"What do you need to know?" Artemis asked as she placed her teacup down on the table. She had taken a sip from it prematurely and ultimately, she had burnt her tongue.

Sol couldn't hide his smile even if he tried.

The elder sat across from the pair on a single, leather sofa, his eyes trained on Artemis ever since he had sat down. The elder had made them tea and brought out some shortbread biscuits which lay on a silver platter on the coffee table in front of them, but they remained untouched for now.

She was too nervous to speak but it helped that she had Sol with her. Artemis knew that she was safe as long as she was with him.

"I need to know everything." The elder informed her. "Even the smallest things which you might think mean nothing, could matter a great deal." He encouraged her with a friendly smile, his eyes fleeting between how close her and Sol seemed to be sitting.

Artemis frowned and looked down at the ground dejectedly. "I don't think even I know everything."

The elder smirked, the corner of his lips rising just a little. He appreciated dry humour. "Well, as much as you can remember then." He urged her.

Elder Jackson knew how important it was to try and get as much information from Artemis as he could. He had suspicions and theories about what had happened to her as soon he had received that phone call from Solomon earlier that morning, but he wanted to hear it all for himself before he rushed to any judgements.

She hesitated but when Sol squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, she looked up at him. A silent conversation passed between them as she looked up at him and he looked down at her, before she nodded and began from where she thought appropriate. "Before this morning, all I could remember is Sol and him finding me on the forest floor a couple of months ago. Before him, I couldn't remember anything about my past expect for my name."

The elder nodded his head, his ears perked as he listened carefully. He did not wish to miss a word in fear that he would miss out on something important, no matter how small it may seem. "But this morning all that changed?"

Artemis nodded and she watched as elder Jackson's eyes trailed away from her and to Sol. They remained on him for a few brief moments, almost as if they were having a silent conversation with her eyes.

When he was focused on her again, she continued to speak. "I think it was the training that triggered the memories, and once it started it wouldn't end."

"What can you tell me about the training?"

Artemis turned her head to look at Sol, pleading with him to answer this question instead of her. She knew that he had paid great attention to every move she had made during their training session this morning and would be able to answer the question far better than she ever could.

He nodded and looked up to face the elder. "Artemis had never trained before so I had planned to teach her the basics but it seemed that she possessed the experience of a very skilled warrior. She was also very deceivingly strong and fast, far stronger than she should have been for someone who has never trained or even gone to the gym before."

"Training could just be something from her past that she doesn't remember."

"Perhaps," Artemis agreed. "But I remember being locked in cages." She paused briefly. "Not just me, but others like me too."

She watched as the elder seemed to falter over his words, his eyebrows shooting up on in his face in surprise. "Cages?" He audibly sounded almost as if believed to have misheard her but unfortunately that was not the case.

She nodded and sighed. "We would be brought out of the cages to fight each other. I guess you could call that training." She attempted a smile but with how she was feeling, it came out as more of a grimace she was sure.

Elder Jackson pursed his lips. "And how often did that happen?"

She furrowed her eyebrows as she thought. "I don't know exactly," she shook her head. "But I'm assuming fairly often. There's a lot of memories of me fighting the others."

"How many others?" He urged her even though he knew that this would be difficult for her. It seemed that Artemis needed a slight push to be able to remember the nightmares of her past. It seemed cruel, to force her to remember such horrendous moments which her mind had worked hard to erase, but it was all for the bigger picture. If there was any other way to help the other werewolves stuck in the cages without hurting Artemis, then he would have done it.

"A couple of dozen, I think. Maybe more." She frowned. "There were only a couple of us at the beginning and it stayed like that for a long time, but they brought in a large shipment of cages this one time and since then, they've been bringing back wolves to fill them."

"All werewolves?"

She nodded. "And all children too. I was one of the oldest."

The elder leaned back in his seat as he pondered over the new information he had just acquired. Artemis and Solomon sat in silence too as they watched him, not too sure what the elder was thinking yet not wanting to interrupt his train of thought.

Instead, Artemis angled her head slightly to face up to Sol whom, even when sitting down he was a good head taller than her.

Sol seemed to beat her to the chase as he the words flowed out of his mouth in a whisper before she even had the chance. "I think that was a lot of information for him to digest." The corner of his lips turned up slightly but the light humour was lost on her.

"Do you think he'll be able to help us?" She asked, her voice quiet and timid, her eyes hopeful as she looked up at him.

"I hope so," Sol sighed. "He's never let us down before." He smiled and looped his arm over her shoulders before bringing her into his body where she rested her head against his chest. Breathing in his masculine, wood pine scent, she sighed.

She nodded and opened her mouth to ask a question, but thought better of it at the last minute and closed her mouth. Sol smirked and raised a questioning eyebrow." What were you going to say?"

Pulling away from him, she paused briefly. "Nothing." She denied and shook her head.

"Can't be nothing." He teased her lightly.

Artemis sighed and leaned her head closer towards him. "Do you think we'll be able to help them?"

"Help who?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"All those other werewolves that were caged just like me."

Sol hesitated, not because he didn't want to help them but because he didn't want to make a promise he couldn't keep, especially one which was as uncertain as this one.

