She didn't want to talk to him. She didn't want to have to face him. He had hidden the entire reason she had been told to stay. She continued to walk to the forest, ignoring the shooting pains going up her back and her aching legs.

Grace felt utterly stupid and naïve. She didn't even know humans could be mates with werewolves, but she did know what it meant. She realised that her conversation with the doctor's wife and the books that Lily had given her were all to teach her about it.

Though she felt angry, furious even that Brandon hadn't talked to her about this when she first woke up, a small part of her was crushed.

Mates were not supposed to be able to stay away from each other. They were destined. And he wanted to send her away.

Biting hard down on her lips to stop the sob that was about to escape, she leaned against an old tree, its lower branches twisting and sweeping down as though embracing her.

"Grace!" She heard him shout.

Looking away from the direction of his voice to the depths of the forest she knew she would not be able to outrun him. But she could ignore him.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Brandon ran towards her, stopping in front of her, his fists clenched by his side as he glared towards her.

Rolling her eyes she continued to look into the forest, staying silent.

"You can't be out here alone, you could be in danger." He snapped, stepping forward as though contemplating whether or not to pick her up and carry her out of the forest himself.

Did he really think that low of her? That she was weak? Couldn't protect herself?

"I can look after myself." She snapped back, setting hands on her hips as she turned to glare at him.

Scoffing he took a few steps back, away from her, running a hand frustratingly over his face.

"I found you being beaten to death in an alley way, you sure look like you were doing fine." He turned his back to her, before landing a punch on the tree now in front of him.

"That could have been anyone walking by. It didn't happen because I was weak!" She retorted. There was no way she would back down to him, no matter how angry he was at her.

He only scoffed in reply.

"Seriously? I may be sick, have a body that doesn't want to work, but that doesn't make me any weaker, or less important than anyone else! Stop treating me as though I'm fragile!"

He turned back around to look at her, his chest rising up and down. She watched his expressions closely. He was debating with himself.

When he looked away from her with a frustrated sigh, she knew he had chosen to not tell her what he was hiding.

Looking down to the floor, her anger towards him seeped away. She had met people like him before. People who thought she was incapable of doing things, thinking even. It was replaced instead with a profound sadness.

The one person who she had been linked with, who was supposed to understand her, love her, didn't.

"I heard you." She whispered.

She waited with bated breath for his reply, receiving it after a long and torturous minute.

"I know. You shouldn't have been listening."

"So you would never have told me? You would have just sent me away?"

She heard him walking slowly towards her, though refused to look up and meet his gaze. That would mean showing him the tears.

"Yes."

There was nothing she could do to hide her tears now, they had begun to roll down her cheeks. She hated how she was feeling. Rejection. His rejection.

She hardly knew him. But he had saved her, made her smile, feel safe. And he didn't want her.

"When do you want me to leave?" She asked. Recalling that he didn't want her to leave, yet wanted to be away from her.

"What?" He sounded sad, almost.

"You want me to go home, but you don't want me to leave? It's confusing."

"Oh. When you're feeling better, I guess." He replied, kicking a stone across the forest floor absentmindedly.

"And that's it? I never see you again?" For this question, she looked up to meet his eyes, she had to look him in the eye as he replied.

He flinched as he saw the tears running down her cheeks, but he didn't answer, instead diverting his own eyes away.

"You can't do that to me. I know... I know what being a mate is. I'm sorry if I was not what you wanted. I can't have been what you pictured. Not only am I human, but also sick. I get it."

Brandon looked up at her, confusion, shock, hurt. She saw them all flash across his face.

"You think that I don't want you?" He whispered, taking a tentative step closer towards her.

"Why else would you want me to leave once I'm well? The connection I have read about in the books, perhaps it isn't there because I'm human. I feel something, the tingles wanting to be close to you- but... its ok if you don't." She replied, reasoning over and over again in her head that going home and forgetting about everything that had happened to her over the past few days had ever happened was for the best.

"Grace. I..." Brandon started, stuttering before falling silent once again.

He didn't even have the decency to talk to her about it.

"Just do it." She knew her tone was harsh, but she wanted what was to come to be over as soon as possible.

"Do what?" Brandon replied, confused.

"Reject me." Grace looked away, shutting her eyes tightly preparing herself for their bond to sever when he uttered those words.

"What!?"

"If you won't do it then I will." She took a deep breath as his silence sealed her fate. A life without him. She had coped without him before, she could do it again.

"I, Grace Jackson, reject you, Brandon-." She heard the crunch of leaves under his feet as he strode towards her before she could finish her sentence.

Her eyes snapped open, shocks flying across her skin as he held her in his arms. Without giving her another second to continue her rejection, he pressed his lips to hers.