A Wolf's Oath (17 page)

One man stepped out from the line to answer him. David was
his new second in command now that Ian was dead. Vincent was sure
he couldn’t have asked for better. David was dedicated to the cause
and was ruthless in his methods. Exactly what they were going to
need if they were to win this war. Though not overtly built, David
was deadly and used his physical build to his advantage. You never
knew just how dangerous he was until you messed with him and by
then it was too late. His face was scarred, showing the severity of
the training their members were put through. His dark eyes were
intense, revealing his hatred for the creatures they sought to
eradicate. And as those intense eyes turned on him, Vincent felt a
measure of pride. He had trained David personally and was now about
to reap the rewards of his work. “Yes sir. We shall dispose of them
as soon as you give the order.”

“
I know that for many of you this was your first encounter with
a real werewolf but I hope this incident only strengthens your
commitment to our cause. The werewolves are dangerous and vicious,
a blight against humanity and it is our job to remove them from
existence. We lost good men last night, but there are always
casualties in a war and I hope this has reminded you that that’s
exactly what we’re fighting here, a war. If you aren’t willing to
make such sacrifices them tell me now and you can try to return the
world of ignorance. I doubt it will be easy, you will know that
there are creatures that lurk in the dark.” Silence reined, no
member prepared to leave the safety of this branch. “Good. Now get
rid of them,” he ordered casually.
I’ve
got other things to worry about.
His
section leader had followed him back to the base to personally
investigate the progress he was making with the female wolf and now
he would be forced to justify his actions.

The men quickly filed out of the room, eager to fulfil his
orders, their vigour for the gruesome task of the organisation
renewed. Turning on his heel Vincent too left the wide space where
the bodies had been found, making his way to the back of the
building where his small office resided. Opening the door he found
his section leader reviewing the surveillance tape from the
previous night’s attack.

“
Come in,” Robert urged, from his seat in Vincent's large
chair.

How dare he order me about in my own office?
Vincent internally fumed though he outwardly
remained silent.
If I had got the
information from the girl then I would have been promoted and you
would have been demoted.
Following his
superior’s order, Vincent entered his office, sitting in the seat
opposite Robert, separated from him by a large wooden
desk.

“
Well,” Robert sighed, “last night’s incident wasn’t
unexpected.”

“
Sir?”

“
What really surprises me is that it didn’t happen
sooner.”

“
There was no way that the woman managed to make contact with
them sir. We ensured that. She was confined by silver shackles and
no one here would have helped her to escape.”

“
I would never doubt the dedication of your members Vincent.
That isn’t what I’m saying.”

“
Then what exactly are you trying to say sir? That I didn’t
make adequate security provisions to keep her here? She was here
for four days and in that time she never once showed that it would
have been possible for her to escape. After the things I put her
through that first night, if she could have escaped then she would
have done so then, when she was at her strongest.”

“
Vincent, there is a reason why we advice killing the females
on sight and I’m sorely disappointed that you aren’t aware of it.
If you ever want to become a section leader then you still have a
lot to learn.”

The almost condescending tone of his superior’s voice grated
on him, but Vincent gritted his teeth determined not to show his
dislike for the man in front of him. “What exactly is it that I’m
not aware of, sir?”

“
In the long history of our organisation we have found that if
we keep a female alive for too long a male will inevitably come to
retrieve her. The results of such a confrontation are never pretty.
We both know how much stronger than humans these creatures are.”
Vincent nodded, aware that if the female hadn’t been caught in a
silver trap she could probably have dealt with him and the two
other men that had retrieved her. Female werewolves were strong but
the males were much more powerful, in some cases monstrously so.
“When their female is threatened the males are even stronger. We’re
not quite sure why this is. None of the males we have caught have
ever said anything about it. Historically the males have usually
come for their females much faster than this one. So that gave us a
valuable window of opportunity. Honestly, when you first told me
that you had caught a female werewolf I only expected you to have
her for a day at max before someone came to try and get
her.”

“
And you didn’t think this was important enough to tell me? I
could have increased the security around her, had more men watching
her. This blood bath could have been prevented if only you had said
something. We lost good men last night.”

“
I didn’t tell you because I thought you would have known this.
You should really study up on our history more, then you’ll be more
aware of exactly what we’re dealing with. Knowledge is sometimes
more dangerous than bullets. Besides, not all the females we’ve
caught over the years have had a male come to try and save them, so
there was a possibility that nothing would happen. Despite the fact
that we lost men, I’m actually rather relieved that you didn’t
know.”

“
What?” Vincent spluttered confused by his superior’s cavalier
dismissal of the massive damage his branch had
sustained.

“
If I had told you that a wolf was probably coming to help the
woman escape would you have had more men watching her last
night?”

“
Of course.”

“
Well then it’s a good thing that you didn’t know. You would
probably have had your entire branch watching her. You might even
had requested support from other branches and then we would have
lost even more good men.”

“
Why exactly is that?”

“
Have you not had a chance to watch the surveillance
tapes?”

“
No sir, I’ve been busy clearing out the bodies of all the men
we lost last night.” Vincent replied, his tone frosty.

“
Well when you have a minute you should look at them. If you
look at them carefully you can see that there were two wolves here
last night not just one. We might have been prepared for one
because in the past it’s only been one wolf that comes to get the
female, in this case we might not have come out on the winning
side. We have to think ahead. That’s our responsibility as
leaders.”

