Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifter, #3)(20)

My laughter was dry and cynical as it rasped from me. “My father tried to kill the previous alpha. From that day forward, my family was shit in this pack. Torin wanted to kill me the day I first turned, and the only reason he didn’t was because of—”

The pain hit me harder than ever, my brain sliced into pieces as figurative knives attacked with vengeance. Screams shattered the car and it took me a minute to understand they were mine. Sam, who had not been expecting that at all, careened all over the road as she shouted, “What is it? What’s wrong? Did you see a spider?”

She started screaming too, and if I hadn’t been about to die from the pain, I would have laughed at her apparent fear of spiders. She was a damn wolf shifter; spiders were not a threat to us at all. Alas, logic had nothing to do with true fear.

When Sam finally wrested back control of her car, bringing it to a halt on the side of the road, I managed to stop screaming. “I’m sorry.” I got out, my throat aching before it healed. “It was my memory loss… Every time I try to trigger a memory, the pain is so damn bad, I near pass out.”

Sam pressed a hand to her heaving chest, the long, shiny strands of her hair completely tangled around her face. “That’s truly terrible. I hope it wasn’t anything I said.”

Straightening, I wiped at the drool on my face, sending up a prayer of thanks that I hadn’t pissed myself as well. “It was nothing you said. It’s just the mess that’s my brain, and whoever fucked with me better hope I never regain my memories. Because I’ll be coming for them.”

My voice lowered into a growl, and Sam cleared her throat. “You’re kind of scary. Glad to see your inner wolf wasn’t brutally torn to pieces by your father’s betrayal and the lackluster true mate you got. Wish I could say the same.”

Being called “scary” was a compliment to me, and I took it as such. In truth, my pack’s oppression and bullying ways had forced me to evolve into a shifter who gave zero fucks. The same treatment of Sam had had the opposite effect. I mean, I’d only known her all of half an hour, but already I was painting a picture. From the cautious nature and gentle soul to the sedate button-down shirt and black slacks. Whatever wildness had existed in her soul had been burned away, leaving behind a shifter who took no risks.

Was coming to me with this information the first true step outside of her norm in a long time? If it panned out, I would owe her everything. No matter what happened, one day I would help her reach her full potential.

After all, we rejected mates needed to stick together.





11





We pulled into the parking lot a minute later, and despite her jumpiness from my screaming fit, Sam still managed to lock her car, check all the doors twice, and then follow me into the school.

It was a weekday, so shifter students were everywhere, and it was weird to think that this had been my life not very long ago. When had I even graduated? Was that in the period of time where I’d lost memories?

Another jab hit my head, so I forced the thoughts away. Now was not the time for another screaming and/or vomiting session; I needed to stay focused on whatever Sam was showing me.

She veered away from the main hall, and I was grateful to get off that path so all the shifter students could stop freaking out and doing a double take at the alpha-mate being in their school.

We ended up in the theater wing. “They’ve closed this section down for renovation,” Sam said, “but I had to come in here to find some old school files, and I’m starting to think there’s more than just renovations going on.”

The closer we got to the basement, the more uneasy my stomach grew, swirling and dancing inside until I had to press my hand to it in an attempt to ease the flow. The energy here was dark, and I could tell from the relaxed expression on Sam’s face that she wasn’t feeling it. Whatever she was about to show me… it was connected to me. It had to be.

When she opened the door, pushing past the yellow tape that was supposed to keep everyone out, I followed her down the stairs. “I hope you don’t take offense to this,” I said, trying to distract myself from the dark wisps of energy that were sending my body into hyperdrive, “but what even made you snoop down here? You don’t seem like the type to venture into forbidden areas.”

She shot a small smile over her shoulder that I saw quite clearly even in the low lighting. “Would you believe that once upon a time, many years ago, I was the child always in trouble for sticking my nose where it wasn’t supposed to be? My nature is innately curious, and even though that has been somewhat beaten out of me, this time, I just couldn’t resist. Maybe it was fate since I happened to find the one person who might need to know about this place as well.”

Fate? I wasn’t really one to put faith into an entity that I hated most of the time—hello, Torin? Scraping the bottom of the barrel there. But again, it was either divine intervention or a ridiculously huge coincidence that Sam and I had found each other. Or more like she’d found me, right when I’d really needed her to.

“I’m sorry about your pack,” I said softly. “If you want me to beat the shit out of every single one of them for hurting you, just say the word. I’ll throw down for a friend.” Fuck her mate for taking her spark. I literally needed to start a support group for shifters like us, those who didn’t fit into pack life.