CHAPTER 16

A WOLF WITHOUT HER MEMORY

BY POWDERJINX

CHAPTER 16

CASEY POV

I took a deep breath as I switched on the ignition. I turned sideways and saw that Astoria was busy playing with her seat belt while her bag was in the backseat. I gave her a small smile and faced the rear as I slowly maneuvered from Lia’s compound.

I made sure that the trip back home was as slow as possible, especially for these reasons: I didn’t want to get in another accident, I was thinking of the lie to tell my mum and I didn’t want to induce memories to Astoria. I wanted her to be as carefree as possible as she didn’t remember how she lost her memories.

I was having second thoughts about this, this was a bad idea. My mum would go ballistic when she sees Astoria. Why did she even wake….don’t go down that dark thought, Casey. I warned myself as I focused on the road.

“Is something wrong?” Astoria’s innocent meek voice came floating to me as I turned to look at her.

“No, why would you think such a thing?” I asked as she gave a little shrug and said,

“You are driving way slower compared to other people. They are shouting at you and over taking you.” She said slowly pointing at the front windscreen as I could see what she meant. I hadn’t even realized that I was being honked at.

“Oh wow, that is a bummer. Sorry about that.” I said with a small laugh as I stepped on the gas and the car moved up a little faster.

Anyways it was a short ride from Lia’s house to mine so soon enough I was in front of my house.

“Wow, is this your house?” Astoria said as she pressed her face to her window and looked as I nodded my head.

“Yes, I live here with my mum. It is just a decent house though.” I said not seeing the need for her wonder. Lia’s house was way cooler than mine. She was supposed to be wowed by hers not mine. Lia and Leo had wealthy parents, I had…just my mum.

“I love it.’ She squealed as I switched off the ignition and had a small grimace.

“Lucky me.” I murmured as I opened the door and stepped out of the car and closed mine. Then I went over to her side and opened the door and helped her with the seat belt as she just kept tugging instead of actually removing it from the lease. My mum was so going to kill me, if I damaged her car, and mine was still in the pound. I handed her her bag and closed the door and said,

“Follow me dear. It is pretty late.” I said pulling her hand as I dragged her onto the front porch. Taking a glance through the window, I saw my mum seated looking at the time and I took a deep breathe. I hadn’t broken my curfew so she wasn’t going to be angry. Taking a deep breath I opened the door and walked in as Astoria followed me behind.

“CASEY? IS THAT YOU?” I heard my mum yell as soon as she heard the noise and I had no choice but to answer.

“Yes mum. I am coming and I have a visitor with me.” I added as I pulled Astoria to the living room as I heard my mum echo,

“A visitor?

“Hi mum, this is Astoria my friend, she will be staying here with us, hope that is cool with you?” I said in a go as I saw my mum raise her eyebrow in confusion and question.

“No, it is definitely not….”

“Mum, can we talk in private please?” I said cutting her short as she kept quiet and nodded her head, then I faced Astoria and said,

“Come with me, I will take you to my room, where you will be staying in.” I pulled her by her hand and took her up the stairs before I showed her my room.

“You can stay here and wait for me, I just need to convince my mum that you should stay. Stay here okay?” I said as she nodded her head and replied,

“Sure thing. You can count on me.” She said with a smile as I nodded my head and walked downstairs to meet my mum.

“Explain…now!” She said as soon as she saw me and I took a deep breath and exhaled. This was going to be a hard nut to crack.

“I know mum that I didn’t inform you beforehand before I brought her. I just didn’t know how to say it.” I started as I looked at my mum who egged on.

“Say what? Talk to me, I am all ears.” She said as I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Not my fault, it is what every teen passes through,that rebellion phase.

“ Well the thing is…my school is having a special program where we take in special kids from abroad and helps them as they study here.”

“So basically what you are saying is that she is a transfer student?” My mum asked as I nodded my head, waiting.

“So why doesn’t the school provide for her then? And why wasn’t I informed about this?” She said as I internally panicked. My mum was so good at this, damn, at the rate she was going to find out the truth and Astoria wouldn’t be the only one kicked out but I alongside with her. I needed to seal this deal fast.

“Mum, I volunteered especially after I got to hear the story of Astoria, no family, and she doesn’t speak English fluently. I couldn’t say no to that. I felt like a big sister and I was helping out for extra grades.” I added the last part knowing my mum loved seeing some extra credit in my books.

