Free Forgotten by Evangeline Anderson Page A

could she? No matter
how many pictures he showed her or how many facts he told her about
this supposed former life they’d shared, she still couldn’t
remember a bit of it.
    She didn’t know if she ever would.

Chapter Six
     
    Rone followed her to the
domicile, wishing he could touch her in some way. The physical bond
between a Wulven and his mate was especially strong—even stronger
than the regular Kindred bond, because of the hunger. He longed to gather her into
his arms and press her to his chest, to cradle her like a child as
he had so many times before.
    Kate had always loved curling up in his lap
and feeling protected and loved. She would press against him,
rubbing her cheek against his throat and her full breasts against
his chest. Rone would hold her that way for hours sometimes, both
of them just relaxing into each other, loving the feeling of being
close.
    And now the minute I get anywhere near her,
she starts to panic.
    Why was that? Could it be that the Dream
Blooms she’d been subjected to had other effects besides amnesia?
Had they somehow turned the female he loved against him? Made her
fear him? Why? And how?
    For whatever reason,
she did fear him,
and so he gave her plenty of space, even though it went against
every instinct he had. He stood back as she found the spare key,
hidden under a plastic rock, and opened the door with trembling
hands. He waited until she was well inside before following her
in.
    “ All right, don’t mind the
cats,” she told him as he stepped inside at last. “My roommate,
Mimi, kind of collects them and they’re always underfoot.
They—”
    But her words were interrupted by a chorus
of hissing and spitting. Rone looked up to see that six or seven of
the small, furry creatures many Earthlings kept as pets were
glaring at him angrily.
    “ Oh my!” Kate put a hand
to her chest. “What in the world?”
    “ Cats don’t like me,” Rone
said flatly. “Dogs don’t mind but cats sense the Beast inside me
and they don’t like it.”
    “ They…they don’t?” Kate
still had a hand pressed to her heart.
    “ You used to think it was
funny,” Rone told her, before he could stop himself. “It was a joke
with us. The cat your mother used to have—Mr. Sissykins—hated me
with the fire of a thousand suns. Every time I went in that damn
house he would find a way to ambush me and attack me.”
    “ Mr. Sissykins…you know
about Mr. Sissykins?” Her voice was faint.
    Rone nodded. “He died not
long after…” He cleared his throat. “Not long after your mother
did, actually. I helped you bury him, out in the back yard of the
domicile in Mississippi. I never saw you cry so hard, Lalli. I think because
you held it in so hard during your mom’s funeral. And then when her
cat died too, it was like you’d lost your last little piece of
her.”
    But Kate was backing away from him and
shaking her head.
    “ No, stop it! Stop talking
like that!”
    “ I’m sorry! I didn’t mean
to upset you.” Rone reached for her and then remembered he couldn’t
touch her and drew back. “I’m sorry,” he said again, roughly. “I
didn’t mean…I shouldn’t have said that. Any of it.”
    “ I just…I don’t remember
my mom’s funeral. I know she’s gone but I don’t…don’t remember
burying her or…” Her throat worked convulsively. “Or anything else
like that.”
    “ I’m sorry,” Rone said
again, helplessly. He ran both hands through his hair. “Damn it to
the Seven Hells, I’m making such a fucking mess of
this!”
    “ Let me just…let me get
these guys settled.” Kate turned to herding the cats to another
part of the house. Most of them seemed glad to go—the minute she
opened a door in the back of the apartment they scampered into the
room. “There,” she said, shutting the door and coming back. “Mimi
doesn’t want them in the bedrooms but we’ll have to make an
exception.”
    “ I am sorry I spoke about
your mother’s death,” Rone said in a low