“You need to dose her again. She can’t be awake for this to work properly.”
“Pl-plea—”
“It’s going to okay, sweetie. You won’t remember any of this. I promise.” Katherine stroked Paige’s hair and smiled.
It wasn’t fair. How could they do this to her?
A prick in her neck made everything fuzzy again. “Fu—” she protested, but her mouth stopped working before she could complete the word. She never cussed, but this seemed like an appropriate time to start.
Her eyes closed and everything went dark again.
Chapter Nine
Adam pounded on the steering wheel to keep himself from thinking about how slow the car was moving. He was going to have to do something about Paige’s car.
With the gas pedal all the way to the ground, he still couldn’t get it to move faster than he could have run if he’d shifted and cut across the countryside himself.
He had given up trying to call Lee and Miles. They weren’t answering or were purposefully ignoring him.
Dammit. Faster.
He finally turned off Sweet Mountain Road, passed Aidan Conley’s new house, and kept driving into the woods. He couldn’t reach out with his wolf. There was only so much the magick could do when he was in human form, and without being bonded, he was handicapped.
But there was an urgency inside, a drumming…he had to be close to her.
Adam had never seen this particular spell before. There had never been a need for the Banfields to cast it—it was dangerous, so the VonBrandts kept their shifting confined to the big, sprawling ranch.
The Manzano State Park that bordered the VonBrandt ranch was dense forest and his family was careful.
Surely, the Banfields would reach out to Aaron before performing such an invasive and permanent spell. But he couldn’t take any chances.
The wheels of Paige’s little car spun in the gravel when he turned into the Banfields' driveway. He left the engine running, barely throwing the vehicle into park before he bounded out and up the walk, across the porch, and through the front door.
“Katherine!” he yelled into the empty front room. “Siobhan!”
His voice echoed back to him and he ran from room to room, calling for the sisters, grabbing door stops and clawing at walls.
“Dammit. Someone answer me.” He pounded the kitchen counter and the dishes with half-eaten toast clinked. His wolf was practically eating its way through Adam’s skin. He couldn’t hold back much longer.
He needed to find Paige.
“What’s all the shouting about?” An elegant, tall redhead wafted through the door to the living room.
“Paige,” he said. “Where is Paige?”
“Miles took her.” Katherine Banfield’s patronizing smile did little to hold his wolf back. Then, like a bolt of realization hit her, her brown eyes went wide. “Why?”
“Where did he take her?”
“I don’t know.” She put a hand on the edge of the door and turned back. “Siobhan!”
The curly-haired redhead wasn’t far behind. “What?”
“Is Miles still here?”
Adam stepped away from the counter. “Just tell me where in the hell I can find Paige, right now, or I swear, you’re going to have a pissed off wolf in your kitchen.”
Siobhan put her hands up as though she could stop him. “Settle down, Adam. You don’t have to worry about it. Miles and Lee brought her here.”
“I figured that much out already.” His heart thumped inside and his breath sawed in and out. “Will you just bring her here? I need her.”
“I said you don’t have to worry.” Siobhan kept advancing toward him, hands outstretched like she wanted to calm him. But he wasn’t going to calm. Not until they brought Paige.
“You don’t have to worry.” Katherine crossed the kitchen and tore a paper towel off a roll near the sink. She held it out to him. “You’re sweating, honey. Here.”
“I won’t stop worrying until you bring her to me and I can see her with my own eyes.” He took the towel and wiped at his forehead.
“We can’t bring her out, she’s gone.” Siobhan finally got her hand on him and Adam smelled something sharp, like lavender, wafting up from her skin. “But it’s okay. You can tell Aaron that we took care of it for him.”
Adam’s heart skipped one beat, then two. “Took care of it?”
“We did the spell,” Katherine said. “It will prevent her from making long-term memories.”
“It basically erases all of her long-term memory,” Siobhan added, stroking his arm. “It’s the only way we can take away the memory of her seeing the shift.”
“You can tell Aaron that she won’t remember anything about her life, so there’s no danger of her coming back.”
The sisters were basically talking on top of each other and Adam’s heart kept thumping with missed heartbeats, like it had forgotten how to function. He couldn’t breathe.
They had done the spell?
No. He must’ve heard them wrong. They couldn’t have…Paige.
“What do you mean, no danger of her coming back?” Adam growled.
“Lee and Miles have some plan to resettle her,” one of the sisters said. He didn’t know which one was talking anymore, and he didn’t care.
Tears burned up the back of his throat and he shook his head, stepping back and back, away from their touch.
“Resettle her?” he choked out.
“Yes, they have to take her somewhere she won’t be recognized.”
Adam grabbed the back of one of their flimsy wooden chairs and tried to steady himself. They’d done the spell. Paige’s memories. They had erased him from her mind, from her heart, from her…life.
A roar built inside him and grew until it overtook all of his senses. Before he could stop himself, the world went black and his wolf roared to the surface.
* * *
She opened her eyes and groaned. Her whole body felt like it’d run a cycle in a tumble dryer. She rubbed her eyes and squinted at the house through the windshield of the truck she was sitting in…wait.