“Hmm, I guess I should be sympathetic towards her then. What did you say her name was again?” She asked as I replied,

“Her name is Astoria. Thank you so much mum.” I said going to hug her as she laughed and said,

‘To be honest, I am agreeing because you said extra grades, but she can stay. Let it not be that I am totally heartless but please next time tell me where you are going or pick up your calll. The only reason I hadn’t left to look for you was because it wasn’t your curfew time yet.” She sais as I replied,

“I am so sorry mum, I wasn’t considerate of you at all. It won’t happen again.” I said as I left her and said,

“Can I go get something for her to eat, she must be exhausted..” My mum nodded her head and waved me away before going back to watch her movie. I hurried to the kitchen and quickly microwaved some of the dinner we had before I went to see Lia. I wasn’t sure if Astoria had eaten, but I didn’t want to guess and find out she is actually starving.

Heading back to the room, I saw Astoria playing with some of her things as I smiled and knocked on the door to get her attention.

“,May I come in?” I asked as she whirled around and saw me before smiling brightly,

“It is your room, I am pretty sure that you can enter whenever you like.” She said as I walked in, pretty by her great use of English.

“You have been learning how to speak. It sounds better than the first day.” I commented as I dropped the food for her on the table as she looked at it and sighed,


‘Thanks, Lia and Leo has been teaching me and they also gave me this easy books to read. It is quite easy.” She replied as I nodded my head. Gee, guess I really owe Lia and Leo one.

“Are you hungry? I brought dinner.” I said as she walked up to me and said,

“Yes…is that spaghetti? Lia was supposed to cook for me tonight but due to the accident and your arrival, she forgot. I am starved. Do you have chicken chops by the way?” She added as I shook my head.

“Sorry but I promise to get you some tomorrow okay?” I said as she sat down and started eating while I made my way to my study area. I lifted my laptop up and pressed the on button and it slowly booted.

Typing in my password and connecting to the home Wi-Fi, I decided to browse the internet to pass time, and since I was obsessed about mythical creatures, I already had what I wanted to search for. I quickly typed the word, werewolves trying to learn their abilities and understand them more. And since it was a myth, a lot of people basically wrote anything on the internet.

I chuckled as I saw one that werewolves were only mated to one person forever by the moon goddess. What the heck is a moon goddess, the moon is one of the natural lights we know and it is in space. Weird how can a goddess sleep on the moon. Even the part about being mated to one person for ever. Well, that certainly passed up my chance of being a werewolf because I haven’t had a steady relationship, either being dumped or cheated on or taken advantage of the guys I loved so I decided to be single and keep all men at arm’s length….especially Tanner.

I was still going thorough some of the sites and were looking at graphically drawn wolves that I had forgotten all about Astoria until she freaked and I quickly swiveled around to see her standing behind me. How did she get there so quietly.

“I…hate….wolves. Please turn it off.” She whimpered shrinking back into that scared girl that I knew as she slid to the floor rocking and holding herself as I quickly slammed my laptop off and went to her.

“Hey, I am sorry okay. It is gone, you shouldn’t be scared of it, they don’t exist, It is just a myth.” I said trying to console her but what she said next shook me to my bones,

“They exist….I know they exist. They killed everyone I love.” I quickly hugged her and patted her, soothingly until she fell asleep on my arms and I struggled to get her on the bed. Luckily she was a heavy sleeper so despite the bumps and thumps, she still remained asleep as I dropped her on the bed then proceeded to remove her shoes before covering her with a duvet.

“What did she mean by that?” I pondered as I sat on the bed besides her and watched her sleep peacefully with the tear stricken face.

“Is there something connecting her to wolves that I am not sure of. Well she did came out of the woods, and behaves like one who doesn't know much about civilization but adapted quite faster and learns more faster than average humans. I quickly shook my head to get rid of all this thoughts. I couldn’t go down this path.

Lia said she hated fire and now she hates wolves and since the both are generally common to make her visibly afraid, it means that the two were connected to her. Was she in a fire? Was she attacked by ordinary wolves? Were her family campers? What…..There were a lot of Wh-question flowing through my brain and I didn’t have an answer to any of them so I did the best thing anyone would ever do in this situation.,

DISTRACT MYSELF.

I quickly remembered that I hadn’t talked to Tanner in a while so I quickly took my phone and dialed his number.
Sitting on the bed, I called his number and I waited as it rang, praying that he wasn’t sleeping and that he would actually pick up.