Fated but Forgotten

Chapter 7 - Aria

Current day

Time felt frozen. His words continued to echo within my mind. Rocco had told me my parents had died. But a new thought developed alongside these words... did this mean he killed them? I felt a tear sliding down my cheek, and soon he was sitting alongside me on the bed, reaching out to wipe it away. I could see the anguish upon his face as he saw me cry. He did not like to see me in pain, it would seem. But while he wiped a tear away, more would come... attempting to wipe away each tear that followed. But they came too fast. Too often…

I could not shake the thought that this man had played a part in the disappearance of my parents... the death of them that he spoke of. I most certainly did not want this monster to touch me… I began to thrash at his hands. Yet he continued to reach for me. Going from trying to wipe my tears away, to trying to pull me close to him.

“No!” I sobbed. “No!” I slapped at his hands as he tried to embrace me.

I could hear him sobbing now. “Aria, please.”

“No!” I squealed. “You killed them?”

All of his attempts to hold me were stopped. His hands dropped instantly, and he slid away from the bed, a look of pain upon his face. Both hands by his side now as he looked at me with an expression of horror. “You think I killed them?” I could hear the tears within his own voice now. But the truth was, I did not know what I thought because none of this made sense to me. My head was nothing but a befuddled mess.

I had gone to sleep in my room at home, had I not? Enjoying life at home with my parents? And now, I was here, in a place I did not recognize with people that speak to me like they expect me to know who they are, yet they are strangers to me. I look at them and I feel nothing. Emptiness. Occasional fear. Whatever is happening, I do not like it. I know that much. I just want to go home.

The door opened, and a blond-haired man in a white jacket walked in… striding toward my bed like a man on a mission. One of the doctors perhaps? “Aria, is everything okay? Beta Rocco said you were becoming quite distressed.”

Did he? He had not even moved. Never spoke a word to anyone else. Did not make a call or anything, so how they had communicated, that I do not know…

“I think I may have made things worse.” Rocco said, looking toward the doctor, running his hand through his hair in despair. “She was asking for her parents. I told her they were dead. And it caused her to panic. I just assumed she would know that. I know you spoke of her memory, but...” and his voice wobbled as his voice began to break, like everything became too much.

The doctor smiled sadly, with a brief nod toward the seemingly broken man by my side. “Oh, Aria, I am so sorry. That must have been so difficult to hear. Let me reassure you that you are surrounded by people that love and care for you, and will give you all the support you need to process this. We have been trying to monitor you a little more before we confirmed, but the fact you did not respond to Beta Rocco when you came around was concerning in itself, but we thought that it may be your body taking it’s time to come around, but with this now too, I think it is safe to say that despite our best attempts at healing you when you came into us after the rogue attack, I think there has been some degree of memory loss.”

My body froze at his words. Memory loss. What was this man talking about? I knew who I was. I hadn’t lost my memory, or I would not know who I was, would I? No. These were their lies, it had to be. Simply lies to try to cover their secrets for keeping me here…

“Where…” I cleared my throat once again. “My parents?”

The doctor looked across at the man I had only moments before been slapping away. His head was in his hands. “Sweet girl, Beta Rocco did not lie to you. They had died long before you came to our pack, I am afraid. A number of years, I believe. A motor accident, was it not?” he looked towards Rocco as if for confirmation, who nodded heavily, his gaze flickering back and forth between me and the doctor.

A sharp pain filled my chest at the thought. No. If that was the case, then I would surely remember that. My parents had been my world. Always so loving. So close as a family unit. Losing them would be like a dagger through the heart. No. I would not have forgotten that. The pain would be too unbearable to simply forget. These men are lying to me. They have to be.

“I don’t…” I coughed again, my mouth feeling dry, and the doctor helped with some water this time. But, with him, all he smelt of was that strong sickly smell of antiseptic… he looked at me once I had taken a couple of deep swigs of the water, as if urging me to continue. “I don’t believe you.” I stuttered quickly. My voice not even sounding like my own, and next to me, I heard a heavy sigh, as Rocco dropped down onto the seat next to the bed.

“How is this ever going to work? She has no clue who we are to her? And she won’t believe a word we tell her?” his sounded fraught with tension. “How the f**k am I meant to bring my mate back to me, when she is simply a shell of her former self?!” his voice was filled with pain and anger… yet my focus was on the word he had spoken… mate.

Just who was his mate? And what did that have to do with me?