The common denominator was shifters were exploited for their DNA and then tossed aside like we were nothing more than an experiment instead of people with hearts, souls, and lives like anyone else.
I took her hand, waiting for her to look at me again. “How old do you think you were in that vision with the pool?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure. Maybe six or seven?”
Old enough to remember. Could someone block her memories of Ridgemont? I didn’t know, but if Nero was involved, I wouldn’t put it past them.
She plucked a rubber band from her pants pocket and pulled her wet hair back into a ponytail. “I’ve never thought about it, but the only memories I have from that time are summers home with my brother. Maybe he was at another school.”
“A boarding school?” My jaw tensed.
A few of the females in the Reno Pack with powerful psychic gifts had been sent to Brightwood Academy in New York. The Nero Organization used the school to find females and develop their gifts for their jaguar-shifter-breeding program. Lana’s mother had been part of that program.
Could they have had a boarding school in California, too?
“Yeah, maybe.” She searched my eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“I’ll fill you in on the hike back to the truck.” I lifted our joined hands to my lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Safe to say, I think you’re far from ordinary, and I think someone tried to keep you from ever finding that out.”
“You think they erased my memories?”
“No.” We started down the trail while I scanned the shadowed valley ahead of us. “I think they repressed them, and whoever keeps connecting with you telepathically is the key.”
CHAPTER 14
Madison
I walked the trail back toward the truck, lost in my thoughts. Repressed memories. What else had I forgotten? I looked over at Cole. “If Ridgemont is a place or a school, how could someone keep me from remembering being there?
He shrugged, glancing over at me. “I’m not sure. There was another defense contractor before Deidra and Evolution Defense, called the Nero Organization. The government didn’t know that the owner was a jaguar shifter with aspirations to build our numbers until we could be the ruling population.”
My eyebrows lifted. “World domination?”
“I guess.” He shook his head, focusing on the trail ahead. “One of his experiments involved breeding jaguar shifters with human women who had psychic abilities. Normally, a shifter has to convert a female, bite her, before she can conceive. Anyway, Lana, Adam’s mate in Reno was the first female ever born as a shifter. Her mother was part of that program. She went to a boarding school in New York called, Brightwood Academy.”
“Is Lana psychic?” Nervous laughter threatened to bubble from my lips. Never in a million years would I have guessed I’d be asking questions like this.
“I don’t think so. She inherited the shifter gene and passed it on to her daughter.” He took my hand, helping me navigate down a little hill in the dark. When we were back on flat ground he went on, “But there are three other women in their pack that are. They all went to Brightwood too. One can see glimpses of the future, one is an empath, and another one can start fires with her mind.”
What kind of gift was I going to awaken if I regained all my memories? By the time we reached Cole’s truck, my hands were shaking. This couldn’t be real. Would my parents really have sent me away when I was a little girl?
It wasn’t a stretch. My brother had gone to a military academy for primary school until he’d finally won the fight with our parents to let him attend public high school. If I’d shown any sign of a psychic ability as a child, I could easily see them shipping me off someplace to be “cured.”
Maybe they even believed I had been.
Once we were inside the truck, Cole glanced my way. “It’s almost midnight. Probably too late to call Chandler tonight, although they may be awake with the newborns.”
“I need some sleep anyway.” I rested my hand on his thigh. “Don’t run for the hills, but I’d like to sleep at your place if you’re good with it.” I met his eyes, relieved he didn’t recoil at the suggestion. “I swear I’m not trying to cling to you like a suckerfish, but I’d feel better not being alone right now.”
He leaned over and kissed me. “I was going to ask you to stay with me anyway, but I didn’t want you to bolt.”
I smiled as he straightened behind the wheel. At least we were on the same page. I looked over at him. “This thing between us goes against everything I always thought was ‘normal’ for a relationship. I have no idea where the boundaries are, especially when we can hear each other’s thoughts sometimes.”
He started the truck and got onto the main road. “My mom claims that normal is highly overrated.” He glanced my way. “I’m not scared, though. Are you?”
“Not scared. Maybe still a little insecure, but not scared.” I looked his way, memorizing the strong angles of his face. “You don’t know very much about me. What if you hate that I snore?”
He laughed, sneaking a peek over at me. “Do you snore?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I’ve never had anyone complain, but I’ve also never really shared a bed with the same person more than once or twice anyway.”
That sounded promiscuous, but the truth was, I’d never had a real relationship before. The thought made me curious about Cole, but did I really want to know?
“What about you? Do you snore?” I asked.
“No.” He looked my way. “And just to be clear, I won’t care if you do.”
I glanced out the passenger window into the darkness. “Did you ever…get confirmation you don’t snore?” Apparently, I did want to know about his past relationships. But dancing around it wasn’t really my style. I turned toward him. “What I’m really asking is if you’ve ever lived with someone before.”
His gaze flicked to me, then back to the road. “Does it matter?”
“Not really. I’m just curious.” That was all true. But there was something else lurking in the shadows. I’d already been open with him about my philosophy to only give my heart if it was going to be forever. Now, here he was, sitting right beside me, and I was pulling at threads to find a reason to cut and run. At the pond while our bodies were joined, he’d promised me his heart, his protection, and his life. Wasn’t that enough?
Shit. Maybe I hadn’t been waiting for real love, I’d been hiding from it. It really was an excuse.
Before I could rescind my question, Cole broke the silence. “I did once. Her name was Cathy. We were in vet school together.”
“Sorry.” I shook my head, staring out the window. “I shouldn’t have asked. It’s none of my business.”
He pulled onto a cul-de-sac and into the driveway of a two-story house. He opened the garage door and drove inside. After turning off the engine, he looked over at me. “I know we haven’t known each other long, but I want to know everything about you. That goes both ways. You can ask me anything.”