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"Shit." He cursed then.

"I'm your mate, aren't I?" She asked then, her heart in her throat, beating wildly. "That is why all this is happening, right?"

The silence that followed that question was deafening. It stretched...and only lengthened.

Ismena waited him out patiently, her eyes never leaving his face.

"Yes." He said, at last, uncrossing his arms. He walked to the nearest window and looked out to the wilds that are the only view the window oversees.

Oh my God. She staggered back.

No matter how true she'd expected it to be, it didn't prepare her for his admission.

"Were you ever going to tell me?" She let out in a whisper, her throat dry like sandpaper.

"No."

It hurt. It wasn't supposed to, but it did. "Why?"

"Because I have no intentions of ever taking a mate. Not you or anybody else. I do not want a mate. I do not want a child." Each word was clipped and hard.

"Why?"

"I love my life the way it is."

"What about me? I'm going to die, Wolfariane. Your touch keeps me alive. I've felt better than I have in a long time and it is all because of you."

"Alphose returned today from New York with your pills. The next time he wakes, I will get the information about where the pills are and give them to you."

"Those pills are not going to keep me alive, Wolfariane. I need to stay alive! Please, if there is a way for me to stay alive, can't you help me?" She asked, suddenly desperate when it finally dawned on her that she can have real hope...she can hold onto real hope...!

This man can make her live! "I don't want to die! Please, I don't want to die!"

He whirled around and looked her in the eyes then, "I am not mating with you, Ismena. Not even to save your own life." He said in that calm, deadly tone of his.

This time around, it hurt more than the very first time.

Her heart felt like a train was running over it so ruthlessly. Her eyes watered, which she didn't expect.

When she blinked and felt the tears, it made her angry.

"Do you hate humans that much? Do you hate me that much?" She whispered, swallowed to wet her dry throat.

A muscle ticked in his jaw. He turned away from her and faced the window again, "Do you have any idea that I almost killed you today?"

"When I threw myself on yo—"

"Not only that time. I was the 'lion' that gave you a chase." He revealed then, "You remember, don't you?"

How can she ever forget? Just the remember has the fear creeping up her spine. And he just said...

"That was you?" She asked disbelievingly, her eyes wide.

"Yes." He stated firmly, "Alphose was the other 'lion' that followed but he wasn't trying to attack you, instead, he was trying to stop me from killing you."

"You were g-going to k-kill me?" She swallowed again.

"I was going to shred you to pieces, eat your flesh and chew on your bone for days to come." He said, bluntly.