by Mia Rose
“I told you —I was talking to myself.”
“You’re lying!” Declan yelled. “Tell me the truth! Who were you speaking to?”
Aria smiled slowly, a wicked little smile that said everything he was afraid of. She broke free from his grasp and started walking away from him, but Declan shook himself from his daze and grabbed onto her again.
“Declan,” Aria spat, “I’m getting pretty tired of this little game of yours. One minute you want me, the next minute you can’t stand to be around me. Which is it?”
“What did you say to her?”
“What do you think I said, Declan? I told her to stay the fuck away from us; mostly from you. She doesn’t belong here! I do. The sooner you realize that, the better off we will all be in the end.” Declan stared at Aria, again amazed by how quickly she could change her entire demeanor.
“She got into a car accident trying to get away from you,” Declan said quietly.
“Good!” Aria laughed. Declan’s eyes grew wide at her vindictive remark and Aria added, “Oh, Declan, come on. Don’t look so serious —you know it would never have worked out between the two of you. Me, however, I can show you what real love looks like. All you have to do is give me the chance to show you. You might be pleasantly surprised.”
Declan took a few steps closer toward Aria, bringing his face within inches of hers.
He leaned down, brushing his lips against her ear and whispered, “You are incapable of true love.” Aria’s mouth grew into a thin line and her eyes slanted as she watched Declan start to walk away and head back to his car.
He didn’t look back to check, but he could feel her glare burning a hole in his back with every step he took. Every step that carried him further from where she stood.
“You are incapable of true love.”
Chapter 14
The Memories
“It’s because of you.”
Declan got into his car and drove off toward the hospital. He couldn’t believe that he had ever started to feel like Aria might have been a good person —looking back, she had blackmailed him, betrayed her best friend, started a rebellion in the pack, and now, come to find out, she threatened the woman that Declan really did love.
He nearly veered off the road when that thought came to him.
Love?
Do I really love Noelle?
Could I actually love her despite our differences?
The one thing he really hated the most about Aria was obvious. It was that even when she was being an evil, spiteful person; she was still telling some notion of the truth. Maybe she was right —maybe he could never be with Noelle in the way that he wanted to. But he knew one thing for sure, he was going to do everything in his power to try.
He pulled up at the hospital right as the sun started to stretch out from behind the buildings. He could feel his heart racing as he stepped out of his car. How long had it been since he’d seen her? Would she even want to see him? He recalled their last encounter at the coffee shop where Noelle had walked away without even giving him a second glance.
Declan headed toward the door which slid apart easily as he walked inside. There was an older woman sitting behind the counter clutching onto a black binder as he approached.
“Hello,” Declan said as he smiled at the woman, “I am looking for someone who I believe is staying here at the hospital.”
The woman looked him up and down before placing the binder down on the desk and flipping to a new page. “Sign in” she said.
Declan took the pen offered to him and scribbled down his name and his reason for the visit. He told the woman Noelle’s name and she directed him to the third floor, room 308. He walked over to the elevators and pushed the button. He could feel his heart picking up speed with every second that passed.
After what felt like an eternity, the elevator doors slid open and before Declan could step inside, he noticed that an elderly woman was making her way out, followed by a woman who looked vaguely familiar to him. Finally, a man pushing a wheelchair backed out of the elevator.
“Hey, how are you doing?” the man said. He turned the wheelchair around. There in the wheelchair sat Noelle.
“Hi,” Noelle said, with a friendly smile on her face. But Declan couldn’t respond; he couldn’t find any words.
Right before his eyes, he saw the man he almost tore up into shreds and the woman who begged for Declan to spare her husband’s life. Then, finally, the woman that he so recently admitted that he loved. But there was something more than that, something else that held him back from saying anything. Maybe it was because he could see the truth in her somewhat vacant expression —Noelle had no idea who was standing in front of her.
Noelle climbed out of the wheelchair with the help of her father and slid into the back seat of the car. Her nana sat down next to her and gently placed her hand into Noelle’s lap.
“Nana,” Noelle said, and her grandmother looked over at her, “why do you think that I remember you out of everything? Why don’t I remember anything else?”
“Noelle, the brain is a smart muscle —the smartest of all. For some reason, it is blocking all connections between you and your father, and you and your mother. Oh, and well, let’s just call it your career. I believe that there was a great ordeal of stress weighing on you after your father was attacked; maybe you were afraid you were going to lose him and that’s why you disconnected, because your mind and soul needed a break from it all.”
“And my career? My career has something to do with dad getting attacked?” Her parents climbed into the car and her nana stopped herself from speaking. Instead, she looked at Noelle and nodded solemnly.
Noelle’s heart was racing as they drove home —she was nervous that she would get there and feel so out of place; she was even more nervous that she would get there and memories would begin to flood in. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she held it and counted 1-2-3-4 in her mind, then she released it. She did this three times, and finally she felt her heart rate slow to a normal pace.
