I wake up screaming. Bolted up in bed, screaming my lungs dry and hoarse. The pain my back, the sting that assaults my spine, like a knife slicing through my very soul. Doctors are all around me, yelling, shouting, pushing me back down on the hospital bed. But as soon as my raw wounds touch the soft fabric, they're burning in fire. And my screams only grow louder. Tears run down my face, blood and sweat covering my mind, and then it's black again.

This time when I come too, the pain is gone, the world around me slightly fuzzy. I try to focus my vision, which is flashing in and out of focus every few moments. Finally, I focus in on a large being, sitting in a chair in the corner of my hospital room.

"Octavius..." I whisper before I fall back into darkness.

The final time I am back in my room, and my vision is sharp again, the pain subdued but not gone. I raise my hands in front of my face, scarred but moving, my fingers flexing in and out. I am alone in my room, and the coldness of solidarity strikes me with fear.

Where is Octavius? I bolt out of my bed, and stumble out the door, and into the main foyer. And there is a shirtless Octavius, leaning over the kitchen island, his hair disheveled and holding his face in his hands. At my approach, he looks up, his eyes surrounded by sleepless nights and waking nightmares.

"Alessandra." He rushes to me, holding me up on my weak legs. He holds me close but only touches me with his hands, as if he doesn't know if I'm real or not.

"What-" I start.

"When Titan clawed you, he injected you with some kind of wolfsbane, poisoning you. Your immune system was already weak. You almost died... again." He chokes, and lets me go once I steady my legs.

"Octavius-" I begin to reach for him.

"No." He snaps and I freeze. "You blatantly disobeyed me, Alessandra. I ask you to do one thing, to keep you safe, and you disobeyed me. You almost died, Alessandra!" He is shouting now, his eyes widening by the second. His anger only helps to increase mine.

"What did you expect me to do?!" I shout, my pain suddenly forgotten. "Stay here while you go to some unknown place, in danger of god knows what?!"

"Yes!" He shouts back. He steps closer to me, and I stay still, not wanting to provoke him. "I told you to stay here to keep you safe, to make sure that I came home and found you here, alive and healthy." His voice breaks and I can see a million different emotions battling at once behind his eyes.

"I can take care of myself."

"No, you can't. You jumped onto possibly the most dangerous and heartless man in the world, what did you expect to happen?" He advances, and I retreat, slamming my back into the wall and I wince. Octavius flinches slightly but then his anger returns.

"Did you expect him to just, see you and stop? After all the things he was saying about you?"

"To which you did nothing!" I scream back at him.

He freezes for the first time.

"He said those horrible things about me, the man who fucking killed my parents in front of me, the man who killed millions of wolves. He was in front of me, looking at me with the same eyes he had when he killed my parents. Yes, I was impulsive, yes, I disobeyed you. But if you weren't going to at least try to defend me, I was."

"Why won't you let me protect you?" His voice is desperate. "Why do you always run away from my helping hand? Why won't you just let me take care of you?"

"I took care of myself ever since their death. I've kept myself alive all those years. I had to teach myself to be strong. I don't need anyone to take care of me, I don't need anyone." I stop at my last remark, realizing the weight of my words.

He is silent, and he takes a slight step back.

"Octavius-"

"Stop." He runs a hand through his hair, and his face is broken. "You might not need someone, but I do."

And Octavius begins to cry, silent tears sliding down his perfect face. And my heart. Cracks. In half.

"I need you, Alessandra. For the first time, I have someone who I can hold, someone who I can love for the rest of my life, someone who is mine and I am theirs. I so desperately need you, Alessandra."

My heart is silent. Time is an irrelevant being filled with forgotten promises and running hands.

"I don't care if it takes eternity," He begins again, and he is in front of me, holding my face in his hands, and a tear falls onto my cheek and joins my own. "I will wait until you realize that depending on someone is not a weakness. Trust it not just a promise meant to be broken. Until you realize that I love you."

"You don't have to wait anymore." I whisper, and pull his face to mine.

The kiss is sadness and salt, mixed together in a sea of broken dreams. I pull away to breath but he grasps me back to him, as if any point of my body that isn't touching him is a lost piece of me. He holds me like I am a balloon about to fall away into the sky, and I tie myself to him, letting him keep me grounded.

My hands are in his hair and his hands are on my chest, and then my legs, hoisting me up with ease, and I am moving with him, letting him guide us wherever we may go. Our journey is filled with soft sheets and discarded pillows, the wind around us echoing with moans and promises that will never be broken. As our journey ends, and the wind begins to calm, I hold him to me, and whisper.

"I love you, Octavius. I need you, and I trust you. You're mine, and I am yours. And that will never change."