9. Ore

"How is your fatigue?" Fern asked, not opening her eyes.

Ore eyed her glowing hands warily, but she just kept moving them over his body without touching him. "Um. It's basically gone."

"Good."

She hovered over a spot above his left hip, a furrow between her brows, then continued down his legs. Ore wasn't sure he liked having to lie on his back on her couch as she "examined" him, but he kept that to himself. At least he'd been able to keep his clothes on for it. Still… he felt oddly vulnerable as his skin tingled wherever she moved her hands.

"Have you shifted?"

"A couple of times," he said softly, though he wasn't sure why he felt like it was a secret. Alpha Amato hadn't told him he couldn't shift—heck, he'd probably be relieved if Ore just flew away and took his problems with him—but Ore had felt a bit guilty when he'd done it, staying in the upstairs bathroom at Cash's house. He couldn't fly in there, but he could stretch his wings a bit. "Not for very long though."

"That's fine," she murmured, moving to the end of the couch. She held her glowing hands to the soles of his feet for a long couple of minutes, and then the light began to dim, her eyes opening. "I can't detect any foreign magic anywhere in you. Your healing did its job."

He sat up and shrugged. "With your help."

"With the coven's help," she corrected, plopping onto the coffee table right in front of him. Her big hazel eyes were a bit intense up close, and she reeked of magic so strongly it was making his nose itch.

"Still… thanks for not letting me die," he said. He hadn't thought to thank her the other day in Liam's office, overwhelmed by everything she'd told him and the intimidating group in the room.

She grinned and waved a hand at him. "I don't make a habit of letting folks die just because they weren't born in the same place I was. How are your memories coming along?"

He made a face, and she laughed. "Terribly. All I've gotten is… I don't know how to describe it. Impressions? Feelings? I'll get like a blurry flash and a strong reaction, but it doesn't make any sense. I still can't remember any people or events of my life."

"You need to be patient with yourself. You're rebuilding the bridge to those memories, and that takes time. They're in there though."

"That's what Pops said," he admitted, sighing and running a hand through his hair. "It's just really frustrating."

"That's understandable. I don't know if this will make it worse or better," she said, resituating into a crossed-leg position on the table, nearly knocking over an unlit candle. "I finished analyzing what I could of the spell that was used on the virus, and I believe your access to your memories was severed on purpose."

Ore's heart lurched in his chest, his eyes widening. "For real? Why would they do that and then try and kill me?"

She shrugged. "I have no proof of anything, but my suspicion is that they weren't trying to kill you. They were testing you for something."

"Testing me?"

"The use of the virus to deliver the spell is something I've never seen before, but it makes me think someone in some lab somewhere is doing some pretty fucked-up experiments on parahumans. For what end? I couldn't say." She glanced away, appearing lost in thought as her fingers tapped on her knees.

Ore tried to digest that information and the implications of it. "So you think there are others. That I wasn't just a one-off."

She met his eyes once more, anger flashing over her cherubic features. "I know you're not. I don't have any way to prove it yet, but I think you escaped the same place Liam's brother's mate did."

His eyes just about bugged out of his head. "Wait, what?"

A throat cleared, and they both looked over to find Cash standing in the doorway of the living room, a scowl etched on his strong face. "Fern?—"

She stood and threw her hands up. "Don't you Fern me. Tell me I'm wrong."

"I'm not saying?—"

She cut him off before he could answer, her fury burning his sinuses. "If he and Caden were being held at the same place, he deserves to know. And so do Caden and Quinten."

Ore climbed to his feet but stayed back, not wanting to get in the middle of whatever fight was happening between the two. Caden had to be Liam's brother's mate. Had he been dosed with the virus thing too? Or just had his memories wiped?

"We don't know that they were," Cash said harshly. "And it isn't our place to share what happened to him with an outsider."

Ore stumbled back a step, devastation hitting him like a physical blow. Cash didn't want her telling him about this Caden, sharing the details of what had happened to him.

Because he didn't trust Ore. He would always just be an outsider to him.

Ice-blue eyes darted over to him, and Cash took a step into the room, inhaling deeply. "Ore, don't?—"

"Don't what? Don't get upset?" He shook his head, tucking his chin into his chest and wrapping his arms around himself. "Cool, sure. No problem. I'll just ignore the fact that you don't trust me. Oh, and how there is apparently another person out there who may have gone through the same hell as me, but that's not my business, is it, Enforcer Lawson?"

