Guardian

****Author's Note*****

To:

angelmay-- here you go. It's a little longer, I hope you enjoy it.

Athanaartisan--I just realized that I never really specified whether Andy was a girl or a boy. Andy is a girl, the name is short for Andrea. I hope this clears up the confusion and that you continue to like the story.

DaniD--this should answer one of your questions, even if poor Andy can't figure it out. Let's just say she likes to live in denial...but its more fun that way :P

Monddame--can't wait to hear what you think!

firebreather--this chapter should answer some of your questions, but as for the vampire, he's just going to have to wait his turn. He wants a whole chapter to himself...hehe.

To anyone else who likes this story, read, review, criticize, or question. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Please enjoy~

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Searing agony burst through my nerves, shooting down the spindled pathways, and setting fire to the stunned locations that they were taken. I screamed for the pain, the fear, and the frustration. I was helpless, held in place by a massive beast.

I stopped screaming when my voice broke. My ears rang with the quieter volume. I gasped in lungful after lungful of air, my body not entirely convinced it could breathe with the teeth held firmly in my throat.

Distantly, the sound of rapid banging reached me. I could hear the door rattling, its heavy wood thumping erratically against its frame.

I hung there, in his grip, paralyzed with shock.

I was being bitten. Matt was biting me. He was biting me.

A thrill of nerves swept through me, and a tingling sweat broke out on my back and sides. A deep rumble started in his gut and rose to shudder against my throbbing neck. I gasped as renewed pain flared to life.

Suddenly we were moving, and then my hips were pinned between his thighs and the desk. Something sharp, like a picture frame, dug into my spine as he pushed me down, teeth finally sliding from my flesh.

I was so relieved about the sudden lessening ache that it took a moment to realize the position I was being put in. Somehow, he had slipped his legs between mine so that he could more effectively trap me against the desk. My wrists were crushed in one of his massive fists, the other was gripping the neck of my shirt, just under my chin. It was constantly grasping and rebundling the fabric, as if it couldn’t decide what to do with it. He hovered above me, blotting out the light like an eclipse. I could just see his lips glistening with my blood.

Oh. I had lost some more…

“What are you doing?” I asked, stupidly.

Yellow eyes flickered, and I caught just the barest hint of confusion in them before his face once again darkened. His fingers released my now probably ruined shirt and grasped my chin. Roughly, he twisted my face away. His thumb ran heavily down my throat, finding the newly inflicted agony.

I hissed as the salt from his skin burned like fire, my body moved on its own, trying to get away. He pinned me tighter, and I thought I would be crushed from the pressure. I could feel my pulse in every place that we touched…and what was that?...oh my god…

“Does it hurt?” he snarled, thumb adding pressure. Warm wetness spilled down my neck, tickling against my spine. I flinched as his hips jerked and a rough pant escaped him.

“It hurts, “ I blurted, not wanting him to do that again.

His eyes, which had gone far away, once again focused on me.

“Good,” he slid his thumb across the open wound again. My body arched as I tried to pull my hands free.

Suddenly, all his weight was on me, his pelvis pressing so hard against mine, I knew he would leave bruises on my most private of places. Our stomachs were flush, and my breasts were uncomfortably mashed against his ribs, not to mention that that stupid frame was still digging into me. There was going to be an imprint, I was sure.

He was panting fully now, and his eyes were closed. A vein was throbbing in his neck and his face was flushed. I could feel his heart pounding against my shoulder.

I didn’t move. It seemed like he was on the edge. One false twitch and he would explode into…I didn’t want to find out.

Minutes passed.

He moved first, his chin tilting down so that he could look me in the eyes. My breath stopped. Heavy lidded, he slid down not breaking contact until he was level with me. He hovered a few inches above me in a half push-up motion. He had released my wrists, but I didn’t budge. I was too shocked.

“It hurts,” he rasped. “So you’ll remember.”

A rough breath escaped me and I blinked. What was I supposed to be remembering? The question must have been written on my face.

He moved in closer, our lips a hairsbreadth apart. My eyes started to close instinctively. When he spoke, our mouths brushed in an almost kiss, “Remember you're mine.”

Cold air rushed over me as the light blinded. I blinked frantically, eyes watering from the sting. A loud bang made me jump.

Sitting, I swayed as my brain fizzed and swirled, trying to make sense of the sudden commotion.

He had stormed out, that much I could gather. From the amount of people gathering around me, my guess was that no one had even thought about going after him. I didn’t blame them too much. He was a fucking lunatic.

They were all making sounds, talking over one another, talking to me. Daisy was there somewhere, shouting about the I.V.

I glanced down at my arm. A small spurt of drying blood decorated my pale forearm. I hadn’t even noticed that it had come out.

Someone was shouting over the din.

“Everyone out! OUT! NOW!” Dr. Sanchez had an amazingly powerful voice for such a small person. She was almost as short as me.

The mob quieted. I watched, stupefied as they trickled out, taking the noise with them. I recognized a few of the office workers. Mrs. Green was there, animatedly arguing with a security guard. She wanted to know what he was going to do “about that boy.” Her anger over me made me like her just a bit more.

“You too, Ms. Collins.” My head jerked up. Dr. Sanchez was standing, hand on the doorknob, staring pointedly at Daisy. There was an authority in her voice that demanded to be obeyed.

Daisy, to her credit, stiffened. “I think I should be with my sister, right now.”

I blinked. I had never heard her voice harsher than a breeze. It was steely as she exchanged stares with the Were. She wanted to protect me. But there was nothing to protect me from now. It was over.

“Comforting can come later,” Dr. Sanchez said, face hard. “Right now, I need to diagnose and treat any possible injuries. I need to ask questions about what happened. How honestly she answers may be affected by anyone in the room—“

“I’m her sister—“

“The closer the relation, the more she may try to hide something. Just leave, Ms. Collins. This will only take a few minutes, then you can return.”

