"Okay, for real this time, I think she is dead." A nervous male voice dimly broke through my groggy subconscious.

"There is no way in a million years that she's dead, she's just...sleepy." Another voice, a girl this time.

"I am a healer and I can confirm that no one sleeps for this long."

"In training—you're a healer still in training. Besides you were wrong last time and you're wrong again this time. Maybe there's a reason you're still in training, ever consider that?"

"Rude—that was just plain rude. Should we tell Alpha though...just in case?"

"Are you insane? There is nothing going on, there's no reason we should tell him—"

Suddenly another speaker broke through the two bickering voices, "No reason to tell me what?"

At that moment my eyes instantaneously snapped open and I flew up from the bed I was laying in; almost as if my subconscious could sense the arrival of Matteo. Fran and Amias were standing closest to me, she smiled warmly while Amias dramatic as ever put his hand over his heart as if he couldn't be more relieved to see me.

As much as I loved the two in front of me, I was completely and utterly transfixed by the man leaning casually in the doorway.

My mate.

We weren't in the same hospital room I found myself in when I first arrived in Malice. This room was much more dimly lit, everything was primarily black or neutral tones with the exception for the walls which were this lovely dark green color. My eyes traveled around the room taking it all in before they fell back on Matteo who stood dressed from head to toe in all black, his shirt fitted perfectly against his tanned skin and his pants clung dangerously against his hips.

I almost fell backwards and back into bed again, that was a sight I certainly would never get used to.

Amias rushed forward and threw his arms around me, crushing me against his frame. "My little Olive martini is safe and sound."

Fran cleared her throat and he sheepishly backed away from me, she gestured pointedly with her eyes towards the door.

Amias instantly understood and the pair skirted out of the room but not before he stuck his head back, "Have fun love birds!"

Fran groaned and yanked him out, closing the door behind them and then suddenly I was all alone with Matteo.

From the moment I woke up his eyes had never left me and I was nervous?

I couldn't help it but it wasn't the terrified kind of nervous more like the stupid—giddy, butterfly kind of nervous.

Matteo pushed off from the door with a smug smile and slowly crossed the room towards me but it wasn't fast enough.

I clambered out of the obscenely tall bed to meet him halfway but I tangled myself up in the blankets in my rush and I stumbled forwards and down towards the floor—a pair of arms stopped me.

They wrapped around me, Matteo held me almost as if we were dancing and it was the part where he would dip me down. I stared wide-eyed up at him, breathless and at a loss for words.

Matteo spoke first, "I have some bad news."

My stomach dropped—it seemed like bad things were attracted to us.

"The Wolfless Werewolf Club has been dissolved." Matteo said with a grin as he lifted me up, holding me closely in his arms still. "It appears that the two members violated the founding rule of the club and no longer applied for membership."

My face broke into a smile, "You scared me." I batted his chest playfully, "I thought something terrible happened."

Matteo moves a hand to the side of my face, his thumb rubbing gently across my temple, "Nothing terrible will ever happen to us again Olive—nothing."

And I believed him, with every shred of my being I wholeheartedly trusted that from this point on things would only go up.

I flung my arms around his neck and pulled myself against him, kissing the lights out of him. Matteo grinned against my eager lips and lifted me off the ground, wrapping my legs around his waist with his hands conveniently moving to my ass for support.

He walked us back to the bed I had been in minutes ago and laid me down, Matteo clambered on top of me seamlessly. His head dipped down as he pressed his forehead against mine, I closed my eyes and in that moment I had never once felt more complete.

"I love you Olive Ludovic." He murmured and kissed my forehead and then my nose and then lightly on my lips. "And I am yours for all of time."

My actual heart melted, I'm sure if Amais checked he could confirm it.

Matteo was an assh:le but he was my assh:le and I loved him. He was problematic and had some baggage but so have I. We all had skeletons in the closet and things we've done and weren't proud of; obviously to different degrees but that's beside the point.

