Page 31 of Anders
Anders nodded, his expression grim.Someone’s been using you.The mark on your neck—it’s some kind of control mechanism, we think.Alongside chemical suppression to keep you from shifting or remembering what you are.
Chemical suppression,Etta repeated, remembering the words from her unwitting note.That’s why everything feels so…intense right now?Because of it?Or because it’s wearing off?
I think because it’s wearing off,Anders said.He moved slowly into the kitchen, still giving her plenty of space as he refilled her coffee mug.Your senses are returning to their natural state.It can be overwhelming at first.
Etta took the mug when he offered it, careful not to let their fingers touch.She wasn’t ready for that, not yet.How do you know all this?
I don’t,he admitted.Not for certain.But we’ve been piecing it together since you arrived.The mark on your neck matches one Sarah saw years ago, on a man who came to check the pack’s security systems while Vincent—our former alpha—was in charge.
Vincent,Etta murmured.The name triggered something—a face glimpsed in her research, cold eyes that had seemed familiar even when she’d first seen the photo.
Anders watched her carefully.You recognize the name?
I don’t know,she said honestly.Maybe.Everything’s jumbled.I keep getting these…flashes.Memories, I guess.But they don’t fit with what I thought I knew about myself.
Your real memories are breaking through,Anders suggested, leaning against the counter.His posture was casual, but Etta noticed how his eyes constantly tracked her movements, assessing.The chemical suppressionisfailing.
And that’s why I can hear your heartbeat from across the room?Why everything smells so intense?Why my eyes keep…changing?
Anders nodded.Your wolf is waking up.
My wolf,Etta echoed.The words should have felt ridiculous, but instead they resonated with something deep inside her.You make it sound like it’s separate from me.
It’s not,Anders said.The wolf is you, just a different aspect.We’re taught to think of ourselves as whole beings—not human with a wolf inside, but one complete entity that can take different forms.
Etta stared into her coffee, watching ripples form from the slight tremor in her hands.I keep writing things.Notes about the pack, about myself.Like I’m some kind of…specimen.
They trained you to observe and report,Anders said.Probably alongside the memory suppression.But you didn’t know what you were doing—that’s obvious from how distressed you are now.
A sleeper agent,Etta whispered.Like in spy novels.
But real,Anders confirmed.And if they did it to you…
They could have done it to others,Etta finished, a chill running through her.Other packs could be compromised without knowing it.
Anders’s expression darkened.That’s what worries me.
Etta’s fingers twitched with the need to write again—to document this conversation, this revelation.But now she fought the compulsion, recognizing it for what it was: programming, not choice.
Who are ‘they’?she asked instead.Who did this to me?
That’s what we need to figure out,Anders said.Do you remember anything about the facility?The people who kept you there?
Etta closed her eyes, trying to sort through the fragments of memory.White walls.Men in lab coats.They kept calling me ‘the subject’ or ‘the asset.’
What else?
Etta shook her head, frustrated.Nothing else.
Tell me about your life, about how these visions fit in.
She shrugged helplessly.They don’t fit in.It’s like random images that show up at weird times.I’ve told you about the one from when I was small—but then the rest of my childhood is perfectly normal.I was born in Billings, Montana.My father’s an insurance adjuster, and my mother’s a housewife.We’reboring.
Anders was already shaking his head.You may have grown up in Billings, but I don’t think you were born there.And you’re definitely not boring.
Etta let out a harsh laugh.Worse, I’m beginning to doubt my parents are even really my parents.
Why would you say that?
