A Wolf's Oath (50 page)

“
You’re not even worth the effort. If you don’t want to tell me
where exactly you sent my mate to die then fine, I’ll find him
myself,” she stated defiantly, turning to walk from the
hall.

“
Eric!” Anna called staggering to her feet with Michael's
assistance.

Erica stopped and turned her head to look at Anna, hatred
blazing in her sapphire eyes. “My name is Erica. It’s the name my
mate uses for me and it’s what I’ll be going by from now on. Eric
is dead along with our friendship.”

“
Erica,” Anna called again. “Wait, he’s going to Larive
lake.”

She inclined her head in acceptance of the information but
the anger in her eyes and demeanour was undiminished. “This changes
nothing,” she hissed running out of the room and changing into her
lupine form as she ran towards her mate.

Chapter
Forty-Six

While having the chance to run so free, without any forms of
constraint would normally induce a feeling akin to euphoria within
Sebastian, that wasn’t the case today. His body seemed to be
failing him. No matter how hard he pushed it, he couldn’t make
himself go any faster. His mate needed him and he was failing her,
his lips curled back in a snarl of disgust aimed solely at
himself.
If I can’t go faster, Erica may
very well end up in the hands of the hunters again. I can’t allow
that to happen, not again. She might not survive this time.
His paws pounded hard against the cold earth as
they had done since he received Anna’s phone call. Exhaustion was a
luxury he couldn’t afford at the moment and he pushed any thoughts
of fatigue from his mind as he continued running at a punishing
pace.

What the hell is wrong with that woman?
he cursed, spurring himself on with anger.
She should have told me rather than just running off to get
herself killed. What ever happened to ‘we need to share the burden
because this is a relationship?’ I swear when I next see her I’m
locking her away within the clans. It’s for her own good.
His limbs were shaking with a combination of fear
and rage and his teeth were bared in a savage grimace. The urge to
rip, tear and maim was alive and well within him and he knew very
well that he had a legitimate target for his need for
violence.
Vincent.

He couldn’t be sure that the man who had spoken to Erica was
the lone survivor of the attack he and Ryan had initiated against
the hunters but at this moment in time he didn’t care. Any hunter
would do, they were all equally guilty in his eyes. The intention
of harming his mate was as much of a crime as the act itself. The
hunters he was rushing to meet were already condemned men, living
on borrowed time. He’d always considered himself to be calm,
reasonable even but at the moment he was like every other werewolf
he knew, fiery tempered, quick to anger and even quicker to resort
to violence when his mate was threatened. He couldn’t however bring
himself to care about the changes he was experiencing, Erica was in
danger and needed his help.

The landscape around him passed by in a swirl of varying
colours, the different shades becoming increasingly monotonous as
his journey continued with seemingly no end in sight. The snow had
now melted and the ground beneath it was surprisingly green though
it was occasionally covered in thin layers of ice that had yet to
melt under the sun’s rays. The trees that flanked him were typical
for the area, thick dark brown trunks and emerald green leaves that
seemed to stretch forever skywards. He was therefore reasonably
shocked when a streak of black entered his peripheral vision, the
colour distinctly out of place. As the colour edged further into
his line of sight, he saw that there was another wolf running
beside him. The wolf surged forward with a burst of speed and came
to a halt directly in front of him. A growl slipped past his lips
and thrummed through the air. Things weren’t going to end well if
this wolf didn’t move out of his way. The wolf before him seemed
undaunted by his anger, continuing to stand its ground.

A gentle breeze stirred the air, bringing the wolf’s scent to
his nose and his face contorted into a mask of confusion.
Erica?
At first he wrote
the scent off as his flustered mind playing tricks on him but as he
continued to inhale deeply, it became increasingly clear that that
wasn’t the case. He had only seen his mate once in wolf form and he
took the opportunity to examine her now. Her body was completely
covered in a thick black pelt that stretched from the tip of her
tail to the end of her muzzle, the only spot of colour on her
entire body was her left ear which was a shocking white. Even in
this form she was starkly beautiful to him.

His growling stopped abruptly as he continued to examine her
and Erica realised that Sebastian had finally recognised her. She
breathed a sigh of relief that she had caught up to him before
something terrible had befallen him and began the transition from
wolf to woman. As Erica stood before him, her long black hair
gentle swaying in the breeze, his thoughts as to the wolf’s
identity were confirmed. Padding across the short distance that
separated them, he transformed into his human form, wrapping her in
his arms as soon as he reached her.

“
Erica,” he sighed into her hair, holding her even tighter as
relief poured through him.

Returning his embrace, she nuzzled into the heat of his
chest; relieved that Anna’s plan hadn’t succeeded. “Sebastian, I’m
so glad that I managed to catch up with you.”

He revelled in her presence for a moment before remembering
their situation. “Erica, what are you doing here? And in wolf form
no less.”

“
I got my memories back Sebastian. I remember
everything.”

He pushed her away from him, his eyes wandering frantically
over her form. “What? How?”

“
Anna,” she stated simply.

He growled in response to her statement.
Just because she helped me this one time, it doesn’t mean
that I like her.
“What did she do?”
What did she do to help you that I
couldn’t?
he added silently.

“
She set you up Sebastian.” Her voice was muted, her tone
distinctly saddened. The anger she had felt when she had initially
found out about Anna’s betrayal had dissipated and she was now left
with a felling of intense sorrow. She had lost her best friend and
the knowledge hurt. “You were running into a trap. Anna’s
convoluted sense of logic blamed you for surviving an attack by the
hunters while her brothers died. She hated you and didn’t even have
the courtesy to show a modicum of guilt for potentially sending you
to your death.”

“
So you weren’t heading to meet them?”

“
I’m not that stupid Sebastian,” she laughed. “I wouldn’t just
go off and meet a stranger in a very secluded place. That’s the
sort of thing that gets a person killed.”

