A Wolf's Oath (34 page)

Anna stepped back, pulling away from Erica. “You remember
me?”

“
A little bit,” Erica admitted.

“
Woohoo!” Anna screamed in jubilation. “Have all your memories
come back? Why did no one tell me? When did you start to remember?
I can’t believe no one told me that you’re better. When are you
coming home? There’s no need to stay here anymore so I suppose
you’ll be coming home any day now.”

“
Anna, I said calm down. I haven’t recovered, so I’m staying
here.”

“
But you just said…”

“
I said I remembered you a little and I do. I remember who you
are, your name and the like, but nothing much beyond that. I still
don’t have most of my memories, I’m not much better than the day I
left home if I’m completely honest.”

“
Oh, well that’s a bit of a let down. But that’s why I’m here.
Like I said let’s have a chat just the two of us and see what we
can come up with.”

Sebastian barely resisted the urge to physically throw the
small woman out of their home, but he managed to walk towards the
pair without his nails turning into claws and he considered that a
major achievement.

“
Sebastian, are you going to help us finish unpacking?” Dylan
called to him, her little head peeking out of the doorframe that
led into their bedroom.

“
Yes Sebastian,” Anna began. “Why don’t you help them finish
unpacking while Eric and I have a talk, just the two of
us?”

“
Erica, is that what you want me to do?” he asked, looking for
guidance.

“
If it’s not too much trouble. I don’t think there’s all that
much left and I’ll come and help as soon as I can.”

“
If that’s what you want sweetheart,” he smiled, walking down
the corridor.

“
Let’s have our talk now Eric.” Anna grasped Erica's hand and
pulled her towards the sofa, sitting her down and turning to smile
at her. “So exactly what do you remember?”

“
Not much, I’ve remembered things about Dylan and Wyatt
mainly.”

“
That makes sense, you’ve spent your entire life with that pair
of trouble makers. Anything about me?”

“
Not really, I remembered something about you when I was
thinking about them, sorry.”

“
I’ve brought you some things that I’m hoping will jog your
memory. So hopefully, you’ll remember me in my own right soon
enough.” She placed a small box that she had been carrying under
her arm onto the table and removed the lid.

“
What’s in there?” Erica asked, curious.

“
Pictures of you and me silly. I’m hoping that maybe a visual
thing will help jog your memory. Here, take a look.” Grabbing a
handful of pictures, Anna gave them to Erica and allowed her to
look through them.

The photos were all of her and Anna in various stages of
development, right up from childhood and all the way through their
teenage years with a few of them now as adults. The ones of the
pair of them as children looked a lot older than they should have
done, the majority of them in black and white rather than colour
and yellowed around the edges. She shrugged off her misgivings
quickly, attributing the aged pictures to a photographic technique
rather than anything else. The pictures were clear evidence that
she and Anna were close friends and yet did nothing to stir her
memory. Each new picture that she saw only served to make her feel
increasingly incompetent in her ability to remember her
life.

“
I’m sorry Anna, but this isn’t helping. I’m not remembering
anything.”

Anna took the pictures from her friend’s loose grasp and
placed them back in the box. “How have you remembered other things?
What were you doing at the time? Tell me.”

She thought about the question for a moment before coming up
with an acceptable answer. “I seem to remember things when I’m
talking to Sebastian.”

“
He just asks you questions and you can remember enough to
answer them? Is that what happens?”

“
Not really. He never comes out and asks me a question
directly. We’re usually talking about something else. A memory of
his or something and it just triggers something in my head and I’ll
remember something. It’s never anything big though. Usually it’s
just an isolated memory about a specific event.”

“
Well why don’t we try that then?” Rummaging through the box of
photos, Anna found a single picture and handed it to Erica. The
photo was of her and Anna but there were two unknown young boys in
the picture that she couldn’t place.

“
Who are they?” Erica asked, pointing to the two young
boys.

“
Those two are my brothers. That’s Aaron and that’s
Andrew.”

As soon as Anna had told her who they were, the slight
similarities between the three of them became obvious and she
wondered how she had missed them before. All four of them looked
extremely upset and she couldn’t understand why Anna had picked
this picture out of all the others in the box.

“
Let me tell you the story behind that picture and we’ll see if
you remember anything okay?”

“
Sure.”

“
Well the four of us had decided to go swimming and Aaron said
that someone had told him about this lake nearby so we decided to
go and look for it. We got lost. None of us had any idea of where
we were meant to be headed. It got dark so we decided to head home,
only we couldn’t remember the way we had come in the first place.
Eventually our parents came looking for us and they were so mad.
I’d never seen them that angry. They forbade us from ever going out
like that again and that’s when they took the picture, to remind us
that we shouldn’t do anything like that again. Well?” Anna asked
excitedly. “Do you remember anything?”

“
I’m sorry Anna, but I don’t. Maybe it only works when
Sebastian does it.”

“
The things I could tell you about him,” Anna mumbled under her
breath angrily. Infuriated that he could do something for Erica
that she could not.

“
What was that?” Erica asked, unable to properly make out what
Anna had just said though she got the distinct impression that
whatever it had been hadn’t been complimentary.

“
Nothing, Eric. Don’t worry about it.”

“
So Anna, how are Aaron and Andrew?” she asked jovially, trying
to lighten the mood as she could practically sense Anna’s
disappointment.

“
They’re dead,” she stated simply, the words needing no further
explanation.

“
I don’t know what to say.”

“
You don’t need to say anything Eric, it happened a long time
ago.” Despite the brave words, Anna’s voice was sad and Erica dimly
remembered hearing her sound that way once before and she tried to
hold on to the memory and make it clearer.

