Reclaimed

Summary: Cami Ayad wanted a normal life, a life without Werewolves but fate had other plans. Drawn to Rafael Casillas without knowing why, everything changed the moment her necklace came off, and the truth was revealed. They were mates.

But fate can be cruel.

When Cami’s life hung in the balance, Alpha Rafael threw himself after her, saving her but losing his memories in the fall.

Now the most ruthless Alpha in the country has no recollection of her, their bond, or the dark secret she confessed before everything shattered.

To the world, Alpha Rafael is feared. To Cami, he is both protector and threat, the man destined to be hers but capable of destroying her all the same.

And one question haunts her: when Alpha Rafael learns the truth of what she told him before the fall, will he claim her as his mate or cast her aside forever?

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Chapter One

The human mind is a remarkable thing. It can imagine entire futures that don’t exit, it can remember song lyrics from years ago but forget where you put your keys five minutes later. It can replay conversations you wish you’d handled differently, over and over again, until you’re sure you’ve gone mad.

It can dream, create, lie, and love, all at once. That’s kind of incredible, isn’t it? How something invisible, something you can’t even touch, controls everything about who you are.

But it’s also terrifying.

Because your mind doesn’t always ask permission. It decides what you get to remember and what you don’t. Sometimes it hides things from you, not out of cruelty, but protection. It locks certain memories away, deep down where you can’t reach them. Maybe that’s mercy, maybe it’s the only way to keep you standing.

Still, there’s something unsettling about it. The idea that you could lose entire parts of yourself and not even notice. That you could forget moments that once defined you. People. Feelings. Whole stretches of time — gone, like they never existed.

Maybe one day something triggers it, a smell, a sound, a word, and it all comes flooding back, or maybe it never does. Maybe those memories stay buried forever, ghosts of who you used to be.

The mind can create, and the mind can destroy. It can be the safest place in the world, or the most dangerous one.

I didn’t think wearing the same dress I’d worn when I first met him would trigger such a reaction. The way his face twisted, the way he clutched at his head as if whatever he was seeing was burning through his skull. It tore through him, left him gasping like he’d been hit.

I have no idea what memory from the first time we met could cause that kind of pain. We had barely interacted or spoken that evening. He had reacted as if he’d just remembered something that set his entire world on fire. I did tap him with my car at the end of the evening, but I could have sworn he found that more amusing and entertaining not horrific, I was the one that was horrified.

I was advised by both Beta Jonah and Doctor Halden to not try anything else to trigger his memory and I followed their instructions, not wanting a repeat of what had occurred last week to happen again.

I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, was I supposed to not talk about the past? Only talk about certain things? But how would I know what would trigger him and what wouldn’t? If I didn’t talk to him about the past, how would he remember what happened between us? How would he remember me?

It felt strange being with him, being the only one who remembered us and whatever we were. He was still him, but it didn’t feel the same. There was a distance now, something hollow between the words. I could tell he was frustrated, trying to remember what we were like, what I was like and how we used to be together.

We were never together though, we didn’t have an actual relationship. He was an Alpha and I was a human paying off her debt. There was obviously something there between us, despite the necklace masking it, but we weren’t a couple.

It wasn’t like I could tell him what we used to do together, places we used to go, inside jokes or anything like that. If I thought about it deeply, I wasn’t sure what exactly we had together.

Lingering looks, soft touches, desire, need and lust.

How was I supposed to get him to remember that?

But then there were these random things he did remember, things that didn’t make sense. He knew how my how I liked my coffee, preferably mocha with two sugars. He knew which route I prefer when walking to lectures. He even knew my top three favourite perfumes.

How did he remember the small, insignificant things, but not the main ones? The ones that actually mattered?

What even stranger was that I don’t even remember drinking coffee in front of him. I’ve never seen him on campus, so how would he know I always choose the crowded path instead of the quiet one? I’ve only worn the same perfume since I got to Uni, so how did he know the other two I used to wear?

He remembered things he shouldn’t, things I didn’t think he ever knew in the first place. Maybe I was overthinking it. Maybe I was the one not remembering everything properly.

Perhaps it was Erin who told him, after all she was assigned by Alpha Rafael to watch over me. Though her role was to watch over me, I don’t know why she would inform him about my coffee order.

It was strange with Erin. I never quite knew how to act around her, and she seemed just as uncertain. She was polite now, friendly even, which was almost unsettling considering how she’d been before, sharp-tongued, distant, always ready with a snarky comment or an eye-roll. This version of her smiled too much, spoke too gently, and treated me like porcelain she didn’t want to break. I don’t know if that was worse than the times she spoke to me like someone addressing a stranger with power, cautious, rehearsed, and overly respectful.

