Reclaiming Her Heart

Chapter 3 - Hope

Song Inspo: "Eternity" by Alex Warren

Adam

Another month came and went. And with each passing week, my mind slowly fell into an obsessed spiral of darkness as I tried everything I could think of to re-connect with her.

While I hadn't been successful, I was beginning to realize our mate's bond wasn't entirely severed.

Which left me with dangerous hope.

A hope that could make me reckless, that could drive me and my wolf insane if we weren't careful.

We had obsessively tried following that fragmented piece back to her, but it always ended in emptiness.

Where was she?

And why wasn't anything working!?

Maybe we are trying too hard, my wolf whispered as we found ourselves back at Ty's a month later, running the perimeter. At the last place we felt her. This was a desperate attempt to re-connect with her.

Maybe we were, I agreed with him. The last time we connected, I had cleared my mind and connected with the earth. The very essence that gave the primitive wolves their powers. A way to connect directly with her. Because my wolf had been born from Jadea, I had some of the primitive wolf running through my veins. I practiced and knew how to connect with the earth, something a turned wolf shouldn't have been able to accomplish. Primitive wolves could not only connect with the earth, but connect with other primitive wolves through the earth.

Primitive wolves were direct decedents from the first generation werewolves. There were seven first generation packs. These wolves had been created in retaliation by the Mood God, Rakesh, after his wolf lover had been killed for her forbidden love with him. They were wolves whose bodies could take on both characteristics of a wolf and human, or shift into each form separately. These pure blood wolves had the capability to tap into the earth's natural powers, which was something most immortals could not do. Over time, the primitive wolves bloodlines became diluted with turned wolves. Turned wolves weren't direct decedents of primitive wolves, and therefore, could not change into that half human, half wolf form. Nor could they access the earth's powers.

The primitive power was something unique to Jadea, my wolf said gently. Especially since she is a decedent from Rakesh's wolf lover.

Maybe my wolf was onto something.

Maybe the way to reach her was through a more basic, and ancient way.

As we ran, I cleared my head. Connected with the earth. I felt the dirt under my paws. The soothing essence of the earth seeping into every cell of my body. The moon hung high and heavy in the sky. I was about to lose myself in that therapeutic trance when Garret was suddenly in my mind.

"Adam," he breathed, pain and worry in his voice. "You need to let her go. She is not there."

My growl ripped through him, my wolf overtaking my mind as he lashed out at our beta, so enraged he interfered. He couldn't know! He wasn't her mate! He had never been as close and connected with her as we had been! We knew what we felt!

It was possible. As slight as it was. There was a chance she was still alive and needed us. Needed our help.

Her body was never recovered at the scene. There had been several people lost that day at the concert, caught in the fire. But Jadea's body was not one of them.

It had just ... disappeared.

We will find her, and we will bring her home, my wolf soothed my heart and soul as he receded, allowing me control once more. Allowing me to sooth the hurts we inflicted on Garret and the rest of the pack who had been silent witnesses to my, and my wolf's, outburst.

***

Two more agonizing months passed, and my hope was slowly fading.

We hadn't been able to connect with her again.

I even went so far as to try and use my visionary gift to see her. To at least confirm she was alive.

And yet, those attempts were all in vain.

Standing out in the middle of the open field at sunrise, the Knight Ranch some distance away, I stared emptily as the beautiful pastel colors of dawn lit the horizon. A fresh blanket of snow covered the ground. I fell to my knees in defeat, a silent plea going out into the void.

Jadea, if you are there, give me a sign, I begged, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes, my heart breaking all over again. I can't keep going on like this.

It was driving me insane.

I was being driven mad. I was more irritable. More likely to turn to violence and punishment than patience and understanding. I was finally at a crossroads where I would have to let her go, or she would have to give me something more than the tentative hope to cling to.

Had I imagined it all? Was I the delusional one?

It seemed that way.

Maybe I needed more help. Something more than Dr. Andrew's could give.

I knew someone who was a controller. A being who could alter the mind permanently. She knew how to cast lasting memory erasing spells. Maybe it was time to go that route. To forget Jadea and the bond. Maybe that way, I could finally be present for my children and be the rock my pack needed. Guilt for being so broken was a vise on my heart. Pain at losing just another piece of her, no matter how small and insignificant it was, lanced through me once again.