“
They died not long after that picture was taken didn’t they?”
Anna turned to face her, she was right. Both her brothers had been
taken from her within a few months of that photo. “I remember you
were sad; sad and angry.” The memory began to fade and Erica
struggled to hold onto it despite the building pain in her head
that trying to remember was causing. “I remember…”

“
Yes, Eric, what else?” Anna pressed, eager for her friend to
remember.

“
My head hurts,” she groaned.

“
What else do you remember? Tell me Eric.”

“
Aaron and Andrew…” She clenched her head within both palms as
the pain began to mount to unimaginable levels.

“
Go on,” Anna urged.

“
Stop this,” Sebastian demanded from the corridor. He had
watched the interaction between Erica and Anna, allowed it to
continue, but this he couldn’t permit. “Trying to force her to
remember doesn’t help her. Can’t you see the pain that she’s in?
Are you really that selfish?” Moving to stand in front of Erica, he
crouched so that they were both at the same eye level and pulled
her hands away from her head. “Erica, sweetheart, please stop this.
You’re hurting yourself.”

“
Sebastian?” she croaked.

“
I’m here sweetheart. There’s no need to push yourself. You’ll
remember everything in your own time. I swear. Anna, I think it’s
time for you to leave.”

“
Why should I?” she snapped, demanding a reason for why
Sebastian though he had any right to order her to do or not do
something.

He turned to face her, his anger clearly written on his face.
His brown eyes had changed to their more intense amber and the
threat within them was clear. If she didn’t leave then he would
make her leave in whatever way he thought was quickest.

“
Fine,” she conceded. “Eric, I want you to call me if you ever
need someone to talk to. I know that you have to stay here to get
better, but I miss you. Here,” she quickly grabbed a pen and a
stray piece of paper from her bag and scrawled her number on it.
“You can reach me at anytime day or night on this. If you lose it
then I’m sure Dylan or Wyatt will know how to get in contact with
me, okay?”

“
Thanks Anna,” she groaned, the pain in her head only just
starting to abate. “Thanks for coming to see me and if anything
comes up, you’ll be the first one I call. I’m sorry I couldn’t
remember more.”

I don’t like that woman,
Sebastian's
wolf admitted as he watched her leave the cabin.
There’s something that she’s hiding and I don’t
like it.

I agree. I can’t seem to shake the feeling that she’s
trouble.

If she does anything to endanger our mate, I will deal with
her, laws be damned.
The wolf’s threat was
clear, guided solely by the instinctive need to protect what his
mate.

If she does anything that puts Erica in danger then you won’t
need to act. I will do whatever is necessary to protect what’s
ours.

I like the way you’re starting to see things
Sebastian.

The weird thing is so do I and that worries me.

Chapter
Thirty-Four

For the second time in as many nights Sebastian sat in the
living room, a sharp knife in one hand and a large slab of warm
wood beneath his other palm. Though most of the blame for his
sleepless night could be laid at his brother’s door, he wasn’t the
only one who had insisted on talking to him late into the night. He
had received a not too pleasant phone call from his cousin earlier,
lecturing him about Alexandria’s visit out to see him. Although
Sebastian had tried to explain to Tobias that he couldn’t have
known that Alex would come to see him and leave Tobias nothing more
than a brief note regarding her whereabouts, his cousin refused to
see reason. When Sebastian had tried to tell him that he couldn’t
control Alex’s actions, Tobias had only proceeded to rant more. The
lesson learnt, Sebastian had gathered his tools and settled in for
a long lecture. He was glad beyond belief that Alex had been right
and that the bruises from his mishandling of her hadn’t been
visible and didn’t feel a need to push his luck.

By the time he had got off the phone with his cousin, the
entire house was asleep leaving him to sculpt in peace. It had been
a little over an hour since he had spoken to Tobias, but he was so
engulfed in his work that he didn’t notice the time slipping by.
The piece beneath his fingers held a place in his heart, it was
special. He was intending to make it a gift for Erica for when her
memories returned, whenever that might be and so he wanted it to be
perfect. While others may have thought his work was good, he more
often than not disagreed and for once he wanted to feel satisfied
with the work when it was complete; Erica deserved no
less.

His eyes were glued to the wood, his fingers gliding over the
material with painstaking attention to detail as he tried to
translate the image he saw in his mind onto the wood. He was so
engrossed in his work that he didn’t hear the quiet sound of small
feet approaching until he was prodded by a little finger in his
arm. He spun around to face the newcomer, his blade still within
his grasp, and found himself staring directly into Dylan’s young
face. Her eyes were wide, clearly shocked at Sebastian's violent
reaction to such a simple gesture.

“
Dylan, what are you doing here?” Sebastian inquired, placing
the knife onto the table. Holding her lightly around the waist, he
lifted Dylan from the ground and placed her on the sofa beside him.
“You should be asleep.”

“
So should you,” Dylan pointed out, her eyes taking in the wood
chippings that covered the floor before wandering to the sculpture
Sebastian had been carving. “What’s that?”

“
It’s just a little project that I’m working on. Now, care to
explain to me why it is that you’re up so late or do I mean early?”
His eyes wandered the room in search of a clock to tell him the
time. It was two am and regardless of whether that was early or
late, Dylan should have been asleep. “Either way, Erica won’t be
happy.”

“
Sebastian, do you think that me and Wyatt are
stupid?”

The question stunned him, where exactly had Dylan come up
with such an idea? “Of course I don’t. The pair of you are very
intelligent. Why would you ask me something like that?”