I didn't even realize that I was screaming until Matteo's hand slipped over my mouth and muffled my cries. "F:cking hell, you're going to be fine, it is just your mark."

All the warmth was gone. I shoved him off of me, my hand clamping onto my neck to try and alleviate the radiating pain that was screaming from it. I waded my way out of the shallow water and onto the bank, I started storming away from Matteo when I realized that we were still on the opposite side of the river.

I dropped my hand from my neck only to twine through my hair as I desperately tried to maintain an even heart rate, if I kept myself calm the pain would go away much more quick. Even though I knew that every werewolf went through this process, the pain I was experiencing just seemed too brutal to be normal.

I returned back to the bank of the river to see Matteo basking carelessly in the sun as if nothing had happened. I tentatively reached my hand up to touch the wound on my neck once more and found a bloody, open mess. That definitely was not right.

Normally when a mate marks another, the wound transforms almost instantly into the gentle scar of the mark. It didn't bleed and fester like I was discovering and it definitely didn't usually hurt for this long.

An intense pain ripped through my body, bringing me to my knees. I screamed out as I collapsed onto my side into the sandy beach, writhing in agony alone. From the other side of the river I saw Fran and Devin standing on the bank while Amias pushed through the water, rushing over to me.

My own mate didn't do that.

He skidded to a stop beside me and immediately elevated my head, allowing him better view of the now completely sandy wound. "What did he do to you, Olive?"

Matteo narrowed his eyes over at us and swiftly pushed up and off of the sand, stalking over to Amias threateningly. "What did you just say?" He grit out between his teeth.

Amias started to shrink away from Matteo but he was still holding me and the small movement caused me to groan deeply which reminded Amias of what was really important in the moment. "Something is obviously wrong with her, Alpha." He lifted me off of the ground and held me tight in his arms even as I contorted in fits of pain. "She needs my help."

Matteo finally turned his attention to me, his amber eyes scanning over my partially exposed upper half and then coming to rest on my grotesque mark. Even Matteo couldn't disguise his repulsed reaction upon seeing it. He shook his head as Amias began wading back into the current with me, "I didn't do that, it wasn't that bad when I--I just marked her, it shouldn't look like that."

Amias suddenly stopped, the water pooling around his knees as he jerked back around. "You're right, it shouldn't look like that." His tone was sharp, I'd never heard Amias sound like that let alone stand up to Matteo. He took a deep breath, glaring cooly at his alpha before he turned back around and continued through the water.

He emerged on the other side with me, making sure the entire time to avoid any jarring movements to cause me unnecessary pain. Amias gently set me down onto a soft patch of grass as Fran and Devin crowded around me, Fran frowned. "What happened to her?"

Devin shook his head, he looked as if he was going to be sick. "I can't be here." That's when I noticed that his eyes were trained on the bloody wound on my neck, he forced himself walk away. I suppose sprint away would be more accurate though.

Amias didn't answer Fran, he was too engrossed in his own thoughts as he rapidly started to work on me. He tore through his bag and produced a medical kit, he immediately doused the wound in a harsh liquid that burned but nothing as bad as the roaring flame that was engulfing my entire being.

It was amazing watching him at work, this was Amias in his natural element and I knew I was in good hands.

Matteo finally decided made his way through the river, he actually appeared slightly concerned as he watched Amias busy himself with tweezers, pulling out small pieces of sand that handed been washed away by the fluids.

"Stay away from me." I growled out, my hands fisting the grass beside me.

Matteo just ignored me and casually shrugged, "I marked Olive." He answered for Amias, turning to Fran with narrowed eyes to observe her reaction and she was significantly more guarded than anyone else. Unreadable as she turned to pace along beside me as Amias continued to work.

"This isn't right." Amias murmured with a pinched brow as he stared at my neck and then suddenly he lifted my upper lip and was staring intently at my teeth. He suddenly looked up at Matteo with wide, worried eyes.

Matteo leaned over my body and examined me just as Amias had seconds ago and the equally troubled expression crossed over his features. I propped myself up onto my elbows, ignoring the sharp pain the motion caused me, "What did you do to me?" I spat venomously at Matteo.

"You are turning." He whispered as if he'd seen a ghost.

I immediately faced Amias, "That's impossible, right?" He didn't say anything, "I'm already werewolf, so there has to be another explanation...Tell me he isn't true, Amias, please!"

Despite the screaming pain, I jolted up from the ground. Had my entire life really been one entire lie? Everything I knew about myself suddenly was not real.

My entire body was shaking, probably from a combination of the shock of my injuries and the shock of learning you're entire world was crashing down around me. "I'm human?"

Matteo dragged a hand through his hair and dropped it suddenly as he laughed out coldly, as Amias quietly amended my statement, "Correction: you were a human. The bite of a werewolf is toxic to a human and induces the transformation."

He growled loudly and swung his fist into the newest object which happened to be the trunk of a tree, "You've been a human this entire time?" Matteo roared and proceeded to slam his other hand against the rough wood, "My mate is a human!"

