That night, I did not sleep soundly. I tossed and turned, plagued by nightmares.

But, unlike my normal nightmares, these were disjointed, fragmented. Like an event with pieces missing. Usually when you have a nightmare, the flow is smooth, occasionally changing scene. But tonight, my subconscious was jolted around so much that I could barely keep track.

"Put him under!"

"Do you think it'll work? The others all failed"

"-water supply"

The bottles were labelled Dipothemine.

"But he's not ours"

"Never to truly mate"

My nightmares mostly came in the form of images and moving scenes, but occasionally, I'd hear somebody speak. Though I could never see the people speaking, it was as if I was shut in a dark room, being projected the occasional video or picture. And then there was the pain.

A constant, dull ache, followed by sharp, agonising stabs. I felt that same pain all night long, another factor disturbing my rest.

When I finally managed to wake myself up, the first thing I noticed was that I felt extremely cold and I sounded like I was choking. The second thing was that my face felt damp. I brought my fingers to my face, pulling them back to find them covered in a thin layer of water.

Wait, fingers?

I stared at my human hands in shock. Why did I change? I've never changed unintentionally before, let alone in my sleep...

It took me a while to figure out that the choking sounds were coming from me, and even longer for me to realise that I was crying.

I curled up into a tight ball and began to shake and whimper, a small hiccup sometimes escaping my throat. I willed myself to calm down. But my willpower alone wasn't helping.

"Little leopard? Are you okay?" A sleepy voice questioned, but I didn't move from my spot, even when the owner of the voice began to move closer.

Suddenly, a light was blinding me, causing me to curl into an even tighter ball. The owner of the voice -I think it was Chase- gasped.

"Zion! Wake up! He shifted!" He whisper-yelled excitedly, shaking the other vampire's sleeping form.

I began to whimper and tremble even more as I felt myself being scooped up. I squeezed my eyes shut tight, refusing to look.

I'd never felt so cold or so scared in my whole life. The combined impact of the two feelings wouldn't allow my body to stop trembling. I didn't trust the two people before me, yet my leopard was purring from Chase's touch whilst I sobbed softly and froze in fear, my body tensing up.

"You're beautiful" Chase hummed at the same time Zion said "he's hot"

I slowly opened my eyes to see Chase scowling at Zion, causing me to let out a small giggle, which surprised us all.

"Can you tell us your name now? I'm sure you would rather we call you by your name" Chase asked after a moment of silence.

I frowned, trying to remember. What did others call me? F- fa...

"Fabian" I answered softly, meeting his gaze for the first time in my human form.

"Wow, your eyes are so pretty, Fabian..." he murmured, testing my name. The sound of my name rolling off his tongue sent pleasant shocks through me, and suddenly I no longer felt scared.

I felt my body go limp as Chase lifted me so he could nuzzle his face into my neck, taking in my scent. He looked puzzled, before sharing a look with his brother.

"It's almost the same"

I looked over at Zion, who was now frowning. "How do you mean?"

Chase sighed, pulling away from me and placing me down gently. "It's not the same exact scent, but like him, it's hard to smell his leopard when he's in human form, but you can detect both the other way around, when he's a leopard"

"Do you think he's had the same thing done to him?" Zion asked, sounding genuinely concerned, a hint of anger lacing his tone. Chase nodded slowly.

"Ex-excuse me, but w-what do you mean?" I croaked, not used to using my human voice, fumbling over my words.

Chase just shook his head in response. "If we're right, you'll find out on your own in due time"

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