“Let’s go.” I ushered Mom and Dad to the car while following behind Lucas who had become extremely silent with a miserable expression casted over his face. I glared at him. Why is he the one looking like that when I’m the one who’s traumatized?
The more I look at him, the more I get the feeling he knows exactly what kind of effect he has on me and is wickedly using it to his advantage.
This isn’t the first time he’s look at me as deadly as he did back there and it probably wouldn’t even be the last. As soon as my senses detects the side of him that I don’t want to see, every defense I’ve built all these years just jumps inside a box, meanwhile, my body begins to bend to his will all on its own.
Right now, that’s exactly what’s happening and I hate it, I despise it.
Lucas opened the door for me and stepped to the side gesturing for me to get in. I didn’t object and simply climbed in. When he went to close the door, I stretched out my palm expectantly. I didn’t look him in the eye, but instead glared at his chest. He looked down at it, confused.
“Your shirt…give it to me so I can wrap their wounds.”
He tilted his head to glance at the shirt draped over his left shoulder and sighed. Without a word, he yanked it off him and tossed it in my lap before slamming the door shut in my face. In seconds, the door to the driver’s seat was aggressively pulled open and he hopped inside, then shoved the key into the keyhole, starting the car.
Deciding to ignore him, I turned towards mom and dad who had barely managed to get into the back seat before the car took off at full speed. They stared at me, and as I returned their stares, I could feel guilt rise at the sight of their burnt clothes and bruised skin. There was blood all over them too, but I wasn’t even sure where the wound was or if it even belonged to them, and father also kept breathing heavily as if he could hardly find air.
This is somewhat my fault, isn’t it?
“I’m fine you know, just some little burns here and there.” Mother assured, sending me a small halfhearted smile. Meanwhile father tore his gaze away from me and shifted it to stare out the car window, she never looked away.
They still weren’t asking about Lucas and that seriously bothered me. Plus, despite finally meeting after such a long while, the looks they were sending me wasn’t anything sweet either, in fact, they looked more guilt stricken than I did.
Am I missing something here?
“Your father is the one who got the most of it, his arm’s slit right open. He’s gone through much worse though, so I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“His arm?” I shifted in the car seat and reached for father’s arm, turning it slightly to see blood painting the sleeve of his shirt. Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad of a wound.
I tore off a piece of Lucas’s shirt with little to no effort and began wrapping his arm tight enough to ease the bleeding a bit. The car felt a little bunched up but I still managed to reach him just fine.
“Thanks.” He grunted.
“Let me see the other arm.”
“I’m fi-”
“No, you’re not.” Scowling, I grabbed his arm, turning it from side to side as I examined him for wounds. I ended up patching up another spot before shifting to scan mother as well, but the feel of something jutting me on the butt cheek made me pause.
What’s this?
I settled the remains of Lucas’s shirt in my lap and shoved my hand under my butt, shuffling to find whatever had jammed me. Once my fingers locked around the culprit, I pulled it from under me and glared down at the pen I was now holding. I don’t believe this was there before. Is it Lucas’ or one of the guys?
On a whim, I pressed the plunger thing at the top and was immediately startled by the buzzing that blasted through the car, something similar to that awful static sound the radio makes.
I jolted, the pen slipping between my fingers and falling just between my feet.
What is this thing, a recorder?!
“Is this yours, Lucas?” Groaning, I bent and reached an arm down to pick it up, but the second the tip of my finger grazed it, a familiar voice surprisingly replaced the buzzing.
–“You’re still here, Lucas?!”
Huh?
I paused. That voice…. It’s much like father’s. But then, that’s ridicu—
–“You both are making us uncomfortable.”
It is father’s voice…no doubt about it. When was this recorded? When did they meet?
–“We still don’t know what Terra expected when she brought you both to us, but I for sure didn’t get a single warning of any kind.”
Terra? The name on the necklace?
At that, the car screeched to a sudden halt and simultaneous gasps were heard from behind me. I looked towards Lucas questioningly with brows high and confusion swirling in my eyes but the way his face had gone pale surprised me.
There’s no doubt that this pen was some kind of recorder. But his expression alone said that he hadn’t been the one to put it there. Whatever I heard just now, was never meant for my ears, was it?