Finding out that someone had been keeping an eye on me was unsettling enough but learning that they would continue to do so was worse. She’d said it was for my safety, that Alpha Rafael had insisted on it before he lost his memories. Apparently, that was the explanation he’d given her, for my safety and since he couldn’t fully remember the exact reasons, he said it must have been that and Erin might as well continue.

No, she might as well not continue!I had told him. I didn’t want anyone spying on me, that’s what that was, even if they tried to frame it differently, they were spying on me.

Alpha Rafael’s lack of memory left me with too many questions and nowhere to put them. Frustration didn’t even begin to cover it, it felt like trying to piece together a puzzle when half the pieces had been burned. I couldn’t blame Alpha Rafael for it, as this had only happened because of me and he looked frustrated with himself as well, with the things he’d done and couldn’t explain, the decisions that made no sense even to him. Watching him try to understand his own past was almost painful, like seeing someone read a story they wrote but can’t remember writing, one that didn’t end the way they thought it would.

And it wasn’t just Erin. It was everyone. The air had changed since the news spread and it had spread faster than I could’ve imagined, through the pack, the university, probably half the city by now. I couldn’t go anywhere without whispers following me like shadows. I could feel it in the way people spoke to me, the way their eyes followed me. Being Alpha Rafael’s mate had turned me into something else, not quite a person anymore, more like a symbol everyone had opinions about.

What used to be normal such as a lecture, a walk to the library, a coffee run, now felt like being on display. People stared, some out of curiosity, others with envy, some with open disbelief.

Alpha Rafael jumping off a building to save me, a human, had once seemed like the most unbelievable part of the story, but now, among the Werewolves, it was practically folklore. Some thought it was romantic, some said it was proof of the bond, that he’d done what any true mate would do. Others still looked at me like they couldn’t quite understand how someone like me could be bound to someone like him. I didn’t blame them because I couldn’t believe it myself either.

A few, much to my absolute horror, had started calling me Luna. The title felt heavy and foreign, like a crown I hadn’t agreed to wear. Some used it casually, others with too much reverence, bowing their heads slightly or nodding when they passed me.

Everywhere I went, I could feel eyes on me. I couldn’t breathe without wondering who was watching, what they were thinking. It felt like living in a glass box, visible from every angle, every move scrutinised, every mistake magnified. I was constantly aware of myself in a way I had never been before, and it was exhausting.

The only place I felt remotely human was in my place. At least there, I could breathe without having eyes on me. Saoirse, thankfully, wasn’t too bothered by the fact that I was Alpha Rafael’s mate. She made a few jokes, asked whether I could pull some strings to get her punishment reduced now that I apparently had some say in how the pack and city was run.

I did mention it to Alpha Rafael, and he agreed quickly like he didn’t even care about the punishments in the first place. He told me he’d handed out those punishments, to all of us, because it was the only excuse he had to keep me close without drawing attention.

At the time, I had no idea that was the reason behind it. I had thought it was for what we had done, the trespassing, the damage, the mess that spiralled out of control. Someone had died, and I’d broken a vase worth half a million pounds. The punishment had felt fair and even deserved.

So when I found out the real reason, or at least part of it, I didn’t know what to do with that information. I wasn’t angry, not exactly, just unsettled. I didn’t know if I was supposed to be flattered or pleased with the idea that he needed to be around me and would have done anything for that to happen or annoyed that he had stressed and worried me for no reason.

When my lecture finally ended, I tugged on my thick coat and wound my scarf tightly around my neck, bracing myself for the bite of the winter air waiting outside. The cold at this time of year had a way of creeping into your bones, sharp and persistent, no matter how many layers you wore.

I shoved my hands deep into my pockets and tried to look as though I didn’t notice the stares. You’d think that after a few weeks, people would have found something else to talk about, some new scandal, someone else to whisper about, but apparently, I was still the most fascinating topic around. Their eyes followed me as I made my way across campus, curious, speculative, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes not. I’d learned to ignore it or at least pretend to.

It wasn’t until I stepped outside that I saw it, the car. Sleek, black, expensive in that quiet, understated way that screamed power without needing to show off. The kind of car that didn’t belong on university grounds, especially not in a no-parking zone right outside the main building. Of course, it hadn’t been towed, no one would dare. There was only one person who could park there without question.

The tinted windows caught the weak winter sunlight, reflecting the grey sky and the bare trees that lined the path. For a second, I just stood there, watching my breath fog in front of me, my pulse picking up even before I knew why.

Then I heard it, my name, carried across the cold air.

“Cami.”

The sound of his voice made my heart stutter, made something in my chest tighten before I could stop it.

And there he was.

Alpha Rafael, my mate.

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A/N: I hope you guys liked the first chapter!

Thank you for reading and thank you so much for your support ☺️

-Kay xx