t h i r t y - s i x

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"YOU'VE BEEN KNOCKED OUT ALL DAY."

At first, I couldn't see anything. I merely saw a dark-haired guy sitting beside me. However, I recognised him through his voice.

"Liam?"

"The one and only," he murmured, running his hand through my hair. "How're you feeling?"

For almost a minute, I didn't reply as I tried to make sense of what happened the previous day. Mary had attacked me and West intervened. Then...

My eyes widened with disbelief, as I recalled it. He had shoved her; he had hurt his soulmate. He tried to protect me.

"Is Maryanne hurt?"

"You were just knocked out for 18 hours and that's the first thing that came to your mind?" he asked incredulously. "Lyn, I say I know you but I don't think I'll ever understand how your brain works."

"She's just too nice," Anna remarked. "I mean, she's concerned about the girl who tried to kill her." As she came into view, my vision began to sharpen and the room seemed unrealistically clear. "Maryanne is completely fine; she woke up yesterday."

"And West?" Hitting her would have been hard for him, as well. "Where is he?"

"He's with her," she told me; her voice sounding bitter. "Either way, she'll live."

"That aside, how are you feeling?" Liam asked gently. His eyes were fixed on my cheek, where Mary's claws had undoubtedly left scars.

"I definitely feel better than what I look like." Liam's lips twitched slightly at my reply. But he didn't smile. Maybe he felt inclined to be serious when he thought I was in pain... "I'm okay, you know?"

"Only just," his voice was a mere whisper. "If West hadn't pulled her away in time, you could have..."

"What is it?"

"The Gray Wolf venom in Mary's claws would have poisoned your blood and suppressed your Wolf," Anna finished for him. "You would have returned to the state you were in, 8 years ago."

"Can that even happen-" I had no idea...

"Yes, it can... It can happen many times; the pain will get worse each time and it will become harder to strengthen the bonds," Liam interrupted. "Only, it can't happen with the same venom."

"The same venom?"

"Venom from the same Gray Wolf," she explained to me. "In your case, that's West. His venom was in your system for 8 entire years... Your body has built resistance to his venom."

"If, by any chance, he were to attack you again, you would be unfazed by his venom," he told me.

For about a minute, I didn't answer. Instead, I tried to remember the night I was attacked. Parts of it was the clearest thing in my memory.

I could almost feel the claws shred the skin on my back; the pain that chilled the blood in my veins. I remembered my mother's screams, as the blood flowed from my wounds soaking my clothes. I still recalled the sense of laying in a pool of my own blood, watching my life fade away.

But I also didn't remember...

"Liam?"

"Yeah?" he responded at once.

"Are you sure West was the one who attacked me?"

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