Lost Without Them (3 page)

With both of them supporting her, she could fly. She knew it.

Cody moved his lips higher, placing a soft kiss on the inside of her wrist. Tingles of sweet awareness traveled up her arm and straight to her breasts. Even her nipples hardened as the cool night wind blew across the nubs.

As though knowing what she needed, Sam lifted his hands and cupped her breasts, warming them with his fingers. Keegan closed her eyes, letting herself sink into the erotic world they created just for her.

In the distance, wolves howled, their voices carried across the mountain by the cool winter wind. The sense of danger tightened her stomach, and Keegan tensed.

She opened her eyes, suddenly finding herself alone. The howling of the wolves came closer, and the sense of danger surrounding her intensified. At her feet, two wolves stood guard. One black with gray throughout his hair, the other dark brown with platinum strands. Both had eyes so beautiful, like the ocean ice of Antarctica; a striking combination of gray and blue. Instinctively, she knew they were here to protect her.

“We’re in so much trouble,” she mumbled. “They’re so much stronger than we ever imagined.”

“We are not alone,” one of the wolves said in her mind, his Russian accent barely audible.

She glanced to her left and noticed Sam and Cody, standing ready, guns in their hands. Fear raced through her, and she screamed, “No! You can’t be here!”

Sam turned to look at her just as a lone solid black wolf lunged from the trees toward him. The wolf was huge, much larger than the ones protecting her. Keegan rushed forward in an effort to save him, but she was too late.

“No!” she cried as someone grabbed her from behind, keeping her from getting any closer. “Sam!”

* * * *

She awoke with a start and sat straight up in the bed. Sweat dotted her brow, and nausea rolled through her stomach, making her grab her midsection in pain. Parts of her body ached as stitches pulled and burned. She’d sat up too fast, and her body retaliated.

She glanced around frantically at the floor for a bucket to throw up in. Seeing one by the bed, she reached down and grabbed it. Just as she pulled it to her lap, she lost what little was in her stomach. Moaning, she rested her elbows on the edge of the bucket and her head in her hands.

Every part of her body ached, her head the most. She hated drugs. She hated the effect they had on her body.

“Here,” someone said in a compassionate, soft voice as they handed her a warm, wet rag.

She took it without looking up. As she wiped her face and mouth, the bucket was set back on the floor.

“I got you some water too.”

It was a man’s voice, somehow familiar. She lowered the rag and glanced at the gorgeous man as he sat on the edge of her bed. Her eyes widened as she realized it was the man from her dream.

“Sam?” she whispered.

He smiled slightly. “You remember.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Remember?”

Dark brown eyes narrowed in concern. “I was the one who found you. Well, me and my brother. I was with you in the emergency room.”

She opened her mouth to say something, then quickly clamped it shut. This man had seen her mini meltdown when she’d realized she couldn’t remember who she was. A heated blush quickly moved over her cheeks.

“I don’t recall telling you my name, though,” he said as a frown wrinkled his forehead.

How could she tell him he hadn’t? That she knew his name from her dream? How could she tell him that when it didn’t make any sense to her?

“Are you feeling okay?” Sam asked. “You look a little pale.”

“I’m okay,” she whispered as she wiped her lips one final time. “I guess it was just a reaction to the medicine they gave me.”

“Do you remember anything? Other than my name?” he asked, his full, kissable lips spreading into a gentle smile.

Her mind returned to the dream and how those lips had felt against her skin. She closed her eyes briefly and shook her head as though to dislodge those thoughts. She tried to remember something, anything from her past, but still couldn’t.

She squeezed her eyes closed tighter as tears began to gather behind her lashes. One slipped free from the corner, and she wiped it away angrily, hardening her resolve. She would not melt down again. She refused to be that much of a wimp.

“Hey,” Sam said as he brushed another wayward tear from her cheek. “It’s okay. Doc said it may take a little while. You took a pretty hard blow to the head.”

She opened her eyes and found herself staring into his concerned ones. They were so dark, so…dreamy. Long lashes surrounded his dark eyes, and a day’s worth of stubble covered his jaw. Dark brown hair curled around his collar, and she resisted the urge to run her fingers through it.

