I look at my phone again, noticing the time is two in the morning. 

I still can't sleep after what Maverick had said to me earlier. It down right chilled me to the bone, making me scared to try to unmask his true character, yet I have more of a yearning to uncover the truth.

What did he mean by, "being afraid of unleashing the real Maverick"? 

Why do I feel so scared yet undoubtedly attracted to him? And why does he want to keep this Millie a secret from me?

I have to make it my personal mission to find out more about my mate. I have to. Plus, I love a good mystery.

After another few minutes of being utterly awake, I decide to get up and go watch something on TV in the living room. Slowly, I make my way to my door, slipping quietly so I won't wake up Maverick. His door is slightly ajar, so I begin to tiptoe down the hallway. 

Not a moment later, I hear low growls coming from his room. Without thinking, I shuffle back over towards his door, pushing it open more. To my surprise, Maverick is on the floor, down on his hands and knees. His back is hunched over, bearing his fangs at the wall.

He begins to growl, and even in the dark I can see the black, soulless cloud that seems to cover over Maverick's usual golden eyes. 

He then begins to lash out, bringing a painting down while leaving deep and long scratch marks through drywall . If he continues to keep thrashing out, he'll hurt himself.

My wolf begins to whimper at the thought of our mate getting hurt, so without really thinking, I run over to him and try to calm him down. He turns around angrily and pushes me up against the now heavily marked wall, holding me by my throat. He growls again with ferocity; it is as though some evil being has possessed over him and his wolf. 

Or is this really him?

I try to scream, but his hold is too strong. Just as I'm sure he is going to kill me, at the last second, his eyes begin to shift back to their normal golden color. His long fangs sink back into his gums while his claws retract. 

Maverick is coming back. 

His grip around my throat loosens just enough for me to wriggle free. Before I can get too far, he grabs my arm, making me turn my head to look at him. His eyes are glowing that same piercing yellow, making mine grow wider in fear.

"Elora," he finally says breathlessly, pulling me into his arms. The way he says my name, makes me almost forget what just happened before. It is alluring with its raspy and low tone.

 A voice that makes me want to give myself fully to this man.

I shake myself from the thoughts, as I begin to remember what just happened moments prior. As he hugs me closer towards him, I begin to attempt to pull away; my body is shaking from fear. 

"I won't hurt you, Elora. You just walked in on a bad time. I would never let my wolf hurt you. Hell, he is the one that has the strongest bond with you," he whispers. I study his face, though it is hard as it is still incredibly dark in here. 

I see the dark circles under his eyes, and wait...is he crying?

With my wolf, once again, whimpering at the thought of our mate crying, I envelope him into a hug. I can feel the tears soaking in through my shirt.

 He must feel horrible about almost hurting me for him to be crying this much.

"Maverick, it's okay. I know you didn't mean to before. But, can I ask you something?" I feel him nod and respond with a very low, "yes". 

I let out a breath, hoping he won't get upset with me asking a personal question. "Why did your wolf act like that? How come you were growling at the wall and thrashing at it?"

He pulls himself out of my embrace,  quickly glancing at me before walking towards his bed. 

"I think you should go to bed. It's late. Goodnight Elora. Sorry again for what happened before." His voice is completely void of any emotion, and I notice his eyes glow again as he looks me up and down. After a minute of awkward silence, I only nod in response, walking out of his room.

Why did he always do that? What is he hiding from me?

As I make my way into my room, I close the door. I contemplate whether or not I should lock it.

Wow...I don't even trust my mate. This is a problem because of all the people I know who have mates, they trust their mate more so than themselves. Even Kaia trusted Dante more than me, and we've been best friends since kindergarten. 

Still, salty about that, I'm not going to lie.

Why couldn't I have a normal mate? I'd be happy with a regular Omega like me, as long as he was honest and loved me. He could even be ugly, and I'd still be happy. I don't ask for much...just someone who trusts me and who I can trust, too.

I need to get to the bottom of Maverick's weird-ass behavior, before I lose my sanity or before I get killed. Both sound horrible. 

With this thought, I grab a notebook from my bag, tearing out the old math notes that were still in it. This will be my journal to understand who my mate is truly.

I write at the top on a fresh, new page my theories. 

My first theory is he must have been abused as a child. 

I mean, I remember reading about an Alpha from a neighboring pack that was abused when he was a child by his father. Then his wolf began to not trust people, so he'd lash out if people got too close to him. That's sort of how Maverick acts..

Another theory I have is he was cursed by a witch or warlock, which is pretty far fetched because I don't think there are any of those guys around anymore. 

You never know though!

My last theory is he has to be possessed by some demonic wolf or spirit of some sort. That seems highly probable from the way he was clawing and growling at an inanimate object, such as the wall.

I star that one. 

Once I write these theories down, I switch to the next page. 

What should I call this plan? 

Just then, a light-bulb goes off in my head. He warned me before to not unleash the 'real Maverick'. But, perhaps that's what I want to do. I want to know the real him; I don't want anything other than that. 

At the top of the page, I write, 

"Unleashing Maverick"

_____________

A/N

Heyyyyyy guys!!

So, once again, sorry for the later update. With everything going on, it's been pretty hectic. Plus, I am writing three other books, so I try to update each of them as well.

Also, I'm in like hella hard classes this semester ; Organic chemistry, biology, psych, and this super hard English class that actually high-level linguistics and English majors take (even graduate students are taking it). I'm a biology major, so like I thought I was taking an easy-A course, but nope! It's about Pragmatics, so if any of ya'll are great in that department, please hmu because I have no freaking idea what the hell is going on lol

Anyways, please comment and vote!! And thank you to those of you who do so and read my books!!

Much love <3

~Madelyn Joy