"He did what?!" Octavius growls. He throws his towel on the floor, which he had been using to dry his hair, and he dressed quicker than superman.

I get to my feet quickly, my wet hair slapping against my back as I stand.

"Octavius, where are you going?" I ask, racing up to him and grabbing his forearm, forcing him to look at me. His eyes are blazing and I can feel the muscles in his arm rippling under my touch. Droplets fall from his hair and almost land on my cheek.

"To beat some sense into that son of a bitch." He begins to storm out of the room and I chase after him, tailing him closely.

"Octavius, please, calm down!" I plead with him but he pays me no mind as he slams into the door of Dr. Sanchez' office, nearly breaking the door off its hinges. Doctor Sanchez stands up quickly from his desk, nearly falling out of his chair in the process.

He looks like a deer in headlights.

"Alpha-" He starts, but Octavius lands right in front of him, grabbing him by his shirt collar and hoisting him into the air, meeting him at eye-level. I have never seen someone of Doctor Sanchez' age with this look in his eye: as if he was about to wreck his pants.

"How. Dare. You." Octavius grinds out, his voice completely deadly.

And in this moment, this second. I am afraid of what he might do.

"Please, Alpha, I don't-"

"Don't give me those lies!" Octavius' voice is not his own, monstrous and like...like Titan's. Oh my god...

"You could have driven her to a mental break!" His face is turning redder by the moment and I can't recognize the man in front of me and tears are streaming down my face and I don't know how to react.

I don't want to believe that this is happening.

"Octavius, STOP!" I scream at him, but he doesn't even turn to me.

"Quiet!" Octavius barks back at me and I freeze.

And like the defiant brat I am, I disobey.

"Put him down!"

"What did I just tell you? Shut your mouth, or I'll do it for you!"

My jaw drops to the floor. Octavius has never barked at me. Never shouted at me. Never even raised his voice.

He doesn't look like my mate, my love...he looks like his father.

"Y-y-you t-t-told me to d-d-do a therapy s-s-s-ession." Doctor Sanchez sound like a broken and scratched record, that Octavius is ready to shatter in half.

"Well, now you'll need therapy after I bust your skull in!" Octavius reels his hand back and I panic and I don't know what to do so I just ....

...I just scream. I scream I scream I scream and I shut my eyes and the sound of my shriek is demonic like a banshee, and I thought I had shattered every window in the entire mansion with that one, continuous, noise of sheer terror.

When I stop, the room is so silent that all you can hear is the echo of my shriek in the walls.

When I open my eyes, Doctor Sanchez is on the floor, unharmed. He scoots back furiously, backing himself into a corner as if he's trying to disappear into thin air.

The space around me is charged like gold and I slowly turn to meet the gaze of the man I don't know.

His eyes are glowing gold, crimson and black, and his expression is that of sheer shock and horror. Not at me, but at himself. I can't speak. I can't. I just can't.

I hate the feeling burning in my chest and in my brain and in my soul.

The feeling of pure agony and fear. Of my mate.

No one speaks for what seems like years, eons, seconds. No one moves.

I am a statue of glass that could break at the touch of a single white feather.

The door bursts open and several men storm in, scanning around the room, going back and forth between Doctor Sanchez, Octavius, and I.

"Luna, Alpha, is everything alright?" A blonde guard asks, and I don't bother to turn to him when I respond:

"No."

"Alpha-" He begins to move towards Octavius, but Octavius flinches away from him, staring directly at his hands, his eyes as wide as saucers.

In that moment...I knew he felt my fear. I knew he was terrified of himself.

I knew he despised himself. But he couldn't take it back.

"Octavius-" I say, knowing, sensing his next move.

But I'm too late, as he turns on his heels and bolts out of the room. I follow him desperately down the hall, down the steps.

But I'm too late.

As Octavius shifts and disappears into the blackening woods.