"I don't understand! You don't want me?" She asked as he broke their kiss, looking up to him confused. She was still in his arms, crushed against his chest.

"Of course I want you. You're perfect. I just don't get to have you." He leaned his head down onto her neck, the side he would have to bite to make her, his.

"I'm right here. I'm here! You get to have me! You kissed me!" She turned her lips to meet his, brushing them over his before he groaned, leaning away from her, creating as much distance as he could while he still held her. 

"You were going to break it. Our bond." He mumbled, looking to the floor as though ashamed.

Grace looked away. Why? What could possibly have made him not want her around and then stopped him from wanting her to reject him.

"You didn't feel anything? I'm human, that makes sense" She said, matter of factly. Him not feeling the draw to her meant that he probably wasn't attracted to her. The thought pulled at her heart painfully.

"I felt it as soon as I turned onto that road next to the hospital, I felt your fear and your pain as I got closer. It took everything I had not to kill the man that did this to you." He ran his fingers lightly across one of the bruises visible on her chest. Grace let out a sigh of relief. He had felt, does feel the pull.

"But I saw your hospital band and your heart was slowing. I knew that if you died, then everything I was working for would no longer matter. Which is why I can't have you. Not until he is dead, not until I know there is no one out there who would hurt you because your mine."

"Talk to me! Please make me understand! I may look weak, but I can listen and I can help!" She pleaded. Being in the dark, people not telling her everything, hiding things from her thinking it was helping her- she hated it. 

"You can't help, I will never let the people who want to hurt me see you." Brandon darted his eyes around the forest, before settling them tenderly on her. His hands began to run up and down her back lazily and affectionately, leaving a trail of tingles in their wake. She realised she had been doing the same on his shoulders.

"People want to hurt you? Is that why you were a rouge?" Grace whispered sadly, staring up at him with wide and pleading eyes.

He sighed, defeated.

"Come with me, if you are going to understand, then I have to tell you from the beginning."

They began to walk through the forest, Grace following slowly behind. With one small wince from her after lifting her legs over a large fallen tree, Brandon scooped her up in his arms.

This time, instead of trying to look anywhere but him, she settled back in his arms, resting her head on his shoulders while staring up at his face.

She watched as a small smile twitched its way onto his lips. His strides became shorter and slower, his hold on her making her feel safe and secure.

"I like your face." She whispered.

"I like your face too." He chuckled in reply.

Grace took turns between watching him and the forest, and as the canopy above her began to clear, she looked around to see where he had brought her.

With a gasp of awe, she watched as he walked them into a large clearing, a small lake situated in the middle. Wild flowers and grasses grew up around it, an old rotting wooden boat hut sat crumbling on the other side.

"It's amazing!" She said, turning back to him to find him watching her.

As his arms began to move to set her down, she pressed her lips to his cheek.

What for she didn't quite know. To say thank you for not rejecting her, for trusting her, for bringing her to the most beautiful place she had ever seen.

His arms stilled as he processed what she had done, before setting her down on the grass and turning her so she stood in front of him.

"That wasn't a kiss." He mumbled, looking almost disappointed.

Wrapping her hand around the back of his neck, she pulled him down just enough so that their lips were hovering beside each other. "Well I better make that right then."

Unlike before, where he had brought his lips to her for a brief moment of intense passion, Grace started slowly. Softly.

Brandon wrapped one of his arms around her waist, caressing the small of her back, the other reaching to her face, brushing her hair back as they explored each other's touch.

The tingles that had first stared in her stomach as their lips had met had begun to grow into what Grace could only describe as a furnace. It seemed like Brandon felt the same way, as his hand around her waist tightened and drew her closer to him.

His lips worked against hers faster, harder. She matched his passion with her own. Her heart racing. Holding on to his shoulders, before weaving her hands through his hair so she could press herself into him. She wanted, no needed, to be close to him.

"Stop." Brandon gasped, before kissing her again.

"Why?" She replied, as he began to kiss her cheeks and then down to her neck.

"Because my wolf wants to mark you." He replied between sucking, kissing and nipping at her neck.

She knew what that meant. The pain and the blood. The animal nature of it that had disgusted her only a few days ago.

But that was part of him. And she wanted all of him.

"Do it." She said, wrapping her arms around his shoulders after pulling her hair to her other shoulder.

"Grace." His tone was warning her, but she didn't care.

"Please."

Instead of the pain she had expected, there was nothing.  She watched, sad and disappointed as Brandon backed quickly away from her.

"Goddess! Grace. No. If I marked you that would be it. You would carry my distinct mark forever. Everyone would know you were mine, and although that sounds amazing and incredibly appealing. There are people who want me and everything I love dead." He was berating her. Or himself. Grace couldn't tell.

Just the mention of the word 'love' coming from his lips had flawed her.

"Sorry." She whispered, it was all she could muster.

"No. Grace, never apologise. I'm sorry for taking things too far. I wasn't ready to be that close to you. Every fibre of my being since I picked you up off of the alley floor has been to mark you. Kissing you, being that close to you. I'm surprised I could control my wolf."

He replied, taking a deep breath before coming to stand a few feet in front of her.

"Will you explain everything now?" Grace asked.

"Yes, I will do my best."

Holding onto her hand, he led her to a tree next to the lake side, and sat down.

"I was only 10 when my parents died. My father was the Alpha of the Arion pack, and I was the rightful heir. I remember it so well, that night.

A group of rouges, banished from their own packs, had begun to band together. But pack law states that any new pack needs to be approved by the council of Alphas. Knowing what these rogues were like, and why they were banished in the first place, their request to form their own pack was denied.

Obviously they didn't like that very much, so began to find ways to get a pack by other means. The only other way of becoming an Alpha other than being born into the bloodline, is to kill another, either honourably by challenge or dishonourably by murder.

My father was murdered, and then my mother. The beta was killed while he slept and the warriors once they learnt what was happening were all killed or beaten into submission.

Before my father died he told me to run into the forest and not to stop until I reached the next pack.

I did as I was told. I ran here.

The rogues that took over my pack have wanted me dead ever since, their leader, Hunt, especially.  When I turned eighteen and was considered an adult, I became the true Alpha to my old pack. He burnt down the entire town to try and smoke me out that day. I had to leave the pack that had taken me in and raised me.

I became a rogue, spending my time picking off the other rogues that had become pack members under Hunt. Making him weaker, learning his schedule, fighting techniques.

When I left, the attacks on this pack, on the people who I consider to be my family, they stopped. Now I am back, the news will not stay quiet. Hunt will come back.

I am nearly ready to finish this now. Thomas is the Alpha here now, his father would not fight Hunt because the pack he had created was too strong. Thomas is willing to fight with me though.

Do you understand? Why I have to keep you quiet? I was on my way back to the pack with only war on my mind. Then I found you and it has become about keeping you safe. I would not bet against him having spies in the town, patrols in the forest. The man will stoop to new lows to get what he wants. But he isn't getting you."

Grace crawled closer towards him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Thank you for telling me." She whispered. How could she reply to that? The man had lost everything. His family. Home. Now she understood why he could not lose her as well.

His response was silent, his own arms scooping her up onto his lap, where they stayed entwined.

"I understand now. But I'm not leaving you. There has to be another way." She whispered.

"Perhaps with the two of us thinking, we can come up with something. Believe me, the thought of letting you go does not make me happy at all." He replied with a sad smile.

"We will, we have to." She replied, nuzzling into his shoulder. The adrenaline she had been feeling for the past few hours falling into exhaustion. He was warm and comfy, and she could stay like this with him forever.