Meeting the stranger again.

Rose’s POV

I twitched in my sleep, and let out a slow breath. I adjusted the pillows under my head, but I could not comfortably go back to sleep. My eyes were still closed, but then I suddenly realized why I had woken up in the first place.

I had felt the presence of someone watching me.

The sudden realization made me scared. My eyes flew open, to see the dimness in my room. It was late at night, with only a few night lights on. I quickly sat up on my bed and glanced around the room. I nearly had a cardiac arrest when I spotted it.

Or him.

A dark male figure lingering in the shadows of my bedroom. I let out an ear-splitting scream, scrambling backward on my bed until I hit the headboard. Still, I kept trying to move backward, away from the creep who had broken into my house in the dead of the night. The person moved, and I screamed again, scared out of my mind.

"Stay away! Stay away! What do you want from me?! I'll call the cops, stay away!"

He did not stop moving. He was coming closer to my bed.

My voice broke. "Do you want money? I swear, I don't have much, but I'll give you everything I have! Please don't hurt me!"

So many thoughts raced through my mind. Was he a burglar? That could explain how he got into my house without triggering any of the alarms. But should he not have been searching through the house for valuable items to steal instead of just staying in my bedroom?

He was watching me sleep.

What kind of dangerous creep was he? I was prepared to scream the house down when I suddenly heard my name.

"Rose."

The scream froze midway in my throat. That masculine voice sounded familiar, but I could not place where I had heard it from. But then, my heart thundered as I asked.

"H-how do you know my name? Who the hell are you?!"

"I'm Rael. The man you had sex with two months ago, at a club."

My mouth fell slack open as all the blood in my face drained away. As I sat there, struggling to absorb what he just said. He took one more step closer to the foot of my bed. That was when I finally saw him clearly.

Towering figure made of lean muscle, broad shoulders and manly chest. With that narrow waist lined with defined abs that peeked through his shirt. My widened eyes traveled up, till they landed on his face. That gorgeous as hell face that immediately pulled out all the forgotten memories from that drunken night.

His dark hair sat sexily ruffled, like that night, and his dark eyes were staring at me with a hunger that was all too familiar.

It was him.

There was no mistaking it. And his name was Rael. He was right in front of me. The stranger that had turned my life upside down.

"How did you find me?" I asked suspiciously. "You broke into my house in the dead of the night! How do I know you're not dangerous? How do I know you're not trying to hurt me?"

Something that seemed like a flicker of dark amusement crossed his eyes, and he responded. "If I wanted to hurt you, I would have the first night we met. And, I found you because I can feel the mating bond pulling me in your direction. I have felt it for a long time, driving me insane, and making me wish for nothing else but to find you."

I stared at him, unable to understand what he was talking about. Mating bond? But I did not even care about how he found me at this point, because my hand was already on my flat belly, instinctively protecting the tiny life growing inside.

The life that this man was responsible for.

"Do you know that my life has been turned upside down ever since that night?" I whispered. "Not only did I lose my virginity to you, but I'm also pregnant."

There was something about how intense his gaze turned when I broke the news to him, that made my toes curl. Those dark eyes slowly raked down to my belly, and he repeated.

"You are pregnant."

"Yes." I sighed, not knowing why I blurted that out to him in the first place.

He was unfazed. He looked back up at me, with that uncanny level of possessiveness.

"Since I have already taken two things from you, your virginity and your girlhood, you're my responsibility now. Come with me, to my home, and let me take care of you, and our child."

I blinked, stunned by his words. He was willing to accept the pregnancy? And me? Still, I found it difficult to believe. The way he even said 'our child' made me gasp softly at his easy acceptance.

"How can I just go with you to your home? All of this is too much for me to handle…"

"You don't have to handle anything, Rose." He said. "You're mine. You're carrying my pup. I'll handle everything. I've come to take you home. Here, take my hand."

He held out his hand to me, and I stared at it uncertainly. It was firm, big, and strong. The hand of a man that could potentially hold a lot of danger. But both during the night we had sex, and now, he had never posed any danger to me.

His dark eyes seemed like they held a lot of secrets, and that gorgeous face seemed like it was hiding something very frightening within, but for some reason, I felt a very deep level of trust towards him.

I found myself extending my hand, till it slipped smoothly into his.

He pulled me up and forward, till I was in his arms. I marvelled at how strong and solid he felt against me, and he cupped the back of my head with his fingers, rubbing strands of my hair.

"Every strand of this beautiful red hair is all mine now, down to every part of your body, to the baby inside you. All mine."