Why was she in a truck, and who was the scary-looking dude next to her? She shrank against the closed door and pulled the handle.
Riding in a car with a strange man wasn’t smart, her mom had taught her to be smart…hadn’t she? Why can’t I remember my mom? She dug into mind but came up blank.
Nothing. No memory of a mom or a dad…or any family at all.
“Stay calm, Ma’am. It’s okay,” the male next to her said. His deep voice didn’t reassure her. Something was wrong, she just couldn’t pin down what. And he called her ma’am. What was up with that…she wasn’t old enough to be called ma’am. Was she? Why didn’t he call her by her name?
What is my name?
The realization hit her in the face like the driving force of hurricane. Panic spread through her body, tightening her chest and making it
“I can’t remember my name.” She yanked the door handle again. “Let me out! Let me out now! Who are you? I will fight you every inch of the way, mister. Just let me go.”
“Ma’am. It’s okay. My name is Miles. My brother and I found you at the scene of a bad accident. You have amnesia. Everything must feel very strange. We are taking you to a doctor.”
She eyed him suspiciously. The man was a veritable giant. His silvery blue eyes were void of emotion, but he was trying to paste on a fake smile for her benefit. Whoever this asshole was, he was lying.
Amnesia. It did explain why she couldn’t remember anything about herself or anyone. But she still knew how the world worked. She could drive a car, cook, she knew she should brush her teeth at least twice a day. But anything tied to people seemed to be just out of reach. Like it was there, she just couldn’t get to it. If it was amnesia, maybe it would all come rushing back soon.
“Why are we in front of someone’s house?”
“My brother is inside getting you some clothes.”
“Is
this my house?”
He glanced away without answering, but his silence said everything. She might have amnesia but she wasn’t stupid. Well, she had gotten into this car with a strange man who gave her goose bumps, but if she really had amnesia everyone would be strange, right?
“Do you and your brother know me? Do I know you?”
“No but we wanted to be sure you were properly taken care of.”
She narrowed her eyes and frowned. It sounded like an excuse a guilty person would use. His voice was a wrapped up burrito of guilt and anxiety. Lying sack of horse poop. That’s what he was.
He and his brother probably were responsible for her accident and were now trying to cover it up. Who knew what terrible plans they had in store for her.
Damn. I’m a conspiracy theorist for sure.
“I need to pee.”
“Oh.” He startled, a flash of relief washed over his features.
Yeah, you just keep believing that I believe your bullshit, Mr. Scary-Kidnapper-Dude. Maybe she could find something in the house that would tell her about herself. He’d done a crap job of lying when she’d asked if this was her house.
Miles, if that was really his name, pressed the button on his door to unlock the vehicle.
She yanked the door handle again and this time it gave way, releasing her from the truck-prison. Her gaze took in the thick-forested land off to the right of the farmhouse. She could disappear in those trees. Find someone else to help her. Figure out who she could trust or not.
If she was going to go anywhere with this dude, somebody official better vouch for him.
“Coming?” He gestured toward the house.
Right. She’d said she needed to pee. Maybe there was something she could knock him out with inside. If there really were two of them, she realistically didn’t have a chance in hell of getting away on foot. Surely she could find a vase, or a statue, or a toilet bowl lid to whack this hulking man over the head.
“Yes.” She took a hesitant step toward the house and sucked in a long slow breath. Everything felt so strange. Like she should know things about him, about this place, but her mind was just a big black hole.
She entered the house ahead of him and he pointed toward a hallway.
“There’s a bathroom back there. I’m going to grab you something to eat on the drive. Lee is packing you a suitcase.”
“Thanks.” He closed the front door and headed toward the open style kitchen. The smell of smoke and burnt sugar hung in the air, making her even more nervous.
Something was very wrong and she needed to get as far away from Mr. Scary-Kidnapper-Dude and his brother as possible.
Noises came from a room further down the hallway. Brother located. Check. She slipped into the bathroom and closed the door. Then frantically began scouring the cabinets for something heavy.
Her hand closed around a lead glass candleholder. She heaved it out from the back of the cabinet. It had to weigh at least ten pounds.
Cracking the door of the bathroom just a tad, she glanced both ways. The kitchen wasn’t in line of sight and she could still hear someone in one of the back rooms.
She clutched the cold glass to her chest and crept down the hallway. She saw a man, dark brown hair, very muscular, and tall just like the one in the kitchen.
The floor creaked under her foot and she froze.
“Miles?”
Dammit. He was coming out. She would only have one shot at this.
The brother emerged from the bedroom and she swung the decorative glass at the side of the man’s head. It hit with a thud and he fell hard.
“Lee? What’s going on in there?”
She bit back a yell and stepped over the still man in the floor into the very purple bedroom. If this was her place, she apparently really liked purple. Not that purple was bad…but the sheets and the walls and the curtains and…
Focus! You’ve got to get out of here.
“Lee!”
She rushed for the window and slid up the bottom pane. A growl roared behind her, but she managed to get her entire body through the window and out onto the front porch before he got to her.
“Paige! Fuck!” he shouted.
