by Lea Jade
“Are you checking the database?” I ask, coming up beside her.
“Yes,” she says, continuing to tap as the database comes up on the screen. “We're supposed to record each and every injury sustained, and treatment recommended for every fighter that comes into the clinic. If your injury was caused at the club, it should be in here.”
She types my name quickly and hits enter. A picture of me shows up on screen along with various data points. A lot of it is blank. She scrolls down to the section showing medical history and selects ‘all archived records.’ “The system defaults to the last year of data so I need to access the archives for anything earlier,” she explains.
She clicks a few more buttons and then she frowns.
“What the hell?”
“What?” I ask, craning my neck to look over her shoulder.
“I found you,” she says. “Except... It’s not letting me access your archived files.”
ACCESS DENIED, HIGHER AUTHORIZATION NEEDED, flashes up in red.
“Is that normal?” I ask, a sinking feeling beginning to spread in the pit of my stomach.
“No,” Jess says, shaking her head. “I’ve never had it happen to me before until now. Not once...”
“Maybe the system is down?” I offer, grasping at straws.
“Maybe.” She starts tapping again.
“What happens when you look up your brother on there?”
“No results,” she says with a sigh. “Trust me, I’ve tried”
“Do you have a picture of him?”
She grabs her phone, swipes a few times, and then turns the screen toward me. Smiling into the camera, with his arm around Jess, is a man around my age with steel blue-grey eyes and hair as jet black as Jess’s.
“This is Dylan. Do you recognise him?”
I shake my head. For a moment, I felt something, a familiar thread of memory. But as soon as I tried to bring it to the surface, it dissolved away. I sigh and run my fingers though my hair. Inside, I feel my wolf start to get anxious. Usually at this time of day I’m training, burning the excess energy away on the bag. All this talk about my nonexistent past is killing me.
“Okay,” she says, standing up and pacing the room. “So, something is up. My brother is missing, and I was attacked by someone promising to deliver information about him but instead they wanted the keys to the clinic. Your entire life looks to have been erased and the medical information we need to prove it is being held under lock and key…”
“My entire life hasn’t been erased.”
“We don't know that, or how the pieces of the puzzle fit together, or what shape they might eventually take. But now we at least have a bigger picture to work toward, and we know that someone out there doesn’t want to see us complete it.”
“Or this could all just be a coincidence?” I say.
“No. It’s not. Whoever is orchestrating this has something to lose,” says Jess. “Otherwise, why go to all the trouble?” She rubs her chin, deep in thought. “At least we know it’s not the twins.”
“Oh, how so?”
“They don’t need to break in here. They have a key…” her eyes suddenly widen. “They have a key! Oh fates, that’s it.” If I’m not mistaken, she looks and smells pleased with herself.
I give her an amused look. “Honestly, I don’t follow.”
“The twins set me up. The date, the attack, the key being stolen. I need check to out the twins’ apartment. I saw someone strange driving into their garage last night.”
“No,” I say, firmer than I intend. “No more snooping around. After what happened with the bear shifter, you need to lay low, keep on doing your job. If anyone should do the investigating it should be me.”
“Why?”
“Because…” I try to come up with an answer she’ll accept. “That might throw them off your scent for a while. Plus, I know what the twins want. I can use that as leverage.”
“What do they want?”
“The ultimate fight, my wolf against the two of them.”
“What in the fates… Jake, that’s way too dangerous.”
I elevate one of my brows and chuckle. “Hardly… I’m the Raging Wolf remember, and they’ll owe me if I agree to it. I can use that to find out about your brother.” I say, brushing off her ‘dangerous’ comment.
She squints, her nose doing that cute wrinkling thing. “You’d do that for me?”
“I would.”
“Are you sure, though? I mean, I don’t want to get you involved in this mess too...”
“I’m already involved in it,” I insist.
She pauses, looking at me as though considering me for a long moment, and then suddenly, a little unexpectedly, she breaks into a soft smile.
“Jake Cabot, you’re not at all what I expected.”
Then, it’s my turn to look at her strangely. “Wait… Who?”
Chapter 6
Jess
Two nights later, thoroughly exhausted by the end of my shift, I receive a text from Zac—a less threatening, more concerned text.
If you ever want to come home, you can.
No questions, no recriminations.
Just wanted you to know.
I should call him and my mother, I really should. But with everything that’s happened so far, I’ve been preoccupied. Like with seducing Jake.
I still can’t get over that I kissed him. Well, maybe we did a little more than that. Okay, a lot more.
But while it was everything I’d imagined it to be, it can’t happen again.
Not that Jake is chasing me for another repeat. He’s stone-cold been avoiding me ever since. I can’t be upset about my love life… if you can call it that. We made no promises.
To his credit, Jake has laid off doing some serious damage to his opponents, much to Eric’s annoyance. Tonight's fight could have been bloody; a triple feature, three fights back to back to back. Some of the injuries I’d treated on the other fighters will be sure to give me nightmares, but Jake just knocked his opponent clean out.
Why do I like that he’s trying to change?
Fates. I’m so screwed.