To put it lightly, Matteo and I had a rocky beginning, a turbulent middle and a complicated ending but... our after credits were perfect.

Matteo tilted my chin upwards redirecting my gaze, "What's on your mind?" He asked with a voice tinted with a little concern.

I shook my head slowly a smile creeping back across my face as I returned from my swirling thoughts. "I love you Matteo."

"I can't wait for what's next." I whispered up to him.

Matteo's smile morphed into something much more mischievous, "For when I tie you to this bed and not let you leave until your legs stop working?"

I punched his chest and he reached down and tickled my side, I squirmed underneath him as he rested his full body weight on top of me. "You know what I meant you little sh:t." I giggled.

Matteo rested his face in the crook of my neck as he supported himself above me just with his elbows. "I can't wait either."

His mouth trailed kisses and soft love bites down the side of my neck until he reached the spot of my mark. When his lips connected my whole world sung, igniting a fire within me and restoring my crazed, lusting state I was in moments earlier.

Matteo's eyes were ablaze, "I wasn't kidding about the bed part."

I sure hoped he wasn't.

He crushed his lips against mine while altogether ripping my shirt off of me. I struggled to unzip his pants and Matteo picked up on that, nearly shredding his own clothing in the process.

Our clothing was strewn across the floor, he held onto my hip and guided himself into me with a toe-curling slowness.

We were butt ass naked, mid stroke when the door was flung open. Was I surprised though? Not in the slightest. It wouldn't be a sexual encounter for us if someone didn't rudely interrupt it.

While Matteo made no effort to cover himself or play off what we were just doing, he just rolled off and haphazardly his body covered mine but it did little for his own modesty.

"Alpha, Asa sent me. There is trouble in the clearing."

Now there is a voice I thought I would never hear again especially in this context. Tiffany, my ex-arch-nemesis, the forever bane to my existence and most recently the newly inducted member into the pack that I was now the Luna of.

Which was still completely crazy to wrap my head around.

I peered from around Matteo's hulking tanned shoulder and saw that she was actually cowering in the door—visibly uncomfortable. I was mated to an Alpha now, that same authority ran through me now and no doubt sent her wolf into submission.

Oh, how the tables have turned.

But Eyeless Asa! It felt like years since the day Matteo invaded Grace Pack and I was introduced to Eyeless Asa. Can't say that I missed him though.

Matteo didn't even flinch at her announcement, "What kind of trouble?" He finally asked one in an annoyed tone, "I am kind of busy here so if Asa or Wesley or literally anyone else on this god forsaken planet could just take care of it—I'd be greatly obliged."

This was my first time hearing about Wesley. Strange.

Tiffany stuttered at a loss for words when Fran, Amias, some other dude, Devin and Ana all piled into the room after her rather frantically.

That was the limit to Matteo's indecency, he finally clambered off of the bed and tugged on what was left of his clothes and I was left clinging to the crisp white sheet for dear life.

I was surprised to see Devin, A) because he was a vampire in werewolf territory which wasn't usually a thing and B) well, because after I passed out at Lysander's mansion I figured he and Ana would have eloped.

That was the other surprise, Ana. The way things were left, I wondered if she knew about Ansel yet or if she knew about our involvement in the entire ordeal.

My heart ached for Fran, I could see it in her eyes even in this seemingly important moment that it hurt her seeing the pair together. After all, before Devin stumbled across Ana by all accounts and purposes, Fran and Devin were an item of sorts.

All food for though for another day.

"For f:cks sake, what could be so earth shatteringly terrible that all of you lot have to interrupt me in my own d:mn bedroom from fuc—" Matteo's grumbling was cut short.

His bedroom! So that's where we were.

"Isabel!" Amias squeaked our nervously, the random guy beside him reached over and held Amias' hand comfortingly. Which could only mean that it was Amias' mate Felix!

They really were the cutest couple of all time.

