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Dan brushed my hair from my shoulder, his fingers so warm on my skin. His touch was sending shivers through my body. He was tracing a circle on my shoulder. It was so relaxing. His touch, I was getting lost in it.

“Just relax.” Dan’s voice was soft, and it swirled around my ear as he spoke. “Try not to move.”

I frowned, wondering what he was up to. But then I felt it. A small cry of pain escaped my lips. He was biting me! I didn’t have the strength to push him away from me. I was too weak.

Then, just as quick as it happened, it was over. Dan traced the wound with his tongue, before he pulled back and looked me in the eye.

I noticed the glow of possession in his eyes. The darkness within them wasn’t human. It was animal like.

I gasped softly, my heartbeat getting stronger. His eyes, they reminded me of a predator who has just claimed what’s his.

Gulping, I said, “What did you do?” I now felt a new form of strength within me. I was able to pull myself up in bed and, more importantly, away from him. Why was I feeling better? I was on death’s door a few moments ago and now, well now. I felt perfect.

I could make him out perfectly through the shadows of the darkness. “What are you?” I was prepared. I knew he wasn’t human. The look in his eyes told me everything I needed to know. He was, well, I wasn’t sure. “What have you done to me?” I ran my finger over where he had bitten me. The skin was slightly raised where he had left a mark.

“I’m not human.”

“I guessed that part.” My voice was steady but inside I was scared. Scared of what he really was. “What do you want from me?” I was afraid of death, but I was scared of Dan, of what he wanted from me. “Am I still sick?” I felt better, but that was impossible.

“Don’t be scared. I won’t hurt you. You are, well, you are very special to me.”

“Why?” I barely knew him, we had met me what once? Maybe twice.

“I’m a werewolf.” Dan was studying my reaction, but I wasn’t giving him anything. “And you’re my mate.”

“Mate as in soul mate?” My nerves were showing now. Perhaps I had died.

“You aren’t dead, if that is what you are thinking.” Dan sighed and slumped down into an armchair. “This is screwed up,” he muttered more to himself than to me.

I moved uncomfortably on the bed, folding my legs under me. “You’re saying it’s screwed up you just told me you’re a werewolf?”

“Does it scare you?” Dan looked up from his hands.

“Did you save me? From death?”

“I suppose that is one way to look at it.”

“Thank you,” I muttered weakly. What did you say to someone who just saved your life? But more importantly, how did he save me? “What does this mean?”

Was I now his slave forever? Was I going to turn into a werewolf too?

“You are doomed to spend the rest of your life with me.” Dan leaned back in his chair.

“As what? Your slave?” I was scared now. Perhaps death was a better option.

“I’m going to love you for the rest of my life.” Dan got up from the chair and went to stand in front of wide-eyed me. “I know you don’t know me. I know what I have told you tonight is…”

“Unbelievable?” I offered him.

He nodded his head. “But I promise you, Maddison, that I will try my hardest to make you happy.”

“I barely know you.” What else was I meant to say? He was promising me that he would spend the rest of his life making me happy, but he didn’t know me! And on top of that, he is a werewolf? Did he expect me just to take that fact lightly?

“Then let’s change that.” Dan offered me his hand. “Come with me.”

“I can’t leave the hospital.”

“Why?” He smiled weakly at me. “You aren’t sick anymore.”

I had wanted to hear those words for so long, and now that I did it was unbelievable. Standing in front of me was a man promising to spend the rest of his life with me, telling me he was a werewolf, telling me I wasn’t sick anymore.

Should I believe him? Was he really telling the truth? I looked at his hand, and back into his kind eyes and I realized I had nothing to lose. So I took the hand he was offering and just hoped I wasn’t making the worst mistake of my life. Then again, I only had this life thanks to him, so I guess he had a right to it.