A/N: *strolls in, munching on crisps*

It's been too long, hasn't it?

*grins as she FINALLY hands over the next chapter*

xx-Kitten.

Addicted to You

By Kittenshift17

Chapter 15

Hermione panicked, jack-rabbiting across the room, intent on making it out the door and running for it before Malfoy could do anything to her that might leave her covered in bites and scratches, held under the Imperious curse and covered in glamours with her memory modified. She didn't want to end up like Greengrass. What if Malfoy was wrong? What if they weren't mates and he just ended up mauling her, too. She couldn't stand the thought, and she couldn't bear the sight of the terrible black Dark Mark marring his smooth skin, and she kind of wished she hadn't missed his heart with her dagger, after all.

Part of her knew it was useless to run. She was going to be caught. Even if she slipped her skin this very moment, he'd catch her, and she'd bet he knew the spell to force the Animagus transformation to reverse. He was going to claim her, just as Remus and Sirius had warned her he would, and she cursed Ronan, too, for giving her the false sense of hope that she'd meet her demise in the forest, rather than in the secret rooms she used when she needed to escape her friends and her dorm-mates.

She didn't even make it across the office and to the door before Malfoy slammed into her from behind, strong arms encircling her small body and lifting her right off her feet. He was growling angrily, furious with her for disobeying his order and trying to run.

Hermione fought futilely, scratching his arms with her fingernails, trying to pull her dagger from where she kept it hidden. Her mind flooded with terror and her limbs were infused with adrenaline, but even those things couldn't help her to fight off a werewolf. Not even one in human form with a hole stabbed in his chest.

"Let me go!" Hermione shouted, kicking, writhing, squirming in his grip.

"Stop fighting," he commanded, and she almost did purely out of shock at the utterly deadpan tone in his voice.

He didn't sound angry, despite the growling. He didn't sound desperate, or annoyed, or hopeful. He just sounded resigned, knowing he had to claim her, knowing neither of them really wanted it. Knowing he was a monster. Hermione almost went limp in his hold, knowing there was no hope. He was going to claim her for his mate one way or the other and she now knew he wasn't above using force, if he had to.

Hermione's mind played the cliché line in the back of her skull; we can do it hard, or we can do it easy. What's it gonna be, bub?

She felt sick. Knowing he was a Death Eater, knowing he'd used the Unforgivable curses on fellow students, and knowing that his wolf was riding him to claim her for his mate, Hermione knew she was in danger. He was stronger, faster, meaner, and far more calculating than she'd ever given him credit for, and she knew he wasn't going to let her leave this room until he'd fucked her. She knew that, being a virgin, it was going to hurt. Fighting him and being terrified would only make it hurt worse, but she couldn't help it. She wanted to run. She wanted to fight. She wanted to hex him into oblivion and bury her dagger in his heart.

She didn't want to be his mate and she didn't want to just lay down and let him fuck her, no matter the way her body had responded when he'd cut off her nervous rambling with that kiss.

"Granger," he warned when she kept fighting even as he dragged her across the room and to the bed.

Hermione clawed at him and bit him, fighting him the whole way when he shoved her down on the bed and flipped her to her back, pinning her wrists in his unforgiving grip and trapping her on top of the mattress, holding her body down with his heavier and stronger one.

"Get of me, Malfoy!" Hermione growled at him, fury pulsing through her skull and making magic crackle through her curls.

"Granger!" he shouted so loudly and with such lycanthropic magic pushed into it that she actually froze under him, hear heart pounding and her stomach flipping with fear.

He was breathing hard when she stared at him, wide eyed.

"I'm trying really hard not to turn this into something we'll both regret, Granger," he panted. "I don't want to pin you down and rape you, but I can't let you leave this room until I mark you as my mate."

"You can," she assured him. "Just let me go."

"No!" he snarled, his eyes flashing the gold of the wolf.

He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth and reaching for control she was certain he didn't have. She felt the way his nails sharpened to claws like he might transform right there on top of her and Hermione gulped, fear permeating much of her anger and leaving her trembling.

"Don't you see?" he asked in a low, almost pained voice. "I have to do this. I have to mark you. Here. Now. If I let you run again, I'm just going to get you tomorrow. Maybe in class. Maybe in the Great Hall. Maybe down by the Quidditch Pitch or up on the Astronomy Tower. I don't know where, or when, but if I let you go now, I won't have the control not to jump you in public tomorrow. Not now that I've kissed you. Not when you agreed to do this back in the corridor and led me down here to this little sanctum."

"I agreed before finding out you were using an Unforgivable on a classmate after mauling her, Malfoy!" Hermione protested hotly. "What if you're wrong about me being your mate? What if it's not me, either? What if you maul me, too?"

