed out a breath and wrapped my hand around the doorknob.

"It's locked."

After twisting it, I realized it was locked and there was no key inside the keyhole which meant King had it in his pocket. This was a kidnapping.

"I won't harm you—" He backed me to the door.

"You already did!" I yelled, my emotions falling through. "You bit me and it's all your fault for the pain I had been through over the past few weeks." I trampled forward and continued. Every inch of my body was aching with something I still couldn't understand and day by the day, the pain was getting worse. The medications, also advised by him worked and helped me with the pain but I didn't know what was in them or what they were doing to me so I stopped taking them.

For once, I just wanted to run away from all this.

"I'm sorry. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. If you can sit down, I'll tell you everything and I'll help you." He placed his hand on his chest and admitted, "Whatever pain you are in is because of me and I want to make this right. You'll suffer a lot more if you walk through the door and leave." He sounded convincing and promising enough to change my directions.

"How do I know you won't harm me, again?" I asked, rubbing my cheeks and wiping my tears away.

"I won't. You can take my word for it. My intentions were never to harm you in the first place." His eyes rested on me, speaking the truth.

I stepped away from him and from the door. My eyes took a quick glance around the room before I walked over to the wooden seat near the window and sat down. If anything were to happen, I could leave from the window and run as the door was locked and the whereabouts of the keys were unknown.

"Tell me." I folded my leg over the other one, hoping to listen to him even though I didn't want to. He could turn into a wolf, a dangerous animal. The only thing I felt within me with immense fear and dread from the man standing in front of me.

Nothing more.

"I returned here the night before the welcoming party at Harden's house. I was out for a run. The cemetery leads to a nature reserve and that leads to a forest. You were there and it was the worse timing ever. I was dealing with some things of my own and I couldn't control myself when I found a human," As he explained, his eyes turned into a bright shade of brown, almost a red. "I bit you. It was an accident but you were supposed to die that night itself. You shouldn't have lived—you were not supposed to."

I stared at him, my expression blank.