Cash's irises began to glow faintly, and he moved farther into the room. Without taking his eyes off Ore, he said, "Fern, will you give us a minute alone, please?"

"Yup. Good luck, big guy." She headed for a different door than where Cash had come in, glancing back at Ore. "When you start getting some memories back, come and see me. I think I'll be able to help find the rest once your mind gives us the roadmap."

He nodded, not saying anything as she stepped out of the room and into what he assumed was the kitchen, closing a swinging door behind her. Once it was just the two of them, Ore had the urge to flee. The room, the house—maybe even the territory.

He felt… stupid. For days, he and Cash had spent nearly every moment together. While Cash wasn't the chattiest person in the world, he'd shared things with Ore, like the story about his parents the night before. Not to mention the fact that they slept together each night.

Ore had thought those things meant something.

He was such a fool.

Cash prowled forward, closing the distance between them. Ore wanted to move back, but he refused to shrink away. He wasn't some prey animal to Cash's predator. Lifting his chin, he met that faintly glowing gaze.

"You don't have to explain," he said tightly. "I understand."

"No, you don't," Cash growled at him. "If it were just up to me, I'd tell you, Ore. You have to know that."

He wanted to believe that was true, but the protect the pack excuse didn't really work. "I thought that was true, but this Caden person isn't even a part of this pack, and you're still refusing to tell me about him." He shrugged, trying to look less upset than he truly was, though he knew his scent had to still be spewing his emotions everywhere. "So no, I don't think you'd tell me. I'm surprised you've shared anything with me since you trust me so little."

Cash's teeth ground together. "He's Liam's family. That makes him off-limits."

"It's not like it's a secret!" Ore exploded, waving a hand toward the kitchen door. "Fern knows about it. You obviously know. This isn't some deep, dark secret only the family knows about to protect him. You just don't want me to know. You don't trust me with the information."

"Ore—"

"Let's just go," he said, all his anger from before already starting to drain away. It hurt that he would trust Cash with his life, but the panther didn't feel the same. "You can just drop me at the Alpha House. I'll wait out the rest of my amnesia there."

Cash darted forward, and Ore jerked back, his instincts pointing out that cats ate birds all the time. His back hit the wall, but Cash kept coming until there was only an inch of air left between them. His body filled with a syrupy heat as he craned his head back to look up, and up, and up into Cash's face.

"That's not happening, little bit," he rumbled, planting his forearms on the wall above Ore's head. "You don't fly away the second you get pissed at me."

Ore tried to slow his breathing, his pulse thumping in his ears. "You hurt my feelings."

"I know," he said, leaning down and running his nose up the side of his face. "I'm sorry. I know you aren't some spy, but until you get your memories back, I can't share certain things with you. It doesn't matter how I feel. I have to protect my pack."

Ore swallowed. "How do you feel?"

A soft noise filled the air around them, almost too quiet for Ore's ears to pick up. It took him a second to realize what it was, and then his damn heart melted, all his frustration and bruised feelings drifting away.

Cash was purring. For him.

"Terrified, little bit. You terrify me in the most exhilarating way possible."

"I'll only be fifteen minutes," Ore pleaded, giving Cash his best smile.

His big cat pressed his lips together in that way that meant he wanted to smile but didn't want Ore to know how adorable he found him. "Fifteen, and then home."

Home.

Ore nodded and raced inside the bookstore, floating on a cloud of happiness. Cash's words from Fern's house were still echoing in his ears, and he couldn't wait to see if he could get him to purr for him again. Maybe without Fern listening from the next room. The wink she'd thrown him as they'd gotten ready to leave had made him blush like a teenager.

He knew all their problems weren't magically solved just because he terrified the big, bad Enforcer, but they didn't feel as scary as they had before their cozy little chat. He didn't have answers to any of his questions, but he felt less alone than he had before.

Because he was Cash's little bit.

Sighing happily, he nearly skipped through the store, looking for the romance section. The woman behind the counter smiled at him, so he waved but didn't stop. He wondered if she was the owner. She looked like she was in her forties or fifties, despite her graying hair being braided into pigtails. Big square pink glasses took up most of her face and matched her lipstick perfectly.

