Page 29 of Framed and Forgotten (Ashen Wolves #3)

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A V R I L

“Koen is my what ?!”

I almost choked on my tea when Elijah spoke the last words I’d ever expected to hear.

After my ex-mate’s unexpected reappearance and my beta’s interruption, my gamma insisted he wanted to talk to me in private.

I was hesitant about leaving Koen unsupervised with the rest of my team, but he assured me I had nothing to worry about.

In my room, Elijah pressed me to sit down while he prepared me some tea. I was sick of my friends treating me like some damsel in distress, but when he promised to explain everything, I relented. I sat, took a sip, and waited for him to spit it out.

Elijah proceeded to tell me the most bizarre story about how I had fallen in love with Koen, saved him after Whispering Hill’s tragic demise and brought him to our secret haven.

What followed, according to my gamma, was even more ludicrous: Koen had supposedly helped me overcome challenges, fought beside my pack, and, ultimately, I had marked him, miraculously turning him into an Ashen Wolf.

At first, I was sure my third-in-command had to be messing with me.

Everything he’d said was too absurd to be true.

But was I really the only sane one when everyone else seemed to have lost their minds?

I was smarter than to assume that. If my entire pack was acting the exact same way and I was the odd one out, then the problem was likely me.

When I stopped to analyze his story, I couldn’t ignore that it explained some things - the questions about a mate mark I had no memory of, the masculine clothes in my closet, and the intoxicating scent woven into them, as if they belonged there.

Could it be true? Could I have forgotten an entire love story with Koen?

“Argh!” I groaned as a sharp pain throbbed in my head.

Come to think of it, I’d been having a lot of weird headaches lately. Strangely enough, they always seemed to hit harder whenever Koen was mentioned. The more I thought about him, the worse they got.

An instant later, Elijah’s arms were on my shoulders, brushing my skin soothingly. “Don’t try to understand it. Searching for proof of something you can’t remember won’t do you any good,” he instructed me.

I forced my eyes open, breathing through the discomfort, just in time to hear him add, “Just believe me.”

Staring into his eyes, I saw nothing but honesty. I trusted Elijah and all my friends with my life. If he told me his mother was a dinosaur, I’d believe him.

“His mother being a dinosaur would be more believable than this,” Kea pointed out, her voice trembling as she, too, struggled to come to terms with what we’d just heard.

However, like me, she couldn’t deny what we had felt when we were naked on top of Koen less than an hour ago. The attraction I felt toward him, the sparks that set my skin on fire… They couldn’t be explained any other way.

“Don’t worry, though,” he continued, releasing me once my pain was gone. With a gentle smile, he assured, “We’ll find a way to reverse the spell and restore your memories.”

I instantly stiffened. As fear took over, the words rolled off my tongue as if they had a mind of their own. “What if I don’t want it to be reversed?”

Even if I believed what he’d told me, did I actually want to resume my romance with Koen?

Clearly, despite everything we had shared, he had put me through so much pain that I felt the need to erase him from my mind.

He had compromised my focus, and that was something I couldn’t afford - not when I was the leader of the Ashen Wolves.

Elijah stared back at me in shock, but before he could cloud my already confused mind, I explained, “I spent too long hating Koen, and for good reason. Besides, from what you told me, it sounds like I’m better off without him.”

“Avril, I know you can’t understand it now, but you and Koen…” He sighed lovingly, his eyes glistening as he concluded, “You were epic.” After a brief pause, he went on, “Koen changed you for the better. He complemented you. He made you happier. He supported you-”

“But it seems he also had a habit of leaving me high and dry,” I observed bitterly, the anger I had harbored toward Koen for years surfacing.

“Avril-” he tried again, but I stopped him.

“I appreciate your concern, Eli,” I said sincerely before my tone grew more serious. “But please, don’t do anything until I decide for myself whether I want to remember the brief life I shared with Koen.”

I could see it in his eyes - he wanted to argue. His lips pressed into a thin line as he tried to hold his tongue, to contain the urge of trying to convince me. In the end, he lowered his head in agreement.

“Thank you for telling me everything. I…I need some time to think,” I declared. With a final nod, he reluctantly left, giving me space to digest the truth and consider my decision.

K O E N

It didn’t take me long to realize that my goal would be harder to achieve than I’d hoped.

While Elijah spoke with Avril, I suppressed my overwhelming need to see her and decided to make the most of my time by going to Vereya.

The spell my mate had used to forget me was in one of her books, and as a druid, she had the most experience with magic in the entire pack.

If anyone could give me deeper insight into the situation, it was her.

Imagine my frustration when, right off the bat, she hit me with the least encouraging piece of information I could have heard.

“There is no way to reverse the spell,” she stated, the heavy rue in her voice doing little to soothe my stress.

“What do you mean it can’t be reversed?” I demanded, my tone more menacing than I had intended. Every new obstacle between me and my mate only fed my beast’s impatience, causing the line between friend and foe to blur in my mind.