It felt like I was losing her all over again.

Curling into myself, I sobbed and screamed my pain into the world.

And in the brokenness of my heart and mind, a vision came crashing in...

I was thrown into a dark room lit only by a single flame in the middle of a small round table. There were two men sitting in the small confined space, leaning in close together, their mouths moving animatedly, as if arguing. It took a moment for their words to come through. "She needs to pledge her loyalty to you, to bind herself to you so you can have unlimited access to her mind." The man on the left growled urgently. "Cerberus demands it. He cannot afford anymore set backs."

My eyes fell on the other man in the room. A very regal alpha with long platinum blond hair. It was so fine it looked wispy. It looked so similar to Jadea's. Could he be related to her? His eyes were also that same shade of green... Over his right eye was a jagged scar that ran down to the middle of his cheek. His lips were pulled thin into a frown at the other man's words.

Other than Hans Elam, and Harley, she had never mentioned any other relatives. Could this be a distant relative she didn't know about? The previous three had been enemies of the immortal realm. All had once moved against Jadea in the hopes of acquiring her to use in their plight against Constance, the Pheonix. Cerberus, the Pheonix's enemy, once tried to forcefully acquire Jadea because she had been the key to uniting the primitive wolves. And whoever she supported, they would follow her into battle. They would back whoever she was loyal to.

Had they concocted such an intricate plan to strike at the concert with the intent to retrieve her? A place where specific immortals with ceratin powers could hide and coordinate a strike to snatch her right from under us and make it look as if she died?

"She is ready. I will address this with her. Though it may take some time."

"You've had time, Silas," the first snarled. I tried focusing on his face, but he was too far lost in the shadows of the room.

"We have to be patient," Silas insisted. "Her trust has not been easily won. While the bullet through her brain did do enough damage to break all of her bonds and previous connections, it did not erase all of her memories. She remembers much of her life except for the past five to six years."

"What have you told her?" the other man hissed, curiously.

"That her mate took over her pack and rejected her. He had them attack her, which resulted in her life-threatening wounds."

"What about Lucien?"

"That Constance ordered his death. Not directly, though. She knows Constance loved and admired her father. More along the lines of she sent her father on a fool's errand against his will and he was killed."

"And she's accepted them all?"

"Yes, more or less," Silas shrugged. "The small daily doses of demons blood has kept her compliant and her mind weak." There was a pause and then, "I just need a little more time and I will have secured her loyalty to Cerberus."

"You have one more month, otherwise she gets integrated into the trafficking rings, and you," the other man's wicked smile turned my blood cold with the look of utter sadistic pleasure, his face coming into full view, "Will wish you had never been born."

***

I crashed back to the present, my mind overwhelmed with what I had seen.

Sitting in front of me in the snow was Garret, his eyes wide and wild. He had been a silent spectator in my mind.

There was so much to unpack. I wasn't sure where to start.

"She's alive," Garret whispered, debilitating hope, joy and fear clinging to him. The same emotions that were rocketing through me. "I'm so sorry I didn't believe you. That we all didn't believe you," he apologized, knowing if I'd had their support, we might have been able to recover her sooner.

I shook my head, brushing his mind with understanding as I reached out to the rest of the pack and shared this news. Their shock, grief and tentative hope reflected my own. Though, rising from the depths of all the turmoil, I could feel their resolve and eagerness to save her.

Apologies and everything else could wait.

We knew our path forward.

We had to save Jadea. Before it was too late.

Garret and I were in motion almost at the same instant, running toward the house so we could prepare ourselves for the next steps.

"Briar, Derrick and Blade, I need you to see Anika and Aidan to—"

"Ty's," Briar finished. "On it!"

"Persephone and Ginny too. They need to remain on his land, protected and--"

"I'll explain what I can to Ty." I knew she would handle it like a boss.

"Garret and Chance, you are with me. We leave in fifteen to make haste to the demon stronghold. To relay this information to Constance."

She was the only one I knew who could help us.

I just prayed we weren't too late.

I prayed harder in my life we would recover Jadea, and she wouldn't be so lost to the darkness she couldn't come back to me.