My lip curls. “To remind him of everything you took from him.”
Fergus folds his arms. “You’ll do no such thing. Soren has built a life here. He has friends. A family. A job he loves. He belongs to this world now.”
“Only because he thinks he has no other choice!” My snarl fills the room. “You aren’t his real family!”
“And you are?” he counters, voice thick with fury. “Your pack cast him aside like trash.”
“You’veliedto him! You used your magic to hide him from me for all these years!”
“To protect him!” he snaps. “When he came to this time, he wasbroken,wolf.”
My throat thickens. I know. I was there the day he was banished. I’d held him as he wept in my arms. That day he’d lost his family all over again.
“I took him in and helped him grow into the man he is now. Whatever happened to him, it devastated him. If he were to remember, it would break him all over again. He’s happy now, wolf. Let him have that.”
I blink hard down at the floor. The last thing I want to do is hurt Soren. Would remembering our history cause him pain? Would he feel torn between worlds? I have no way of knowing how he’ll react.
“Mayhap you’re correct, witch. But he deserves to have a choice.”
The witch is quiet for a moment, knuckles bone-white. My words ruffled him. Good.
“Even if I wanted to restore his memories, I can’t. They’re gone. He can never get them back.”
Even though I knew this to be true, his words are like an axe straight to my chest, knocking the wind from my lungs.
Fergus looks into my eyes when he asks, “If he never remembers you, can you still love him as he is now?”
My tongue is a deadweight in my mouth. I should say yes, but the word won’t come, because it wouldn’t be the truth. Soren and I come from different worlds now. He’s built a life here, Fergus is right, and it would be selfish to try to take him away from it.
Blinking hard, I force my head up to face the witch head-on. “Time has changed us, it’s true, but nothing will ever change the love I have for him. I know he feels the same.”
Ihopehe does. More than anything.
“He will remember, and he will love me again!”
“If you so much as try to make him remember, I will report you to the TTA!” Fergus shouts. The photos on the wall rattle. The lights flicker.
I fold my arms, smirking. “And if he remembers of his own accord?”
Fergus’s jaw tightens. “Then he will decide for himself what to do with that information. I would hope that he remembers who raised him and whoabandonedhim.”
My fingers curl, a snarl building in my throat. “We’ll see about that.” Turning on my heels, my fur cloak swishing against my back, I march from the apartment.
Fergus isn’t keeping me from my mate any longer.
We will be together, whether he likes it or not!
I headed to Jamie and Anders’s home, and all three of us came up with a plan. They’ll go to Soren’s bar like they normally do, and I’ll come with them. We leave the apartment together, and Jamie drives us to the bar. I hesitate outside the doors. “What will I say?”
Jamie huffs. “Look, let us go in first. We’ll chat with him while you decide what to do.”
I exhale, my heart pounding so hard I fear it will fly up my throat and out with my breath. “Aye.”
They head inside while I linger. What if Soren isn’t happy to see me? How will I convince him to give me another chance? I’ve got to. I can’t be without him again. The pressure to get this right feels heavy enough to crush me. What did Kieran call this feeling? Anxiety? I take deep breaths in,exhaling out through my mouth. It’s something he taught me to do. My heart slows with each exhale, and I open my eyes.
Nothing has to happen tonight. If I push too hard, he’ll run. I’ve just got to encourage him to give me another chance.
I lift my head, push my shoulders back, and march into the bar and toward my mate. I place a hand on Jamie’s and Anders’s shoulders, squeezing lightly. Soren turns toward us, drink in hand, and freezes. His expression of shock is almost amusing enough to make me smile. As our eyes meet, my heart leaps up into my throat.
