The sound of the running water echoed from inside Damon’s room the moment I stepped through the door.

The door to his ensuite bathroom was still closed despite his bedroom door being unlocked, and I could see the steam coming out from the cracks underneath, making me wonder how hot he had turned the temperature to. It was as though he was attempting to scald his skin off to replace it with a new pelt, masquerading as something he no longer was.

"Damon?" I called out, closing the door shut behind me as I approached the bathroom.

The running water stopped, and almost immediately after, the bathroom door opened. Damon stepped out, beads of water still clinging onto his defined abs and chest as a white towel hung on his hips. He wiped at his wet hair with another towel, his gaze lazily falling on me. He didn’t even seem surprised in the slightest.

"Did Blaise put you up to this?" he immediately asked, walking past me to access the wardrobe that was behind me. He reached in and pulled out a series of clothing, pulling a fresh new shirt over his head.

Despite having seen his bare body countless times, I still turned away as he changed. Right before I spun around, I caught a smile of amusement curling his lips just the slightest, but I ignored it.

"You know he didn’t," I said, huffing. A shot of amusement danced through my body, a sensation that was wholly Damon’s. "And you know what I am here for."

"Sex?" he asked, causing me to spin around immediately to throw him a stink eye.

"Is that all you think about?" I hotly asked, wrinkling my nose as I glared at him, huffing indignantly.

"Sometimes," he admitted.

Now fully clothed, he came over to me, his hands snaking around my hips to pull me closer to him, nuzzling his nose against my neck. I could feel his breath fanning across my skin, causing butterflies to dance through my stomach almost immediately, and I breathed out heavily in response.

"You’re addictive," he murmured against my skin, his voice akin to a purr.

Taking in a deep breath, it took nearly all the strength that I had to push him slightly away, enough to maintain a distance, but still close so that we never lost contact. He looked at me with longing in his eyes, a small pout gliding across his lips.

As much as my body craved to be with him, there were serious matters I knew I needed to tend to. Damon had never really faced this fully, and if he wasn’t willing to test out the serum, I needed to hear it from him rather than leave it hanging in the air forever.

"Here," I said, pulling the syringe out and placing it in his hand. "This is yours."

The smile immediately evaporated from his face as he stared at the small tube of liquid, eyeing it as though it were the work of the devil itself.

"Don’t look at it like that," I teasingly chided, attempting to bring a smile back onto his face. "It’s not too bad, and the chances it will kill you are currently near zero."

"Is there a need?" Damon asked with a sigh, slumping onto the bed. He flopped against the covers, his eyes glazed over as he examined the syringe’s contents against the backdrop of the ceiling.

"No," I honestly said. "I just thought you should be the one to keep it. If you test it out, it’s your own decision. You needn’t have to report to anyone about it. Heck, test it out in secret if it makes you more comfortable. There’s no need to share your results."

"Nicole would beg to differ," he said with a snort. "She would want to know if there are tweaks that can be made to the formula."

A small sigh escaped my lips as I sat down on the bed as well, looking down upon him as he lay down. "You’re not her lab rat," I said gently. "And she doesn’t see you as one."

"That is where you are mistaken," he said. "Nicole may be an amazing doctor, but how else do you think she got this good? Half of the warriors of Fangborne have been pricked and prodded over the years while she’s manning the clinic. Her prescriptions have only gotten so good because of all her experiments."

"That you funded," I reminded.

"That I funded," he said with a nod.

A moment of silence hung above us, and it wouldn’t have been broken if I hadn’t been the one to speak first.

"What are you so afraid of?" I quietly asked.

It took Damon a second to think over my words, but he eventually replied. "Failure," he said. "Hope that has been stripped away is a painful thing. I have been through it before, and I don’t want to be in that position ever again."

"It will keep you alive," I said. "Hope is what keeps people alive."

"Not always," Damon said. He sat up, toying with the syringe. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"Does it matter?" I asked, gesturing to the serum. "If it doesn’t work."

Damon remained silent, and I took it as an opportunity to continue.

"You’re still you. If you wanted, you know very well that Blaise would gladly step aside for you to regain your position as the alpha of Fangborne. Likewise, it wouldn’t change what I feel for you. More importantly, you’re still you. Brave, intelligent, and strong. You’re everything you are, with or without your wolf."

I placed a hand on his, covering the serum from his view, and breaking the intense gaze he held on that thing.

"This doesn’t make you who you are," I said. Softly, I added, "I love you for you, not who you can be, or who you were."

With each passing second, Damon’s grip turned increasingly tight over the small syringe. Until eventually, he pulled away and raised it. He pressed the open needle against his arm, taking a deep breath before plunging the needle into his flesh.