Was the abandoned shopfront part of the mystery as well? Magda had acted odd, so it wasn’t just me. It was starting to occur to me that maybe the reason I couldn’t get anything other than the same “story” from the pack was that everyone else had had their memories messed with too. They might not even have realized because it was subtler than what had happened to me.
Truth be told, even if there were gaps in time for them, they didn’t care. They’d fallen into their daily routines, accepting the weird and questioning nothing.
Had that been the plan all along, by whomever had set this in motion?
Had they expected I would just be so happy not to be the shit under Torma’s boots that I’d fall into this new life and never question a damn thing?
If that was the case, the culprit had made a few fundamental errors. Firstly, they should have chosen someone less stubborn than me, and secondly, they should have removed my memories of the pack’s torment and Torin’s rejection. Huge obstacles standing in the way of me falling into pack life.
I supposed removing a few months of time was much easier than removing ten-plus years. I’d have been very surprised to wake up in a twenty-year-old body thinking myself a child.
Why had the culprit had to remove any time, though? If they’d allowed me just to wake with everyone else from the stasis, I’d have been none the wiser…
It just didn’t make sense. None of it, and my time in the main street had only helped to confuse me further.
With nothing else to do, I wandered back in the direction of the apartment, restless and bored. Plan A might not have panned out, but there were plenty of letters left in the alphabet, and it was time to move to “S” for Simone.
Simone’s parents lived in one of the more affluent areas of Torma. It might have only been a relatively small town, but it was still clear who held positions of prestige in the pack, solely through the land and house size they’d been rewarded with. When I walked through their neighborhood, with the acre-sized lots, huge double-level mansions, and perfectly manicured lawns, I tried not to think of all the times I’d been made to feel like I didn’t belong here.
Gerad and Mika Lewison, a.k.a. Simone’s father and mother, were two of the worst for withholding the welcome wagon. I couldn’t really blame them. Their daughter had suffered for her friendship with me, and even though I’d been too selfish to walk away from someone I loved and needed, I’d always felt guilty about it.
So, no, I didn’t blame them, but the scars were there nonetheless.
Their wrought-iron gates were open, so I walked up the path, and just as I reached their door and went to press the buzzer, I heard shouting. Simone’s parents were enforcers, but I’d never heard them yell. They tended to favor the silent and deadly style of intimidation… especially her mother, who was of Japanese descent and proficient in a variety of martial arts and fighting disciplines.
Torin had said on more than one occasion that we were lucky to have the Lewison family defending ours, and despite my personal feelings toward them, I hadn’t disagreed because they were great at what they did.
The door jerked open before I could decide if now was a bad time to be here, and I found myself face to face with Mika. Her elfin features, which had been scrunched in anger, smoothed into a look of surprise as she ground to a halt. The very dark, blue-black hair she had passed onto her daughter flew around her face as she stared at me.
“Mera,” she choked out, blinking a few times before she pulled herself together.
In an instant, every ounce of her fear, surprise, and fury was buried deep beneath a calm sheen of serenity. Her dark brown eyes, also like her daughter’s, were now regarding me with a look of respect.
This fake alpha bullshit was annoying.
“What are you doing here?” she pushed. “Is there an issue at the pack house? Why didn’t Torin just alert us through the two-way radio?”
I waved her off, shaking my head at the same time. “Oh, no. Everything is okay at the pack house.” Or I assumed so since I hadn’t bothered to answer any of Torin’s messages to actually check in. “Sorry to just drop by, but I’ve been worrying about Simone. She still hasn’t returned any of my calls or texts, and I wanted to find out if you’ve heard anything new.”
Mika swallowed hard, and I could have sworn her lips trembled before she pulled herself together again. “Yeah, she’s still doing so well,” she said stiffly. “Totally fine and busy with her—”
“Stop fucking lying to me.”
My patience ran out the second she gave me the same tired line. Simone was not fine. We all knew it, and I was done allowing my friend to suffer because these bastards wanted to lie to me.
A tear spilled down Mika’s cheek, tracing the smooth, brown skin. That was when the panic burst to life in my chest.
“If Simone’s in trouble, you have to let me know,” I said with force. “How long has she really been gone? Where is she?”
Mika didn’t want to answer me, I could tell that, but maybe today she knew I wasn’t leaving without a real response. “I don’t know where she is, Mera.” Her entire body deflated, like that secret had been bursting at the seams of her being, desperate to get loose.
“She ran away just after the stasis was lifted.” That part of the story came from Gerad, who appeared behind his mate. “She was here when we went to sleep, and the next morning when we woke, her bed was empty.”
Gerad, six-feet-seven and built like a brickhouse, actually took a step back when Mika whipped her head around and glared at him. “You’ve been forcing me to remain quiet while you investigated her disappearance, and yet you have no issue telling Mera all the details?”
Gerad sighed before shaking his head. As he moved back into the light, I was surprised at how wrecked he looked. Tired and broken, the fine lines around his face aging him ten years. His dirty blond hair stood up in sections, as if he’d run his hands through it a dozen times today, and his shirt was most definitely buttoned up mismatched. He hadn’t looked like this the last time I’d checked in, but today he clearly had zero fucks to give.
“I’ve searched everywhere,” he said quietly. “We haven’t slept. We hardly eat. We need help…”