Her father looked at her in the rear-view mirror and said, “I see you remember our relaxation techniques.” He smiled.
Noelle hadn’t even thought about where she had learned that from —she just did it. She smiled at him, genuinely happy that she had pleased him.
They pulled into the neighborhood and Noelle immediately felt a strange sense of familiarity. It was like seeing a face that you recognized but you couldn’t tell exactly where you had seen that person before. They pulled into their driveway and her father rushed around to the trunk to get her wheelchair. With his help, Noelle sat down and was brought inside of the house.
She looked around and saw pictures of her as a baby and as a young girl. She also noticed one which must have been taken fairly recently. It was a lot to take in and Noelle could feel a headache threatening to explode in her head.
“I’m tired,” she said, “is it alright if I go to bed?”
“Of course,” her father said, grinning. Noelle kept her eyes on him and they looked at each other for a few seconds before he asked, “What is it?”
“I’m just not sure which way my bedroom is….” Noelle trailed off.
She was feeling near to tears. They threatened to spill over onto her cheeks. She was frustrated with everything and it was finally hitting her —here she was in her own house and she could not even remember where her room was in the house! She had so many unanswered questions, but now was not the time to open, what seemed to be, a proverbial can of worms.
Without speaking, her father pushed her chair into her room. He reached down to help Noelle out of the chair, but she shook her head, determined to do it herself.
She got into the bed and pulled the blankets up to her chin. Her father placed the box of letters next to her on the nightstand and left the room, closing the door behind him.
Noelle, finally alone, gave in to all of her feelings of frustration, anger, and helplessness; then she cried. She had no idea h
ow long she stayed crying underneath the blankets, but at some point, she was completely exhausted by it all. She just closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. A deep sleep which would help to heal her.
Declan had no idea what to do. After he watched Noelle leave with her family, he got back into his car and just sat in the parking lot. He needed to see her —he wanted to know if she had just pretended not to recognize him, just like she had at the coffee shop. But he knew that was unlikely, he knew something bad must have happened.
He opened his web browser on his phone and searched for Noelle’s home address. Using a few databases which provided similar information, he was able to narrow it down to a neighborhood nearly twenty minutes from the hospital. He typed in the address and headed in that direction. He had no plan whatsoever and he couldn’t think of anything that he would say, especially to her parents who had seen him that morning.
“Oh, hey, yeah I’m not a stalker or anything, I just wanted to see your daughter,” Declan mocked out loud. He shook his head in frustration and groaned. This could definitely end terribly, but he had to try at least.
When he arrived in the neighborhood and drove around slowly trying to see if he could recognize her car, then the thought occurred to him. In actual fact, her car had been totaled in the accident. He had to circle back to the beginning of the neighborhood and keep a lookout for something, anything… whatever else.
On his third time around the neighborhood, Declan saw Noelle’s father standing at the end of a driveway. To Declan’s surprise, the man started walking right up to his car. Declan rolled down the window as he approached.
“Hey, son. I’ve seen you driving around here a few times now, are you lost or something?” Her father was being friendly, but something in his tone indicated that his demeanor could change quickly.
It’s now or never, Declan thought to himself.
“Actually, Sir, I was looking for you —well, for your daughter.”
Noelle’s father leaned down to get a better view of Declan, his friendly demeanor completely vanished.
“You were the guy at the hospital this morning, weren’t you?”
“Yes, Sir,” Declan said, trying his best to keep his voice light and friendly. “I was actually looking for Noelle, but I was so caught off guard when I saw her and she didn’t seem to —well, she didn’t seem to know who I was if that makes any sense? We’ve been friends for a little while and I hadn’t heard from her and then I came across her story in the news and well, that’s pretty much it.”
Noelle’s father kept his face level with Declan and he never even blinked while Declan was speaking.
Great, I blew it already, Declan thought to himself.
To his surprise, Noelle’s father smiled at him, “Why don’t you park your car right there and come on in? I’m not sure she’s awake yet, but maybe you’ll be able to help her more than we can.”
“Help her?”
“Park your car and come on inside; then we’ll talk.”
Declan did as he was told. As he walked inside of the house, he felt this sense of homeliness that was so new, and yet, also familiar to him. It occurred to him that he and Noelle were different on so many levels other than just the most obvious werewolf and hunter obstacle.
“So, son, I didn’t catch your name before.”
“Oh, sorry, I’m Declan.” He stretched out his hand to the man sitting across from him.
“Nice to meet you, Declan. I’m Garret and my wife Abigail is here somewhere. You’ll have to excuse the mess, we’ve had some family in town and the past week has been crazier than you can imagine!” Garret laughed and Declan could not believe how surreal the moment felt.
Garret’s arm sat in a sling and Declan knew the exact cause of that injury. He had nearly killed this man and now he was sitting in his living room sharing friendly greetings.
