Aria
“Spill!” Mim demands the second I catch up to her downstairs. I have finished cleaning Sebastian’s room. All of his shirts are ironed and hanging in his closet. The towels are folded, and the sheets that were on his bed are folded and placed in his closet so that when I change his sheets again, probably the day after tomorrow, I can put them back on his bed. I have sent his other bedspread out to be dry cleaned and am told it should be back in a day or two so that I can have it on hand the next time I need to completely change his bed. I hope if I can keep the sheets clean, the bedspread won’t need cleaning quite as frequently.
Mim is dusting an office near the end of the hallway we were assigned to clean that day, so she has made a lot of progress on her own. I am slightly surprised, but then, if she has no one to dis
AriaI wake up early the next morning. It had been difficult to even fall asleep the night before. My mind kept wandering to Sebastian, visions of the two of us in that large shower refusing to stay out of my mind’s eyes. I know it’s ridiculous; he is a soon-to-be Alpha, and I am no longer the daughter of an Alpha, so certainly not fit to be a Luna, especially not for a pack like the Kurts Pack. Victor Kurts will only want the best for his pack, and that does not include promoting a maid--a slave--to the highest status amongst his people.I take a quick shower and put on my maid’s uniform while Mim is still sleeping, taking a few minutes to straighten up our space. It’s not big enough to get too untidy, and we aren’t here much of the day either. Still, Mim has a tendency to toss her few belongings around the room, so
SebastianIf I found it difficult to work yesterday, today, it is impossible. I may as well not even try. I’ve been sitting behind my desk in my office for hours, trying to concentrate, but all I can think about is Aria.Her face this morning when she saw me walk out of the bathroom wearing only a towel is burned in my mind. Of course, she was shocked, but that’s not the only thing I saw behind those eyes.I saw the same emotions I have been feeling inside since I first met her. Longing. Lust. But even more than that… attraction. It isn’t just that I want to ravish her. Of course I do want to take her. I have no doubt the two of us would be magical in bed. Beyond that, I am drawn to her for who she is. Not a former Alpha’s daughter, but an intriguing, intelligent
AriaSebastian is acting weird. I’m not sure what’s gotten into him, but when he came into his room to do his work, I could sense something was going on. Every time I turned to look at him, he’d look away, like he didn’t want me to know he was watching me. I could feel his eyes on me, though, so I knew he had been watching me clean. I couldn’t blame him for watching. What else was he supposed to look at while he was on the phone? I was moving around… naturally a person’s eyes would be drawn to that movement.He left, and when he did, I was kind of glad. Not that I don’t enjoy his company. I do… but not when he’s acting all weird and stressed out. He didn’t say anything, only slipped out while I was straightening up his bed. I’ll admit… I was fantasizing about
SebastianI have a problem. A huge problem. A problem I don’t know how to solve.I am infatuated with Aria, and I don’t know what to do about this. After all, she is a servant, and I am her supervisor, or boss, or whatever you want to call it. So I know it’s not appropriate for me to be thinking about her in a sexual fashion.And yet… I can’t get her out of my mind.I have tried to take care of it myself, but when you’re as turned on I am, it’s difficult to get it out of your system without a little help.I shouldn’t admit to this because I sound like a major jerk, but there’s a girl who lives in town that I’ve had
SebastianI am awake before my alarm goes off in the morning. My eyes fly open with an intensity they haven’t in years, not since I was a little kid on my birthday, and I realize why about half a second later.McKayla is still here, in my bed, draped across my chest. I need her to go home before Aria sees her. Why? I’m not sure. I doubt that the maid will even care that I have another girl in my bed. But I still feel compelled to make her go home before Aria comes in to clean.I glance at the clock. It’s just a little past 7:00. I don’t usually get up this early. I don’t usually get up until at least 8:00. But I am wide awake now. I decide to go ahead and take a shower and get ready for work. The floral scent of McKayla’s perfume, or whatever it is that make
SebastianI can’t concentrate again, and it really sucks. I speak on the phone with a few people, but everything they say goes in one ear and out the other. I stare at emails. I open files and close them. I get absolutely nothing done. By 4:00, I am done pretending to work and decide to head upstairs.I want to see Aria. I want to watch her clean. I want to smell that fragrant scent of vanilla and hear her sing another song in that beautiful voice I heard the other day when I snuck up on her. I want to hear her say my name. I want to hold her in my arms. I might not be able to do that last part, but the rest might be enough to at least get her off of my mind for a little while.I know that’s not the case, that I simply can’t get her off of my mind, but if I don’t see he
AriaI get a letter from my parents that afternoon. It is the only thing that keeps me from freaking out. I am upset about the situation with Sebastian. When I tell Mim about it, she says not to worry, that of course he has a booty call girl, that all of the guys his age have that, but she’s not his fated mate, so it doesn’t matter.I say, “Neither am I,” and Mim pulls me to her shoulder to cry for a few minutes. I get myself back together, and we finish cleaning, and then, after dinner, we return to our room, and I see the letter on my bed.I squeal as I rip it open. It’s only the fourth letter I’ve gotten from my parents, and it’s been a few weeks since I got one, so I am so excited to get it.Mim smiles
SebastianI run until my lungs are burning, and then I hop the fence and run some more. I left Dez far behind, not because I don’t want his company, although maybe I don’t at the moment, but because he can’t keep up with me when I’m running like this. No one can. I’m not running toward anything or even away from anything--except for myself.By the time the sun is about ready to come up, I know I need to return to the house. I will have a long day today having gotten no rest, but I do have work to do, so there’s no sense in trying to get out of it. Instead, I return to my room and take a shower, lying down on my bed afterward for about an hour before I’ll have to get up and get dressed.I have a towel around my waist, and it reminds me of when Aria walk
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