"I won't," he informed her, his eyes snapping up to meet hers, is expression deadly serious. "It's you. I know it's you. What I did to Daph… I knew going into shagging her that she wasn't my mate, but I didn't know then who was. But I know now. I know it's you. You're it."

"And if you're wrong, I'll be disfigured at best, and dead at worst," Hermione argued. "Excuse me for not wanting to take that risk."

"It's not a risk," he growled. "And even if it were, you're not going anywhere until I've had you, witch."

Hermione recognised from the shift in his tone and the way his teeth sharpened to fangs, his eyes going fully gold, that the wolf inside his soul had just taken control of his human body. Hermione froze, holding perfectly still as she glared back at the werewolf, trying desperately to hide her fear.

"Don't fear me, precious mate," he whispered, his voice low and gravelly in a way that made her nervous.

"Please don't hurt me," Hermione whispered, her eyes filling with tears and her body struggling just a little as he leaned toward her, licking his lips and intent on biting her, or maybe kissing her.

"Never," he vowed in that low tone and Hermione hated the fact that despite her terror, there was something to that tone that made her body respond to him.

Unsure what to do, Hermione bit her lip and looked away, unwittingly exposing the side of her neck to his bite. He took full advantage and Hermione cried out as sharp teeth tore into tender flesh just hard enough to sting. It stung like hellfire, and Hermione hated him just a bit that in addition to the pain, a jolt of desire coursed through her so intensely, she lost her breath.

She didn't want to want this. She didn't want to be marked as his mate and she didn't want to be claimed by him. She didn't think she could stand having to put up with him as her significant other for the rest of her life and Hermione whimpered, closing her eyes as tears escaped when her back arched, her body bowing toward his, desperate for friction. In that moment she loathed magic and hated that she'd been born a witch. She couldn't bare the idea of being mated to him.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Hermione stopped bothering to try and fight him off. It was useless, she knew. He was stronger, and he was determined to end their suffering and to make the whole mess easier to deal with by claiming her. Hermione wondered how effective that was really going to be when he lifted off her just far enough to use his unsheathed claws to shred her clothing until he could peel her out of each garment with ease.

"Come on, Granger," she heard Malfoy muttered quietly when he resorted to kissing her neck and pressing himself on top of her, both of them naked.

Hermione shook her head from side to side, telling herself that if she just kept her eyes closed it would all be over soon.

"Blast it all, Granger! Don't be such a stubborn fool," he hissed, and Hermione's eyes snapped open to glare at him hatefully.

"Get off me!" Hermione spat in return, shoving at him angrily.

"I'm not letting your run again," he shook his head.

"Get off me or so help me, Malfoy, I'll stab you again. And this time I won't miss!" Hermione growled at him.

"You can't fight this, Granger," he shook his head. "Why are you making this harder than it needs to be?"

"Because I don't want to be stuck with you for the rest of my life," Hermione said, shoving at his shoulders before managing to bodily roll him off her across the bed.

Not that it was as effective as she hoped when he kept his tight hold of her and ended up dragging her across him until she was sprawled on top of him, instead.

"You don't have a choice," he told her. "Do you think I want to be stuck with you? Do you think my parents aren't going to bloody well disown me when they find out you're it for me, Granger? I don't want this any more than you do, but I also don't want to rape you at breakfast in the Great Hall tomorrow morning, so unless you actually fancy having the entire school see you're arse when you're on your hands and knees in front of all of them with me shagging you like some savage beast, then stop bloody crying about it, stop struggling and just bloody get on with it, alright?"

"Get on with it?" she spat. "Who do you imagine you're talking to, Malfoy? I'm not some painted whore to just spread my legs on command."

"No, but you're my fucking wolf-mate," he retorted.

"That doesn't make me some bitch in heat you can mount whenever you feel like it," Hermione growled, shoving at his hands where he still held her, trying to get him to release her so that she could get off him.

"I never said you were," he growled, looking beyond frustrated. "For fuck's sake, Granger, you were on board with getting this over with, so we could bloody move on with life before I mentioned Daph. Just fucking relax, would you?"

"Relax?" she hissed. "You mauled at girl, Malfoy. Excuse me for not wanting to be your next victim!"

Hermione squealed when he unleashed a feral growl like the wolf he could become, flipping her off of him and onto the bed once more.

He rose to his feet and paced a few steps away from her, snarling ferociously like he wanted to rip he throat out with his fangs.

"Are you actually this fucking thick?" he demanded when he turned to look at her, his fangs and claws free, his eyes canine-gold and unsettling with the way the skin around them had began to darken in his fury as his anger and his wolf threatened to overwhelm him once more. "You bloody well agreed to this, Granger. You were on board and even getting into it before I mentioned Daph."

