I woke up feeling absolutely drained, my chest ached, my head pounded, and I just felt like going back to sleep. But I heard whispering and my eyes flew open in panic.

"She doesn't know yet Jake." I moved my head to the side and saw Avery and Jake on the sofa, facing each other. Where was I? A hospital? My eyes took in my surroundings, white, everything was white. I was hooked to an IV and a heart monitor? What? I looked back at Avery realizing that she doesn't know that I was awake. And Jake was here? Why? What are they talking about?

"Why don't you tell her then?" he asks in confusion and she hits his thigh, leaving her hand there. My eyes blinked a few times, focusing on the scene before me again.

"You know why I can't do that." she almost growls out. He chuckles, reaching to touch her hand. Can't do what? Who are they talking about?

"I know, sorry that was dumb. Do you want me to tell dad?" he asks again. Tell what? This is eating me up. Why is her hand still on his thigh? Why are they sitting so close? Shut up Sam, you sound ridiculous. I know, I said back to my inner conscience. I'm not jealous. Not jealous. Not. Jealous.

"No, it's alright. I'll tell him soon. I just don't know what to do now." She sighs and leans back on the couch, and he moves closer to her, their legs touching now, and I scowled then froze.

Woah, what is happening to me? What the hell? I'm am not fucking jealous. They're just friends and we're....well not friends?

"We can do what your parents said, and then we'll be going to the academy soon, you have to tell her that. What about her parents and stuff?" he asks softly and she sighs angrily.

"I want to kill them for what they did. How can they even do such a thing? I was so angry Jake, so angry when I saw her." she mutters angrily and then she glances at me and her eyes widen in surprise. Oh shit.

"Sam? Hey." She leapt out of the couch and ran to me, cupping my cheek. I blushed and looked up at her.

"Hi," I whispered. She gripped my hand in hers and kissed my head, my heart jumped.

"Oh God, you're okay. And awake. Why didn't you call me? Are you okay? Does anything hurt?" she rambled sitting beside me, still holding me. I sighed internally. How does she make me feel so calm and protected?

"I'm okay. What happened?" I asked her softly. Her eyes flicker slight anger in them but so much care for me it made my heart race.

"I was worried after you called me, and I went over to your house and it was on fire, Sam." She whispered gauging my reaction. My eyes widened in horror. Is it gone? Are mum and dad okay?

"My parents -" she cut me off with a hard look.

"Should have died in that. Look at what they did to you." Her voice started out rough until she glanced down at my hands. What happened? I don't remember anything.

"I can't remember- what happened?" I frowned confused and she tensed. Her whole body was rigid. I saw her eyes flicker to silver, her jaw tightening and suddenly she growled and stood up, letting my hand go and stomped her way outside. My eyes followed her in shock as she pulled the door open, making it hit the wall as she walked out. Her eyes, my mouth stayed agape. Oh my God. Her eyes. The-they turned silver! Did I see that right? Oh, God. Wait that's not possible. It's probably just my head messing with me.

"Uhm, she'll be back," Jake said suddenly, walking towards the door and glancing outside. I so badly wanted to see where she went all of a sudden. What just happened?

"Is everything okay?" I mumbled out to Jake. He turns and nods, smiling softly.

"She's just taking care of something." He says and my heart felt weird like I was kept in the dark, and Avery didn't want to tell me what was going on. But he knows. I don't like that.

I tried to sit up, wincing every time I move, my arms and legs as well as my whole torso was bandaged. What happened? Why can't I remember?

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

.

I marched out of Sam's room, my eyes finding her mother and in an instant, I had her up against the wall, my hand around her neck as she clawed at her. Her eyes widened in surprise and shock. My other warriors guarding the door, stood behind me, everyone on protective mode.

"What the fuck are you doing here?!" I roared into her face, my hand tightening even more. She choked and tried kicking me. I growled and slammed her against the wall, leaving a crack there.

"Avery, please calm down." I hear Gerard whisper behind me, I could feel my power oozing out making all of them bow down slightly.

"I just want to see her." I narrowed my eyes at her.

"And why should I let you do that after you did that to her?" I asked, my nails piercing into her skin now. She cried and whimpered but I wasn't fazed. They hurt my mate. She hurt my mate.

"I'm her mother." she choked out and my other hand flew to slap her in the face.

"You are no mother. She doesn't need you. If you come anywhere near her, you're dead." I got out under my breath as my eyes flashed, showing that my wolf was very much waiting to kill whoever hurt our mate.

"But-" I cut her off by slamming her into the wall again, her face becoming red now as she lacks oxygen.

"If you don't leave now, I'll kill you." I spat out at her face. She winced back in fear and nodded. I dropped her down and walked away as I hear whimpering and groaning from her. I heard her leave and then turned back to make sure she left before I entered the room. Calming myself down, got my breathing under control, and then walked into her room again.

I pushed the door opened and immediately my eyes found Sam and she was sitting there, sobbing.

Oh, no babygirl.

"Sam." I ran up to her, sitting down beside her and wrapping my arm around her.

"I know what happened," she mumbles so softly and pulled me to her tighter.

"Shh baby, don't cry, shh, it's okay they're not going to do anything else okay?" I say kissing her head. She cried and whimpered, even more, making me wince and my wolf wail in my head, wanting to stop our mate from crying. Hearing her cry was one of the most heart-wrenching things ever, especially when I don't know what to do.

"Sam, precious, hey." I cupped her cheek wiping her tears as they fell and she looks at me with so much pain and fear in her eyes.

"Nothing is going to happen to you. I promise you. They're not going to get to you anymore." I promise. She nods softly and looks down, still crying, and trying to breathe. I sat with her, kissing her head, and rubbing her arm until she calmed down which took us a while. I didn't mind it. I loved being here for her. For my mate.