Amias wiped his brow and stood from the grass, "Was." Matteo darted his dark eyes over to Amias who looked down quickly. "Was a human." He repeated again softly which only further agitated Matteo.

With trembling hands I reached up to cover the wound on my neck but Amias quickly grabbed my wrist and yanked it back down to my side. "Everything is going to be alright, at least now we know why you couldn't shift." He soothed and ran a hand up and down my back trying to steady me, "There's nothing else I can do for you, Olive. We just have to let the transformation take it's course."

I was finally going to be a real werewolf, something I had longed for since my earliest of memories but at what cost? All the things I thought I knew about myself, the things that shaped me into the person I was were suddenly null. And Matteo...

Flashes from the river blinded my vision. His lips, my moans and our bodies intertwined together. How could I have been so foolish to let down my guard with him like that? It was a monster who was granting my wish. Unintentionally and involuntarily marking me as his forever in a totally new sense of the mating mark, he bound me to him.

"Can someone please cover her neck up for f:cks sake." A strained voice in the distance called out and Amias immediately grabbed a clean strip of gauze, placing it lightly over the bite before shifting my hair on top of that.

Devin returned still looking worse for wear, his eyes burning lustfully red as the smell of my blood no doubt still lingered in the air. "I knew she wasn't one of you from the minute she walked in, how could you have missed that?" He boldly criticized Matteo as he kept having to pull his eyes away from me.

Fran sighed softly, "None of us knew, it is all our faults for not realizing it sooner."

Amias nodded in agreement as he began packing up his kit, "She must have been adopted or taken and has never not been around werewolves. That's eighteen years of a scent being masked by our own." He zipped up his bag resolutely, "It is rare but obviously not impossible."

Matteo recoiled and turned to me, "You're eighteen?"

I blinked, out of all of the things he chose to be worried about right now, my age was the most prominent to him? "Well you kidnapped me out of a high school so you had to have some sort of clue about how old I was!" I angrily retorted before turning back to the people that mattered.

"What is going to happen to me?" I asked Amias nervously as a fresh wave of pain rolled through my body, Fran noticed and came by my side to offer her own body as support. I clutched to her forearm like it was my lifeline.

Amias looked nervous all of a sudden, "I'm only a healer-in-training, even fully trained healers sometimes don't even study human medicine so I'm really not able to--I shouldn't..."

I felt my breath hitch as my eyes began to water, "Please, I know you must know something. Please, Amias."

He fiddled with his hands, "It's not going to be pleasant..." He started slowly, unable to look me in the eye, "The transformation from human to were is infinitely more painful than our first shift. Your entire genetic code is being reformed as we speak, it is a long and grueling process." Amias finished and swung his pack over his shoulder, "I need to wash up so I'm going to be--"

I reached out and caught his forearm, "There's more isn't there?"

He swallowed and nodded but it was Matteo that answered instead, "He's leaving out the part where you might not make it."

I paled, "As in...?"

Amias nodded sadly, "Sometimes it is too much for the host body to handle and the werewolf transformation ends up killing them."

"But everything will be okay, right?" I desperately searched for a blanket statement of assurance about my wellbeing.

"You are strong though, Olive and you have us." He carefully avoided telling me everything was going to be alright.

I looked over the group before me, everyone was doing their best to remain optimistic and positive for me. Everyone except for Matteo that was. He was off on his own glaring dramatically at the ground, as if I'd ended his world.

He should be happy, at least this way I will have a wolf to complete the mate bond with so he won't lose his precious wolf. Unless...

I released Fran and stalked away from the group making a bee line to him.

He knew.

"All this time?" I demanded and when Matteo didn't turn around to face me I shoved his back, to both of our surprises he actually stumbled forward.

He faced me and I saw it in his eyes, "I don't know what you are talking about."

I shoved him again and just as before he fell backwards a few steps, Matteo frowned at me clearly shocked I had managed to do that. Me too, assh:le.

I pointed a finger in his face, "You've been lying to me this entire time! Even when you found out just now, I knew your reaction was far too theatric to be real, you knew I was human! The angsty tree punching was a nice touch by the way!" I screamed sarcastically into his face.

Matteo grabbed my hand and pulled it away from his face, trapping it in his hand even as I protested. "I've known since Isabel." He admitted, "But only since Isabel, I had no idea before. I had to turn you, Olive. For us." His words nauseated me.

It made sense though. Isabel's haunting words from the tense moments before we escaped came to mind:

I can help you...just like I helped Matt...

I can give you what you most desire. I can turn you and give you your wolf, I can teach you...

If you leave now, you will still turn. You will still find yourself...but will it be exactly what you have been yearning for all these years? Will it be at the cost of your mortality?

Matteo was truly sick, he knew that I was not a werwolf since our time in Ardor and he purposely chose to withhold the information form me before he knowingly turned me. When Matteo chomped into my neck he didn't care about proudly marking me as his, he wanted the humanity in me gone by any means necessary even if that meant lying and seducing me. I felt violated in a strange way but it was all too much for me. My chest tightened and I couldn't breath, the forest began to spin around me and I lost consciousness, collapsing into a heap on the ground cloaked in darkness.