My head pounded, as if there was some jackhammer inside there, just hammering away at my skull. I groaned and rolled over on my side, grasping at my head with both hands as if that would put an end to this immense pain I felt. Why was I having the headache of my life now?

I propped myself up and opened my eyes. Wherever I was, it was dark. I wasn't even able to see my nose the blackness consumed so much of the area. All I could tell was that I was in some sort of room. I could hear the wind outside whooshing around whatever building I was in. Plus, I could tell that I was now sitting up in bed, because I could feel the warm blankets over my legs and the softness of the mattress under me.

I strained my ears, hoping to hear anything else that would give me a clue as to where I was. However, it was no use. All I could was the wind outside and that was about it.

I groaned and flopped back down on the bed. Now I expected to just have my head hit a pillow, like what would have happened to most humans, but as fate has decided, I'm not a normal human. Instead my head hit something hard and I heard Vincent let out a cough, letting me know that I had slammed my head down on his chest.

"Nora?" he sleepily asked, "what's wrong?" Thank God that stupid baby talk is done. Maybe I had been out long enough for the full moon to pass, allowing Vincent to regain control of his body back from his wolf. I felt him shift from under me and wrap his arms around me, bringing me in close to his chest.

The memories from earlier rushed back into my mind. I had rejected Vincent and decided to go with Jason as my mate.

"Where are we?" I asked.

Vincent moaned as he stretched his limbs, actually letting me go for a moment. He then got off the bed and I heard footsteps to the far-side of the room. In an instant, a flash of light erupted, allowing me to see the room...which was disappointing.

Let's start with the light, shall we? First off, this wasn't any fancy light fixture or anything, oh no. It was just a light bulb dangling from a wire in the center of the ceiling. There wasn't even a ceiling fan attached to it! Not that I needed a fan or anything, it was rather cold for some reason, despite it being the summer time. Then next were the walls. They weren't even painted or covered in wallpaper. They were wood. That was it, just wood. I could even see the nails that kept them in place, plus they looked all splintery! Even the floor was just wood. It wasn't even polished or sanded down either. This place sucks! The bed was the only décor in the whole room anyway, and it wasn't even a bed; just a mattress lying on the floor.

I glanced up at Vincent in disbelief. He just looked back shyly, rubbing the back of his neck, obviously embarrassed.

"Mate," he mumbled, "this is our new home."

Oh hell no! "What's wrong with your other house?" I cried, throwing my hands up in the air in exasperation. I don't want to stay in this crappy loveshack.

Vincent rolled his eyes. "Well, because I got demoted to omega, I'm not allowed to stay in our old home anymore, because that style is reserved for wolves of a higher rank. We now have to live in the omega housing district."

All I knew about omegas were that they were the lowest of the low in the werewolf world. I didn't know that they were forced to live in crappy shacks as well! What's next?

Vincent turned off the light and I heard him walk back over to the mattress on the floor. It sank and I felt him scoot closer to me, once again trapping me in his stupid embrace. He let out a contented sigh as I felt him nuzzle me.

This place is horrible! There's no way I want to live here!

"Vincent," I whined, "why this place?"

He sighed again. "This was the only available unit in this territory, and-"

"Wait," I interrupted. "What do you mean by 'in this territory'? Did we enter a new territory?"

Vincent's hold on me tightened again, making me feel like I'd be split in half by his muscular arms pretty soon. "I had no other choice," he whispered.

"What do you mean?" I panicked. When Jason found out we left the territory, then he'd be after the both of us, and the both of us will get punished. Vincent will probably just get put to death or something, but I'll be put under house arrest! Jason will never allow me to leave his house and his werewolf henchmen will see to it that I obey! This is horrible!

Vincent shifted our bodies so that he was hovering over me. I felt his hot breath pass over my face, actually warming it up a little bit.

"You were going to leave me," he said in a flat voice. I could hear him struggling to keep the anger out of it.

I scoffed. "You said my grandmother died. Why on earth would you lie about something like that?" I really knew that the reason why he did was to get me to stop wanting to run away to Florida, but I wanted to hear him say it.

Vincent growled. It was actually really scary considering I couldn't see anything, so all I heard was this menacing noise that made me cower and bring my arms around myself in some feeble way to protect myself.

Then Vincent let out a slight whimper and he dropped his body so that he lay on top of me. His arms snaked around my body and he began to nuzzle me, so much that I thought he'd rub my cheek raw.

"I'll never hurt you Nora," he said. "It's my job to comfort and protect you. But it's also my job to keep you by my side at all costs necessary, even force. Now, I didn't lie to you about your grandmother. I just wanted you to know that way if you ever did make it to Florida somehow, you wouldn't be disappointed."

I didn't say anything in response for a while. We just lied there together in the dark for what seemed like hours. Every now and then, Vincent would cuddle me close to his body.

"I love you Nora," he whispered into my ear.

"I chose Jason," I muttered, totally ruining his moment. "Why am I here with you?"

Vincent let out another growl. "Because you're mine," he stated matter-of-factly. "I claimed you first, so that means that I have more of a right to you than he does. And guess what, I decided that I want you and don't feel like sharing. Therefore, Nora Song, I, Vincent Abin, am keeping you all to myself."

"Jason's going to come after you, you know that right?" I questioned, seriously thinking that Vincent was going crazy or something. He and I both know that Jason will stop at nothing to get me back.

"Let him," Vincent snorted. "Not even that so-called alpha can keep me away from you."

