"I think she's dead."

"She can't be dead, she's clearly still breathing, moron."

"It's been a week now, I think it is safe to say that even if she was still breathing she can be dead."

"That doesn't even make any sense."

"Death doesn't have to make sense!"

My eyes were closed but I could suddenly hear two voices bickering back and forth begin to register. As I was able to hear their voices, I was also able to start to feel again and my entire body was exceptionally sore and my eyes felt like a million tons were weighing them down. It was like I was slowly emerging from this dense fog and stepping into the light.

I groaned as I attempted to open my eyes from my coma-esque state of sleep, the pair of voices gasped aloud.

"I told you she wasn't dead."

That was the first voice I heard earlier, a girl's voice.

"Shut up, Francis."

And that had to be the other voice I heard, this was the guy she'd been arguing with.

"We need to call Healer Maina, Amias." The girl, Francis I think, instructed quickly. As she spoke I felt a hand gently touch my wrist, pressing against my vein to take my pulse.

Amias, I definitely recognized that name. He scoffed loudly, "I'm a healer-in-training I think--"

Francis must have whacked him because Amias' voice was cut off after I heard a thud of contact. "Exactly, you're still in training. So, until you're not in training, go get Healer Maina."

Amias grumbled under his breath and stomped out of the room. It was then when I found the ability to pry my eyes open. The searing light from the room flooded my vision and immediately made me regret my efforts.

I tried to push myself up off of the surface I found myself lying on when I realized that it was a bed that I was on. I was in a bed in a room that very much resembled a hospital room. "Where the hell am I?"

My voice came out course like a bizarre combo of a prepubescent teenaged boy eating sand paper. It caused Francis to flinch and spin around to face me, shock evident across her features as she stared down at me wide eyed.

Francis stayed there like that, just looking at me in shock for a few seconds longer before she regained control of her composure. She cleared her throat, her lanky figure looked strange in the small room only adding to the discomfort I was sensing, "My name's Francis, I'm your guard here."

I furrowed my brow and once more attempted to adjust myself into a sitting position and when I failed because my body was still operating sluggishly, I threw my hands up in frustration only to have them be roughly yanked back down. I stared down at my wrists noticing for the first time, slender metal cuffs encircling each of my hands with the other end being attached to the sides bed.

When I looked back up at Francis her eyes darted away from mine, obviously not wanting to have the conversation as to why I was chained to the mother f:cking hospital bed. Guards even in my pack were never much talkers.

Naturally, I was literally about to lose my sh:t when the door to the room was thrown open and a very angry Matteo stormed into the small space. He was followed by an tiny, older woman who immediately went over to me and began poking and prodding at my various injuries. Francis took the opportunity to skirt out of the room.

His fury was met equally by my own. With every fiber of my being, I hated him but Matteo ignored my silent fuming and turned towards the woman, "I want her back under, Maina." He growled out as he paced at the foot of the bed, ignoring me completely.

"No, no, no, no, nope, not a chance. You can't just knock me out!" I exclaimed, seeing Matteo was enough apparently to sober me up completely from my hazy state.

Maina, who must have been the healer Amias and Francis were talking about, looked at me for the first time since beginning her check up. Like actually looked at me, the kind of look someone gives you when they are really seeing and hearing you. It's a look of validation and understanding, a silent gift to me that I hadn't experienced since this entire mess had taken place.

She tucked her long grey hair behind an ear and turned away from me, facing Matteo in all of his smoldering rage. "She is right, Alpha. I'm not going to sedate her."

He barked out a laugh, "Like hell you aren't." When Maina made no move to follow his orders he snarled lowly under his breath, "There's plenty of others in your program who I'm sure would be more than willing to comply."

Maina shook her head, "Tell her, you know that you have to, Alpha."

Matteo was obviously quite stubborn, he wasn't enjoying the lack undivided obedience by Maina that he was usually accustomed to by every other member in his pack. He stood there before me unmoving.

What the hell did he have to a say me? And why the hell did he think I was going to listen?

Maina rolled her eyes and with an exasperated sigh she crossed the room and took Matteo by the wrist holding his hand up in front of me. I immediately jerked away from the sudden motion but she kept his arm like that and after a moment I leaned forward to peer at whatever she was wanting me to see.

It was about his knuckles. They were still as bloody and beat up as when I had noticed them earlier that day, it was nothing remarkable. Matteo jerked his hand out of her grasp and folded his muscled arms across his chest and I looked up at Maina perplexed.

"It's been seven days exactly since you arrived here." Maina began slowly, ready to gauge my reaction.

Seven. Days.

I had been unconscious for an entire week. He had kept me sedated for seven whole days! To say I was furious was the biggest understatement of all time.

Despite the obvious injuries littering my body and despite the handcuffs chaining me to the bed, I lunged forward. Matteo didn't even flinch, he knew I wasn't going anywhere and he was right. As soon as I sprung forward I was thrown back into the bed by the cuffs.