I keep messing up here. Like letting it slip that I know Jake’s real name.
“Cabot?”
Shit. My heart feels like it's dropped into my throat. He does know his own last name, right?
“Oh, isn’t that your last name? I thought you said it was?” I say, in what I hope is a light and breezy tone.
He furrows his brow, blue orbs threatening to see through my lies. “No. Not that I know of.”
“So, tell me, what is your last name?” I try to deflect.
“I don't have one.”
“How can you not have one?”
“Maybe I did. It says Archer on the fight card every Saturday night, but that’s not my name. I honestly don't remember it,” he says with a sigh.
I laugh, nervously. “You’re kidding me, right?”
He shakes his head. “No. I needed one so… Cabot where have I heard that before?”
Fuck. “Hmm, ignore what I said, I must have heard wrong.” I collect my purse and spare clothes, then head to the computer to switch it off, only too aware of Jake watching me strangely while I chat about what I need to do for the rest of the day, how hungry I am… anything to change the subject.
I wait for him to bring ‘Cabot’ up again, but he doesn't. His scent is different though now, spikier than before.
I've known him as a Cabot my entire life, if only he knew it too.
The memory of our awkward conversation here in this room two mornings ago, has me cringing at best. How was I to know he didn’t know his own name. He must see himself as the one and only ‘Jake’… like ‘Cher’ and ‘Prince’. It’s ridiculous. He’s a grown man, how did he not try to regain his memories.
Fates, Jess, why don’t you just tell him already? He knows about Dylan anyway.
But…Jake is an enigma.
As much as I want to tell him, I’m aw
are it will open up a can of eels. He might remember what happened and side with the twins, like he did the first time around. Or if he doesn’t remember, he might change his mind about helping me. We hardly know each other if you discount the first fifteen years of my life when he was part of our pack. Trust isn’t something grown over night, especially not on the coat tails of amnesia.
I will tell Jake, but not before I’ve done what I came here to do.
First, I need to find Dylan and get the hell out of here before my pack decides to hunt me down.
They will, if Zac gives into my mother like I know he always does. A pack can’t exist without an omega. Just like an alpha sets the highest bar, the omega sets rock bottom. A stable pack has both, needs both—light and dark, yin and yang, ice and fire—if it wants to thrive. If they find out I’m here though, an all-out war will break loose.
Crap, I should really message Zac.
I’m halfway through tidying the away the gauze packets and surgical tools, getting my phone out to reply to Zac reassuring him I’m fine and that I’ll call him tomorrow, when I see something glint at me from under the filing cabinet.
I slide my phone into my jean pocket, promising in my head to reply to him later, and get on the floor to peer under the cabinet. Dust bunnies assail me as I scoop my hand under pulling the glinting object out.
It's a brooch in the shape of a black dragon, looking very ancient and very expensive. It could belong to the twins, although clearly it’s a feminine brooch.
I’ll have to ask Eric, maybe he dropped it here at some point.
I pocket the brooch in my white coat pocket and take a minute to finalize some notes before changing, turning out the lights and locking up with a spare set of keys. I did think about changing the locks, but then I’d have to explain to Eric and Xavier what happened. Since I don’t plan on staying here long and whoever broke in has already had the run of the place, fessing up and forking out for new locks seems like over kill.
I’m texting Jake to meet me after the fight when half-way down the hallway, I hear a noise. I spin around, heart jumping in my chest, to face an empty corridor.
There's no one there.
It’s probably just my imagination.
Ever since the bear incident I’ve been a little skittish. And now with the distinct lack of Jake time, my wolf seems to have gone into hibernation mode. Even if she isn’t dominant, having a wolf form is comforting. Annoyed with myself for being afraid of shadows, I complete my message Jake.
While we didn’t plan on keeping to our usual routines—me working late hours at the clinic and Jake training every hour of every day—it made sense to keep things normal. But ever since the morning after the attack, we’ve hardly spoken and I've no idea what's going through his head. I trusted him when he said he’d find my brother but if he’s planning on entering into this cage match against the Black Dragon twins, a stunt that is nothing short of suicidal, I need to know how he’s going to beat two dragons. Or at least how he’s going to help me find my brother before he gets himself killed.
I’m also missing him a bit.
Okay, a lot.
A stray memory of Jake’s kiss tingles across my lips, sending hot flutters down through my body and into my toes. My body reacts making me shiver. Whatever happened between the two of us has left me crazy with desire for him. More so than before. At least then I never knew what I was missing. Now…
Fates, I’m glad we stopped and didn’t go any further. But the feeling of regret of not having gone all the way has been running through me for a while now. It might have been my only chance to be with him. No wonder my wolf has gone into hiding. She’s probably in mourning for the loss.
I close my eyes and inhale, letting my chest expand, and then let it all out. I can’t be mooning over Jake when I see him. I need to focus.
I’m torn out of my internal conflict by a cold hand clamping over my mouth, muffling my scream and another which locks around my waist. I feel myself being pulled back, kicking and thrashing into the darkened storage room in the middle of the corridor. I stumble, to the point of nearly losing my balance, just as the door slams shut cutting everything off but a thin sliver of light bleeding under the door.
