CHAPTER FIVE

Serena's POV

"You're not strong enough yet, lay down for a while," the healer said, arranging his pillow for him.

I stood at the side of the room and watched her fuss with the pillow and the blanket and the small tray of things on the bedside table and I could not stop looking at him.

Three years of building a life that did not have him in it, of waking up every morning and making a deliberate choice to face forward rather than backward, of looking at Aria's grey eyes across the breakfast table and finding a way to make peace with what they reminded me of.

And now he was here. In a clinic bed in my pack's medical wing, pale and scarred and looking at the ceiling with absolutely no idea who I was.

I didn't know yet if I should be happy about that or sad that he couldn't remember who I was.

"Serena."

I blinked twice.

Bren was looking at me from the other side of the bed.

"Aren't you going to ask him some questions?" she said. "For the investigation."

"Yes," I said. "Right. Yes."

I pulled the stool from near the wall and brought it to the bedside and sat down.

I folded my hands in my lap.

"So," I said. "What happened to you? How did you end up at our border?"

He looked at me with those grey eyes and I held his gaze steadily and waited.

"I don't know," he said. "I have told your healer the same thing. The last thing I remember clearly is my coronation day. Everything after that is gone."

I nodded slowly.

 His coronation was before he meet me. 

I can still remember his coronation day, I was standing at the back of the hall while the elders named him the new alpha, and in that moment I never imagined becoming his lover, let alone having a lot of history with him.

So I guess he did not remember any of it.

He did not remember me.

"And before the coronation?" I said. "You remember your pack, your family?"

"Yes," he said. "Everything before is clear."

I nodded again and wrote nothing down because I had not brought anything to write on, I guess I never imagined i would need to write much down.

He was quiet for a moment.

Then he smiled.

It was the smile I remembered. 

I tried my best to focus on the case and not on his charming smile and pretty face.

He wasn't making it easy because he kept smiling.

Then I noticed he kept staring at me.

"What?" I said, keeping my voice flat.

"Nothing," he said. "I just think you're a very pretty investigator." He tilted his head slightly. "I don't think I've come across a woman in this position before. And definitely not one who looks as beautiful as you."

I tried very hard not to react to that, but heat was already creeping up my neck.

He still had it, the charms and sweet words. The same charms that made me fall for him.

I had fallen in love with that quality at twenty-one and it had cost me considerably and here it was again.

Bren appeared at the doorway and looked between us with an expression I couldn't quite understand.

"I'll leave you two to the investigation," she said pleasantly, and disappeared.

Kael shifted slightly in the bed, adjusting himself against the pillow, and his expression became more serious.

"Finding my pack would not be difficult," he said. "But I do not know who to trust until I understand what happened to me and how I ended up here." He paused. "If you need to make contact with the Blackthorn Pack for the investigation, ask for Zayn. My right hand. He is the one I trust with everything."

I went very still.

"He can tell you more than most about how things work," Kael continued. "I cannot remember much but I remember Zayn."

I nodded slowly.

I didn't know how to tell him that Zayn was dead.

He had been killed in the forest two years ago, a territorial conflict that had lead to him being ambushed and killed.

I remember when it happened, we had just started dating, Karl locked himself up in his office for days. He refused to come out, I had to sneak everyday to send him food.

I remember how heartbroken he was then because Zayn was not just his right hand man but his best friend.

I wonder how he would feel now when he finds out.

I was not going to be the one to tell him right now.

He would find out. There would be a right moment for it.

"I understand," I said carefully. "I will keep that in mind."

He was about to say something else when the door opened.

Dorian walked in with some of his men, his eyes went to me first.

"Hey, Serena," he said.

I stood up from the stool immediately. 

"Alpha Dorian."I said with a slight bow as a form of respect and formality.

He smiled at the formality the way he always did, like it was a small joke we shared, and then his attention moved to Kael, studying him carefully.

"He's looking better," he said, more to himself than either of us.

Then he turned back to me.

"Aria decided to tag along," he said.

I stared at him.

"What?"

"She wanted to see you," he said, with the mild helplessness of a man who had attempted to reason with a three year old and lost. "She said she wanted to see her mummy and she was very clear about it."

Before I could respond the door pushed open further and a stubborn little girl came running through it in small shoes that slapped against the clinic floor.

"Mummy!"

I caught her before she reached the bed, lifting her up and against my chest and holding her tighter.

She squirmed to look around.

My eyes shifted to Kael, he was sitting up.

His eyes were on Aria. His lips parted a bit as he kept focusing on the child in my arms.

I gulped down nothing.

"They have the same eyes," Dorian murmured beside me, low enough that it was almost to himself.

The silence that stretched in the room was deafening.