Chapter 3 - Who am I?

Isabella

I open my eyes and close them again immediately. From the little I saw, I gather that I’m in a hospital, but I don’t know where and as I search my mind, I realize something is missing.

“Good morning, honey. I’m very glad to see that you are awake. We’ve been very worried about you.” I open my eyes and see a smiling woman dressed in a white coat. A frown forms on my brow while she moves around me with a clipboard in hand. She jots down some information and puts down her clipboard.

“Where am I?” My voice sounds rough, and I find that my throat feels very raw. She hands me a glass of water as though she already knew I would need it.

“I am Lisa, your doctor. You are in our little local hospital. Do you remember what happened to you?” Worry floods her eyes, and I can see that whatever happened to me is probably serious. I try to remember.

“No.” I frown. My head starts to ache. “Who am I?” My heart starts to race and the machine behind me beeps, making me slam my hands over my ears and shut my eyes. I feel her moving around me and when her hand pulls at my arm, I let go.

“Okay, so that hit on your head has given you amnesia.” She shines a bright light into my eyes and I blink feeling overwhelmed. “Sweetheart, you have to calm down. You are safe here. My son found you in the forest, and he brought you here. We aren’t sure what happened to you before he found you, but it couldn’t have been good.” She looks pained.

“You are covered in old and new bruises.” She frowns, looking at my arms, and I gasp the moment I see it. “I take it you don’t remember how you got those?” I shake my head. “Okay, you have a long recovery ahead of you. We can discuss all your injuries later. Rest now.” She smiles, and I see the kindness in her eyes before she leaves.

I take a deep breath and lie back feeling the soft pillow pushing back against my head. I flinch as a stinging pain shoots through my head and I close my eyes. Within minutes, I drift off to sleep, but my dreams are filled with horrible images that don’t make any sense.

When I wake up screaming, a man rushes into my room. He is tall, dark and handsome with black hair and ghostly gray eyes. He looks petrified as he rushes to my side and takes my hand. I rip my hand from his grip and frown at him.

“Who are you? Where is doctor Lisa?!” That damn machine behind me starts to beep incessantly, but that isn’t what captures my attention. The look of pain in his gray eyes hurt me deeply, and confuses me more than anything else that has happened today.

“Asher! What the hell are you doing here?” Doctor Lisa storms in and glares at him. His mouth opens to say something, but then he closes it. He turns to leave but whips back around straight away.

“I’m Asher, and this is my mother.” He sighs deeply before leaving. Something strange in me screams at me that I know him, but everything feels so confusing. Tears fill my eyes as I look at Doctor Lisa who is scribbling things on her clipboard.

“That was my son that I told you about earlier. He is the one that found you and brought you here. He is just worried about you.” She smiles, clinging to her clipboard. I nod. “Are you able to remember anything yet?” She smiled and I sighed, shaking my head.

“It is weird. I remember running. I remember being very afraid, but there is nothing else.” It bubbles out of me as though I had been waiting to say it, and I lean back onto the pillow feeling a single tear run down my cheek. I wipe it away with the back of my arm, unable to look Lisa in the eye.

“That’s okay. There is no rush. You take your time. As I said before, you are safe here. Asher is not as intimidating as he seems. He is just worried about you. Now rest.” She smiles before leaving. “What the hell were you thinking?” I hear her shout before the door closes and blocks off all other sounds.

Turning my back on the door, I lie down on my side and curl into a small ball. It feels comfortable. Familiar, somehow. Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and hope that my dreams won’t be so horrible again. I would prefer not to dream.

Asher

“I heard her screaming.” I sighed, trying to avoid my mother’s furious gaze. She warned me that the young woman couldn’t remember anything. My mother showed me the pictures they had taken of the young woman’s injuries, and I was in shock.

Since then, I have been sitting outside her room waiting for her to wake up. I am waiting for her to remember. I need her to tell me who did that to her. I need her to tell why. How she came to be in our territory. Most importantly, I need to find out why she smells like a wolf, but it is clear that she isn’t one.

Chris is out trying to find out more information about the young man we met earlier in the hopes that it will give us some information about my mate while I hang around the hospital passage.

“I told you that she has amnesia. If you push her now, she could be worse off.” My mother’s voice interrupts my thoughts and I breathe deeply, closing my eyes. “Asher, you are going to have to be patient. She doesn’t seem to have a wolf healing her. This will take time.” My mother rubs the side of my arm and I sigh as she hugs me before leaving.

I turn to look at the small frame on the bed on the other side of the wall. What happened to her? Who did that to her?