Abigail walked into the room and jumped when she saw Declan. “Garret! Why didn’t you tell me we were expecting guests? We could have cleaned up the house a little bit!”
“I didn’t know, Abigail. This is actually one of Noelle’s friends —he was at the hospital but was a bit, well, thrown off by her injury.”
“Oh dear,” Abigail shook her head and said, “can I get you anything to eat or drink, sweetheart?”
“A water, please,” Declan said.
“Of course.” With that, Abigail left the room again.
“So, what happened to her?” Declan asked. “I know about the car accident, but why? How did it happen?”
Garret studied Declan’s face a while before responding. “Like I said, this past week has been a bit crazy. I actually was attacked by a wild animal when we were all going out hunting…”
“Hunting?” Declan repeated in a question, cutting Garret off.
“Yeah, like I said, my family is in town and we all enjoy hunting every now and then.”
“What do you hunt?” Declan could feel the hairs on his arms raising, then the skin on the back of his neck started prickling. He began to feel an urge to transform right in front of this man and do what he did best.
“Oh, you know, just small animals, maybe sometimes deer,” Garret said without missing a beat, “but anyways, I think all the stress got to her and she just lost control of her vehicle. But now, well, see it’s still our Noelle, but she doesn’t know who she is.”
“What do you mean?” Declan asked, waiting for an answer with baited breath.
“She’s lost her memory,” Garret said.
Declan could feel the urge vanish and then his heart started racing for an entirely new reason. So, he hadn’t been crazy, Noelle really hadn’t recognized him at the hospital. He had no idea what to do in this moment —should he leave? Should he stay there until she woke up? Should he run to the pack to tell them what had happened and order that they call off this manhunt?
He was so occupied in his own thoughts, he hadn’t heard Abigail offering him the glass of water or a tray. The one filled with fruits and crackers.
“Declan?” Garret called, “are you alright?”
Declan looked up at Abigail and said, “Oh, wow, thank you so much.” Declan took the glass from her outstretched hand and placed it on the table next to him. “I’m so sorry about everything —about Noelle and just, everything.”
“It’s alright, son. There’s nothing any of us could have done differently,” Garret said.
But there was so much that could have been done differently. If Declan had just left Noelle alone instead of demanding that she come to the woods, then none of this would have happened. If he’d just left her alone after the night Cassidy was killed —if he’d just never talked to her at the coffee shop. So much could have been done and none of this would have happened.
Declan took a sip from his glass of water. He stood up from his chair to tell Garret and Abigail that he was leaving and that if Noelle ever asked about him —who was he kidding, she probably never would.
But before any words came out of his mouth, Noelle came into the room and her eyes fell directly on Declan.
“It’s you,” she whispered. Declan didn’t move an inch. He stood frozen in the moment with Noelle; the rest of the world faded from around them. “I remember you from my dreams.”
“It’s because of you.”
Chapter 15
Noelise
“Noelle felt the truth in everything. She could feel it in her bones that she was a hunter.”
They stood like that for what felt like a lifetime —Declan speechless and Noelle unsure of what to say next.
It was her father who broke the silence. “Noelle, you remember him from before?”
“No,” Noelle said, “well not exactly. But he’s the one from my dreams…” she trailed off.
Noelle’s face got flushed and Declan knew exactly what she meant, but her mother misread the entire situation.
“Oh, Noelle, it looks like you’re burning up again. Why don’t you go back to bed? Declan, would you like to si
t there with her for a while? I think all this moving is exhausting for her.”
“Mom, I walked like five steps, I’m fine.”
“Yes, and you also flipped over in your car five times and completely lost your memory. You are many things, Noelle, but fine is not one of them.” Her mother shooed Noelle from the room and Declan followed them, slowly, not at all sure what to do or say. Noelle climbed back into bed and Declan dragged over the chair from her desk to the side of her bed. Abigail walked out, closing the door behind her.
“So, this is your room?” he asked.
“That’s what they tell me,” Noelle said, looking around the room. “Feels a little too girly for me, but who knows, maybe I am a girly girl.”
“You’re not,” Declan said, “you are one of the strongest people I have ever met and you are fiercely loyal to your family and you love very passionately.”
Noelle’s cheeks flushed again and a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “Were we…” she started, “I mean, are we dating?”
Declan laughed and said, “I guess that depends on your definition of dating. You really cannot remember anything, can you?”
“I remember bits and pieces of some things —when we were driving home, I felt like I could remember playing on these streets with friends, you know? Learning how to ride my bike. But it’s hard to tell what are real memories and what are just figments of dreams.”
Declan nodded. “You said you remembered me from your dreams. What happened in those dreams?”
Noelle closed her eyes as her new signature redness came over her cheeks. “I don’t know why I said that out loud.” She laughed nervously. “They are just —you know, those dreams.”
“What do you mean those dreams?”
“You’re going to make me say out it aloud, aren’t you?” Declan smiled deviously, and Noelle giggled. She whispered, “Sexy dreams.”