"Because you just admitted to being a complete monster," Hermione said angrily.

"You haven't seen monstrous," Malfoy spat coldly, and Hermione got the feeling that he especially did not like being called one.

Not that she could entirely blame him. She knew she was being irrational, and that they needed to just get this over with, but she couldn't help it. She didn't fancy him, she certainly didn't like him, and she was scared of what he was going to do to her.

"Yes, that's what I'm afraid of," Hermione replied quietly. "You do understand that once we do this, there's no going back."

"I know," he nodded. "That's the point."

"That means that if by some miracle, we both survive the war, we'll be stuck together, Malfoy. If I ever want to have children, I'll have to have them with you. Is that really what you want?"

"Yes," he answered quietly, surprising her before she could go on to list all the other terrible side effects of them diving into this mess with one another, no matter how little they each wanted.

"Yes?" Hermione asked. "You just said you don't want to shag me or be with me… You can't just say that, yes, you want to have kids with me one day."

"You really have no concept of what being a werewolf means, Granger," Malfoy laughed bitterly. "I don't get a fucking choice. You were there in the bloody forest when I transformed, and you played with me like it was nothing and now you're all my wolf wants. Don't you understand that? What the human side of me wants doesn't fucking matter. The wolf is stronger, and the wolf will get what he wants, otherwise the human side of me pays the price at the next full moon. If you think what I did to Daphne was bad, it was nothing compared to what I did to myself – what the wolf inside me did to my human form – during the transformation that followed me shagging Daphne. Trust me, Granger. I wouldn't be willing to risk living through that hell ever again if I wasn't sure you're my mate."

"But how can you be sure?" Hermione asked, sitting up on the edge of the bed and glaring at him despite that fact that since tackling her to it, he'd managed to strip both of them down to just their knickers.

She could see every inch of his naked body and from the scars he wore, it was clear he'd been through something horribly painful. The idea that they were self-inflicted by his wolf in punishment for shagging Daphne made her head spin and she wondered how Malfoy hadn't just turned his wand on himself and tried to commit suicide if he had to contend with so ruthless a creature living inside his very skin.

Maybe he had.

She hardly knew him, after all, and she didn't imagine he'd be overly forthcoming with such information.

Malfoy laughed bitterly again at her question.

"Instinct, Granger," he replied. "There's a wild animal living under my skin ruled entirely by instinct. The instinct to mate, and the instinct to breed, and even the instinct to kill. It's not like the wolf is only in charge at the full moon. You've just seen what happens when he wrestles control from me even while I wear my human skin. He knows things that my human spirit is too stupid to grasp, the most pressing of which is that you are my mate and you will be until the day we both die. You will be the witch who carries my children. You will be the witch I marry, one day, when my parents finally come around and accept that their actions turned me into a werewolf, thus landing me with you. When I turn old and grey and the ravages of every full moon rip my aching human body apart, you'll be the witch at home in my bed, waiting for me to return when the sun rises once more. You're the witch that I have no choice but to follow to the ends of the Earth and beyond. If you run, I will chase you. If you hide, I will find you. If you die, I will destroy whoever is responsible for your death and likely follow you into the next great journey."

Hermione's breath caught inside her chest at the brutal honesty in his every word and she tried to gulp in another, desperate for oxygen to clear her mind and the calm her racing heart. Malfoy shook his head, looking away from her for a moment and running a hand through his hair in what might almost be embarrassment at the future he'd laid out before them that, it was clear, he was certain would be their fate. When he looked back at her, Hermione blinked, her eyes widening in surprise to see that one of his eyes was the cool, storm-cloud grey of his human heritage, while the other had turned completely lupine; the man and the wolf inside of him perfectly balanced in her presence within that moment. Two halves of the same whole sharing his body and sharing his soul.

The acceptance of both the man and the wolf aligning under a common goal was evident and Hermione knew, without a doubt, that he was telling the truth about the two of them being fated wolf-mates. Anything less would cause his wolf to overthrow his human counterpart, and had Malfoy not also accepted as a man that he was the witch for her, both his eyes would be gold, rather than just one. In a heartbeat she could see that man and wolf were at peace with one another. Both had made their choice; both wanted her and no one else. Her head spun at the very idea and had she not already been seated on the end of the bed, she was sure her knees would've given out beneath her as her mind began to swim, the floor swaying dizzily beneath her in her shock.

"You're it for me, Granger," he told her quietly, shrugging his shoulders and looking a little resigned, a little helpless, and a little like he desperately needed her to understand. "And whether you like it or not, I'm it for you, too."

NOTE: If you like my writing, I have just recently published my first Original Fiction novel on Amazon. Check out my profile page here on on FB for all the details on how to buy it!