“Exactly what I said,” she deadpanned, unfazed by my unprovoked hostility. “I warned the young alpha about the dangers of messing with dark magic, and not only due to its tendency to backfire.”

While Columbus spiraled inside my head, I clung tightly to the last shred of control I had, watching the druid calmly dust her books. The two seconds it took her to speak again were almost enough to make me snap. “I'm not saying your bond with your mate is lost forever, though.”

Hopeful news at last.

“I've just realized…” She glanced up at me - at my neck, more specifically. “The alpha's mate mark might have disappeared, but yours remained.”

I instinctively brought my fingers to the spot where Avril had claimed me, relieved to feel the familiar tingles that assured me my soul was still connected to hers. Taking a deep breath, I whispered, “Does that mean…”

“Yes. It’s clear the bond between the two of you hasn’t been severed. Well, at least not entirely." Vereya finally stood up, facing me properly as she added, “From her side, it’s in a sort of limbo, so to speak.”

“You mean it’s still there, just not on the surface?” I asked, assuming.

She nodded. “I believe it can be restored, if you can remind her of the feelings she once had for you.”

I hesitated, my voice barely above a whisper as I thought aloud, “But how can I do that when she doesn’t remember us ever becoming mates?”

The shaman gave me a sympathetic smile. “I'm afraid that’s an answer you’ll have to find on your own.”

Great. More fucking enigmas to solve.

I quickly thanked Vereya before rushing out of her hut, even less enthusiastic than when I’d arrived.

There was a lot I needed to deal with - my pup, my psychotic ex-wife, my mysterious brother, and what they knew about the Ashen Wolves.

My stress was at its peak, but I had learned from my mistakes.

Avril had to be my priority.

I wouldn’t dare think about anything else until I won her back.

As I entered the pack house, my steps grew slower, my rush slowly being replaced by caution. Elijah should be done talking to Avril now, which meant I could finally see her. But when I did, what would I say? How should I act?

“She’s still our mate,” Col observed confidently. “We just need to be ourselves, and she will feel it.”

Lacking a better option, I decided to trust him, marching toward the alpha chambers with determination.

As soon as I reached the top floor of the packhouse, I found Elijah down the hall, standing in front of the door.

His face was unreadable, but something in his posture hinted at a guarded optimism.

I approached him, my heartbeat thumping in my ears. With a brief nod, I asked, my voice tight, “How did it go?”

“She believes you are her mate,” Elijah answered, his words lifting a weight off my chest.

I heaved a sigh of relief. “Good.” I dwelled in the moment of peace for a heartbeat before steeling myself. “I’ll talk to her now,” I said, but Elijah didn’t move.

Pursing his lips, he explained. “She isn’t ready to see you, Koen.”

The words hit like a slap. I froze, my mind racing. “What?” I tried to read his expression, but his eyes were impenetrable. There was no sign of hesitation, no softening of his stance. Just that unyielding calm.

Frustration flared, and I frowned. “Come on, man. You know I have to explain everything to her. How else am I supposed to fix our relationship?”

All he did was shrug. “I’m sorry.”

That was it? That was all he had to say? A sharp growl scraped against my throat, my frustration becoming something darker, more dangerous. “Who’s side are you on, Elijah?”

His eyes narrowed, his tone firm. “Believe me, Koen, I want nothing more than to see you two together again,” he began. “But I’ll always put her happiness and well-being first. Until she tells me she’s ready, I won’t let you through.”

Silence stretched between us, but the tension grew thick.

Every fiber of my being screamed to get through that door.

I could understand why Elijah, Theo, and Rhea hadn’t tried to remind Avril of me up until my return.

They were respecting her wishes of keeping me off her mind, and there was no point in forcing her to remember while I was away.

However, now that I was back, I wouldn’t allow them to stand in our way.

Another growl rumbled from deep in my chest. I stepped closer to Elijah, my voice a low, dangerous whisper. “I don’t want to hurt you, Eli.”

His posture didn’t shift. A fraction of a second later, Theo appeared at his mate’s right, his glare as cold and unyielding as mine as he said, “You won’t.”

Before I could do anything, Rhea joined them, standing at Elijah’s left. “Sorry, Koen,” she said with regret. “But you have to understand-”

The delta was interrupted when her eyes clouded over. In fact, the same had happened to Theo and Elijah as well. It lasted for a few seconds, during which I just stood there in confusion, until the mindlink was over.

Once their eyes returned to normal, each of them slowly stepped aside, their silence now an invitation. I stared at them for a moment, suspicion and caution crawling through me as I walked past them, my every step heavy with anticipation.

Standing before the door, I hesitated. The air around me thickened, the walls closing in as my heart pounded in my chest. My breath came in shallow gasps, a lump lodged in my throat. With trembling hands, I reached for the doorknob, but just as my fingers brushed against it, it turned on its own.

The door opened slowly, and there she was - Avril.

Our eyes met for the first time, and in that single instant, I forgot how to breathe.