Being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure.

Bob Marley

"If you want to beat me up, I would appreciate it if you can wait for a few days," Luke said softly when he could hear Ollie step in the living room.

He was sitting next to Daphne's head, not touching her. He didn't deserve to touch her.

Not if he had already managed to hurt her like this, to treat her like this.

He had forced the transformation onto her, regardless of what his father had said. Maybe she would have survived without his bite...now she needed to deal with it. Now she would become a wolf just like him.

And the worst part was that a small part of him was pleased by that. He had sired her when would always be a werewolf that would be created through his saliva even when she would refuse him as her mate.

Her scent had shifted slightly already. Still sweetness and warmth but now also the undercurrent that made it clear that she was, in fact, a werewolf.

And the change was taking slowly but surely. She was feverish, sweat clinging to her face, her hands clenched in the bedding.

Ollie's snort pulled him out of his thoughts as he sat down opposite him.

"I am not going to beat you up. It wouldn't really make an impact if we both know that you would win if you actually put your mind to it," Ollie told him with a long-suffering sigh.

Luke could just chuckle drily at that. "I am sorry," he apologised, growing serious again.

"I know," Ollie gave back. "Thank you. You saved her life, Luke," Ollie told him and he wanted to protest.

"You did. It was your bites that stopped the bleeding in the end," Matthew gave back gently as he walked over to them, kneeling next to Daphne.

Luke watched how he touched her forehead and then checked her wounds with the knowledgeable hands of a doctor.

A shiver run through Daphne when she whimpered softly.

"She's running a fever but she will be fine," Matthew explained softly. "Just let her sleep for the night. Ollie, will you put on a fire, please?" He asked of his son as he took the blanket from the back of the couch and put it over Daphne that continued to shake.

"I am going to get down our mattress in a bit...I think we'll all feel better if we are close to her," Matthew continued.

Grace came in the room as well then, sitting next to Daphne,

"Did Dad..." she asked Luke hesitantly but he just nodded. He knew exactly what Grace was asking about without her spelling it out.

"He's said he would take care of it," Luke answered.

He kept sitting there, unmoving, even when Grace and Ollie let him alone after a little while. He tended to the fire, keeping it burning, hoping that maybe the heat would help her.

The shivers that ran through her didn't subside, her teeth starting to chatter as well. The sounds were horrid to him, together with the rattle in her lungs with every breath she took.

By now it wasn't the fear of her dying anymore. She would be fine. Somehow.

The change was taking and a werewolf would be able to survive what happened to her easily. It would never have happened to her in the first place if she had been a werewolf. Even as tiny as she was, Daphne would have been able to kick the living daylights out of Kyle if she had the strength of a werewolf.

There was no need to think about this. And it wasn't going to help against the agitated wolf in the back of his head that wanted nothing more than to make Kyle feel just as scared and terrified as Daphne must have been.

Luke would give everything to inflect even a tiny amount of the pain that Daphne had felt onto kyle. He deserved it. He deserved so much worse but Luke wouldn't do anything. He wouldn't be able to keep himself in check, he was very much aware of that.

"Here, Lucas." His mother put a plate with six sandwiches and a glass of milk next to his knee and he looked up from his vigil when she sat down next to him, gently pulling Daphne's blankets higher around her.

"Are you angry at me too?" He asked her with a soft sigh but she just shook her head, nearly amused before sobering.

"No," she answered with a sigh. "I wish you had told me earlier. I understand your reasoning though."

Then she looked at Daphne again, a soft smile on her face as she brushed her hair out of her face. "You got lucky, she's very pretty," she told him with a wink and he snorted.

"She's beautiful," he corrected his mother who laughed gently before she touched his cheek.

"I love you, Lucas. And whatever happens, you will always have us."

"I love you too, mom," he gave back, leaning into the touch, for a moment closing his eyes.

He had his family, his pack. He was always going to have this. And he wasn't going to fuck this up with Daphne. She was too important to fail. Failure was not an option. Not for this.

"She's going to love you too, you know that, right?" His mother said softly and he couldn't help but smile.

"God I hope so," he whispered. He hoped that so much.

"She will. She will adore you," his mother said with conviction and for a moment Luke allowed himself to believe that.

To believe that all was going to be alright, that Daphne was not going to hate him for changing her, was not going to hate him for pushing all of this on her in the situation she was currently in.

He was so looking forward to seeing her shifted, see what colour her wolf would end up being. Would she be black like him? Grey? Brown? Would she stay small like she currently was or would her wolf be bigger?

Luke couldn't wait for that. He wanted that. He wanted her at his side, running through the forest, maybe even in the winter, a crisp white snowfall, a full moon illuminating the forest...he wanted that.

Even when a full moon didn't force a transformation...shifting with it on the horizon was special.

He looked outside when he heard a noise from the forest, a howl. His uncle? It sounded like Drew.

Still, the knowledge that another wolf was near his mate, even when it was pack, even then...it put Luke on edge and brought the wolf too close to the surface for his liking.

He carefully touched the blankets, pulled them tighter over Daphne's body. He stood up then, careful not to disturb her.