"You okay?" I whisper taking her hand in mine, rubbing the back of it. She nods and nuzzles into me, and my wolf purred in my head. God, that felt fucking amazing.

"I got you something to eat, you wanna eat now?" She nods softly blushing as she looks up at me.

"Thank you, Avery, for everything," she says and my heart warms. I tucked her hair behind her ear and nodded, kissing her cheek before getting off the bed and to the packed food I brought from home. It was just some chicken soup, and some fruit, and a sandwich and crackers for later.

"Hey, I'll go now yeah? Dad needs me back." Jake said walking over to me, shit, I forgot he was still here. I looked at him sheepishly.

"Sorry and I'll see you tomorrow okay? Thanks for being here Jake." I say stepping up to give him a side hug. He nods and smiles.

"Welcome. I hope you feel better soon Sam," he says glancing at my mate and nodding at me before walking out again. I proceeded to get the food and the flask of hot cocoa for her and neared the bed, pulled the chair before sitting down. I looked up at her and she gave me a small smile, blushing.

"You're so pretty." I blurted out, my heart did a loop as I blushed slightly looking at her. She flamed red and looked down, playing with her fingers.

"I'm not," she mumbles and I tsked.

"You are. Come on, eat. I brought some soup, and fruit, there's hot cocoa as well for now. Then a sandwich and crackers for dinner okay? Sorry, I couldn't make more, I didn't want to leave you that long." I say to her and she reaches for my hand.

"This is more than enough, Avery, thank you," she says sincerely and I smiled.

"You're welcome. Now eat." I started feeding her even though she wasn't happy with it saying she felt like a baby, she was a baby, to me, my baby, and I wanted to take care of her. She needs someone now. And I'm willing to be whoever she needs right now.

As she ate, I told her about what happened at the fire, and she told me about what happened with her parents. I was even more furious now. I don't understand why and how could they do that. They molested her. Burned her with a cigarette. And abused her over and over again. The thought of what they did to her after she passed out is eating me up.

"How long do I have to stay here?" she asks me after eating, as I sat watching her sip on her cocoa.

"A few days I think, you're still really weak and lost a lot of blood. So they just wanna keep you here a while yeah?" I told her. She nods understanding then glances at me.

"Wher-where do I go after this? I don't want to go back to them," she mutters, her voice choking again. I looked at her sympathetically and placed my hand on her thigh, rubbing it over the covers, trying to calm her down.

"You're not going back with them. My parents are sorting it out with the police and the agency you were adopted from. Remember I told you about my parents wanting to take you in?" I said and she tensed slightly, biting her lip thinking about something.

"Yeah?" I studied her features, she looked a little hesitant and scared.

"They're nice people Sam, they'll take care of you, and I'm gonna be there too." She doesn't say anything for a bit.

"I don't want to be your sister," she whispered looking at me from under her eyelashes. God, she's so beautiful.

"My sister? I mean technically we aren't." I replied. She sighed now.

"What's wrong? Talk to me. You don't want to stay with them? You could meet them first. Mum's coming here in a while to see you actually." I say and she shook her head, taking my hand in hers. Sparks. I felt them. It wasn't that strong, but it was there. I looked up at her and it hit me that I found my mate. My soulmate. The person I'm going to marry and have children with, and I couldn't be more thankful.

"It's just if we are, you know sisters, then we- I, we, you know," she mutters helplessly getting shy and looking away. Then it hit me. Oh. She's worried about us?

"Sam, precious no, if my parents adopt you, us, we aren't gonna change. Don't worry." I say grinning as she blushed even more. She glanced at me, a small smile on her pink lips.

"Really?" she asks again, hopeful. I nod, sitting on the edge of her bed again and moving closer to her. I hear her breath hitch and my heart bloomed.

"Yes, because I want to kiss you, and keep kissing you," I said against her lips before placing my lips on hers.

She whimpered slightly and kissed me back, even more, I smiled and pulled her closer, my hand cradling her head. I groaned softly into her mouth, how can one kiss be so fucking amazing? I don't want to stop. I continued kissing her, sucking on her bottom lip slightly, kissing her top lip, and the corner of her mouth, before pulling away slightly, our breathing heavy. God damn. She's my mate. Mine. My girl. My hold tightened on her as I got possessive again, my wolf howling in my head wanting to keep our mate in my arms like this, forever. I kissed her cheek and forehead before pulling her onto my lap. She squealed slightly making me laugh but leaned her head on my shoulder.

"I'm so comfortable around you," she mutters and I froze.

I'm so comfortable around you.

Holy goddess. My heart racing like crazy right now.

She said it. She said those words.

My wolf rejoiced in my head and I smiled brightly. That's all I wanted.

All the mates, every single pair in history, once they've reached a certain step in their relationship, one of them would say that and hearing it from Sam almost made me tear up. And it's something so special knowing Sam was human and she did not know this. She meant it. She truly meant it. And at that moment, I felt so high. I didn't expect it so soon. But God, I felt so high.

"I'm glad you are." I kissed her head again, smiling to myself, proud that I've made our mate feel this way and leaned back against the bed, letting her lean on me even more.

"You get some sleep yeah? I'll be here." I promised her. She nods softly, her fingers gripping my blouse, making sure I didn't move. I smiled to myself. I didn't want to move. Not away from her. Not now, not ever. God, I wish I could tell her everything and how I've already started to fall for her.

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A/N:

Just wanna say a huge thank you to everyone who's been reading this book and voting for it and adding it to their reading list. I can't believe I've passed 300 reads in so little time, thank you, guys. Hope you liked this chapter. Have a great day! ❤