Aria
At least I don’t walk in on a makeout fest this time when I go to join Mim downstairs where she’s cleaning an office. Dez is there, and the two of them are chatting, flirting, but their faces aren’t attached to one another, which is good because I’m not sure I can handle that at the moment, not after kissing Sebastian earlier.
I start cleaning after a quick greeting, and Mim is sort of dusting as she flirts with Dez. He keeps saying he can’t stay long, that he knows something is going on based on the amount of people that Victor has in his office, and he’ll have to go check in with Sebastian soon. I don’t say anything, just clean, and try not to think about what had happened earlier.
“Are you all right, Aria?” Mim asks me after about t
SebastianRunning doesn’t do anything to make me feel better about the situation with Aria, but I do it anyway, not only because my father has asked us to make sure that our borders are secure, but because I am trying to keep my mind off of the beautiful woman I am bound to run into again tomorrow, perhaps literally and purposely, and I am struggling to keep my thoughts from flooding with everything there is to think about her.I feel the leaves, the dirt, the rocks beneath my paws. It has snowed recently, and the ground is moist, though the snow is mostly melted except for in the shaded areas of forest beneath the larger trees. I smell the deep scent of the woods. It coats my lungs and reminds me that I am a wild animal, at least in my wolf form. It makes me feel feral and free. It makes me forget about all things human, at least f
AriaI take a deep breath and knock on Sebastian’s door, half praying he doesn’t answer. It’s a little after 8:30, so I’m earlier than usual, and I know he might be in the shower. Or still sleeping. Or entertaining a girl. I don't think that will be the case since I heard him out on the prowl only a few hours ago, as the sun was coming up, but I have to brace myself in case he opens the door and a girl is in his bed. Or a girl opens his door, for that matter.When the door opens, it’s Sebastian, standing there with hooded eyes, wearing only a pair of jogging pants, slung low around his waist. I take a deep breath and try not to stare when it’s so hard because he looks so damn good.“Aria,” he says before I get enough air in my lungs to speak.
SebastianI am moving so quickly down the hallway toward the room where the maids keep their cleaning supplies, if I happen to run into anyone, I’m sure I will knock them clean through the wall. Seeing Aria cry and knowing it was at the hand of some worthless maids has my own heart aching. I can’t get to the closet soon enough.I hear them before I see them and know exactly who it is. Two of my mother’s maids, Helena and Gertrude, two old ladies who have far too much time on their hands cleaning a room that it would only take one person a few hours to clean. They’ve been here forever, since they were young enough to have to wear a uniform like the one Aria is forced to wear now, the one they are calling her names because of.I slow down before I reach them because I wan
SebastianAll day, Aria is all that I can think about. I try to concentrate on my work, but I can feel here beneath my fingertips. I can taste her on my lips. I can smell her every time I inhale. I need to get the work day over with and get back upstairs. I’m praying that she will still be in my room when I arrive.It’s been hard to concentrate but I’m doing it. My father has me looking into the rogue situation even more closely, talking to our contacts in the city on the phone and reaching out to other wolves in the area who aren’t part of our immediate pack. Everyone needs to be aware of the situation. I know he’s dispatched Grip to handle business in the city. I hope he is able to get any immediate threat under control.Talking on the phone to so many people do
AriaMy eyes linger on the door where Sebastian has just disappeared. I am trying to process what just happened, but it’s not something mere thoughts can translate. All I can think about is how badly I wanted him when he was standing here, and now that he’s gone, how badly I want him still.He’s gone now, though. Only the scent of the deep woods and rain lingers in the air to remind me that he was there. That, and the feel of his warm touch on my skin. I can still feel all of the places where he touched me, where he kissed me, where I wanted him to touch me.If he had been able to stay, if he had asked me, I would’ve given myself to him completely just now, like a moth pulled to a flame, knowing she will get burned, she will be consumed, but completely unable to say no
Sebastian“Sorry about earlier,” Dez says to me through the mind link as we are running through the forest, looking for the rogues that were allegedly spotted on the far western border of our territory. He hasn’t said anything about what he interrupted yet, and I don’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to talk about it either, if I were him. It was clear, as soon as I stepped out into the hallway with him, that he had interrupted something important, something that made me want to strangle him, even if it wasn’t his fault he’d had to come and get me. He was just doing his job, after all.“It’s okay,” I tell him, but that’s not really true. I’m still bitter about it. I’ve just accepted the fact that it really isn’t his fault, so I’m not mad at Dez. I’m
AriaI am sitting on my bed, rereading the last few letters I’ve received from my parents. It’s been a few days since I’ve gotten one. I hope I get another one soon. Mim comes out of the shower, drying her hair with a towel. I look up at her out of habit but quickly avert my eyes. I’m still not sure what to think about her reaction to Leah earlier. Part of me feels sorry for her because she’s had to switch partners again so quickly, but the rest of me is suspicious about how she feels about me.Mim sits down on her bed and starts brushing through her hair, humming a song. I suppose she must feel better, but I don’t say anything to her. I haven’t told her about what happened between Sebastian and I this afternoon, and now that she’s acting so different, I am pretty sure my original instinct n
AriaI decide not to go downstairs for breakfast the next morning. I’m not hungry. I’m afraid, if I do eat anything at all, my stomach will be so unsettled, I’ll be too nauseated to even make it down the stairs to Sebastian’s room.“Have a good day, sweetie,” Mim says as she heads out the door for breakfast. She gives me a look that I can’t quite read. I’m not sure if she’s nervous about having to spend the day with Leah again, excited about seeing Dez, or teasing me about the possibility of something happening with Sebastian again.“You, too,” I say, not sure how I feel about her going off to work with Leah. After her reaction to the girl the day before, I’m not if I should feel sorry for Mim--or for Leah.
