Jay

It's been two weeks since blood had soaked the ground in the fight against Logan's and Tether's pack.

It had been two weeks since the incident in the hospital. My heart crawled to a stop just thinking about it. About my mate's brutal rejection.

Everything that followed was a hazy drifting blur of a bland cycle. Some discussions with my father about the remaining werewolves of Logan's dissolved pack had occurred but there was still unclarity about that situation too. Robin had been aggressive in his demands for more blood. That had piqued my wolf's interest but my father's refusal diminished its presence.

Outside of that and updates on Sydney and Terrence, nothing could rouse me from my depression.

"Son, you need to eat." The scrapping of my bowl sloshing with soggy cereal pulled my attention to my mother.

The dissolving tan circles drifted with the remaining inertia from her pushing the bowl to sit in front of me. I stared down into the bowl of soggy tan Cheerios and milk and still, my thoughts, as usual, found their way to Sydney.

She had been released from the hospital five days ago. She was completely healed with her strengthened white wolf genes. But that brought up another bad situation on its own.

Mat sat her down a few days after she woke up and walked her through everything that she had forgotten from the past month. Nothing more and nothing less.

She was reluctant to believe him at first. She was on the edge of being hysterical when Mat showed her his transformation, at least from what was retold to me. He continued to explain the bite mark imprinted on her neck as well as what that strange voice inside of her head was from.

While Mat explained all of that to her, Sydney's family and friends, along with mine and Terrence's were told what had happened to her memory after many lengthy retellings of Sydney's transformation and the contacting of many elder wolves.

Originally we had all thought, wished, it was temporary amnesia triggered from the violent trauma she had undergone. But when her memory didn't start to improve we turned to the professional werewolf doctors.

It had taken a few days after alerting them of our concerns that the doctor had finally deduced what was likely wrong after various consultations. They concluded that when Logan died, the bond that Logan had apparently set between them snapped. In that snapping, her memories were taken with and gone forever or magically trapped.

We were all startled by this bleak premonition, and everyone was quick to poke holes in it.

Silvia questioned why Sydney forgot her father's passing, something that had happened over a year before she was bitten. The doctor figured the brutality of the snapping, because of the violence in Logan's death, some of her other memories to be forgotten as well and it was just bad luck that one was of her father.

We all remained skeptical, but her situation didn't seem to improve.

I hadn't seen Sydney since then and that was a little more than a week ago.

I was constantly checking on her whether it be through the means of Mat, Emily, Megan, Aaron, or even her mother.

If only I had been a better mate and more protective of her. Wasn't that something I told her? I swore to do better after she was taken from the cafe the night of her performance? I shouldn't have let anybody else do what I should have been doing. I should have waited for Sydney to get finished packing and not let Terrence wait for her. What was I thinking?

There were so many things I could have done better. Done right. And here I was, with a mate who doesn't remember me.

Karma. Divine intervention and justice. The darkly cynical part punched the thoughts into my mind.

But what about justice for Sydney? A smaller, vulnerable voice said from a small crevice in the depths of my mind.

"So you ready for today?" My mom questioned while scratching out a leftover meal to be lunch her at work.

Today everyone was returning to school. Mat, Terrence, myself, and Sydney.

"Yes," The words came out monotone.

But I truly was. I was excited to see my mate again, whether or not she remembered me.

But deep down, a little part of me twisted with hoped that today I would be shown this is all just a bad dream. Her golden locks flowing in the air as she turned her attention to me and would flash a brilliant smile. She would remember me and our love and that we could finally move on like normal.

As normal as a young werewolf mated couple composed of a legendary white wolf and her supposed guardian can be.

There was no use thinking about the hurdles all the way down the road. I knew better than to think everything would be magically fine when I stepped through the school doors.

But nevertheless, hope twinkled deep, deep within me.

"Well, then you better get going!" My mom encouraged. I could see the skepticism in her eyes though as she drank in her coffee and looked at me with her ever knowingly.

I gave her my best false grin before grabbing my bag and heading out.

☽✣☾

It felt like déjà vu all over. Making my way towards the doors of the high school, trying to pull together my thoughts, and there she was. Just like the first day I genuinely talked to her.

The only difference, Aaron was dropping her off and she looked frustrated at whatever he was saying to her through the window before stalking away.

She closed in on the front doors of the school and I quickened to intercept her.

"Hey..." I pulled the door open in front of her.

Beautiful olive green eyes widened, startled, and she gasped. "You again!" I went to confirm this, but she continued on, unfocused. "She says you're my mate and I-"

"Hey, get out of the way!" A student yelled.