She wanted to lean closer, to taste him, feel his lips against hers. Why did it feel as though it wouldn’t be wrong? As though it would be a natural thing to just capture his mouth with hers?

He dropped his hand and cleared his throat, as though he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t have, and she frowned in disappointment.

“The doc said the stitches in your side and back are the dissolving kind, so there’s no need to come back to have them removed.”

She frowned. “What stitches?” She opened the neck of her gown and tried to see, but her breast was in the way. She sighed and let the neck of her gown fall back down. “I forgot. Is it bad? I can’t see it.”

“It’s not bad. Do you remember anything about the attack?”

She bit her lower lip and shook her head. She really didn’t. The first thing she remembered was the emergency room and her embarrassing meltdown.

“What about this?” Sam asked as he handed her a necklace. “You were wearing it.”

She took the delicate piece of gold jewelry from his fingers and studied the intricate design on the front of the oval locket. It was very beautiful. She brushed her thumb over the name scrawled across the shield. “Keegan?” she asked.

“Does it ring a bell?”

“No,” she whispered before letting out a deep sigh. “I wonder if that’s a first or last name.”

“I tried to do a little searching on the Internet while you were out, but I didn’t find anything.”

She nodded and dropped her hand that held the locket to her lap.

“There’s pictures inside,” Sam said as he nodded toward the jewelry. “See if they look familiar.”

With trembling fingers, she gently opened the locket and studied the two young people staring back. The woman looked to be in her mid-twenties but wore a style of dress that appeared to come from another time.

The man looked older, but that could be due to the frown on his face. “Who are you?” she whispered.

“Parents, grandparents maybe,” Sam offered with a shrug. “The pictures appear to be pretty old, but there’s no denying the family resemblance, especially between you and the woman.”

She studied the woman a little more closely. She closed the necklace and dropped it back to the bed with a sigh. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t even remember what I look like.”

She stared at Sam and again wondered how she knew him. Why did she feel so safe with him yet at the same time so out of sorts? Was it his looks? His muscular body? His dark, intense eyes?

She quickly turned away. She didn’t want him to know that she was attracted to him, that she wanted him to kiss her so badly she was close to grabbing his face and pulling him toward her.

“What happened to me?” she asked, trying to change the subject.

“You were attacked by some wolves. One of them knocked you down, and you hit your head. You were unconscious when we found you.”

“Is it normal for wolves to attack people?”

Sam glanced at the covers that lay across her legs before answering. “No. You, my dear, are the first. At least in a long time.”

He raised his head and met her eyes. Could he see what she was thinking? What she wanted with every breath that left her body? What was wrong with her?

“So,” he said, breaking the sudden spell that seemed to have her whirling. “I guess since you didn’t have any ID on you, and you can’t remember who you are, I say we just call you Keegan.”

“Keegan,” she said with a nod. “I like it.”

Sam smiled, and a dimple appeared in his right cheek. Oh God. She loved dimples. Or did she? Right now, she did.

The door to her room opened, and the other man from her dream entered. Cody. This time, she was able to keep her mouth shut and pretend she didn’t recognize him. He came to stand by the bed, his mouth spread in a soft smile of welcome, and every inch of her body tingled with lustful excitement.

“Well, look who’s up and about. How are you feeling, Sunshine?”

Keegan blinked at the endearment but found she liked it.

“This is my brother, Cody,” Sam said. “He was with me when we found you. He was the one who scared off the wolves.”

Keegan nodded and tried to return his smile past her queasy stomach. “I’m still a little weird and foggy, but otherwise I think I’m okay.”

“Still don’t remember anything?” Cody asked gently.

She shook her head sadly. “What’s going to happen to me?” she asked. “Where am I supposed to go? What am I supposed to do?”

“Well, Cody and I were talking about that,” Sam began. “We discussed last week that we needed someone to help us out at the house. Doing some cooking, cleaning. Nothing major.”

Keegan’s eyes widened just a little. “You want me to be your housekeeper?”