The urge to bite the hand holding me captive overwhelms me, even my wolf growls—finally!
“Now, don’t scream—” a voice whispers in my ear, “—or even think of shifting. I’m going to let you go now, but if you make a noise or so much as sprout a patch of fur, I’ll burn you from the inside out.”
All I can do is nod, the smell of burning and citrus making the back of my nose tickle.
Slowly, my assailant releases me, and I gulp down a lungful of air. I spin around as my vision adjusts allowing me to see a silhouette of someone in the darkened room; a female with red ruby eyes that slice straight through me like a raging hellfire.
Chapter 7
Jess
Panic grabs me, making my wolf rise up just below the surface. Fear and excitement prickle the hairs along my arms and the back of my neck.
Of all the times to feel the urge to shift…
I push my beast down. At first, she struggles against me but eventually she allows me to subdue her, enough to slow my racing heart and still the feeling of fire in my veins. It wouldn’t do to shift right now even though I want to, not when I’ve been told otherwise. It’s like my wolf wants to do the exact opposite of everything I need. Zac would say that’s me all over, and that she’s only absorbing some of my contrary nature.
Whatever. I need to focus. There’ll be time to psycho-analyze my wolf when I’m not trapped in a cupboard with a Firestarter.
Like something out of a nightmare, my assailant has already flicked her fingers, igniting a flame that casts a warm glow about the room. It would be cozy if it wasn’t for her earlier threat of burning me alive.
“So, you’re Eric’s new muse, I thought you'd be a lot prettier.” My assailant smirks, lips coated with fire-engine-red lipstick to match her striking eyes, complimenting the rose gold hair piled up on her head.
Red eyes, red lips. I’ve seen her before.
“I know you,” I say. “I mean, I’ve seen you before, outside the twins’ apartment.”
She grins. “Clever girl, yes that was me. I saw you too. We had a little moment, I like to think. I must apologize for pulling you into this dusty room, but it's the only way to get you alone on a busy night like this.”
“Who the hell are you?”
She frowns at me, flourishing the fire cradled in her palm. “Wrong question. You should be asking why I want to get you alone.”
“Maybe you can answer both?”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Maybe I can, but first you’re going to do something for me.”
“Why would I do anything for you?”
“If you want to keep your little tryst with that wolf fighter a secret, you’ll do exactly what I ask.”
I stare at her and then laugh, I can’t help it. “Tell who you want. I don’t care.”
She sighs, watching the flame wind its way through her fingers and over the back of her hand. How the hell is she doing that? “You think Eric will take lightly to Jake’s betrayal? I hear they’re going to fight soon. Eri and Xavi have been known to get hot headed from time to time. I’d hate for anything to happen to your wolf.”
“He’s not my wolf,” I say, but the words sound hollow, even to my own ears.
“Oh? Then you won’t mind if I tell Eric.”
Then it dawns on me. She called me Eric’s muse. Does she think I’m Eric’s girlfriend or something? “I don’t know what you think is going on with me and Eric, but he’s my boss, nothing more than that.”
“Oh, I know that, my dove, when you told Eric you had a date, I knew it was one-sided. But here, in his place of business, you belong to Eric. Jake should know that.”
“Even if you tell them, it won't change anything. I’m not that important.”
“Are you willi
ng to risk it?”
“Yes,” I lie. The moment I can get away from this psycho, I'm telling Jake not to fight. I’ve no idea why Jake is even considering it. It won’t being his memories back. If I have to tell him what I know then I will, if only to keep him safe.
She sighs. “You're tougher to crack than I thought.” She stops playing with the flame and holds it. It seems to burn bigger and brighter as she looks at me, casting devious shadows around the room. “I can’t imagine the resemblance is wholly apparent since I’m speaking to you in a dark, dust-filled box, but I’m the twins’ elder sister—”
“—Nadine Lexington,” I finish for her.
“Ah, so you have heard of me?”
Who hasn’t? She’s a style icon, a voodoo dragon heiress with enough bodies behind her to have an army of the dead, a black widow set to inherit her fifth fortune, oh and a bitch all rolled into one. I let what I think of her show in my eyes and she just laughs.
“That bad, huh? Tabloids, they always get it wrong you know. I didn’t kill my last husband.”
I raise a brow. “Just the last one?”
She gives a sad smile. “I loved him, if you can believe it. Anyway, I’m not here to talk about me, as seductive as that seems, I’m here to see if we can help each other.”
“A second ago you were threatening me and now you want to help me?”
“True, I can be a touch melodramatic at times. Look, I know you don’t know me, but I do want to help.”
I narrow my eyes. “Help me how?”
“A little grizzly tells me you’re looking for your brother. He’s sorry, by the way, the bear. He was set up by Xavi, so it seems. The evil twin suspects you’re not who you say you are.”
“If Xavier was the one who set me up, why do you know all about it?”
“We’re family.”
“Sorry?”
“We, my siblings and I, share thoughts sometimes, when we’re in proximity.”
