Chapter 101: Chapter 101

“Thought you might need this.”

Maya lifted her head, detaching it from the table. She watched as Olivia placed a glass of white wine, filled to the brim, in front of her. She also didn’t miss that Olivia had poured one for herself too.

“Is Mommy drinking?”

“I should have enough time before his next drink. It should be out of my system by then.”

Maya grasped the stem of the wine glass and raised it from the table. She clinked it against Olivia’s glass before bringing it to her lips and letting the liquid wash over her tongue.

~Yes~, she needed this. Anything that could numb her would do at this point.

A switch to turn off her brain would be a nice feature too. For now, this would suffice. The past few days had been a fucking headache, to say the least.

“So, what’s Dr. Olivia’s diagnosis?”

“I don’t know enough about this to give an answer.”

“What do we know?”

“We know he’s much more relaxed when you’re around. It might help if you stayed.”

Great, because their last conversation went so smoothly, with her storming out. There was no way he was more relaxed around her now.

And there was no way she could be herself around him. Not when he was a shell of a person, trying to escape.

“Anything more relevant?”

“I’m thinking dissociative amnesia. It occurs after a trauma… and considering his condition when you brought him in…”

“Okay, and is that something you can treat? How severe is it? Has he really forgotten everything?”

“There are varying degrees. I don’t know enough about him to tell you how severe it is.”

“But it improves?”

Olivia reached for her glass, her shoulders sagging before she took a sip.

“I’m a nurse, Maya, not a doctor. I mean, therapy could help. Maybe something could trigger his memory. Maybe it’s a brain injury and once it heals… I can’t say for sure.”

Maya had anticipated this response. More uncertainty, more conjecture. She hadn’t spent enough time with him to know ~what~ remained of him.

Was his mind a blank canvas? What could he recall? What would she need to explain or show him? Would he still have a personality? Would he be like a lost puppy, needing her constant assistance?

She didn’t want that burden. She didn’t want to be responsible for someone who couldn’t take care of themselves.

She wasn’t trying to be cold or cruel. But she could barely manage her own life. She was just starting adulthood. How was she supposed to handle ~this~?

What would this mean for her future?

“Does this mean I can’t have sex anymore?”

Olivia choked on her drink, her face turning red. Clearly, Maya’s question had caught her off guard. She coughed a few times before swallowing her drink. “What?”

Maya shrugged. “I mean… ~Look~. He doesn’t seem to know ~anything~ about mates. He doesn’t even know his own name… So, if he doesn’t care about me ~but~ he’s alive… what does that mean for me?”

She knew there were many ~unusual~ mating situations. There was Alex and Olivia—but Alex had been too far gone and too infatuated with Olivia to consider ~anything~ or ~anyone~ else.

And despite her initial resistance, Olivia had reciprocated those feelings.

What if ~he~ never did? What if ~he~ never felt the pull? Then what?

“What if—I slept with someone else? Would that mess me up?”

Olivia sipped her drink, tilting her head to the side. “You mean, would it hurt you? Humans cheat all the time.”

“Wolves do too, but mates? I don’t think I’ve heard any stories about betrayal.” She ran her tongue over her teeth. “Then again, people aren’t exactly eager to share their dirty laundry.”

She took a long drink, savoring the burn as it slid down her throat.

If she kept this up, she’d become an alcoholic. But if fate would stop screwing her over, she wouldn’t need to drink so much.

~Take that, universe.~

Amnesia. What the hell was this? A cheesy romance movie? ~Fuck~.

“It’s probably stressful for him. He’s in a strange place, he doesn’t know how he got there, what happened… who to trust.”

“He knows who to trust,” Maya interjected.

“How?”

“Wolf instinct.”

He sensed that Alex was ~something~. There was something inside him guiding him, even if he didn’t understand it.

“I’m a wolf, and as history has shown, I have ~terrible~ instincts.”

~Amen to that~.

“It’s different. You were more human than wolf and you ~never~ listened to your wolf. If you had, Alex would have been in your life a lot sooner, trust me.”

If he had lost all his memories, he shouldn’t doubt ~himself~. He was probably questioning everything else, but not his instincts.

“Ouch. But you’re right.”

“Look at my stupid instincts. Every time I see him, I want to touch him. I must look like a crazy person… And when he doesn’t…”

She stopped, feeling her heart breaking.

“When he doesn’t recognize ~what~ I am, it makes me so angry. Which is absurd because…”

“What…” Olivia prompted. “You don’t care? I’m calling bullshit on that.”

Maya slammed her glass down, the table shaking from the force of her action.

“What do you want me to say, Olivia? ~What the hell do you want me to say? ~You made Alex’s life hell in the beginning.

“Do you think that was fun? Do you think anyone enjoyed that? You think ~this~ is what I wanted for myself?”

She pursed her lips, locking eyes with Olivia.

“This isn’t what I wanted. I wasn’t out there searching for someone. I was out there doing ~your~ damn thing. Doing what ~you~ wanted, okay?

“I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask for a mate who doesn’t even know me, let alone himself.”

At some point, Maya realized she was out of breath, panting heavily. “Think about how you feel about Alex. Now, imagine him telling you he wants nothing to do with you. How does that make you feel?”

She didn’t wait for Olivia to respond, answering her own question with a bitter laugh. “~Like crap~. It’s awful. And there’s nothing I can do. Because he doesn’t know who he is and I sure as hell don’t know him. So, back off.”

Usually, these were the kind of messy, complicated situations that the Alpha would handle.

~But he couldn’t be the one to deal with Alex.~ Because Alex wasn’t pack. He was ~her~ problem. She was the one who brought him here, she was the one who dug him up with Jason.

She was responsible for him. Even when she didn’t want to be, she always found herself back in that room.

So, he was her problem to deal with.

“Thanks for the drink,” she said tersely, sliding her empty glass to the center of the table.

She needed to go for a run.

She needed to clear her head ~immediately~.

She could deal with her attitude later.