Page 66 of Fastlander Fighter

Disgusted with himself, he ripped his gaze away from the mirror, pushed his grey sweats off and onto the floor, then turned the shower on as hot as it would go.

He didn’t feel it, but he knew it was hot from the steam that wafted from his skin.

What the hell?

The heavy, devastated sound that wafted from his lungs stunned him. He huffed breath and his eyes burned, and he didn’t understand. Captain went to the shower floor, squatting as he gripped the back of his hair and praying this awful moment of weakness would pass.

Something was wrong with his insides.

Unblock her.

Silver’s words read across his mind so smoothly, and he opened his eyes. Water was streaming down his hair to his nose and running off to the shower floor.

Unblock her.

Do it. There was the bear, but his gruff voice was pleading for the first time Captain could remember.

The water was still running pink, but who cared? Not him.

He dragged himself out of the shower, wrapped a towel around his waist, sauntered back into the living room where his phone sat on the coffee table, and did as Silver asked.

He unblocked the woman she’d asked him about earlier, found the messages she’d sent him while she’d been blocked, and then he sat there and toggled back and forth between the two pictures she’d sent.

That was him.

He was in these pictures.

He was kissing her cheek in the first one, and he was grinning like he understood true happiness in the second one, with a woman and a young boy of maybe six or seven. He knew that kid from somewhere, but his memories were so blurry. It was like trying to see through muddy water, and the more he tried to remember, the more his stomach ached.

Something had happened to him to make him forget those moments of happiness, but when he tried to reach for the reasons why, he felt like retching.

I know you. Send.

A wave of pain sliced through his middle. He doubled over, sank down on the couch, and put his phone down face-up. Perhaps if he wasn’t touching the phone, the ache would lessen.

We were happy for a little while, she texted back.

How long ago? Send.

A week.

Captain scrubbed his hands over his face and tried so hard to remember. Was she messing with him? Another wave of ache cut through his middle.

What is the boy’s name. Does it start with an R? Send.

Yes. Ruger. You were helping coach his baseball team.

A flash of him giving a kid a high five, and then the kid throwing his baseball glove into the air and trying to catch it, washed across his mind. His echoing laugh bounced around his brain, and he winced as the hurt pierced his head in the beginnings of a migraine.

This was either an Alpha order or a witch’s curse. He would bet on the former, knowing his fuckface brother. What else could mess him up like this?

There was one last question he needed to know the answer to. One that mattered very much.

Did I sleep with you? This one doubled him over with a splitting headache, so he had to rush to hit send.

You really don’t remember?

He grimaced at the pain that was racking his body. Now he could feel his injuries. He tried so hard to remember the woman in the pictures, but he only remembered her younger face with a different hairstyle. From high school. He’d Changed in front of her at homecoming. Homecoming. He’d kissed her…and then…and then…fuck!

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