"You drugged me for seven days straight and you think you can just keep sedating your problems away? Well f:ck you, you're dealing with me and you're dealing with what you've done form here on out." I folded my own arms across my chest, my stance mirroring his position at the foot of my bed.

Maina waved her hands in the air and put herself between the bed and Matteo in an attempt to separate us, "Enough!" She stood parallel now allowing herself a view over both of us, "Since you two came into contact, Alpha Matteo has been unable to heal himself."

I frowned immediately, there was no way that this was my fault. I mean, how twisted would that be? After destroying my pack and effectively killing the vast majority of it's inhabitants, attacking and abducting me, Matteo wanted to continue my torture by projecting the blame of his problems onto me? It only further instilled my assertion that Matteo truly was the scum of the earth.

"Essentially, I believe that the extreme actions he took against your pack and subsequently yourself has lead his wolf into reclusion." She attempted to further elaborate the theory she'd put together.

Matteo sighed and rolled his shoulders back, visibly trying to relax his hulking form. "Taking over packs is what I do, it is what makes Malice, Malice. It's our normal. But, according to Maina and just about every d:mn healer known to mankind, they all believe that somehow because it was the pack of my mate and because my actions...supposedly harmed you...Basically my wolf is really angry with me."

I chose to ignore his little comment about "supposedly" hurting me. I could only deal with so much bullish:t at a time and my meter was already dangerously maxed out at this point.

"I still don't see how any of this directly pertains to me, you can't heal yourself with your super werewolf speed," I shrugged tauntingly, "Cool, neither can I and the dozens of others you murdered in my pack!" I didn't give a sh:t if his wolf was p:ssed off at him, that sounded like a personal issue he and his wolf needed to resolve. It wasn't my responsibility to fix this for him, I owed Matteo nothing.

His eyes darkened and the veins in his arms became definitely more apparent than just seconds ago. Luckily for me, Maina cleared her throat and diverted the tension in the room. "You two need to become true mates, Matteo's wolf needs to be convinced of the bond before it is too late."

That definitely piqued my interest, I leaned forward with a smile on my face. "What happens if it is too late?"

Main looked solemnly over at Matteo, "If you can't reestablish the mate bond in time, his wolf will disappear altogether. With every passing moment, Alpha's wolf draws farther away which means losing self regenerative healing is just one of the first things to go, it'll only get worse from here on out until you two repair what has been broken."

There was an eery silence that fell over the room, I looked between Maina and Matteo before busting out laughing. The Healer sighed clearly tired with the entire situation, wiping her hands on the small apron she wore. Maina gave a final look in our direction before she left the room without another word.

I was the first to speak.

"You and your healer are out of your minds." I moved to run a hand through my hair but again my hands were loudly barred from any such motion. "If you think I'm going to help you after what you did, you're not only crazy but exceptionally stupid..."

As I raved, Matteo made his way over to me. My speech quieted to a stop with every step he took closer to me, I feared the worst in the moment but to my surprise he reached down and unlocked both of my wrists from the hand cuffs.

There was a single chair in the room and Matteo dragged it to the side of my bed where he smoothly sat himself down. He sighed, his fists were clenched at his sides for a moment before they twined frustratedly through his dark hair.

"I need you to tell me what I can do," He trailed off and released his hands from his hair, "We have to restore our mate bond so you need to tell me whatever I have to do to get you on board with this."

He wasn't used to being in this position that much was clear. It was foreign even for me to see him so vulnerable before me, this was not the Matteo I was used to. His voice was considerably softer and seeing him sitting in the chair beside my bed made him seem more real. The man sitting anxiously beside me was a stark contrast to the monster cornering me in the alleyway at school.

While his change was evident, I wasn't going to be swayed just because he was acting like he was supposed to be behaving in the first place. But, I couldn't lie, his proposition did interest me. What could he do for me?

First and foremost, I couldn't really complete the mate bond with his wolf because my own wolf was incognito. It's different if a human and a wolf are put together because the human doesn't have a dormant wolf pent up inside of her like I do, they are able to still be mates. Me, on the other hand, because I was born a werewolf and not a human I couldn't just go ahead and mate because I was lacking the instincts I should have been born with.

It's all very confusing but basically even if I wanted to, I couldn't fix what Matteo was asking of me but the beauty of it was that Matteo didn't know that. He had no idea that there was really no way to save his wolf at this point which honestly made me feel so good. It's what he deserves but since he was unaware, I still had the upper hand. I could request anything from him, any ridiculous, impossible thing and Matteo would be forced to make it happen. Alpha's were nothing without their wolves and based off of the concerned lines marring his features, it was something Matteo was very much attuned to.

Now I just had to think of something stupidly impossible, a demand that was going to be so difficult and annoying while still managing to benefit me in the end. I rubbed my aching wrists as I thought when the idea hit me.

"Help me find my father and I'm all yours."