Wow that sounded creepy. "How did you manage to sneak into this territory anyway?" I wondered. I've been trying to leave for years, and Vincent succeeded on a whim.

"It was easy," he said. Of course it was. "I just told this territory's alpha that my mate was in danger and I needed to hide somewhere with her where she'd be safe. The alpha agreed on the condition that I be in the omega rank."

It figures that the werewolves in this territory would be persuaded due to some stupid love story. The mating process makes it seem as if these animals are all lovey dovey and all sappy. However, many people seem to forget that they're animals!

Jessie used to rave about how much she wanted to be a werewolf's mate. Well she seemed to forget about how possessive that wolf would be. How much her parents would disapprove of the match, so much as to kick her out of the house. How much trouble she'd get in with the wolf whenever she said or did something that wasn't to his liking. And she forgot about how much it sucks to be tied to some crappy, idiotic animal for the rest of her life.

Now Danni may claim to be in love with her mate. However, Reed controls every aspect of her life. He tells her where to live, when to go to school, what to wear, when to eat, even how to lie down in bed!

Werewolves ruin lives!

I groaned at how crappy my life has become, and all because of a dog named Vincent.

"What's wrong Mate?" he asked.

Ugh. "I fucking hate you," I muttered. "You ruined my life."

Vincent was silent for a while. Then he spoke up. "Well I'm all you have, so you may as well just ditch the attitude because you and I both know it's not helpful to our situation at all."

"Excuse me?" I scoffed, pushing away from him and staring in the direction of his voice. Since when did he get the balls to talk to me like this?

"Nora," Vincent said, obviously irritated, "you need an attitude adjustment. Plain and simple as that."

"There's nothing wrong with my attitude!" I yelled, most likely helping his cause more than mine. Okay fine, I have an attitude problem. But he's worse!

"Yes there is," Vincent laughed. "You see Nora, I had this fantasy ever since I learned about the mating process. I was supposed to find this wonderful woman and she's love me as unconditionally as I her. I'd never have to be lonely again all because she likes to spend time with me. Then we'd get married in a few weeks and live together and maybe even have pups, depending on whether she was a wolf or a human. My mate and I would be madly in love with each other, no matter what."

"That sounds like a really bad chick flick," I groaned.

"Which brings me back to reality," Vincent continued, this time in a serious voice. "I met you Nora, and I immediately fell in love with you, at first sight. As soon as my eyes were on you, I began to hope that my fantasies would come true, that you were the girl of my dreams. I couldn't wait to live with you, to have you in my arms. But instead you ran off. That's when I realized that your parents poisoned your mind with lies about my kind, like many of the humans did to their children when we revealed ourselves."

"So you're saying it's my parents' fault I'm like this?" I asked.

"At first yes," said Vincent, "but as you matured, you should have seen the truth, but you didn't. So I thought to myself that I could do this. All I had to do was show you love and comfort and soon you would come to realize that I wasn't the monster that you made me out to be in your mind. But I was wrong.

"No matter how nice I tried to be, or what I tried to do, you would continue to berate me and push me away!" Vincent started to raise his voice a little and I saw his yellow eyes begin to glow in the dark, staring directly into my face. His grip on me tightened and he pushed his face so close to mine that our noses where touching.

I was super uncomfortable, but remained silent mainly out of fear.

"I love you Nora!" Vincent cried, his frustration making his voice crack. "I love you! I love you! I fucking love you! How many times do you want me to say it before you believe me? No matter what I do, you continue to hate me. That's why I'm so damn possessive! You made those instincts come to life, all because you want to leave me!

"So here I am, practically being forced to kidnap my own mate, just to prove to her that I love her and just to spend some time with her in the hopes that she may someday love me back. Yet you still hate me, making me wonder if I'm wasting my time."

"What are you saying?" I asked. Usually when people mention that they're wasting their time, they quit whatever it is they're doing. Does this Vincent is going to let me go?

Vincent growled. Then he whimpered and finally made this noise like he didn't know how to feel. "If there was no mating pull making me love you, then I would have kicked you to the curb the first time you tried to run," he growled.

"Then do it now!" I cheered. Vincent doesn't want to love me anymore! This is fantastic! He'll let me go!

Vincent snarled. "I can't do that!" he yelled, actually hurting my ears a bit. "The moment I saw you, that was it. I'm tied to you for all eternity, no matter what, I'll always be yours, whether you want me or not. I can't stop my love for you, no matter how much you hurt me. I'll always be crawling back to you.

"Even when you ran off and Jason found you, when I was alone at the house, I tried to forget you. I tried to think about other woman, shoot even porn, but all my thoughts went straight back to you and the need I felt to have you with me. I can't stop thinking about you, no matter how hard I try.

"So it's your fault I'm like this Nora! It's your fault I'm so desperate and clingy and possessive. I just want to keep you, that's all, but you won't let me, hence I resort to other tactics."

"You're crazy," I mused. Seriously, this man is blaming me for all his short-comings in life, saying it's all because I won't love him back.

Vincent huffed. "Tell you what Mate, give me just one week. That's all I ask."

I cocked my eyebrow. "Go on," I urged.

I could tell Vincent smirked because I heard it in his voice when he next spoke. "Give me one week to make you fall in love with me. And if I succeed, then we get married immediately, but if I fail, then I'll personally take you to Florida where you'll never have to see me again...of course I'll still hide in the shadows keeping an eye on you, protecting you and everything. But you'll be free to live your own life and date humans. What do you say?"

Well this is a no-brainer. "Deal," I said. I'm so going to win this bet.