A growl of warning escaped me aimed at the rude idiot, but it went unheard as students pushed past us.

"Come this way Star," I spoke gently. I guided her through the doors and off to the side towards the gym where no one should be right now. Just from the lightest touch of my hand on her sleeve covered arm and I was on cloud nine.

"Where are you taking me?" Sydney stumbled a little with the change in direction.

The little trip broke my will power to deny myself more of what I wanted. My fingers skimmed down from her elbow and I laced my fingers through her.

"To the gym." I didn't know what to say. I missed spending time with her and I wanted to see if I could trigger her memories.

A deeper voice in my conscience warned against that, but I disregarded it.

"Hey, I need to get to class. I've missed too much..." Her hand pulled free from mine, as her other flew up to massage her temples.

Stepping closer to her, "Sydney, Can't we just-"

She backed away from me, shaking her head, "I can't deal with this right now. She's going crazy in my head and I-I just need to go." She hesitated only a moment longer, "I'll talk to you later."

Blonde hair whipped in the air as she turned with such force and purpose to get away from me. She headed back to the main flow of students only sparing me a second glance over her shoulder.

I found myself trying to say something, anything to call out to her, but nothing that made sense came.

An exhalation of pity sounded behind me, "Come on man, why don't you help me to class."

Balanced on crutches, Terrence stood still bruised and injured from the torture inflicted on him.

I gave him a small smile at his attempt to distract me. "Sure dude."

When Terrence was wheeled out of surgery he was still worse for wear. Unlike Sydney's adept white wolf genes, my beta healed nowhere near as quickly.

From the moment we were allowed to see him my sister hadn't left his side.

We had waved goodbye to him the first evening in the hospital when my sister bundled up in the chair beside Terrence's hospital bed claiming to want to keep him company. The next day when my family went to check on Terrence, it had been a shocking sight for my dad, and still me, to find that his daughter no longer curled up in the chair but snuggled up with the future beta in bed.

Our mother had shaken her head confused about my father and my gullibility before easing to Jaci and Terrence's bedside.

We rolled our eyes and mumbled our annoyances. Nevertheless, a pointed glare from my father was loaded with all the warnings Terrence needed.

I had tried my best to be happy for the duo, but I was horrified when I walked in one day to find my best friend practically eating my sisters face off while she was feeling him up.

Clearing my throat and forcing those horrid thoughts away, I looked to my friend.

"You finally escaped my sister I see."

Terrence looked like a deer caught in headlights. "Dude, I love your sister to pieces," he scanned around nervously, "but she won't let me out of her sight."

A shrug from me volunteered my thoughts. "It's just her wolf and her instincts." I was sympathetic towards my sister. We were in similar boats.

With a tight-lipped nod, Terrence agreed. "I know. If the roles were switched I wouldn't be able to let her out of my sight."

"Where is she then?" I prompted.

"Bathroom break, the girl drinks coffee like it's going out of style..." He sighed.

As if on cue I heard off in the distance, "Terrence! Oh my god-hey you! Have you seen Ter-"

Waving my arm a little to draw my frantic sister's calls. "Over here Jac!"

My distressed sister's head snapped in my direction but quickly fell from me to her mate.

My petite dark-haired sister let out a cry of relief. "Damn it, Terrence! Don't do that to me!" She threw herself into Terrence's arms.

I watched on as Terrence attempted to maneuver himself so he was still on his crutches but had a good hold on her.

"I'm alright babe, don't worry about me."

My sister pulled away from him and scowled him. "Don't tell me what I can and can't do! I'll worry about you if I want to."

Whether or not he meant to, the words bit out of Terrence with a harsh tone, "Well, I don't want you to."

I grimaced.

Maybe us alpha males do need to figure out how to better talk to girls. We become apparently thoughtless when people nurture us.

My sister averted her eyes and she bit her lip trying to hold back tears. I could tell she was embarrassed and offended. "You're right. I'm smothering you. I-I'm just going to go."

She was running off into the thick crowd of students, just like Sydney had earlier, apparently a trait thick in the Red Mountain Pack.

"Jaci! Jacinda! Damn it!" Terrence spat.

I sighed disappointedly. "Everyone is just antsy."

"Well, now she's upset." He flung out an irritated hand. "She shouldn't ever be upset because of me. I've done too much to her already."

I offered him a heartfelt squeeze on his shoulder. After helping send him off to his first-period class I headed to mine.

I was counting down the minutes till my third period English, and hopefully, there my sweet Sydney would make an appearance.