He pulled her back to him, pressing a scorching kiss against
her lips but in the back of his mind something she had just said
was processing and he pulled away when he realised what it was.
“How much do you remember?”

“
I already told you, I remember everything Sebastian,
absolutely everything.”

“
Oh god, Erica, I’m so sorry. So very sorry.”

Her brows drew together in confusion. “For what?”

“
I claimed you.” His hand rose to the slender column of her
neck and he ran his thumb against his mark, gently tracing the ‘S’
engraved on her pale skin. She surprised him by leaning into his
touch rather than pulling away and so he continued to caress her as
his apology flowed from his lips. “I couldn’t help myself. I knew
it wasn’t what you wanted. I tried to run, tried to fight the
instinct but then you were there, waiting for me in the moonlight.
I couldn’t stop myself.”
And I didn’t want
to either.
“And Dylan and Wyatt? They found
out about us being mates by themselves. People on the estate need
to learn when to be quiet and I had to tell my family –”

He was cut off abruptly as Erica placed her hand over his
mouth, quickly and effectively silencing him. “Sebastian, my mate.”
As soon as she referred to him as her mate, she had his full
attention, his gaze riveted to her face. “You don’t need to
apologise, you have nothing to be sorry for. I don’t regret a
single minute of our time together, there’s nothing I would change.
I know that you did your best to be true to the things I wanted
before my fall but I’m glad that you failed. I’m happy that you
claimed me. I’m glad I claimed you in return.” Her hand rose to his
neck, gently running over the ‘E’ she had seen that morning, now
with the full knowledge of what it was. “Getting my memories back
hasn’t changed the way I feel about you. I still love you, I always
will. If anything, regaining my memories has only intensified my
feelings towards you. I don’t know how you put up with all the
trouble I caused you,” she laughed wistfully. “First I run away
from you when your instinct was screaming out to you that I was
yours, then I get captured by hunters and forget everything that’s
important to me and make it so you have to pretend to be
human.”

“
Pretending to be human is definitely something I never want to
do again so try to keep your memories this time around. But
sweetheart, if I had to, I would do it again in a heartbeat. There
isn’t anything that I wouldn’t do for you, you know that
right?”

She couldn’t look him in the eye, how he could feel this way
towards her after everything that had happened was beyond her. “I
know Sebastian, I just don’t understand why. I was horrible to
you.”

“
All that happened is in the past now Erica, it isn’t important
anymore. I’m willing to do these things for you because I love you.
I love how fiercely loyal you are, how courageous you can be in the
face of the unknown, your kindness, your warmth. I love everything
about you, the essence of who you are never changed. The instinct
is never wrong after all. You’re the only woman in the world who
can pull feelings like that from within me.”

She turned her face away from him, looking instead at the
scenery that surrounded them. “It might sound strange but I’m
actually very glad that I had amnesia. If I hadn’t, I might never
have given us a true chance to be the mates that we are now. I
might still have been looking at all your actions and you as a
person through tainted eyes, linking you with my father. Maybe I
should go and thank the hunters, after all if what happened didn’t
happen, we might never have been.”

At the mention of the hunters, his hackles rose and anger
filled him. A low growl rumbled through his chest, quickly gaining
Erica's attention and she turned her head back to him. “Sebastian?”
She cupped his cheek, forcing him to look at her. “What’s
wrong?”

“
You said Anna set me up, so that means she lied about you
seeing a hunter right?”

She wrung her hands nervously. “Well she didn’t lie about
that. I did meet a hunter, his name was Vincent and he was, he
was…” she began to hiccup as the memories of what she had suffered
at Vincent's hands returned to the front of her mind. These were
definitely memories she could do without but she doubted she could
remove those select ones without forgetting everything
again.

Sebastian's eyes turned amber as the scent of fear began to
roll off his mate in waves. “He was what sweetheart?”

“
He was the one that caught me and did all those horrible
things to me. He hurt me Sebastian and he had the audacity to sit
next to me and talk to me as though he was innocent. My God, he saw
Dylan and Wyatt, he knows all about them now.”

Sebastian pulled away from her, his decision made. “Go back
to the cabin Erica, I’ll come and join you as soon as I
can.”

“
Where are you going?”

“
I’m going to meet this Vincent and tear his throat out,” he
snarled, relishing the idea of causing the man much pain before he
let him slip into oblivion. He turned from her as though to run in
the direction that Anna had indicated but Erica stopped him holding
tightly onto his wrist. “No Sebastian, you can’t.”

“
Why not? He hurt you, it’s only fair that I return the favour.
Don’t worry sweetheart I’ll make him regret ever setting eyes on
you.”

“
Sebastian, it’s a trap. You can’t knowingly walk into it,” she
retorted, angry at the cavalier attitude he was taking with his
life

“
For you I can and I will. It’s the least I can do.” His
response was calm and that was more worrying than it would have
been if he had shouted. He had somehow decided that this was the
reasonable course of action and seemed to care little for how
illogical it was.

“
Sebastian, listen to me. It’s a trap. They will capture you
and they will kill you. I can’t let you go.”

“
Erica,” his tone of voice immediately told her that he was
going to attempt to mollify her and persuade her that his decision
was the right one and she snapped.

“
Shut up! Don’t say another word. I’m not going to let you
wander into a trap. Your life is worth something Sebastian. I can’t
let you just throw it away. You once promised me that if anything
happened to me you wouldn’t do anything reckless, that you would
stay behind and take care of our family. I’m not sure that I could
make the same oath Sebastian and that scares me. I love Dylan and
Wyatt, I do but I’m not sure how I would manage to overcome the
grief, if you died, to be able to function. You can’t put us in
that position Sebastian, you can’t.”