Brian’s P.O.V.

“Please stay.”She said in a hoarse whisper as her hand gripped my arm “I don't want to be alone right now.”

I was struck dumb by her words at that moment. I didn't move from the chair where I was seated.

She was the first girl who requested me to stay with her. Everyone kept a distance from me if he or she had been told of those horrifying rumors about me. Rumors of a cruel werewolf who wasn’t able to control its wolf and killed its mate. Stuff likes that, you know. Even Leticia, who had been serving me for years and had affection towards me, was still afraid of me.

"Are you sure?" I asked her to confirm whether it was really what she wanted. I stared at her with guarded eyes, wondering if she did want me to do that. Was she supposed to be scared of me and stay away from me?

“Stay, please?”She tightened her grip as she looked at me in a way that I could say no one could reject. I gazed at her beautiful face.

I nodded before I walked to the other side of the bed. I took my shoes off before crawling in beside her. She turned over facing me. My body was stiff when she was trying to bury her head in my chest. It had been a long time since I was so intimate with a girl. I wasn’t that intimate even with my mate before she was killed under my wolf.

With her face buried in my chest, I could only see her neck from my position. I saw a scar that was about a few inches long on her neck, but I knew the whole scar that concealed under her shirt was much longer than it was shown outside. I saw it in the hospital, when the doctors were dressing while she was in a coma.

They cut open her shirt with a pair of scissors. I saw scars and bruises covering nearly every visible part of her body. She had various injuries on different parts of her body, including her neck, her chest, her abdomen, her back, even on her sides. Some were small cuts, maybe a few inches long. Like someone had dug small knives into her. I flinched at the thought. Some were large, especially the one on her back. It stretched from her tailbone to the back of her neck. It was so horrifying that I flinched. I could tell from the colors of the scars that some of them had existed on her body for years. I flinched once again.

I had never seen so many scars and bruises on a girl’s body. Even I, who had been trained to become the next Alpha werewolf of our pack and fight with tons of fierce wolves for years, did not possess so many injuries. What happened to her? Who left these terrible scars on such a beautiful body? What kind of monster did this? I started to get angry again.

I could not help but touch the scar on her neck. Her body flinched as soon as I placed my hand on her skin. She looked up at me from my chest with a pair of questioning eyes.

“Where did you get these scars from?”I asked as I smoothed away a wisp of hair from her eyes.

“Well...the girls punched me in front of the bathroom at school. You saw it, don’t you?”A slight look of fluster showed on her face and quickly disappeared before she said calmly.

“You know I don’t refer to those scars.”I stared at her as if I could see her past through her beautiful emerald green eyes.

“You saw the scars on my body?!”She raised her voice with a surprising tone before she moaned in pain.

“Stay still. Be careful of your wounds.”I patted her on the back attempting to calm her down. “Your sweater was cut open by the doctors while they were dressing your wounds, so...”

She blushed and gazed me back for a while without saying a word. Finally, she let out a sigh before she spoke.

“You are the first one who asked me about these scars, you know?”She said.

“Why? You don’t have any friends? What about your parents?” As soon as I finished my words, I realized that what I asked would be quite offensive. “Oh, I’m sorry. I...I mean...”

“You don’t have to, Brian.”She chuckled. She looked much more adorable when she smiled. “You have apologized for several times today.”

I also realized that. Actually, I seldom apologize to others. I just don’t want her to be hurt.

“I got these scars and bruises from my father. My mother passed away when she was giving birth to me. Maybe that was the reason why my father hated me and kept abusing me. I took away his mate’s life. I had been suffering from his abuse for 17 years, and I just couldn’t stand it anymore. So I decided to escape. I went through the huge forests. It was a full-moon night with torrential rain. I had no idea about how long or how far I have been walking until I finally arrived at this pack. I used to have a few friends in my own pack, but I don’t have any in this pack. No one is willing to make friends with a werewolf who doesn’t belong to their pack. So I am always alone.”Her eyes were already filled with tears. She took a deep breath before she continued.

“Until my 18th birthday finally came. I thought everything would be able to be changed on this day since I would find my mate. Yes, I did find him, but I was rejected by him. After that, you know it.”Tears strolled down from her cheeks before I wiped away from them with my hands.

My heart flinched once again when I saw her crying. My wolf was howling with sorrow. It told me that I didn’t want this girl to be hurt again. I wanted to protect her. It was a kind of feeling that I had experienced for the first time. I pulled her closer to me and buried her head into my chest again. After a while, she finally calmed herself down and stopped crying before my shirt was drenched by her tears.

She raised her head from my chest and looked at me. “Since I have told you my story, it’s your turn to tell me about yours.”