2. Leander

Chapter 2

It smells nice here.

That's the first thing I think as I struggle to wake. There's kind of a pleasant scent, almost like a campfire but a little sweeter, that's floating around me.

I'm warm. There's a hella comfy bed under me. Why am I trying to wake up again? Maybe I shouldn't.

Actually, have I ever been this comfortable? No. No, I don't think I have…

There's a crashing noise.

"Fuck," a sonorous voice resonates through my ears.

I blink my eyes open. There's a beautiful woman staring at me.

Not just beautiful. She's… incredible.

A wild cascade of rich curly hair falls over her shoulders, twisting around in knots and spirals that beg me to touch them. Amber eyes that shine like gold. Perfect pink lips that look like… Well… like I want to kiss them.

Holy shit. Maybe I'm dead.

Her lips curl at the corners. "Oh, good. You're awake."

Fuck me. Her voice is the kind that people who do audio porn dream of.

"Um," I manage to grunt.

Cool. Good one, Leander.

"A tree fell on you," she says in a matter-of-fact tone. "Do you remember being stuck underneath it?"

I shake my head. "No."

"That's pretty normal. Several thousand pounds of tree falling on you will likely result in some trauma to your brain. You're a shifter, so I'm ruling out permanent brain damage, because you still have your brain."

She's dead serious.

"Oh," I say. My throat is so dry.

The woman turns. "Here." She hands me a cup of water. "Drink slowly. Your throat might have suffered some damage as well, depending on where the tree landed. Again, though, since your windpipe wasn't crushed long enough to starve your organs of oxygen and kill you, I'm ruling out permanent damage."

I sip the water slowly. The woman in front of me is so beautiful that it's hard to reconcile the very graphic words coming out of her mouth. "You know a lot about permanent damage. And ways to die."

She shrugs. "I'm a nurse, and… I'm a nurse," she finishes.

I'm so curious what she was going to add to that.

"I know a lot about the ways that people, specifically shifters, can die. And honestly, as long as all your shit works, and your brains aren't lying on that rock in the woods, I think you're probably good."

I nod. "Oh. Okay."

The woman leans back and studies me. Her amber eyes give me chills, and I can't help but stare back at her. It's kind of painful to see how gorgeous she is. I could honestly stare at her all day. But I think that would be weird. Right?

"So, what were you doing in the woods? You're not from Oakwood," she says flatly.

I open my mouth. I close it. I have no idea. And it feels… wrong that I have no idea.

"I don't know," I say slowly.

The woman nods. "Yeah. Short term memory loss. You must have been really whacked in the head."

"When will it go away?"

"Well, let's see how bad it is. What's your name?"

That's easy. "Leander Payne."

"Damn." She smiles. "Hell of a name." Her perfectly white teeth peek out from between her berry-colored lips, and any other thoughts leave my mind completely.

I'd give any memories, including my own name, to see those lips wrapped around…

"Good. Name, easy. Where are you from?"

"Florida," I say. Then, I frown. "But I don't know where."

"You don't know which pack, you mean?"

Pack… There's an immediate feeling of revulsion in my gut at the word.

I shake my head. "I don't… I don't remember."

"So, you're a lone wolf then?"

"No," I answer quickly. My head feels like shit right now, but I know that for sure I'm not a lone wolf. I have people. I just don't remember where.

The woman stands, and she paces. She glances over at me, her amber eyes pinched with worry. "You weren't here to, like… spy on the Oakwood pack or anything, were you?"

"I don't know," I say honestly.

As the woman paces, I fight the feeling of panic that's escalating for me. I know that she's trying to help by helping me with my memories, but there's a feeling in my gut that I don't like. I feel like I'm missing something. Something that's not only important, but crucial. Like my life depends on it.

She turns back. "How about your parents?"

"Sam and Jessica," I respond. The memory snaps into place, and a little relief settles in me. I give her a little smile. "See. Told you I wasn't a lone wolf."

"Good. I think your mind might be recovering a little. Hopefully the amnesia is just short term."

Amnesia at all sounds bad. "How short?"

Instead of answering, she folds her arms across her chest and looks at me. "Where did you go to school?"

"Homeschooled." Also right. The feeling in my chest lightens even more.

"Parents still alive?"

I frown. "Yeah. But I haven't seen them in a while."

"Why?"

I have no idea, but I remember my mother giving me a tearful goodbye hug. "I think I… left them. To do something. That was going to take me a while." I'm talking like a robot, but with each sentence, more memories sharpen and snap into focus.

She gives a sharp nod. "Interesting. Favorite color?"

"Green."

"Favorite food?"

I give her a little smile. "Steak."

The questions continue until I figure out what she's doing. She's trying to pinpoint the moment of my memory loss, to see how far back it goes. It's a smart strategy.

She's probably a hell of a nurse. I bet, though, that she's probably just good at whatever she puts her mind to. She has a confidence and an air about her that's competent. Efficient. Sexy as hell.

I shake myself. This woman literally found me in a forest. I can't think she's sexy. That feels wildly inappropriate, and I'm not a wildly inappropriate kind of guy. I think.

"Okay," she finally announces. "I think that you probably lost about five months of your memory. I think you might also have some loss for other details that are coming back as well. I don't want you to go out into the world like this… Brains are weird. You could be totally fine one second and then having a brain bleed the next. Plus, I don't know how permanent the amnesia is, and it would literally go against my entire life philosophy to let someone walk into the world when they could collapse at any second. So, I think you should stay here. With me," she adds.

I look at her. "Here?"

Her face makes a pensive look, like she's thinking. "Yeah, definitely." She nibbles at her full bottom lip, and the image sends a growl of desire through my chest.

I swallow it. Don't be an ass, Leander.

I have a feeling that I talk to myself like this a lot.

Her amber eyes glow. "We're going to just wing this, okay? But I promise I'm not some kind of psychopath. I mean, I didn't knock the tree down on you. I found you like that," she says with a little conspiratorial wink.

"You're not worried about a complete stranger staying in your house with you?"

"No," she says succinctly.

Damn if that confidence doesn't turn me on like nothing else. I gulp, another question floating to my mind. "But your pack… won't they know?"

She nods. "Yeah. We'll just tell them you're my cousin or something."

I have a strong reaction to that. The things that I want to do to her are not things a cousin should think of. I know that, at least.

"I…"

She cuts me off. "I guess I should tell you my name so we can get this whole cousins story straight."

I can do nothing but nod.

Her eyes glitter. She stops pacing and looks right down on me. Her lips curl in a smile, and she says three words that change my world forever.

"I'm Ember Greene."