He saw a man in his sixties in the historical fiction section—yuck—and a guy his own age bent over to check some books near the bottom along the back wall of the whole store that made up the Research and Spellwork area. On the far side of the store, he finally found the shelves dedicated to romance novels and began searching for something to occupy him in the afternoons when Cash was usually busy on the phone or his computer with pack stuff.

Cash was next door getting something to drink and would want to go as soon as he was finished, so Ore knew he didn't have time to read the backs of all of the books. Instead, he searched for authors he knew and picked a few to look at more closely.

He had it narrowed down to two when he felt someone moving closer to him. Glancing up, he found the young guy from the research area grinning at him. He was maybe only a couple of inches taller than Ore, his loose curls styled in a way that looked effortless. What grabbed and held Ore's attention, though, were his striking violet eyes. They were beautiful.

And full of humor.

"You're new," the guy said, propping an elbow on the shelf next to him and planting his head on his fist. "I didn't think they got new people here."

Ore inhaled subtly, surprised to find not only was the man human but there wasn't a trace of magic on him. "I'm just… visiting."

Dark, perfectly shaped brows arched at him. "Visiting who?"

"Um. Who are you?"

"Oh shit." The guy laughed, slapping the shelf he was leaning on and straightening. "Sorry. I'm Robbie Amato."

Ore cocked his head. "I didn't realize Alpha Amato had a mate." The lion's scent was barely perceptible to his nose, but it was there. "I'm Ore. I… Well, it's hard to explain actu?—"

"Wait, hold on." Robbie stepped closer and waved his hands. "We're going to get back to you in just one sec, but I need to have a little freak-out first over the fact you thought I was mated to my uncle Liam." Robbie shuddered exaggeratedly, turning in a tight circle and shaking his arms out. "Ew, ew, ew."

Ore couldn't hold in his laughter. "Sorry. I just assumed."

"Since I'm human?" Robbie nodded. "You really are new here. My dad is Uncle Liam's older brother, but they're technically only stepbrothers."

"So your dad is human too?" He hoped Cash wasn't about to pop up and catch him talking to someone about Liam's family again. If he did, Ore would be able to at least defend himself since Robbie had approached him. He was just an innocent bystander.

"Yup. My mom is too, but I don't actually know her." He shrugged like that wasn't a big deal, but Ore didn't really buy it. He didn't say anything though, figuring that'd be a fantastic way to end a conversation that could potentially get him some answers.

"Fern was just telling me a little about your dad's new mate," Ore said, subtly checking to make sure there was no sign of his big, scowly panther. "About what happened to him before he met your dad, I guess."

Robbie's face wrinkled in confusion. "Why?"

"She thinks I might have been at the same place he was," he admitted. "That's why I'm here, actually. When I got here?—"

"Oh my god, wait." Robbie held up both hands, nearly slapping Ore across the face. "Whoops, sorry. But you can't just drop something like that and expect me not to react! You were held by those people who made Caden fight like a damn gladiator?"

Ore's jaw dropped. "What? Seriously?"

"I thought you just said you were there too!"

"I can't remember anything," he explained quickly, setting his books aside. "I flew into the territory about a week ago, and when I woke up, I had no memory of who I was or what had happened to me. I only knew my name and that I was an eagle shifter."

Robbie's violet eyes went huge at his speedy explanation. "Holy shit. You don't remember anything about your life or family?"

Twisting his lips, Ore shook his head. "Nothing. Fern and Pops say it'll come back, but nothing yet."

"That's crazy," Robbie whispered, studying Ore like he'd told him he could sprout a second head. "Why does she think you were in the same place Caden was then?"

He shrugged. "I guess because she thinks this virus they gave me that almost killed me was done by someone experimenting? She didn't really get a chance to explain before we were interrupted."

Robbie grabbed onto Ore's arm and gave it a shake. "Oh fuck, that's right. He told my dad they would bring him into a room and experiment on him. My dad only gave me the bare minimum of details about what happened, but I sweet-talked one of his men into telling me more. They injected him with a bunch of different stuff, but none of it took, I guess. He's perfectly healthy now."

"Now?"

Robbie shook his head. "Whole other story. I'll tell you later."