“It would be a place for you to go,” Cody said. “For now or till you remember things.”

“What if I never remember?” she asked with concern.

Cody shrugged. “Then you make a new life here.”

Keegan stared up at him, unsure what to say. She knew what she wanted to say:
Hold me. Take care of me. Make me feel whole again.

“There’re things we can do in the meantime,” Sam said as he patted her leg.

She turned her attention back to the older, more dominant brother. How did she know that? How did she know who was older? Who was more dominant?

“We can send your picture to the local newspapers, maybe contact the media—”

“No,” she said, shocking herself at her outburst.

Sam’s eyebrows rose.

“I mean…” She sighed. Why did it matter? What was she hiding from? She had no idea. All she knew—or felt—was that she needed to hide. She was desperate to hide. “Just give me a chance to remember on my own.”

Sam nodded, but his brow creased into a frown. “We’ll do whatever you want, Keegan.”

The name sounded so right, especially coming from his lips. Was that her name? Or was all this just remnants of the dream she’d had? She could still remember every detail, every touch, every kiss. Her nipples hardened beneath her rough gown, and she crossed her arms over her chest to try to hide the evidence of her weird arousal.

“Are you cold?” Sam asked. “I can turn the heat up.”

“No, I just got a chill.”

Dr. Borus stepped into the room, and Keegan almost breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, boys,” he said with a smile. “Since our patient is awake, why don’t you two leave the room so I can take a look at her stitches.”

Sam and Cody both moved to leave. “You’ll be back?” she asked, for some reason worried she wouldn’t see them again.

Sam smiled and gave her toes an affectionate squeeze as he walked by the foot of the bed. “We’ll be back.”

Keegan watched them leave the room and felt as though part of her went with them.

“Who are they?” she asked as she looked up at the doctor.

“Lie back for me, hon,” he said.

Keegan dropped to her back and winced at the pain in her side.

“Those two are Sam and Cody Keller. They own the Keller Ranch outside of town.”

“Do you know them well?” she asked.

“All their lives,” he said as he removed the gauze and checked her wounds. “How are you feeling, hon? Any memory return?”

“No,” she said sadly. “They offered to let me stay at the ranch. Be their housekeeper.”

The doctor smiled softly as he helped her roll to her side. “That’s probably not a bad idea. You would be in good hands with them. They’re good boys. Besides, with no memory, where else are you going to go?”

Where else indeed.

“Well?”

Connor stood as two of the three werewolves he’d sent after Keegan walked into his office. One had his arm in a sling, and Connor frowned. “What the hell happened? Where’s Joshua?”

James, the uninjured one, frowned and brushed his long black hair from his face. “He was shot in the neck. The bullet severed his spinal cord.”

Connor cursed. “Did you at least get Keegan?”

James raised an eyebrow, then shook his head.

“Why the hell not?” Connor exploded.

“Well, let’s see,” James said sarcastically. “Maybe it was because we were staring down the barrel of a shotgun. The same shotgun that took out Joshua. We can be killed, Connor. We’re not stupid.”

“Fine, then go back and get her.”

“We lost her.”

“What do you mean you lost her?”

“She’s not using magic. We can’t track her until she does.”

Connor sighed.

“We found her once; we can do it again, but we need her to do something. Unfortunately, it’s going to have to be something big.”

“What if you just go back to where you lost her and track her down like normal people?” Connor asked.

“My guess is she’s long gone from that place,” James said. “She saw us; she knows we exist now. She’s not going to be stupid enough to stay there.”

Connor tapped his fingernail on the walnut desk. “The council meets in a week. I’ll see what I can find out then. If Keegan knows you exist, she’ll go straight to her mother.”

James nodded.

“In the meantime, get back to that place and find out if she’s still there,” Connor snarled.

* * * *

Keegan stood at the window, staring out at the mountains in the distance. Why would wolves have attacked her? And what was she doing out there?

So many unanswered questions. So many things that didn’t make any sense, at least in her mind. Sighing, she squeezed the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. Would she ever get her memory back?