He used to be my best friend. I hadn’t forgotten the way he’d been my rock for so many years, but that had all changed when my father died. Since then, we’d been enemies.

In the past week, I’d only seen him two times, and neither had ended well as I’d screamed about my memory loss and everyone hiding shit from me. He’d called me insane, and I’d repeatedly thought about ripping his throat out.

Speaking of, my wolf growled, spreading our legs into a better position to attack if needed.

Jaxson’s wolf didn’t care, ignoring my hostility as he bounced forward and nudged me. That was all my wolf needed to shut down our anger, as she nudged him back, wanting to play and frolic with her pack. Me holding us back from pack life was no doubt adding to her melancholy.

I’d never felt this dark and low before, not even during the worst of the pack’s treatment. These depressive episodes were… like their own entity, and no matter how hard I worked to claw my way free, it sucked me under every day. It was even worse than when my father had died because at least then, I’d known why. I’d understood the grief.

Today, I understood nothing.

Jaxson tried to roll me over, and I forced my wolf down, sending another growl his way. The sound ripped from my chest with ferocity, and the beta backed off. I was the alpha-mate, but technically, my power came from Torin’s position in the pack, not from my own wolf. As the beta, Jaxson only obeyed my will because he wanted to, not because I was more powerful.

Kind of bullshit if you asked me.

There was a swirl of magically charged energy in the air, and then Jaxson was on two feet, his black hair slightly tousled, as his dark eyes locked in on me. He stepped forward, his feet bare, along with the rest of the very impressive body attached to them. Tall and lanky, he was ripped in all the right places, but unlike the previous times I’d seen his body, I felt nothing but a cold emptiness inside. I was viewing him like I would Michaelangelos’s statue of David. His form was nice, but it stirred no attraction within me.

With that in mind, I shifted back myself, making sure to keep a decent distance between us. “What do you want, Jaxson?”

He looked taken aback by the abrupt nature of my tone. “It’s after five, babe. You know we have that mixer tonight.”

My foot was swinging toward him before I thought about it, and the guy probably got an eyeful of vagina as I kicked him solidly in the chest. He flew backwards, which was… odd because I wasn’t really strong enough to do that to a male of his size.