Frankie’s words slowly sank into her. Lucas cared for her?
“And I know you care for him too, right?”
“I do.” It was the truth. The feelings she had for him she’d never had for anyone else. “If … if erasing my memory will protect him, then maybe … maybe you should do it.” It wouldn’t be so bad. She wouldn’t remember him anyway. Not remember all those times together. Of him in the kitchen. Teasing her. Making love until dawn.
Frankie smiled. “Detective, if we take you to him, do you promise you’ll keep our secret?”
“Yes.” Hope bloomed in her chest.
“Frankie!” Grant protested, which earned him a sharp look from his wife. “We can’t trust her.”
“We can still erase your memory,” Frankie said. “But … I think you and Lucas should talk first.”
“That’s a great idea,” Adrianna said, her eyes sparkling. “Papa, will you allow Sofia to meet with Lucas first? Then you can decide what to do.”
“Do I have a choice?” That earned him a hug from his daughter.
“Can I see him now?” Sofia asked. “Is he here?”
“He’s far away, but we can take you to him.”
“Frankie, we need to ask permission first,” Grant said. “You know she can’t just walk into another territory.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Frankie said. “Will you cooperate, Sofia?”
She nodded her head vigorously. “I’ll do anything. Please. I need to see Lucas.”
Frankie’s face shone, her mismatched eyes reminding her so much of Lucas’s. “Then you’ll see him soon.”
Chapter Nineteen
“You finally awake?”
The rough voice was like a saw grating into Lucas’s head. For a second, he thought he was seventeen again. The bed he was in was familiar, as well as the scent of the other man in the room. Sawdust and coffee.
He opened his eyes, but everything was blurry. After a few blinks, his vision focused into a pair of familiar stark green eyes. “Austin?”
Austin Forrest’s mouth turned up at the corners. “It’s been a while, Lucas. You never visit anymore.”
His head pounded like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. This whole scenario felt like a dream. Or déjà vu. Of the first time he was here after he had shifted in bloodlust when Kevin Hall—
He shot to his feet, but he overestimated his motor skills and fell forward. Austin caught him and propped him up. “Whoa, slow down. Where’s the fire?”
“Sofia,” he croaked. His throat felt scratchy and parched. “I have to make sure … she’s okay and—” His wolf was weakened too, but it whined at him, its claws scratching at him and reaching for the surface.
Austin pushed him down on the bed. “Calm down, Lucas. Take a deep breath. Remember what Pa taught you.”
Find something to ground you, Jackson Forrest had told him all those years ago. A memory or a scent can help you stay in control of your body. You need to show your wolf who’s in charge.
It was good thing he and his wolf were both too weak, because the only scent he could think of was Sofia’s and it was making him even more anxious. “Austin, I need my phone. Please. Call my father and—”
“He says he’s got everything under control.” Austin’s voice was calm, and so very much like his father’s. “Is Sofia your … the friend who was with you when you shifted in bloodlust?”
Bloodlust. No wonder his head felt like it was splitting in two and he couldn’t remember a damn thing. “Yes. Those men were attacking her, and I tried to help her.”
“She’s fine.”
Both of them turned toward the doorway. “Zac.” It was strange to see his friend here, but he wasn’t hallucinating. “Tell me what—”
“She’s safe, Lucas.” Zac walked toward them, hands in his pockets. “It’s been a couple of hours since Reyes called the security team. Everything was cleaned up, don’t worry. No one will know you were there or that anything happened.”
“I don’t care about that or that bastard,” he spat. As far as he was concerned, that man who tried to kill Sofia got what he deserved. “But Sofia—”
“Is still out,” he said. “Reyes had to give her a sleeping potion and they took her back to Fenrir.”
“To the basement, right?” But it was a rhetorical question. The basement of the Fenrir Corporation building housed a variety of people, but mostly it was those who had sought to harm them. “They haven’t given her the forgetting potion, have they?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t heard from Astrid yet. She’s busy helping with the cleanup.” Zac said. “But you know what we have to do.”
Yes, he did. They would have to make sure she didn’t remember seeing him shift into his wolf. Thankfully, the potion they used would only make her forget about the last few hours.
And then what?
Could they go on as they had before? Forever hiding what he was from her, and dosing her with forgetting potion whenever he shifted accidentally?
Then there was his wolf. He had saved her from those guys, but who would save her from him? What if he shifted in bloodlust again and he lost control and went after her?
His wolf growled in protest, as if to tell him that it would never do that.
But then again, he never thought he’d ever kill another living creature, not after what happened with Kevin Hall.
“Lucas? Do you need to lie down?” Austin asked.
“No.” His mind was clear. Sofia was safe and she could move on with her life, without him. The thought slashed a knife through his chest and made it hard to breathe. “Why am I here?”
“Your parents thought that after what happened, this was the best place for you,” Zac explained. “The Alpha agreed and gave you permission to come. I offered to accompany you in case you had any questions when you woke up.”
So, he was back here in
