her aching head. And the air outside
Although it carried scents of exhaust and garbage, it smelled so much fresher than the stale scents inside the hospital that the staff tried to cover with disinfectants.
She pulled her arm from Dirk?s and he appeared startled by the action. Did he think she was going to run away? Where would she go if she did? Whether she liked it or not, she had to go with him. She supposed being with him was better than being alone, so long as he stopped trying to order her around like she was a child.
They walked through the dimly lit parking lot and Jane enjoyed the darkness and the way it surrounded her like a security blanket.
?This is my car,? he told her, pointing to a blue Nissan.
He unlocked the doors and she climbed into the passenger seat, feeling at a loss of what to say or how to act.
Dirk pulled out his cell phone, dialing a number as he pulled out onto the road. ?Fritz, it?s Dirk. I have the girl. Call Kasimir. Ja. Nein.? He paused for a moment, listening to the other man and then said goodbye and hung up. The radio was on and the windows were down, so all the noise from the roadway, radio and air blowing inside the car kept Jane from hearing the other side of the conversation.
Jane held her hand out the window, enjoying the crisp, cool air stinging her hand as Dirk picked up speed. She saw him glancing at her from the corner of her eye and turned to him, questioning him, ?What??
He cleared his throat and said, ?I, er? Um, I was just wondering what you know about our kind. Do you remember anything??
Jane sighed and leaned her head back onto the headrest. Her head was really throbbing and making the effort to search her memories intensified it. ?I don?t know. I know stuff about werewolves, but, it?s like foggy memories of a dream and I don?t know what?s true and what?s fiction. The doctor said that my memory should return very soon so hopefully he?s right.?
She waited for Dirk to reply, but he didn?t. He only nodded.
She leaned the seat back a little and stared up at the moon. She knew there was some power that the moon had over her kind, but she couldn?t remember what it was. ?Do we transform under the full moon?? she asked.
Dirk snorted, ?No, that?s a myth that Hollywood cooked up.?
She returned to silence, staring again at the moon, knowing that it held great significance, she just wasn?t sure how.
?What does the moon mean to us?? she whispered. She couldn?t help herself. The moon was a part of her, of what she was and she needed to know why.
Dirk didn?t answer right away and she leaned up to look over at him. She watched as he licked his lips, seeming to be thinking about how to answer. After a few moments, he said, ?The moon means many things to us. It provides light to us when we are out at night on the hunt or running wild as our kind like to do. It is said to provide the magic that makes our kind exist, but, most importantly, it provides the magic for us to bond with our mates.?
?Mates?? she questioned. She knew that wolves had mates, but the details of the subject were one of the many things that she was unclear about.
She watched as his features softened at the topic. ?A wolf?s mate it is the most important thing in the world to them. We search for our mates, sometimes for centuries before we find them. But the longer we search without finding them, the emptier we feel inside. Wolves are made in pairs and when we don?t find our other half, loneliness can swallow us and turn us into a rogue creature. The wolf half of us is wild and untamed and only our mate can calm the beast inside of us. Without our mate, half of our soul is missing. ?
A knot formed in her stomach and her feeling of despair grew. ?Maybe that?s why I feel so lonely. I don?t have a mate and I don?t remember anything from my past, I?m missing so many pieces.? She sighed and looked out the window but then whipped her head around to look at him excitedly. ?How would I know if I have a mate out there somewhere??
?You don?t,? he answered bluntly.
?How do you