Ore smiled. He liked the idea of them talking more, maybe even becoming friends. Other than getting interrogated by Alpha Amato, no one had exactly been outright hostile to him, but Robbie was the first person his age who seemed actually interested in getting to know him. Well, other than Cash, but his interest wasn't friendship based.

At least Ore hoped not.

"I am kind of surprised Uncle Liam is just letting you wander around by yourself though," Robbie added. "Everyone is usually pretty—" He leaned closer and whispered. "—uptight about strangers."

Ore snorted. Understatement. "Oh, I'm not allowed out by myself. Cash is next door grabbing a drink, and then we'll head back to his house."

"Cash Grumpypants Lawson?" Robbie's eyebrows shot up. "And you're staying at his house?"

Cheeks heating, Ore nodded and smiled. "Yeah. He volunteered so I wouldn't have to stay in the basement of the Alpha House."

A huge grin spread across Robbie's face. "You're blushing!"

"Shh!" Ore slapped his hands to his face to try and cover the evidence. He hurried to the end of the shelf and glanced around to see if anyone was paying attention to them, and the older man who'd been on the other side of the store was now examining a display on a table near the front. His eyes were on the books, but there was a sneer on his face.

Stomach dropping, Ore ducked behind the shelf. He highly doubted the man was disgusted by the display that appeared to be featuring books written by authors from Kansas.

Robbie was watching him, smile fading. "Sorry."

Ore shook his head. "No, it's fine. I just don't want anyone to get the wrong idea and think badly about Cash. He's just helping out while I'm here."

Did he raise his voice a smidge when he said that? Yes.

Did his stomach sour at the words? He wasn't telling.

Robbie grabbed his arm and gave it a squeeze, his face sympathetic. When he stepped back, his voice was completely normal as he said, "Did you find anything good to read?"

Thankful, Ore grabbed the two books he'd been debating and showed them to him. They slowly made their way toward the front, talking books and authors. He got so caught up in the conversation and Robbie's funny reactions to things he somehow missed the way one of the front table displays had the end of a stand sticking out over the edge.

One minute, they were walking along, debating the believability of alien races being biologically compatible with humans in sci-fi romances, and the next, he'd whacked his hip on the wooden corner, a sharp pain shooting through him as the large stand wobbled.

"Shit!" Robbie yelled, jumping forward to help and slamming into Ore.

He tried to regain his balance, arms windmilling, but with Robbie's extra weight, he couldn't get his feet firmly beneath him. In what felt like slow motion, he fell backward, Robbie's violet eyes huge and about three inches from his face, and crashed into the unstable book display.

He grunted as his back hit the top of the table, his stomach swooping as it wobbled beneath them. Thank the goddess, it held. The wooden display stand?

Not as lucky.

Robbie pushed himself up, somehow kneeing Ore in the thigh in the process, and they both turned to stare in horror at the broken pieces of wood and strewn around books. Some of them looked fine, but others had landed under the stand or at odd angles. He saw at least three with torn dust jackets.

"Oh my goddess!" a female voice shouted. The woman from behind the counter hurried over to them, her eyes enormous behind her pink glasses. "Are you alright?"

"We're so sorry, Ginny," Robbie said quickly, dropping to his knees next to the mess.

"So very, very sorry," Ore reiterated, a little slower getting up as his hip and back still ached. "I'm not sure what happened…"

He was, but he didn't want to blame her display for the mishap. If he'd been paying attention to where he was going?—

"Fucking hind toe." The snarled words were dripping with disdain. The older man from before was staring at Ore, his eyes glowing and lips curled back from his teeth.

The bookstore owner—Ginny—gasped at the slur, but Ore just stared at him in shock, nausea rolling through his stomach. Robbie, still on his knees as he sorted through the mess, jerked his head up to look back and forth between the shifters around him.

"What did you call him?"

Ginny held up her hand. "Do not repeat it, Billy. You need to get out. Right now."

"You're kicking me out?" Billy snarled, eyes still locked on Ore. "What about him? His kind isn't welcome here! I don't care who he's fucking for special treatment. I'll drag him out of our territory myself if I—mph!"

Ore jumped, eyes darting up to the looming Enforcer behind Billy. Cash's hand firmly planted on his mouth, he dragged Billy back until he was pressed against his wide chest. His mouth lowered next to Billy's ear, a low, dangerous rumble filling the air.

"What the fuck did you just say to him?"