–“It was near midnight when I found two crying kids left on my doorstep with only the clothes on their backs and the towel that kept them warm. That’s all. We don’t know anything about that woman and even if we did, we wouldn’t tell you. If that’s what you came for, please leave. I’m trying hard not to sho-”
My focus messed up briefly when I spotted Lucas shift from the corner of my eyes, his hand reaching downward and swiftly heading for the pen. On impulse, my fingers grabbed ahold of his arm, the hold tighter than intended. “Don’t move.”
In that moment, it didn’t even strike me that a werewolf like him strangely couldn’t break out of my hold. My senses were totally preoccupied and my mind had gone elsewhere.
I was desperate to know why Lucas hid the fact that they met and equally desperate to know why I felt those little kids they mentioned were none other than us both.
Truth is, I tried to ignore it but there were hints of a possibility that my parents weren’t my actual parents. 1. They were both human while Lucas was a werewolf and I was mated to one. 2. While me and Lucas shared resemblance, mom and dad barely had anything alike with us. And 3. The necklace…I was positive that it belonged to someone of close relation to me.
But to hear it from their mouths was devastating.
–“…the hell out of here!” There was a loud crash.
–“If Clara finds out about this, you know what will happen, don’t you…mother?”
…if I find out…?
What does a man with amnesia know that I don’t?
–“Don’t call me that…” There was a deep intake of breath along with shuffling as mom’s voice sounded. “…. don’t you EVER call me that! We already said we don’t know anything so just get out!”
–“There’s no need for any arguing. Besides, this is my place, you don’t get to chase us out.”
That was undoubtedly Kasan’s voice. I had an inkling feeling he was also in their midst.
–“You were the ones who didn’t raise him properly. You should’ve kept him under your asses the moment he shifted.”
Shifted?…they knew?!
“You both knew?” My fingers tightened around Lucas’ arm and I lifted my head to look towards mom and dad through the rearview mirror, disbelief eating me whole. How much have they been hiding from me?
“What the hell is this recording? When did you all meet?!”
They didn’t say a word, but their eyes were wide as they stared at something to my right. Slowly, I followed their gaze and felt my heartbeat quicken when my eyes witnessed Lucas’ arm. Streams of blood was rolling down his skin and trickling over my fingers but what made my whole body lose its strength, was the sight of the long claws that had pierced through his skin, claws that belonged to… me.
Terrified, my panicked gaze rolled up to Lucas’ face in search of some kind of reassurance, ANY kind of reassurance that what I saw wasn’t real. But… Lucas looked just about as terrified as I was.
…And it was in that very moment that the last of the recording played.
—“No, that’s simply the kind of monster that he is! Can you imagine how Clara felt?! You despising her because of something she doesn’t even know about?! Yes, she made you into a completely different person! Yes, she’s more dangerous than werewolves themselves! But how the hell do you think she’d feel if she found out that her blood turned her brother into a monster?! Instead of protecting her from the truth and making sure that she doesn’t ruin another person’s life, how could you even think to harm your own sister? W-We never mentioned anything because we had no explanation for your shift, so we feared that if we ever brought it up, we’d only let it slip that it was her doing but…we should’ve talked…we should’ve explained everything…! I-If only we knew what you’d done…”
—“T-That’s…I was angry, angry because I was alone, angry because a little taste of blood had changed my life completely, angry that the one who made me like this was living exactly how I wanted, angry that you both didn’t even think to ask how I felt yet worried nonstop about how devasted she would be if she ever found out. When I told you everything that happened that night, you never tried to help me, you never tried to understand me. Everything you said and everything you did, was about Clara…even though I was the one who’s life was ruined. Mom, you asked me not to tell her what she’d done, and I didn’t. But gradually, I began to hate any and everything that moved…you, father, Clara and even myself. I’m not saying this as an excuse for what I’ve done, but I’ve changed…I promise I’ve changed. Finding others like me made me accept what I had become, they helped me keep my wolf in check, control my shifts and gave me a place among them. I can promise you I’ve changed, I’m not like that anymore. Still, there’s not a moment where I don’t regret what I’ve done and you can’t even begin to imagine how it fucking kills me that my memories have returned so soon…but…i-if I can just continue to stay by her side like this, I’ll—”
—“Don’t get ahead of yourself, you’re just one of the few I can trust to keep my mate safe is all. After we deal with the mutts, I’m telling her everything… everything.”
—“Bu—”
The recording went dead…