Maeve always knew she didn't have the best luck. When one of her siblings jumped over a river with one long jump, Maeve fell into the cold river in the middle of hers. But now when she is standing as pale as a sheet in the middle of a secluded hallway when a pair of grey eyes are staring at her angrily.

Today was definitely not the best day for her.

Even the child was gone. Maybe she can hear Maeve if she screams loud enough? She truly hoped so but knew even if Sera could hear her she wouldn't come. After all, she is a weird human who is standing ten feet away from the king of werewolves.

"F-from who?" She muttered although she knew the answer. She smelled like Ethen.

He didn't say anything. He just stood there and watched as the damsel tried to relax. It was obvious that she had some breathing problems and that she would have a heart attack soon.

This was the first time they looked at each other's eyes since the kiss. Even the thought of it made Maeve feel dizzy. Maybe if she passed out she could get away from the consequences of smelling like Ethen?

His eyes were even more grey than she remembered. They reminded her of a storm that brought down trees and made floods. In some light, you could see a hint of a dark blue in them. She truly adored his eyes and wished that she could have them.

She didn't want to be afraid of him. She's sick of being afraid of everything and everyone. She wants to be herself without shuttering or trembling. The human wanted to do it for Cory.

Okay, she can do it. Take a deep breath and say it, you can do it Maeve. "I w-want to bury her."

Dominic's facial expression didn't change, he didn't give any emotion slip through his face. Emotions are weaknesses.

"No." A simple answer that crushed the human's heart. How can someone be so heartless?

"I'm going to b-bury her and you can't do a thing to c-change it." She didn't know where she got the strength to say that, but deep inside of her she felt like she owned it to Cory. Maeve can and will give her the proper goodbyes from this world to another.

He continued to stare at her. He noticed how she kept gulping and scratching her arms. She is showing him how weak she is. He smirked.

Suddenly Maeve felt weird. Her breathing got quicker and her nipples hardened that she could feel them brush the fabric of her corset painfully. A sweet color of red spread to her cheeks and she turned to look at her feet.

'Just take a deep breath and demand to hold the burial', she told herself. Maybe she is just getting sick. Yes, that must bee it because she has never felt this way before and it is some kind of shapeshifter disease.

Maeve started panicking. If it is a werewolf disease what will it do to a human? If she would be a wall of muscle maybe then and only then she would survive, but she looks more like a stick someone could snap in half.

Why couldn't the disease wait for few more days? Why did it have to happen right now when she is with him?

She can't show him that she is sick. She needs to pretend to be the woman her mother was; strong and fearless. That is when she felt something wet down there. She blushed even more.

No, Maeve thought she couldn't let the sickness prevent her from burying Cory. She needs to focus on her friend and at her funeral. Not in the situation she is with the sexiest man she has ever seen and in her sickness.

"W-where is her body?"

"Why stutter?"

Maeve took a deep breath and promised to herself that is she will survive she will stop stuttering. Then no one could ever mock her again from it. She wouldn't be afraid of them anymore.

Dominic clenched his jaw. He saw how his mate was acting weird, even for her but then he smelled it. The little damsel was aroused.

Maeve lifted her chin and waited for an answer. But when no one answered she looked straight into the eyes of the beast. The lovely grey color she loved was long gone and replaced by black eyes that stared at her like she was a prey and he a predator.

Maeve gulped.

Maybe she shouldn't have asked about the body of her friend. She had never seen someone's eyes looking like that and now a weird kind of smirk appeared on his face. Apparently, the topic of the dead maid was sensitive to him.

But for some weird reason, Maeve couldn't look away. Even though he scared at her right now he was still mesmerizing. She felt her hands shaking, but she didn't want to give up. She promised herself that she wouldn't be afraid of him anymore, she was sick of it.

The human didn't want to be a little mouse anymore. She wanted to be herself.

While Maeve kept staring at him with her large eyes Dominic wished that she would one in her life run. He didn't know how long he could control the beast inside of him. The beast only had one thing in his head, her.

He fisted his hands. His nails pressing on the palm of his hands almost breaking the skin. It already put his beast on the edge of smelling Ethen on her, but this was too much. She looked like a little Bambi with her long legs and big doll eyes. If fate really had to give him a mate, why couldn't she be an ugly one?

She looked at him wondering what is going on? Yes, maybe she did throw him off the edge by asking about Cory, but now he looks like he is going to attack her. Maybe she should leave him alone and go to try to find Tommy, but something inside of her didn't allow that to happen.