"Where are you going?" Ollie asked him, sticking out his head from the kitchen.

"I am going to sleep outside," He answered calmly. Outside. In his wolf form. And if anybody dared to get close to her, they were going to regret it.

"I am sure we can scrounge up another mattress, Luke," Caroline said softly but he shook his head.

"If something happens, I to be able to protect her."

***

Daphne didn't know what woke her.

She was comfortable for the first time in weeks, her back didn't feel like it was on fire anymore and she was...she was safe.

She was cold as well, so very cold and couldn't hold back another shiver from running over her body and tried to pull the blankets higher.

Suddenly a noise came through. Like a step but softer. A creak of wood.

Daphne opened her eyes.

She didn't know where she was. But that wasn't the problem.

She opened her eyes and looked straight into a pair of amber coloured eyes.

She stared, for a moment frozen into place.

So was the... that these eyes belonged to.

He was .

He was .

He was away from her. The only thing between them a thin glass door.

Amber eyes stared at her and he didn't move a single muscle. She stared at him. And then she saw the in his mouth, blood dripping down onto the porch and she screamed.

A scream tore out of her throat even when she was already curling together and bracing for impact.

She had never in her life felt fear like in that moment. Not when she expected him to jump at her and kill her, behead her just as he had done to these poor rabbits.

There was a noise behind her, voices, cursing.

"Daphne!" Her aunt was there, touching her and the screams stopped replaced by hysterical sobbing.

"I'll go after him," Ollie whispered and Daphne tried to reach for her cousin, tried to stop him from going after the monster that was waiting outside for him.

"No, no, no, Ollie!" She brought out, crying hysterically, her aunt cradling her and gently rocking her.

"Shhhh, Honey, you are safe, you are okay....all good," Caroline whispered, pressing a kiss against her forehead.

"Wo...wolf," she brought out, crying like a child, unable to form the words, sobs shaking her body while her aunt was cradling her.

"I know, I know," Caroline whispered, gently rocking her and her hands fisted in her aunts top, burying her face in her neck, still sobbing hysterically.

Fear was gripping her with an ice-cold hand and she couldn't...she couldn't.

"You are safe, Daphne," Matthew repeated gently, somewhere on her side, his hand gently carding through her hair. "Nobody is going to hurt you. Not anymore. Nobody is going to hurt you, I promise."

"W...W...Wolf." She pressed out again.

What if it was going to hurt her ? What if it was just ? What if it was right at that moment?

"The wolf won't hurt you. You are safe here," Matthew repeated softly. But it didn't help. Nothing seemed to help.

Breathing became difficult when she thought about the , that , the , a with a bloody dead animal in his mouth, on the porch just feet away from her family, just feet away from them all in their sleep.

"Honey..." Caroline said trying to calm her but it didn't help. Breathing was difficult, she didn't feel like she became enough oxygen even when she started to pull in breath after breath, quicker and .

"Daphne, Daphne, look at me. You are safe," Matthew said soothingly but at that time she was already too far gone to even listen to anything else but the rushing of her own blood in her ears, feel the ice-cold grip of fear around her lungs that made it impossible to breathe.

"I am going to give you something. It's going to make you sleepy. Caroline won't go anywhere, I promise. You are safe, sweetie," her uncle continued. She felt the prick of a needle in the crook of her elbow and then...suddenly, she felt like she could breathe again.

She pulled in a greedy breath of air, her hands being taken in Matthew's.

"Take a deep breath, Daphne," he commanded. She obeyed, breathing in greedily. She felt light-headed and closed her eyes, her body slumping together. "In...and out. There you go."

The breathing became easier and bone-deep exhaustion set in.

Caroline pulled her to lay down again, holding her while Daphne still breathed harshly. Her aunt gently petted her hair, humming in the back of her throat.

"You are , honey. I am not going anywhere," she promised gently.

Daphne believed her.

***

Her scream was the thing that shook him out of his animalistic instincts and right back into his human mindset again.

Suddenly he was standing on the Matthew's and Caroline's porch, two rabbits in his jaw, blood dripping down onto the porch and his mate was screaming bloody murder.

.

Probably because of his own bloody murder.

He let the rabbits fall out of his mouth, scrambling backwards, down the porch to somewhere where she wouldn't be able to see him.

That really couldn't have gone any , could it?

*Fuck, Luke, you scared the living daylights out of her,* Ollie snorted just moments later, appearing between the trees while Luke was staring forlornly in the direction of the house and was cursing himself out. *I take it you weren't actually aware that you became a rabbit hunting serial killer,* Ollie said, sounding decisively amused, a sentiment that Luke wasn't sharing at all. *I am never going to let you hear the end of it. For once let your instincts take over.*

Normally Luke had an iron grip on his instincts. Everything so that his wolf wasn't going to come to the surface. He buried it deep under an easy-going demeanour. He was an alpha and that could become overpowering to people easily. So he kept the wolf as far locked inside himself as he could.

*I thought letting the wolf take over would help with the raging instincts," Luke defended himself, even more amusement pouring from Ollie as a result of that.

*You did go with your instincts alright. Beheaded rabbits though? Buy a girl some flowers first,* Ollie advised him with a laugh.

