Marco stood up without answering and walked away from the table. He didn’t want to listen to any more of this. He couldn’t.
Walking purposefully over to Nicky’s table, he stopped beside Logan, who inched subtly away from him and stood beside Nicky. No doubt about where Logan’s allegiance lay, but Marco was glad Nicky had such a loyal friend. He focused on Nicky, though, and spoke softly to him. “Nicky? Are you ready to go upstairs to the office?”
Nicky nodded and stood up, stumbling a little so that Logan steadied him. He seemed to take a deep breath. “I’m ready,” he said.
Marco waited for him to proceed, but when he just stood there, he walked ahead, glancing over his shoulder to make sure he followed. They walked up the stairs with Logan following again. Marco glanced at him, but got a steely look of determination in r
eply. He didn’t care if Logan watched this train wreck. He only wanted to make sure Nicky was okay with it, but Nicky seemed to be almost in a daze, not even watching where he was going.
Marco led the way into his council room where Ian was already waiting. He had the paperwork set out for both of them to sign. At Marco’s nod, he asked quietly, “Nicky, is it your desire to permanently dissolve your mating with Marco?”
Nicky nodded, not looking up at either of them. Ian held out the pen for Nicky to sign at the bottom of the paperwork, and he did so with a trembling hand.
Marco’s hand was none too steady either as Ian asked him the same question and then handed him the pen. Before another word could be said, Nicky quickly turned and hurried from the room. Logan shot Marco one more poisonous look and followed him. It was quiet in the room after the two young men left, and Marco sank into a chair and put his head in his hands.
Ian grasped his shoulder. “Are you all right, Marco? Should I call him back?”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “It’s done, and it was hard enough to do it without talking about it over and over. I feel awful, Ian. What if I’m making a terrible mistake?”
“I think you are. ”
Marco raised his head in surprise at the blunt words of his beta. “What? But the blood match is gone, Ian, and I don’t think Nicky was ever all that happy as an alpha’s pet. He struggled so against it, and now he’s free to make a different life for himself. ”
“By doing what? He’s in the pack for life, and that won’t change. I suppose he could take another mate. Certainly there will be many, both male and female, who will want him. How will that feel, Marco, to watch him with someone else? Knowing what some other wolf is doing to him when he gets him behind closed doors?”
“Shut up, Ian!”
“All right. I’m sure you thought all this through, but I know I could never stand by while some other wolf pawed all over Logan. My God, it would drive me crazy. ”
“You and Logan are in love, Ian. ”
“That’s right, we are,” Ian said thoughtfully. “Very much in love. And yet we don’t have a bloodmatch. ”
Ian gathered the papers and walked stiffly to the door, while Marco looked after him with a stunned expression. He sat for a long time after Ian left, dreading going back to his rooms, so empty now without Nicky. He was terribly afraid he wouldn’t be able to sleep and would stay awake half the night, haunted by that lost, bitter expression on Nicky’s face.
“That was Dr. Cornsilk. He has some information for you and needs to speak to you at the hospital. Would you like me to come along?” Ian stood at the door of his office early the next morning, his face once more the mask of his calm beta.
Marco nodded, not really wanting to be alone. He stood up and sighed in exhaustion. His prophecy from the night before had come true. He had slept poorly, plagued by restless dreams and a feeling of unease. “Did he say what it was about?”
Ian shook his head. “No, just that you should come right away. He’s found something in the notes about the amnesia. ”
Marco nodded and got up from his desk to leave right away. He thought about going by to check on Nicky before he left, even started to go down the hallway to his room, but turned away. He should leave Nicky alone for a while. He could check on him when they returned.
Driving into town, Ian was quiet, barely saying a word, just watching the road. Marco, too, was preoccupied and silent. They drove into the hospital parking lot and made their way inside. Dr. Cornsilk nodded respectfully to his alpha as Marco and Ian came into his office. “It’s good to see you looking so well, Marco. A bit tired, perhaps…”
Marco sat down in a chair in front of his desk. Ian sat beside him. “I’ve been going through some things,” Marco said.
“Oh?” The doctor raised an eyebrow at Marco, but Marco stared steadily back at him, unwilling to say more. “Well, uh, I called you in to speak to you about the amnesia you have with Nicky. I’ve been looking through the records, and we found the name of the man who must have been the one to jab you with the hypodermic needle. We’re almost positive his name was Arthur Bennett. Dr. Arthur Bennett, the doctor in charge of the laboratory at the complex. ”
“What the hell did he jab into me?”
Dr. Cornsilk looked down at his file. “From what we can determine, he was working on a genetically engineered virus. This virus was targeted directly at the bloodmatch. As you know, discovering a way to end the blood match was an interest of the Hunters for years. They believed that they could use this to destroy the matches of all the human so-called victims and thus free them from what they termed their bondage to their wolf mates. The idea was to make a vaccine targeted at killing the blood factor causing the match. I think he used one of his experimental vaccines on you, Marco. ”
“And that’s why I forgot Nicky? And almost every memory associated with Nicky?”
“Yes, I believe so. According to the records we found, this was his latest vaccine, completely untested on any subjects. You’re damn lucky it didn’t kill you. ”
“It destroyed my match with Nicky,” Marco said quietly. “So in one way at least they did destroy me. ”