Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Dane
I didn’t want to leave the bed. Leaving it meant leaving Raine. She fell asleep in my arms, and those silent tears were killer on my sanity. It’d been a struggle to hold it together for her. To not go out and hunt the son of a bitch down and kill him tonight. But I needed to take care of her first.
Before anything could be done about him, I knew I needed to take care of her. My wolf and I felt the pain together, and it shredded us as one. The shredding of my sanity depends on Raine. I came to terms with this while I’d been out. She’d been through hell and didn’t tell anyone about it. Not her parents. Not her brother. But because I’m her mate, it’s my responsibility to not only protect her and keep her safe, but it’s also my job to do whatever it takes to make those who cause her any pain suffer.
To be able to accomplish anything that needs to be done, I’m gonna have to get Raine to agree to the mating. Not that she hasn’t already. I can sense it in her, but I’ve got to take her, feel her body accept me for who I am, know that she’s taking me as not just the man but also the wolf that lives inside me, that’s finally becoming one with the rest of who I am.
I’ve got to meet with my brothers. I need to know what Coby knows about Contreras and his business. The bastard sent his men after my mate. No matter the fact she didn’t tell him about her brother and parents being shifters, I’ve got a feeling he might know, even if his men don’t. Why else would he be treating Raine as he had?
Then again, there’s a chance he doesn’t know about shifters and is working his way this way because he knows Raine’s brother is the VP of his club and plans to try and bring them into his business by using Raine as a way of getting his way.
I wasn’t going to take chances either way. Raine was going to stay safe. I’d see to it, and I’d make sure she didn’t get near any of his men or him. I just hope she doesn’t get pissy with me when I set the rules to keep her safe. It doesn’t take a genius to know she’s independent and doesn’t like for others to get in her business. Or to keep her from living as she wants to live . . . free.
I get it. Any shifter would understand her feeling this way.
Silently, I leave the room. I waited a moment longer outside my door, listening for any chance she woke up. With her body still healing and everything else that was going on in that head of hers, I know she’s been exhausted. A lot longer than one actually knows. Knowing what I know now, I’m not going to let anyone stress her to the point of her getting upset again.
Satisfied she’s good, I head for the main room to find all of my brothers already there.
“You good, brother?” Corbin asks, eyes locked on me.
“I’m good.” Nodding, I wasn’t exactly lying. For the time being, I am. The run earlier helped clear my head, restoring my sanity from the madness that wanted to take hold of me. I don’t wish what I’m dealing with on anyone. Whoever the witch was that cursed my family line was one sick and twisted bitch.
“We gotta talk about Raine,” Justice announces.
They’d found me earlier in the woods. Instead of doing this then, they left me be, giving me the time I needed. Some of them had even shifted and ran through the woods right alongside me.
“What do we know about this Contreras fuckwad?” I ask, scanning the room and locking in on Coby.
“Before we get into that, how about you answer us about how you are able to be in your mate’s dreams? I thought only those of dream walkers can do that.”
At Justice’s words, I freeze up.
What?
“Dream walkers and their mates, if they have one, it would seem,” Tucker injects into the conversation.
“Y’all think Raine’s a dream walker?” I ask, not wanting to believe that Raine could be a one.
Hell, I didn’t think they even existed. They’re a part of legends. Supposedly, they keep themselves hidden from the world. They had to in order to keep the evil from taking them and using them for dark magic.
Being a dream walker doesn’t seem like a big deal, but they are. They have access to the dream world and can get to those who sleep, where they’re most vulnerable.
She doesn’t know she’s a dream walker. It’s our job to protect her and keep her safe. We’ve always been her protector. Her anchor.
My wolf makes sense. But still, he doesn’t. How can she not know she’s a dream walker?
“I talked to Cyrus a bit ago. Asked him a few questions. He told me that when she was a baby, Bandit found her. She’d been left in the woods on the edge of Redwich. Parents took her in, adopted her. They never looked into seeing who her parents were, but that didn’t mean they didn’t keep an ear out for anyone coming to look for her at a later date. To this day, no one has ever come for her.”
“So, they don’t know about her?” I demand, my wolf growing impatient with the thought of anyone knowing what she is.
“From what I guess,” Corbin mutters, shaking his head, “No. They don’t know. No one knew.”
“We need to keep it that way.” If it means taking her away from there, then that’s what I’ll do.
“Don’t worry, brother, this isn’t something we’re going to let get out,” Justice grunts. “It’s why no one but brothers are in here right now. We sent the doxies away for the evening to have this conversation.”
I nod, appreciating them doing this. “I’ll have to talk to Raine. She deserves to know about this.”
