That's comforting, but not so much the idea of coming down and… what? Talk? I can't talk! I’m broken.
The omega raises his eyebrows quizzically, but since I don’t move, he gestures toward the tray in his hands. "Just in case you’re not up for that, I brought breakfast up for you."
Steam curls from the food and my mouth waters. His eyes flick over my clothes and then down to the puddle around my feet. Water is still dripping off me.
"You went for a swim?" he asks lightly, then points to the closet.
"Yesterday I put some of Nathaniel’s old clothes here. He’s our adopted son, my husband’s nephew. He used to live in this room before you, but he moved out a few years back. The room’s yours now. Most of his things are way too big for you anyway," he says with a wide gesture almost like mimicking the shape of my oversized T-shirts, then grins warmly. "If you’d like, we cango shopping today or… tomorrow? Right now you don’t really have anything. Everything was left behind at… the fortress."
The word fortress comes out in a soft, almost consoling tone, like saying it alone might split open my trauma. But I’m still too deep in the fog of memory loss to respond.
He sets the tray on the nightstand and exhales.
"Enjoy, Summer. Take things at your own pace, okay?"
For a few seconds, I study him. His face doesn’t look older than thirty-five. How can he be Sun and Snow’s dad? Maybe there’s magic involved. My own parents are True Mates, so I know a little about the healing and rejuvenating effect those bonds bring. But I don’t ask. Words cost me too much right now, so I choose silence.
Lake nods slowly, almost like answering himself. With a sunny smile, he leaves the room, and I’m alone again.
So this is my host.
Apparently we met yesterday, but I’ve been ‘reset’.
Short-term memory damage, or the lingering effect of whatever drugs they dosed me with? No idea.
There’s another immediate problem. A puddle spreads under my feet, and I need to do something about it, so I open the closet.
Like he said, it’s filled with neatly folded T-shirts, shorts, and other clothes, and they’re all huge. The shirts would all hang like dresses on me, but oh well, I guess oversized clothes will have to do.
Then I dig into the food.
Swimming left me starving. Pancakes, bacon, fried eggs, all delicious. I eat with strange contentment, savoring the textures like someone who hasn’t eaten real food in years, which is probably not true.
Because exactly at the thought… the flashes hit.
Sharp, violent bursts of memory, almost blinding me.
…
A long table set formally.
A row of people with grim faces eating in silence, heads low.
Something cold circling my neck.
A metal collar?
Yeah, I know it can zap me… My hand jerks up instinctively, but my fingers find nothing… just a circle of scars, like burns.
Someone’s eyes on me. Dark. Hungry. An alpha. I see the diagonal scar cutting across this man’s face, and feel the foul, devouring energy pouring off him. My stomach twists with fear. I know he’s a predator.
My power is the only thing that can protect me, but it’s also what can… bring me down.
They’ll win if I reveal it.
They’ll find a way to harvest it…
…
