LUCAS’ POV
I watched as Xander hauled Sylvia out of the bushes and onto the road. I don’t know how she just went in there and why she ran away in the first place.
I know the place ought to have looked pitch black, even though I can see a little clearer thanks to my enhanced vision. But for her, to just go into the fields like she was desperate to get away even in this dark was suspicious.
I looked at Xander as he tightened his hold on screaming and kicking Sylvia. I saw his concerned face looking down at the bundle of squirming human in his hands and remembered the last time I saw that look on his face, it was decades ago.
My gut clenched.
I ignored him and gently grabbed Sylvia from his arms and walked her in front of my car headlight to look at her. A car zoomed past us in the opposite direction as Sylvia shivered in my arms.
My brows furrowed. What was happening to her?
“Sylvia?” I called out, but her eyes were focused only on Xander.
He took careful steps toward us, looking at Sylvia like one might look at a scared kitten.
“Don’t do this,” Sylvia said suddenly, looking up at me.
She didn’t explain further and tried to squirm her way out of my hold. I tightened my hands on her arms without it constricting.
“Sylvia? What is it?” I asked and shook her a little, like that would bring her back from whatever frenzy she was in.
When she didn’t do anything but shiver in my arms I turned my glare in Xander’s direction. “What the fuck are you doing here, Xandros?” I grunted I could feel my body heating up for a shift but I calmed down my wolf.
Xander just glared back at me without opening his mouth.
“What do you think you are doing? You should never unprecedentedly show up before warded humans.” I growled not caring to censor my words, because by the way of Sylvia’s unseeing eyes I knew she was not aware of what was happening around her.
She was caught in the past and I can more or less guess what that past was about.
And if Xander triggered it by showing up, I would absolutely make him pay for it.
“And what the fuck do you think you are doing now?” He growled back, thumping my shoulder, making me loosen my hold on Sylvia.
“I wasn’t there long enough to make an impact on her! You clearly did.” I glared at him.
He opened his mouth to say something scathing no doubt when I realized Sylvia breaking free from me. I put out my hand at the last minute to grab her but she effectively pulled free from me and ran to the opposite road. I looked in horror as a car came speeding towards her.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Xander realize the same thing, but he immediately used his extraordinary speed to run towards her in a blink of an eye and grabbed her arms and pulled her backward.
The car sped off with no impact, the driver honking like a madman and showing us the middle finger without losing speed.
“Jackass,” I growled under my breath.
Sylvia was breathing heavily and looked like she was conscious again after the adrenaline burst and with my headlights bouncing off her beautiful face; I could see her calming. But still, she tugged herself free from Xander’s hold.
Xander stood next to her like a bomb ready to go off if she tried to run again.
“Please don’t take me back.” She whispered.
I sucked in a breath as Xander went impossibly stiff. She knows or at least she remembered.
“Fuck.” I cursed and turned my back towards them, kicking a stone with my booted leg. We were fucking screwed.
I almost laughed at the absurdity of all. I planned for a perfect evening with a woman who not only caught my eyes but my wolf’s too. But it all came to that bastard in the end. He was always set out to ruin my life.
I reluctantly turned back because I was genuinely concerned for Sylvia, it would be no easy feat to remember every single thing of these past months in a single second. She would be scared and confused and to be honest I didn’t know what to do, to make her suffer less.
She leaned back against the hood of the car and rested both of her hands on her thighs.
“When did you start remembering?” Xander asked harshly pushing at Sylvia’s shoulder roughly.
“Hey!” I walked toward him and grabbed his wrist in a painful hold. “What the hell do you think you are doing?” I asked glaring at him. He was a couple of inches shorter which always irked him to no end.
But today I used those inches to my total advantage while I stood taller over him.
“I never forgot.” The whispered confession broke our glaring contest.
I sharply turned towards her, loosening my hold on Xander’s wrist in surprise.
“What did you say?” I asked, stunned.
She lifted her head in our direction, her eyes were bloodshot and there was a small quiver on her lips.
“I didn’t forget anything. I realized I remembered everything that happened in there. When your….um…When I escaped, I didn’t think of anything other than running outside.” she bit her bottom lip for a brief moment before continuing. “But when I was rescued I slowly realized that I didn’t exactly forget anything, I knew when I crossed the ward I should have lost my memories, at least that was what I gathered from when I heard you talk.”
How fucked up was that?
She knew the whole time, who I was and played me exactly as she wanted, and being the idiot that I am, I totally believed her acting.
I fisted my hands at my side and felt humiliated and angry. Mostly angry at myself for falling for an act like this.
“How did you escape?” I turned around and asked her with my voice raised, but felt a pang deep inside when she flinched.
One girl should not have the power to break my well-constructed wall of emotions. It’s absurd, is what it is.
But before she could answer, Xander did.
“My sister helped her go through the main door and the wards.” I looked up at him surprised. “She made sure of it.”
Sylvia suddenly stood up and poked at Xander’s chest with surprising strength. “Tell me you didn’t do anything to her!” She emphasized each word with a poke to his chest.
He enclosed his large palm on Sylvia’s fisted hand, stopping her effectively. “And why would I do anything to my sister?” He reiterated. “I was almost glad she did what she did. Because you were a liability, even….” He stopped talking and released her hand with a sigh.
Sylvia took a step back and hunched in on herself.
My thoughts suddenly flashed to my mother and sister. I didn’t know what triggered it, but memories started flooding my mind. The memory of us sitting in the forest, outside of the wards to collect my father’s favorite flowers. My mother sang to both of us while she made my papa’s flower band because my mom said that he liked when my mom made him something. He said that my mom was magical, and I believe it. My sister and I were transfixed by her voice and her delicate hands braiding a flower crown. We didn’t hear those rustling of leaves until too late.