“
Yes sir,” Vincent agreed, though acting submissive to the man
in front of him left a bitter taste in his mouth.

“
Now our meeting last night was interrupted by all this
business so let’s just have a quick run through of your progress
now.”

“
Yes sir.”

“
So what exactly did you manage to find out?” Robert
questioned, leaning eagerly across the table.

“
Nothing sir. I tried everything I could short of killing her
to extract the information and she refused to say a word to me. I
think it was probably because she had family among them, I’ve read
enough of our history to know that they are very concerned with the
safety of their families.”

Robert nodded in agreement. “Yes, that’s true.”

“
She was prepared to die rather than risk the chance that they
would be hurt. She refused to say a word that might jeopardise
them.”

“
So that leaves us with nothing, we have made no progress
despite the massive losses we’ve sustained,” Robert sighed,
standing up from Vincent’s chair. “I’m going to report what has
happened here to the high commander. It’s a shame that the capture
of the woman didn’t result in anything more fruitful than this, but
it isn’t as though there won’t be other opportunities. We will try
to replenish your numbers as soon as possible.” With that Robert
left, leaving Vincent alone with his thoughts.

The idiot actually thinks that this is over? Does he not
realise that almost anything can be achieved with a little creative
thinking and large sums of money? His loss is my gain. We have
pictures of her and that’s something we didn’t have before. If I
make the right kind of discreet inquiries, I’m sure I can find her
again and when I find her, we’ll find the males and maybe even one
of their clans. There’s no way she’s going to get away from me. And
when I do catch her, I’ll be promoted and I won’t need to listen to
that idiot anymore.
The thought brought a
cruel smile to Vincent’s face.

Chapter
Eighteen

Sitting in the doctor’s office Sebastian struggled to
understand exactly what the woman across from him was trying to
say. His mind unwilling to believe that just when he thought he had
his mate back she had been snatched away from him. “Could you
repeat that? I still don’t understand.”

The doctor sighed, she had already explained what had
happened to Sebastian several times, but he seemed unwilling to
accept the reality of her diagnosis. “Erica is suffering from
what’s known as total amnesia, she doesn’t remember anything about
her life prior to when she woke in the infirmary.”

“
Nothing?” he pressed, still unable to comprehend exactly what
had happened to his mate.

“
From the tests we’ve run that’s correct.”

“
So she doesn’t remember me?”

“
Erica doesn’t even remember her own name.” The doctor sighed
in exasperation. “She doesn’t remember you or what your
relationship with her is. While her lack of memory regarding your
relationship may be your number one priority it isn’t mine. There
is a more important issue that’s really concerning me.”

“
So there’s something else?”

“
Well yes. Erica seems to have forgotten what she
is.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
She doesn’t know that she’s a wolf. When we asked her simple
questions about our people she couldn’t answer them. She thinks
that she’s human. All her memories and thoughts regarding being a
wolf seem to have abandoned her alongside those of her
life.”

“
Why on earth would she do that?”

“
She isn’t doing it deliberately. I believe that it was the
trauma to the head from the wound combined with the events that
surrounded the injury that have caused this reaction. People often
forget things that they find are too painful for their mind to deal
with. In this case Erica was subject to a great deal of physical
distress because of her wolf heritage.”

Physical distress? What a great way to word torture, that’s
what happened to my mate, nothing less.
“So
she just chose to forget that she was one?” Sebastian pressed still
confused.

“
As I’ve said, I doubt it was a conscious decision on her part,
but that abuse combined with the head injury have left Erica as she
is now. It is almost reasonable for her to want to forget the
incident, she very nearly suffered irreparable damage.”

“
There’s no need to remind me of her injuries, I was there. I
saw them all. I’m aware of exactly what state she was in, but all
her other injuries healed why won’t this one?”

“
We’re gifted with the ability to heal from almost all physical
injuries, this however isn’t physical, it’s mental. She will most
likely heal if she’s given time.”

“
Most likely?” he demanded.

“
There have been cases where sufferers of amnesia have never
fully recovered their memories. I can’t say with absolute certainty
whether this will or won’t happen to Erica. There has never been a
case like this among our people as far as I’m aware.”

“
Is there anything I can do to help her? There isn’t anything I
would do to help her get better. Even if she doesn’t remember me, I
don’t want her to have to live without the memories of who she was
and the events that moulded her into the person she is
now.”

“
You’re a very good mate.” The doctor smiled. “And the only
advise I can give you is to keep being exactly who you are. Be
there for her and help her when she needs it. Losing all your
memories is a very stressful event and she will need your
support.”

“
That’s all I can do?” Sebastian demanded once again feeling
helpless.

“
Yes, this kind of injury either heals by itself or it doesn’t.
There is one thing I must tell you though. You should not try and
force her to remember her life before the injury that sort of
pressure will only make it more difficult for her to
recover.”

“
So I can’t tell her anything? Nothing at all?”

“
You can tell her small things like who people are to her, like
the children with her at the moment, you can tell her that they are
her siblings. You have already told her her name. Favourite food,
colour, book those sort of things you can tell her. What I’m
referring to is major life events such as the death of her parents.
You can tell her that they are dead but not how they
died.”