Sebastian I am standing at the end of an aisle, outside in my mother’s garden behind our house, waiting for the most wonderful woman in the world to walk down and stand beside me so that the preacher before us can pronounce us man and wife. All of our friends and family are also here, including the remaining members of Vargas Pack. There are rows and rows of white folding chairs covering the velvety green lawn. The sky is crystal blue, white puffy clouds roll by high above us, and I can’t imagine how my life could be any more perfect than it is at this moment. My father retired from being the pack Alpha a few months ago. He said he hoped it wouldn’t interfere with the wedding plans, but it was time. Mom had this river cruise she wanted to go on in Europe, and it was getting ready to set sail. He said he’d neglected her wishes for far t
Sebastian“I remember.”Hearing Aria say those two words is almost as good as it was to hear her say that she loved me for the first time. Tears fill my eyes as I look into hers, the magic from the rings in the moonlight dissipating as we are left in the ruins of her home with our arms around one another.“You do?”Her smile widens as she nods enthusiastically. “I do. I remember everything.”A sigh of relief escapes my lips as I wrap her up into my arms and swing her around. “I’m so glad,” I tell her as I set her down on her and brush her hair back before I kiss her. Just like our hands melding together started the magic that brought he
SebastianAria and I walk hand-in-hand up the hill that leads to her old village with the light of a full moon guiding our feet along the path. I am nervous about what might happen when we get to the top and she sees her old homesite. Either she will recognize where she’s at and a flood of memories will come back to her, or she won’t, and this entire visit will leave her devastated.I try to reassure her as we go. “Now, if this doesn’t work, it’s all right. There are lots of other things we can try. There are people we can see. We’ll go visit your old packmates. It’s possible that some of them will be able to help you remember. Or we can find a doctor, an expert on amnesia. I bet there’s a good one that knows about the shifter world already. If not, they don’t have to know you’re
AriaWe take another plane to my hometown, or at least, as close to it as we can get. Sebastian tells me that there are no airports in my former territory. In fact, the closest one is a few hours’ drive from where we want to go. This time, on the airplane, when he wants to hold my hand, I not only let him, I want to hold his hand, too.The flight is much longer this time, over three hours. To pass the time, I ask Sebastian questions about his childhood, and he tells me stories about when he was a little boy. I wonder how many of them I have heard before and how many of them are brand new to me. He makes me laugh, and I love to hear the sound of his voice.But I am nervous. What if this is my last chance to remember? What if I get to my hometown and I don’t recognize anything?
AriaOnce again, Sebastian has me by the hand and is leading me down the stairs to another part of this enormous house. I have no idea where we are going, only that we are looking for some rings that Dez mentioned when he was talking about Mim.I don’t bother to ask Sebastian any more questions because he seems to not want to tell me anything. He said he needed to show me. Maybe whatever he’s going to show me will help me to understand more, even if it doesn’t help me remember.We stop at an office door on the first floor, and Sebastian knocks. I hear a deep voice that I think is his dad say, “Yeah? Who is it?”“Father, it’s me, Sebastian, with Aria. Can we come in?”
SebastianWaking up next to Aria, I think for a moment that things are normal, that all of this has just been one horrible nightmare, and she’s still exactly the way she should be, her memories are intact, and she knows who I am and who she is.Then her eyes open, and I can see the vacancy registering there. My heart feels crushed again. She blinks a few times and then smiles at me, and I don’t feel quite as bad.Since she lost her memories, I’ve felt terrible for her, but I have also held onto one selfish fear, that she will never remember me and won’t learn to love me again. I have been terrified that she will decide she doesn’t want to be with me anymore.This smile reassures me that that isn’t the case, that
AriaI feel like a wanton woman, but I want this man, and since we have been together many times, I can’t convince myself that it’s not okay. Trying to keep my hands off of him is like trying to prevent myself from breathing. The longer I try, the more it burns, the greater grows the need.I don’t know if the two of us being together will inspire any memories to fire off within my head, but at the moment, I don’t care. He is kissing me like he loves me, and I believe that maybe he does. He tastes like rain water, and I can’t get enough of the feel of his tongue against mine. He is cautious at first, taking his time, but when I place my mouth on his mark, he knows what I want and that I’m sure that I want it.We waste little time stripping our clothing off as
SebastianI take Aria to my room, not sure what to expect. I am surprised that she’s had such vivid memories of Mim. It seems that scents can trigger memories for her, so I will have to try to think about how I can use this knowledge to help the situation in the future.I’m not sure there are any particular scents she can associate with my room at first, but when I open the door and see the bed, one comes to mind.Her memories might be trapped in her mind somewhere, but mine are not, and walking into the room, holding her hand, seeing the bed where we made love for the first time, where we made love so many times, I miss her in a way I haven’t missed her since she was lying in that hospital bed and I was sitting in the waiting room, waiting to see if she would recover.
AriaAfter a few days, I am dismissed from the hospital. Dr. Wilson, charming man that he is, says that normally, he would keep a patient who has no memories a bit longer, but in my case, he was fine sending me home. He said it was best if “my kind” took care of me. Since i still think I am his kind, I don’t appreciate this. But I go because I’d rather be anywhere but in the hospital.On the plane ride to Sebastian’s home, I sit next to him but say next to nothing as I stare at the window of the private jet we are on. His parents, who seem like nice enough people, although I’m not crazy about his dad, sit in the row in front of us and also don’t talk. Sebastian tries to get me to speak a few times. I mostly shrug and use one word responses, so he gives up. I know he wants to hold my hand, so when