"Isabel was in the clearing with a message." Amias continued on.

I watched from behind Matteo as his entire body stiffened and his fists clenched, "And how did she get past everyone into the clearing might I ask?" His voice was clipped and not at all as playful as it was moments ago.

Fran cleared her throat and picked up the invisible baton of burden, "She didn't technically get past our forces, Alpha. It was an apparition, pink fog all swirled together to look like Isabel in cloud form." She pushed past the crowd of people suddenly in the hospital room handing Matteo a ornately decorated piece of paper.

He scanned over it rapidly, scoffing every so often and when he was finished he turned and surprisingly handed the paper to me to look at as well.

"'Bring me Olive alive within a years time or a curse will be cast on all of Malice Pack'?" I repeated, quoting Isabel's annoyingly perfect cursive writing.

Matteo rubbed his temples, "We are the strongest pack in all of Northern America and a little pink cloud with a silly ransom letter attached wasn't something you all could handle on your own?"

No one had an answer. No one wanted to answer even if they did I was sure.

Matteo took the paper from me once more and loudly tore it down the middle, letting the pieces fall to the floor. He stepped on them for good measure as he returned to the bed and me stripping back out of his shirt as he slipped in beside me.

Matteo seemed so calm and unbothered, even going as far as tucking his hands behind his head as he settled in beside me—it shocked everyone.

"Isabel's a crazy b:tch who is probably just still butt hurt about us dining and dashing." He shrugged and closed his eyes with a content sigh, after a second he cracked an eye open. "You can leave now."

They filed out of the room, most with confusion marred across their faces. Even Amias appeared a little shook but he still gave me a thumbs up and a wink before he followed in suit and left.

Matteo groaned and threw his arm across my body, burying his face into my hair. He seemed so young and annoyed, it was cute. I imagined him pouting as a young child must have looked something similar to this.

I ran my hand across his back, tracing the muscular lines and scars until my hand rested in his hair. "You're not the least bit concerned?" I quietly double checked.

He propped himself up suddenly, "What did I tell you Olive?"

I frowned not following where he was going with this.

"Nothing terrible will ever happen to us—to you ever again." Matteo reiterated, his eyes boring into mine. "I mean that, Olive."

He stood and moved around to the foot of the bed where he absentmindedly toyed with the bottom of the sheet. "No one will ever take you from me, no one will ever hurt you while you are with me. Not Isabel or anyone else for the matter will change that, got it?"

A smile crept onto my face as I nodded, I heard the sincerity in his voice and I saw the passion in his eyes—he was dead serious and I believed every word of it.

His fiddling with the sheet suddenly became much more intentional as he slowly dragged the thin fabric down and off of my body.

I clung to the edge but he would not relent and I was left to scramble and cover myself, instinctually I supposed.

"Now," Matteo paused as he climbed onto the foot of the bed, pressing his lips against my ankle and then up my calf. I jumped as his advance continued far past my knees and I pressed my legs together but he was all to ready for that move. Matteo held my legs fast, forcing me to keep them spread open. He kissed up my thighs, he grazed his teeth across my hip bones and continued to kiss up my frame.

I was almost completely out of breath by the time his lips found mine once more and he was very much aware of this. Matteo chuckled against my lips, "Need to take a breather, Luna?" He was taunting me now.

I mutely shook my head as there was no way I could form a coherent sentence even if I wanted to—which I didn't. All I wanted was one little thing, well... it wasn't little thing at all.

"Good girl."

He positioned himself in between my legs with one hand and the other gently wrapped around my throat.

Why was not I surprised that Matteo would be a kinky S.O.B.? Not that I was complaining because I wasn't, if anything I was even more desperate.

"Where were we?" Matteo pondered with a deadly smile and I caught myself smiling back up at him.

For the very first time I could confidently and honestly say that I loved my life.

I loved everything and everyone in my life but most of all...I loved the person who was literally in me at the moment.

TMI?