Reclaiming Her Heart

Chapter 14 - Unveiled

Jadea

As he leaned his head against the cool stone, allowing himself to cry, to fall apart, I decided to grant his wish. There was no way I could leave him like this, knowing he was in so much pain.

I invaded his mind first, weaving a spell that would keep him from reaching out to anyone else on the compound, alerting them of my presence. While I was willing to expose myself to him, I wasn't quite ready for everyone to find out at that very instant I had been rescued.

Ty jerked at first, not expecting the intense attack on his mind. However, he stilled the instant he recognized my essence bleeding into him. "Jadea!?" Ty's incredulous voice was filled with happiness, his gaze locking onto mine as I stepped out of the brush. Like he couldn't believe I was standing there before him.

"Hi Ty," I greeted with a lopsided grin.

He charged me, picking me up in the fiercest hug ever, spinning me around. "You're really here," he sputtered, setting me back down, his hands resting on my shoulders as a big toothy, teary smile hit me like a freight train. "I can't believe it!" Happy tears fell from both our eyes as we held onto each other.

"It's so good to see you," I breathed.

"We were waiting for word of your rescue. We would have come had we known." I heard the hurt in Ty's voice and sighed.

I told him a watered-down version of what happened, knowing I didn't have a lot of time, and how I was saved. "I wasn't ready to come back here. Not since I couldn't remember Adam at all. All of my memories, my feelings are from a time before I knew him. I didn't think that was fair to him, or to Aidan and Anika."

It took a moment for Ty to understand what I was trying to say, and he nodded. "To a time when you didn't believe in love? I do understand that. It would have been hard for Aidan and Anika especially," he agreed. "It wouldn't have been fair to either one of you to be forced together when you literally have no recollection of them."

I nodded. "I don't remember any of them, Ty. I have no recollection of how we met. Nothing of our story, in how Adam and I fell in love. In how he earned my trust." I heard the desperation, the sadness within my tone. "And I can't wrap my mind around the fact someone could have stripped me of all my walls and made me feel safe enough to love. I don't know if he will have the patience to re-gain that trust. And I am afraid of losing the fantastical idea of love. It feels like a proverbial carrot has been dangled before me with hopes of gaining such a deep intimacy. I am terrified I won't be enough. That my walls this time will be different and harder to overcome. I'm afraid he will give up on me, Ty."

"I understand your fears, Jadea. I do," Ty soothed, his hands rubbing comfortingly along my shoulders and back. "Adam is different. He has faced this with you before, when you had repressed memories from childhood. He helped you remember them, Jay. He could help you again. And, maybe in doing so, show you he isn't going anywhere. He is the real deal. If it hadn't been for his children, he would have followed you into death..." He allowed that information to sink in before continuing on. "You figured it out once before with him, Jay. Don't let your mind get in the way of your heart. Don't allow your mind to talk you out of finding that love and happiness again. While I understand it is a big step for you, just remember that being loved, and having known such intimacies, is better than never having them at all. Don't leave this on the table and forever regret not taking the chance with him."

Damn! Ty had a lot of good points. He had grown up a lot, and his advice was sound. "You sound just like him," I breathed, my emotions getting the better of me. "He would have been so proud of you."

"You think so?"

"I know so," I stated fiercely.

After a moment to compose ourselves, Ty continued. "Don't wait too long to tell him, Jadea. You don't have to meet him here. It can be a private affair. To reinstate your bonds with your pack and talk with Adam about how to reintegrate yourself into your life with his children."

"I promise I won't make them wait too long."

"You best be getting along. The shift change is happening soon." Which meant a greater potential to be seen out here in the open.

"I'm sorry to do this," I whispered, weaving a spell in his mind so he couldn't tell anyone about tonight.

"No hard feelings," he soothed. "I'll see you soon, sis."

With that, I took off feeling lighter and better than I had in a long time.

The thing of the matter being, though, I hadn't known my pack was residing on his land currently. And I had been unaware of the very sneaky, intuitive wolf who had been lying low nearby. He caught onto my thoughts as he ran the perimeter and hadn't sounded the alarm, knowing he would have created a scene I wouldn't have been prepared to handle. Instead, he listened to my thoughts, found out where I was going, and waited till morning to tell his alpha where his mate was at.

***

Adam

In the early morning hours, Garret asked to meet me bright and early by the creek on the other side of the training fields. It had to do with something no one else could know about. I tried prying into his mind. However, he'd kept everything just out of reach, telling me it could wait until daybreak: when the others were awake and Nonna, the nanny of the compound, was ready to watch the kids.

As I approached him, I could feel his anxiety spiking. He was still in his wolf form, even though he had been off duty for several hours.

"Garret?" I prompted, needing to know why he was acting strangely. What had set him off during the night? Had there been some kind of threat nearby? A threat that had come and gone? Or was there something else?

"Please do not bite my head off before I have a chance to share everything with you," he stated pointedly. "And don't go after Ty either," he added on as an aside.

"I will hear you out before I choose to respond," I promised. Within my chest, I felt my wolf coil. What information did Garret have?

"Jadea snuck onto the property last night."

Shock was the first wave of emotion to crash over me, right before the anger and hurt ripped through our chest. My wolf was furious, and so was I. "You better talk fast, Garret. Otherwise, I'm going to rip you limb from f*****g limb." My wolf was the one to make the threat. Deep down, though, we could feel relief wash through us at this news. She was alive. She had been rescued.

Instead of talking, Garret showed me what he witnessed and what he heard within Jadea's mind while she visited her father's grave. All the information made me pause.

She had lost her memories?

She had no recollection of me or Aidan or Anika?

Anger flared first, red and hot as I felt so frustrated over the enemy's attempts to erase her memories of us. To rip her of the love, trust and safety she had finally found within me. She must have felt so alone and scared.

And then the debilitating sorrow took hold. She didn't remember us.

"Breathe, Adam," Garret soothed in my mind. I could feel the emotion ripping through my body. I shook with the effort to not respond negatively. I wanted to be upset with her, however I knew she was used to facing everything alone. If what Garret said was true, we would be starting back at square one. Where she didn't believe in true love.

We must go to her, my wolf stated in my mind. And we must be calm, he added.

Yes, we had to be her calm during this storm.

We were able to gain her trust once. We can do it again. We can do better this time, he said with conviction.