~~Olivia’s POV~~

Slowly I opened my eyes, the world was white. Not heaven. Not home. Just plain, white walls with a bland commercial painting tacked onto one of them. I blinked, disoriented, trying to understand where I was. The soft mattress beneath me didn’t belong to my bed. No antiseptic smell of my father’s house lingered here. Instead, the air was crisp and unfamiliar.

A hotel room? My pulse quickened. What on earth was I doing in a hotel room?

Then I saw him.

A man sat at the edge of the room, his silver eyes locked on me with an intensity that made me feel stripped bare. His stare wasn’t casual; it was deliberate and consuming, as though he was studying me, memorizing every detail. I shifted uncomfortably beneath the weight of it.

He was beautiful…too beautiful. A sharp jawline, dark hair that gleamed like midnight, and eyes that burned with something feral. He looked like he had been carved out of myth, a Greek god misplaced in the mortal world.

Was it even legal for someone to look like that?

My cheeks heated at the thought, and I forced myself to look away. I couldn’t afford to get distracted. This was still a stranger, and for all I knew, he had dragged me here for reasons I didn’t even want to imagine.

“Did you bring me here?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper and trembling despite my attempt to sound firm. I avoided his piercing gaze, seemingly afraid of what it might make me do.

He didn’t answer. He just sat there, silent and composed, exuding the air of a king surveying his property in his throne room. Something about him was intimidating and commanding, yet at the same time, I felt an unexplainable pull, like an invisible thread tying me to him.

What was wrong with me? Staying here with this weirdo must be doing something to me; I needed to leave before whatever this strange energy I was feeling fully got to me.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed, dragging the hem of my gown across the sheets. That was when he finally spoke. His voice was low, deep, and resonant; it slipped through my veins and sent a shiver down my spine.

“That’s a bad idea,” he said. “You don’t look fine.”

I scoffed, forcing a shield of sarcasm over my fear. “So he speaks. Well, I’m fine. And I’m leaving.”

His expression didn’t change. He remained calm, unshaken. “You fainted in front of my car. That doesn’t sound fine to me. I’ve sent for a doctor. He’ll be here soon.”

My lips parted in surprise. He called for a doctor? That wasn’t the behavior of a predator. It was… thoughtful.

But the aura he carried was anything but gentle. Could it be a trick? A way to keep me here?

I shook my head. No. I wouldn’t be fooled. I pushed myself to my feet, determined to walk out the door.

But I didn’t make it.

A violent cough ripped through me, so sudden and brutal it doubled me over. Blood splattered against my hand as I hacked, the metallic taste flooding my mouth. My chest convulsed, my head grew light, and my body weakened in an instant.

Fear wrapped around me. I recognized this… My system was failing. The moment I had stepped outside, the contaminated air had begun its attack, and now it was winning.

My family doctor wasn’t here. No sterile chambers, no injections, no medicines. Just me, alone, on the floor, dying in front of a stranger.

So this was how it ended.

But then, he moved.

The stranger was on his knees at my side in a blur, gathering me into his arms tenderly like I was so fragile, and I couldn't help but let him. His eyes weren’t cold anymore; they burned with anguish, with desperation, as though my life meant everything to him, as though I were his lifelong lover. He cradled me as though I were precious, a treasure he couldn’t bear to lose.

“What’s happening?” His voice cracked with panic, raw and unrestrained. “No… I can’t lose my mate. Not like this.”

Mate? What was he even saying?

My muddled brain barely grasped the word before he shifted me against his chest, pulling a small knife from his pocket. My weakening body tensed. What was he going to do?

Then, before I could react, he dragged the blade across his wrist. My eyes widened in horror as blood welled up, dark and rich. He pressed it to my lips.

“Drink it,” he commanded, his tone leaving no room for argument.

And I did before the disgust of drinking blood even registered in my head. My body obeyed before my mind caught up, my throat swallowing his blood as though it was water in a desert.

Heat spread through me, warming every vein, every cell. The coughing stopped. The dizziness disappeared. My body didn’t just stabilize… It now thrummed with strength, alive in a way it had never been before.

I sat there, still surprised at what was going on. A disorder that no doctor had ever been able to cure… It felt like it had disappeared from my body. Healed by this man’s blood in seconds.

I looked up at him, his silver eyes glowing faintly in the lighting. My heart pounded violently, not from fear but from something else, something I couldn’t name. The invisible string between us tugged tighter, pulling me toward him. My gaze lingered on the curve of his jaw, the line of his neck, and the softness of his lips. Lustful thoughts I've never had flooded my mind, hot and consuming, so foreign it frightened me.

What was happening to me? Why was my body betraying me like this, responding to him in ways it never had with Lucas?

My thighs pressed together instinctively, dampness spreading between them. Heat flushed my skin.

But I wasn’t the only one. I felt the hardness in between his legs where my back lay. Undeniable proof that even his body was reacting the same way. The knowledge sent another shiver racing down my spine.

I should have pulled away. I should have been terrified. But instead, my heart whispered the truth my mind refused to accept: I didn’t want to leave.