"I wanna k-know where she is? She was and will always be my friend Dominic." She knew that his birth name is Dominic, but hadn't heard anyone call him that. It always made her wonder is there some reason why no one uses his name.

At the moment she said his name every little string snapped that kept him still.

"I loved her." She mumbled and turned to look at him and screamed.

The look on his face was something that shouldn't be in this world. It scared her so much that she had to run away. Every cell in her body was screaming her to run and hide. She didn't care about her promise anymore, she wanted to live and the beast behind her didn't seem to want it too.

Maeve lifted her dress that she could run faster. Why did she have to try to be brave? No one will ever think her of something else than a small scared squirrel. Ugh, she hated herself so much at that moment. Her lungs were screaming for mercy and her heart beating like never before.

But she knew she couldn't stop. The beast would kill her if she did.

Oh, God.

She turned to look back where she came from and sped up even more. When she ran away from him, he just stood there and watched but now he had started to go after her.

The human wanted to scream and curse to herself, why on earth did she have to be so stupid? She had to poke the bear with a stick and now it's after her. Her mother would have a heart attack if she would see her now and Maeve doesn't blame her. She is going to have a heart attack too if she doesn't stop running.

An angry growl echoed in the hallway.

Maeve turned to look at him and speed up. "Ouch!" She screamed when she dripped on a matt and fell on the cold ground. Her thin cotton dress didn't warm her much, but the redness in her cheeks seemed to warm her more than necessary.

A pair of shoes were soon in front of her.

She didn't want to look up. Her mother always warned her from looking eye to eye with a beast. But that is what she exactly did a few minutes ago. She cursed in her mind even more. Why couldn't she just stay in her room after Ethen left? Now she smelled like him in front of her own mate, who happens to look like a creature from hell right now.

The human took a deep breath and looked into his black eyes. Now that he was close to her he was even more terrifying to look at. Her entire body was shaking with fear and the redness in her cheeks was long gone. She looked more like a ghost.

The beast looked at his mate. So fragile and scared. It is a miracle that she has survived so long in a word where humans have no value.

He could still smell her arousal and saw her nipples through the thin fabric of her dress. She looked like a scared deer but at the same time, her body wanted him just as much as he wanted her. He felt a bulge forming in his pants.

A window next to them was open and a wind blew inside of the castle making it even colder. The wind made Maeve's hair flew all around her head making her pale neck stand out.

His eyes were on her neck.

"P-please." She pleaded. It was like she could read his mind. She saw what will happen soon and in some weird way, it didn't mind her as much as she thought. She is truly getting sick from the coldness, this isn't her. It's like some weird demon has possessed her.

He stood there like waiting for her to stand up, to face him.

Maeve stared at him for a while before putting her legs in the ground to stand. Her left knee was bruised and it was bleeding, but she didn't care, maybe it was the adrenaline. She leaned to his shoulder when she stood up. Her entire left leg didn't want to cooperate with her so she fell onto his arms.

Her heart literally stopped.

His strong arms were around her. She could feel his intense breathing on her scalp. In some weird way, it made her feel safe and calm. No one has ever held her like this if you don't count her mother, but that is different. She wanted to nuzzle to his chest and never leave. He didn't any longer seem like a beast, he seemed like a normal man.

She really needed this. Since the death of Cory, she hasn't had had anyone to hug her. Anyone to comfort her when she is crying or feeling like a big pile of shit. Maeve is sure that she and the king will not become the best friends that tell all their secrets to each other. It is just this moment and then they will go back to their normal lives, him trying to kill her and her trying to survive in the castle full of shapeshifters.

Maeve peeped as Dominic threw her over his shoulder and started to walk away from the cold and windy hallway. She didn't know how to react. Should she start to punch him in his back and scream to him to let her go? Should she just hang in there like a sack of potatoes and wonder what is going to happen? Or the last one where she stares at his behind?

She sneezed.

Not that it was planned and that he would realize that she exists and is a living person. She sneezed like a kitten in the middle of the winter.

Maeve wanted to see his eyes. If they were back on the beautiful grey that she loved or are they still black and looking like a creature from hell.

Her stomach started to hurt from the hard shoulder under her and her head was turning red from all the blood that was pouring into her head. She was going to say to him that he needs to let her walk or because she isn't feeling well but then he threw her on something soft.

Maeve's eyes were blurry so it took a while for her to see where she is. She blushed and her heart stopped where she truly was laying.

While he was opening his shirt and drinking some of that red liquid, Maeve was laying on his bed.