“How about you hold off on that for the time being? I want to talk to Karsyn, and see if she has any answers.”
Again, I nod, I could see the reasoning for this. My sister, she’s one hell of a powerful witch. She’s not just a regular earth witch, though. She had connections to the goddesses and could siphon energy as a conductor. It’s one of the reasons the blood witches would love to get their hands back on her. Her and Cyrus’s mate, Harmony.
If the blood witches were to ever find out about Raine and the fact that she’s a dream walker, they’d stop at nothing to get her to use as they saw fit.
“See what she says,” I grumble. “Now, about Contreras . . .”
“Brady Contreras and his organization are rising quickly in the ranks. He’s taken over several other groups, making his way north and south. I believe he’s expanding to take over the entire East Coast,” Coby reports, shifting slightly in his seat, leaning his chair back on two legs.
“He know about our world?” Tucker asks.
“According to Raine she never told him,” I answer.
“It’s undetermined at the moment if he knows or not,” Cody also adds. “One of the organizations he took over was a smaller gang that was all shifters. ”
“They working for him?” I whip my head around to my Prez and the venom in his voice.
“From what I’ve found, no, but then again, I haven’t found anything else on them. It’s like they’ve disappeared altogether.”
The air in the room shifts completely at this intel Coby divulges. This isn’t exactly something any of us want to hear.
“Does Orpheus know about any of this?” I find myself asking. The Vampire King might be in the line of the usual shit that hits the streets for humans, but it doesn’t mean he’s not in the line of work regarding drugs.
Hell, we’re his protection when it comes to getting it out of Redwich and to other locations.
“Don’t know, but figured I’d put a call into him. Set a meet,” Corbin remarks tersely.
Ever since mating with my sister, a sister I didn’t even know about until the same time frame, he’s lost the chilling harshness, but he’s still a force to be reckoned with, and he doesn’t like anything fucking with his club or family.
Those days, though, when he first met Karsyn, she’d been unpredictable, hell she still is. Because of her, we’d set an even tighter alliance with the vampires. Orpheus being the strongest, most powerful of them all.
“I make the meet, I want you there, Dane. You and Tucker,” Corbin adds and looks to Justice. “Talk to Aziz and see if his sister has seen anything in her visions.”
“You want me to see if the seer has seen anything?” Justice asks blatantly.
I couldn’t blame him. There wasn’t anything wrong with the woman, but she sees things that she shouldn’t, same as Karsyn. The only difference is, my sister keeps it to herself. Aziz’s sister doesn’t. She has no problem telling you what’s going to happen to you just to see you react.
“Yeah, VP. Need you to do this,” Corbin states, watching Justice closely. “You gonna be able to do that?”
“You know I’ll be able to do it,” Justice grinds out.
One thing about my VP. He doesn’t trust easily, and he definitely doesn’t trust women unless they earn his trust. That’s something that takes a hell of a lot for them to be able to do. To him, there’s nothing that can get through his shields without something massive happening. When it comes to Sibley, she can see this in him and, if she wishes, could use it against him.
“Right.” Corbin nods and looks at me. He opens his mouth to say something, only to stop when we all hear the sounds of footsteps coming down the hall. The scent of my mate fills my nostrils. “We’ll finish this later,” he grunts and motions to the others meeting over.
I nod and make my way toward the hall, getting to my woman just as she makes it to the mouth of it. “You okay?” I ask, wrapping an arm around her waist.
Slowly, Raine lifts her head, and I realize she’s not awake. She’s sleepwalking.
Furrowing my brow, I don’t want to startle her, but I’ve got to get her back to my room.Does she even know she does this? She hadn’t mentioned it.
It’s because I’m not with her in her dream.
“Why does that matter?” I mutter to myself, speaking to my wolf.
Because we’re her anchor. We protect her.
Right.
With gentle moves, I scoop her in my arms and carry her back in the direction of my room. She left the door wide open. Stepping into the room, I use my booted foot to close it behind us and move directly to the bed. Keeping her in my arms, I pull the covers back and lay her beneath them.
While removing my boots and clothes, I keep my eyes on her, watching her closely. Her eyes were still open, but they weren’t right. They were unfocused. Joining her in the bed, I pull her to me, and she curls closer, a sigh leaving her lips.
Fuck me.
This woman wasn’t making things easy for me. If I don’t get her beneath me soon, I might lose the war waging inside my head. Not because of my sanity, but because the wolf wants her just as much, and if he had his way, he’d have already had her. If she were any other woman, I’d be right there with him, but she’s our mate. She doesn’t need the pressure of what either of us wants. We’ll wait for when she’s ready regardless of what we not only want but need.