*He wanted...she needs to * Luke growled back mentally. She was too thin. She needed the .

And rabbits were plentiful and easily available. He could probably be thankful that the wolf hadn't decided that a mountain lion was the way to go.

*And she will. She probably also would have eaten far quicker if you didn't push her straight into a panic attack though.*

He cursed in his head. Loudly.

*Hey, don't go straight into self-loathing. Give her some time...and you probably also just pushed the whole werewolf conversation straight onto tomorrow...or later today, it's morning already,* Ollie continued, growing serious.

*She is going to hate me,* Luke huffed but Ollie just sighed.

*You don't know that. Give her a chance to form her own opinion. This is a lot...and with everything that happened before...* Ollie said softly, the wolf burying his claws in the forest floor.

*If her mother wasn't already dead, I would want to have a go at her," Luke growled.

Her mother. If Michelle Emerson wouldn't be 6 foot under at that moment, Luke would want to kill her himself.

"Since when are you so bloodthirsty?" Ollie tried to joke but Luke just looked at him.

"Since I saw my mate bathed in blood with bruises on every square inch of her and cigarette marks on her legs," Luke gave back calmly. Ollie just sighed at that but Luke knew that his friend was angry in his own way.

Angry about a lot of things...but to know that his had hurt another member of his pack...that would be a feeling of unlike any other.

Luke stayed in the forest until the sun had risen high and he knew it must be around 8 before he finally ran home, not before making sure that Sebastian and Andrew were both near the Hyde's House.

He was not going anywhere near her in his form right now. One scare a day was more than enough for her.

He ran home, not surprised to find a pile of his clothes on the porch and shifted back to get dressed.

His father stepped out of the French Door just as he finished pulling a shirt over his head.

"We'll talk with Daphne today. Your...""," his father made quotations marks with his fingers around the words, "has made that a priority. We can't afford her to fear us."

"Is she well enough for that?" Luke asked as he pulled a sweater over his head as well. He couldn't help but worry and wanting to wait for a little while longer. Just a few more hours where she didn't hate him.

"Still running a fever, but Matthew said that she will wake up in a few hours," his father calmed his worries about her well being. "And then she should be...ready for that conversation." Luke could just snort.

Daphne was going to be ready for that conversation.

"We have a pack meeting this evening," his dad added softly. Right.

With that, keeping it a secret would officially be over.

Nothing he could do to change it now. He had changed a human, he had staked his claim like the animal that lived within him and now...now he needed to stake his claim inside his own pack as well. She was his. If not as his mate then at least as the werewolf he had sired.

"Also, Luke...beheaded rabbits...?" His father asked him, amused and Luke glared at him.

****

When she woke up again, she was laying on the couch in the living room and she startled awake suddenly. She shot up and regretting it instantly when the world started to tilt on its axis and her whole body protested.

"Take a deep breath, Daphne," her uncle's voice was there, calming her and she listened to him, deeply breathing, pressing her eyes closed again.

"Does anything hurts?" Matthew asked her and she took inventory of her body. Her back was hurting weakly, but there was a hot pain at the bag of her neck, her wrist and her leg. Both of her legs hurt, but the right one was worse.

"My neck hurts. And my legs..." Daphne brought out, her throat scratchy. She lifted her right arm, her wrist thickly wrapped in a white bandage. "What happened to me?" She asked as Matthew gently helped her to sit up and then sat next to her, his hands touching her face.

"What's the last thing you remember?" He asked her as he shone a penlight in her eyes and she followed his finger with her eyes.

What did she remember?

It had been Friday. She had been in school. Her back had hurt...she had gone to Art class but...

"Art class was cancelled...i remember that," Daphne answered hesitantly.

"And after that, Honey?" Her aunt asked her, worry obvious in her tone of voice. What was wrong? What day did they have currently? How much time had she lost?

She just shook her head.

"How...how did I come home?" How? She couldn't remember. She could remember nothing after Art Class...and she still didn't know what had happened to her to leave her with what seemed to be at least a sprained wrist.

She blinked again, now suddenly feeling that the skin on her face felt swollen and tender, too tight.

"Careful," her aunt gently caught her hand before it could touch her face. "You have a few mean bruises going on there."

"What happened to me?" Daphne asked, tears starting to collect in her eyes. This was...all of it was too much...she didn't understand...she didn't know what had happened. She didn't remember. Why didn't she remember?

"It's alright, Daphne," Matthew soothed her. "I promise we are going to explain it but do you think you could eat something beforehand?" He asked her and she nodded hesitantly. Ollie moved in her field of vision, handing her a plate with a sandwich on it. She took the sandwich and nearly threw the plate to the floor when a howl cut through the silence.

She couldN't help but shudder when she did remember.

Amber eyes staring at her. A wolf. Black. Big...Blood. So much blood.

"The " Daphne pressed out "Did...he didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No, he didn't. I am fine. All limbs still attached," her cousin answered easily wriggling his fingers in her direction.

"It killed a rabbit," Daphne whispered, remembering the blood that had dripped down on the porch, deep scarlet red blood just drip, drip, on the wood.