“Xander,” I whispered, my voice cracking on his name. I almost stopped and said nothing because it has been a long time since I called him by that name apart from my mind. It was too jarring to voice it suddenly. But I wanted to know. On the off chance. “Is she one of them?”
His eyes softened immediately, losing that hard edge. He knows what happened and he knows how that incident affected me, still, it was nice to know that he didn’t consider me a total enemy, even though I am.
“No, she is not. That was the reason she was brought to the pack house in the first place.”
I didn’t ask him why he had her in there for months if he knew she was not one of the hunters.
I looked at Sylvia, but she was looking at the ground rubbing her converse on the road in a nervous gesture. I couldn’t help but give her an accusatory look; it is not even that I didn’t believe Xander’s words. But the old memories stirred something in me, something that I almost forgot what it felt like. Fear and helplessness.
Somehow Xander wordlessly understood me.
“Turn and show him your back, Sylvia.”
“What? Why?” She asked, arms crossed against her chest she glared at Xander.
“To make sure he sees that you are not a hunter. Turn. Back.”
I thought for sure she would never comply after he commanded like that but to my surprise, she turned back.
“Jacket off.” He bit out.
She huffed out but obediently took her jacket off and threw it at the car’s hood.
“The shirt…” Xander started but Sylvia cut him off.
“I know, I know.” She snapped. “Fuck off.”
With her bank turned, she reached behind for the shirt and pulled it up, with no hesitation and in the middle of the road, baring her back, but kept the half-removed shirt against her chest as a cover.
She shivered a little but I couldn’t afford to look at her bare back as I took a step toward her. I placed my hands just above her bra strap in the middle of her back and whispered the words to reveal any ink if it was hidden, praying that nothing showed up.
When I did it for the second time just to be sure, Sylvia turned her head a little to look over her shoulder. Her eyes widened a little and her gaze focused on something just above my hand, and I stopped the words to look down and saw nothing.
“Say that again.” She whispered.
“Huh?” I was confused.
“Say those words again, fast.”
I whispered the old words and she looked in awe as her gaze focused on my hand again.
“It’s glowing.” She breathed out.
Confused, I looked down still whispering the words. I couldn’t see what she was so awed about.
“You did this too right?” She asked looking to the side, looking at Xander.
He nodded.
“Wow.” Her breathy tone again. I forgot all about why and what I was whispering, my mind blessedly blank, as I spread my fingers on her back. So soft.
Suddenly, Xander hit my forearm, effectively dislodging my hand from her back. I glared at him as Sylvia put back on her shirt like the trance has been broken.
“How did you know?” She asked turning back towards us. But the question was directed towards Xander who looked stupidly at her like she didn’t make any sense.
“How did you know that I never forgot anything?” She demanded.
“I didn’t.” He stopped but continued when she glared at him. “I suspected that your escaping had something to do with my sister as she miraculously went missing the whole day. And she confessed it herself the next day at the office.” He glanced at me briefly, and I remembered the day at his office when his sister interrupted our glaring contest. “I could never be mad at her and also she did me a solid. After that I saw both of your interactions at the park and when…”
“You fucking spied on me?” I asked angrily. How the fuck did I miss that.
“Yes, I did.” He said calmly like he wanted me to know that I was overreacting. He continued as if nothing happened. “As I was saying before I got rudely interrupted, I knew something was fishy when I saw your expression when Lucas, here, didn’t notice you. I went home and couldn’t sleep, and when I noticed a book askew, I went to correct its position when some pages fell. I saw the torn pages and I knew that you took some of the pages, I didn’t know if you have read it and it triggered your memory or you just read it with no context, but I had to follow you and make sure you would not blurt it out to someone.”
“I didn’t.” She sulked.
“It doesn’t matter; I kind of figured you knew who Lucas was at the park and I suspected your memory came back or at least a little but you just blurted out the truth, didn’t you?” He patted her head in a patronizing way before she swiped at his hand.
“I want to go home.” She said and grabbed her jacket from the hood and opened the passenger door before slamming it close, and got on the back seat with a huff.
Stunned, I turned to look at Xander. “I don’t think it is advised to let her out in the world if she knows our secret.” We both looked inside the car to see Sylvia bathed in her phone light.
“And I don’t think she will be kind enough if we capture her again,” Xander said thoughtfully.
I cracked a smile, even though the matter doesn’t warrant it. At all.
“I’m curious as to how she didn’t forget a single thing.” I voiced out.
“I know. I’ll work on it with my pack shaman.”
I nodded my head in acknowledgment. “Are you coming to drop her off?” I asked and moved towards the driver’s door.
“Yes.”
“Suit yourself.”
I got in and snapped the seatbelt on just as Xander got in the passenger seat.
“Don’t even try to hijack me. Even if there was a single thought in you guys’ head about that, incinerate it immediately.” She said locking her phone.
“Didn’t plan to,” I mumbled and started the car.
“Huh-uh, I believed that.” She said sarcastically and reclined in her seat.
…….
Even with her continued protests, both Xander and I walked her up the stairs to her front door.
“Figures, you even know my door number.” She gave me the stink eye before reaching inside her jacket and pulling out her wallet and phone before jerkily searching for something. She pushed the items in her hand to mine and searched in her remaining pockets.
“Fuck. My keys are inside.” She braced her forehead against the door and lifted her hand blindly towards the calling bell but stopped short of ringing it.
“I have an apartment in the city,” Xander spoke out, for the first time after getting in the car.
She turned towards us after a moment and leaned her back against the door and looked at us both.
…….
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