However, it seemed that elder Jackson had jumped to answer his question before he managed to formulate a sentence was that neither a promise and neither completely negative. "I think we'll definitely put in a good try to help those other wolves but for that we're going to need some help."

"Help from who?" Sol audibly sounded.

"From some of the other elders."

Sol didn't like the sound of that and the elder must have noticed the way he tensed for he chuckled before addressing the situation. "Don't worry, boy," he attempted to reassure him. "I'll only contact the ones whom I trust."

"Which ones are you thinking?" He asked even though he was sure that he wouldn't recognise them. Elder Jackson was the only one whom he could remember by name for he visited them regularly, but he was sure that he would recognise a few of the other elders if he were to ever see them again.

"Henley and Oscar for now."

Sol pursed his but he held himself back from protesting. He didn't remember either elder Henley or Oscar but he trusted elder Jackson to make the right decision and to only confide in those that would be able to help.

Artemis knew of neither the elders. The only reason she was here was because she trusted Sol with her past and he seemed to trust elder Jackson. "Can we trust them?" She piped up without a care of being thought of as rude. At the current moment, she only cared about her own safety and that of those which she couldn't remember but had managed to leave behind with her grand escape. And then there rose the question of how she had managed escape from the facility she was kept in and then forget it all ever happened, but that was a question for another time.

She didn't know if she would be able to handle an information overload at the current moment.

The elder chuckled, not at all offended by the question. "Don't worry. I trust them with my life." He responded seriously. "The question is though; do you trust me?"

Her smile was small and barely visible, but it was there. "I trust Sol." She replied with confidence, not even bothering to look at the Alpha next to her for reassurance. She trusted him with her life and that was that.

The elder nodded with respect. "That's good enough for me."

Sol had just sat back and watched the whole exchange, trying to keep the smile off his face at what he had just heard Artemis announce; that she trusted him.

Elder Jackson sat and spoke with Artemis and Solomon for another half an hour, attempting to gather some more information from Artemis about the past she had just recently started remembering she had. At some point, he had gotten up to grab a notepad from his home office to write down some of it for he was sure that he would forget it all if he didn't.

It had started to get late and after scrapping a quick dinner of cheesy pasta, elder Jackson refused for Sol and Artemis to drive home as they had spent much more time speaking than they had originally planned.

"It just makes sense this way," he reasoned. "And anyway, you'll just have to make the drive back here tomorrow."

Sol sighed before he turned to look at Artemis. "What do you think?" He asked her quietly even though he was sure that the elder could hear him with his super human werewolf hearing.

It made sense, staying the night. It wasn't too late, the clock reading a few minutes past nine. But trying to remember memories of her past had really tired her out and she was sure that if they were to head home then she would fall asleep in the passenger seat. "I think it makes sense to stay the night." She spoke aloud to Sol before turning to elder Jackson. "If that's okay with you, of course."

The elder smiled and nodded. "That's perfectly fine with me." He reassured them. "Finish off your tea while I go set up the guest bedroom for you."

Sol nodded thankfully before leading Artemis back into the living room where they sat down on the sofa, indulging in one more cup of tea before heading up to bed. They had been guests of elder Jackson for a little more than a couple of hours now and they had already consumed three cups of tea, this being their fourth. Spending the whole talking really did dry their throats up.

"Today's been a long day," Artemis sounded aloud as she sighed and leaned her head back against the sofa. She wasn't really feeling for tea, just wanting to head up to bed. "All this talking has tired me out."

"Yeah, I know." Sol sighed before he gulped down the remainder of his tea. As a child, he had drunk quite a lot of elder Jackson's tea and so now, it felt like he was taking a trip down memory lane which was quite ironic if keeping in mind the current predicament they found themselves in. "Tomorrow's probably going to be the same." He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face.

"I don't get why all these memories just came to me all of a sudden."

He reached out and brushed away a stray lock of fiery red hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear. "The training must have triggered something."

"You're probably right," she closed her eyes and let her body relax into the sofa. "A couple of days ago, all I wanted was to know what happened to me and now, I just want to forget that any of it happened."

"It's normal to feel that way." He attempted to reason with her, not wanting her to feel bad or torment herself over feeling normal, human emotions.

Artemis sighed and frowned. "I know but I just wish that I couldn't remember everything."

"It would've been much easier that way," he nodded his head and agreed with her. Rolling his head to the side, he watched her as she sat next to him with his eyes closed, appearing to be physically relaxed when in reality, he knew of the tortuous thoughts that were taking over her mind. "But then would you have been satisfied going through your whole life not knowing what happened to you?"

She didn't hesitate to shake her head.

"And if you didn't remember anything I doubt you would ever be able to move on with your life."

Artemis nodded and sighed before snuggling into his side, resting her head on his shoulder. "Me not remembering my past led me to you so I don't regret any of it."

Sol froze momentarily, his heart beating a mile a minute after having heard her confession, even if it was just a faint whisper. After he spent a few minutes freaking out and worrying about how to reply, he turned his face to glance at her and reveal his true feelings about her, but she was already asleep.

Sighing, he leaned his head down and kissed her on the temple instead for no words were needed to convey how he felt about the woman in his arms.

-

You can wait for the next chapter which will be uploaded on 05/02/2020

OR

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Layla Knight

17.09.18