A quick glance backward doubled her heart rate. The damn man was crawling out after her. And he’d had called her ‘Paige,’ like it was her name.
“I knew you were lying to me!” She shouted and ran for the front steps.
His footsteps echoed behind her on the porch.
She raced to the truck. Maybe he’d left the keys inside it. Maybe Paige could just lock herself inside the vehicle until someone came. If he knew who she was, then other people could be missing her, right?
Open. Open. Please open. She wrenched at the door handle, but it didn’t unlatch.
“I didn’t want to have to drug you again, but I really don’t have ti—”
A whoosh of air and warm fur brushed against her arm, knocking Miles away from her. The raging snarl should’ve sent her screaming for the woods, but something made her turn around and look.
Miles lay on the ground. “What the fuck, Adam?!”
The wolf with its teeth bared changed in front of her. One second there was a wolf. and the next, the air shimmered around the beast. Then a man knelt where the animal had been.
A man. A naked man.
She should be scared. Memory or no memory. Wolves weren’t supposed to turn into people.
“You’re gonna pay for this, Miles. You and Lee. I swear on my mother’s grave.”
Mr. Kidnapper-Dude’s face blanched. But Paige couldn’t take her eyes off of the naked man shouting. Did she know him? There was something…
He turned and those blue eyes looked straight through to her soul. He knew her. She might not recognize him, but this man looked like…like he’d suffered.
A part of her wanted to soothe the pain she saw in his eyes, while the rational part of her wanted to know what the hell they’d dosed her with that made her see a wolf change into a man.
“Either I’m on drugs or I had some seriously bad shrimp.”
“Paige?” The naked man walked straight for her and she closed her eyes to keep from staring at his very nicely endowed package.
Lalalalalalala. Stop thinking about how naked he is and that all you want to do is jump into his arms.
“Is that my name?” she asked, keeping her eyes pressed tightly closed.
“You don’t remember?” His voice had fallen. The hope that’d been there when he said her name had faded into despair, matching the pain she’d noticed in his gaze.
“I don’t remember anything. Except that Mr. Kidnapper-douchewaffle over there is a liar. And, I knocked out his brother with a glass candle thingy in the house.” She wanted to open her eyes and take another peek. He was so close now. She could smell the sweat on his skin and an electric sensation filled the air between them. Soft, like a blanket. Warm. Yet, it was alive.
“Do you have pants on yet? Please tell me I was just imagining turning from a wolf into a man.”
A soft friendly chuckle slipped from between his lips.
That sound soothed her fears. His very presence soothed away worry. Whoever he was, she really wished she could remember.
He’d been important.
“Let me grab some pants. Stay right there. I’ll be right back.”
Chapter Ten
A cold breeze gusted and she shivered. Why was she outside in nothing but shorts and a t-shirt? She opened her eyes and frowned. Two men were arguing and one of them was taking the other’s pants, leaving the first man in a hoodie and boxers.
Then the second man demanded something, she couldn’t hear what. But the first man took off his hoodie and handed it over as well.
It was good they were sharing. At least the second man wasn’t naked anymore. Why was a grown man walking around naked outside? Where was she?
She glanced at the house to her right and frowned. Nothing was familiar, and yet everything felt like she should know
more. Like there was so much in her brain she should know, but couldn’t reach.
The previously-had-been-naked man approached. “Hey, take this hoodie. You must be freezing.”
She took the offered clothing and watched him warily.
“I can explain the wolf to man thing. But it’s going to require you to take a leap of faith.”
“What are you talking about? I don’t see a wolf anywhere.” She looked around, eyeing the edge of the trees surrounding the small farmhouse.
“You saw me change…you just asked if I would have pants on when you opened your eyes again.”
He seemed so earnest. But she hadn’t the foggiest idea what he was talking about. She shook her head. “I’ve never seen you before. Not until just now when I watched you argue with that man over there.”
“You don’t remember running away from Miles?”
“I don’t… Who’s Miles?” She paused searching her mind. Why was there nothing there?
Why couldn’t she remember further back than two minutes?
Her chest tightened and she dragged breath after breath. “What’s wrong with me? I feel like I should know you, but I don’t. I can’t even remember what my name is.” She took a step backward and stared up at his blue eyes—such beautiful, sorrowful blue eyes.
He’d lost something too.
* * *
Adam waited for recognition to light her eyes, but it didn’t. There’d been a moment, just a moment, where she’d almost been herself, but now she didn’t even remember seeing him shift.
All the expectations inside that growing seemed to pop and ooze. Hurt.
“Your name is Paige.” He reached for a strand of red hair that had escaped the hoodie and tucked it back behind her ear. The electricity that crackled around them landed and jolted him when his skin made contact with hers.
She jumped a bit when she felt it.
The magick.
“How do you know me?” Paige settled in to his touch and closed her eyes.
Her words… I feel like I should know you… they broke what little of his heart remained in tact. Dammit, he would kill Miles. And Lee. And his brother. And the damn wolves who had shifted out in the open in front of Paige in the first place.
To Find a Mate: Somewhere, TX Saga (VonBrandt Family Book 4) Page 8