Daisy stood there, rigid. I could see the fight within her. She wanted to stay, but I could tell that what she heard made sense to her.

“Go on,” I said, surprised at the roughness in my voice. I tried to swallow the pain away, but it clung menacingly to the back of my throat. I must have done some damage screaming like that. “I’ll be fine until you get back.”

Daisy looked at me, expression softening as worry creased her brow. I’d seen that expression so many times going home covered in cuts and bruises. It was his fault that she had to look like that. I gave her a smile, trying to show how unaffected I was.

It was a lie. Beneath the surface I could feel the maelstrom of emotions swirling, waiting to break free. Fear, indignation, frustration, rage, humiliation, confusion…

“I’ll just be outside,” she promised. With a determined stride she left. The door closed softly behind her, but I had no doubt that she hadn’t moved a foot once in the office.

“Now, Andy,” Dr. Sanchez said, breaking the short silence that had descended. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

For a second I stared; then I blinked, cataloging the injuries. There were surprisingly few, if I took into account how many years he had scared off of my life.

“The I.V. came out,” I said, taken aback by how even my voice sounded. Like I was telling her the weather instead of where I had once again been abused. “There’ll be some bruises, and he—“

There. My voice broke.

“Go on, Andy. What did he do?”

I blinked, bringing her into focus. “He bit me.”

Her eyes flashed. Interest peaked her face, but it wasn’t the normal medical curiosity, more like she had just heard a really juicy bit of gossip. It was different from her usual indifference. She looked…excited? No, that wasn’t the right word…

“Really? Where did he bite you?”

Gingerly, I lifted my hair, wincing as it pulled on the drying blood.

Eagerly, she stepped forward, and gently tilted my head up.

“Ooh, it’s a good one,” she said, delicately probing the wound. I hissed in a breath as it stung. “Hmph. How sweet,” taking a step back, she turned and began rummaging through the medicine cabinet.

“What?” the question was harsh against her suddenly easy demeanor.

She swiveled back with an indulgent smile, a bottle of peroxide clutched in a hand and a wad of cotton in the other.

“Nothing. Why don’t you tell me what you thought was going on in that noggin’ of his?”

Fine. I could do that.

“He was a fucking lunatic,” it felt good to repeat my thoughts to someone. I had added extra emphasis on the end.

“That doesn’t explain much.”

Another violent breath escaped me. “I came out of the bathroom and then he just attacked me.”

“For no reason?”

“I—no,” it wasn’t much of a reason to me, but I had to grudgingly call it one. “He thought I was going to rat out on him…about the bruises. Or maybe…ugh, who knows? Anyway, he was all in my face then he just froze.” I shivered in the remembered fear. “His eyes were all wolfy. Then he bit me.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Directly over the vampire bite,” she said, touching a finger to my neck. I flinched, and felt my mouth drop open.

“You knew? Then why—“

“Did I ask in front of everyone?” she smiled again. I was finding that self-satisfied smirk annoying. This was a new side of Dr. Sanchez. One that was no longer a total professional I knew, but…what was the word? “I’ll tell you without shame. I wanted to see how much shit would hit the fan.”

My eyes must have been as big as golf balls.

“I’ve been watching this for a long time, but who knew that you wouldn’t need my help?”

“Wait a minute-you wanted me to get attacked?”

It was her turn to let out an exasperated breath. “You weren’t attacked, not on Were terms, that is.”

“Then what do you call this?” I shouted, jabbing a finger at my neck. What did she call my permanently black and blue body?!

“Discipline,” she snickered again, pouring some of the peroxide on a cotton ball. Before I could remark on that she continued.

“I’ll give you some facts Andy, then I want to see how you put two and two together. First, I want you to take into account that Matt is a Werewolf, half teenage boy, half wolf, and completely ruled by raging hormones and instinct—a deadly combination, if I do say so myself,” Dr. Sanchez said, wiping the sodden cotton against puncture in my arm.

“And second, he sees you as his,” she stated simply.

My mind flashed back. “Yeah, so he said,” I muttered darkly, irritated.

“Weres are dominant by nature,” she explained, unperturbed by the statement. “And Matt, he’s an Alpha. The need to dominate, to be submitted to, is worse than instinct. His world doesn’t function without putting people into categories.”

“And what would those be?” I spat, having an idea.

“Dominant, submissive, and…prey.”

There was no question of where I fell. He had been hunting me for years, torturing me with his little games. He twisted the hell out of hide and seek.

Not like the vampire. He had a trap. Simple, clean, and to the point.

A sudden thought flashed through my brain.

“Are you saying, that he was mad because someone else was poaching on his property?”

A relieved look passed over Dr. Sanchez face. “Exactly.”

“Then all of this was just to—“

“Reassert his claim, you could say,” she finished for me, tilting me to the side so she could pour peroxide over the bite.

Then all of that stuff, the biting, the, uh-pinning, was just his need to dominate me coming out. My eyebrows drew together. It was a relief that the confusion of that matter was gone, but I was still puzzled.

“You said there were three categories, right?” I asked.

“Mmm,” she muttered, pressing a gauze pad to my neck.

“People he was submissive to, people he dominated, and people he hunted, right?”

She nodded, stretching tape over the edges of the dressing.

“Then why does he need to dominate his prey? That doesn’t make sense. Wouldn’t he just…I don’t know?” Domination implied a continual relationship between people. There was respect for the other person, even if they were under you. Prey just stayed in its place. You toyed with it. Like he did with me.

Dr. Sanchez’s motions stopped. I glanced over at her. She was staring, mouth open like she wanted to say something. Then her mouth closed into a tight smile.

“I’ll let you figure that one out yourself.”