Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Raine
Something wasn’t right. I could feel it. I sense it deep in my soul. Something bad has happened. I just know it has.
Pain.
Rage.
Utter fury.
It’s overwhelming in so many ways, but I understand it somehow. They’re what Dane’s feeling.
I want to take the pain away for him, but I don’t know exactly what’s causing him pain. Did something happen to him? Is he hurt? I need to get to him. To know he’s okay. Safe. Whole.
I can’t stop myself from pacing the length of the room when the front doors are thrown open, and both my parents come rushing through them. My dad’s face is red with anger. Mom’s eyes showed her worry, something she’s rarely ever done. Both come directly to me, engulfing me in their embrace.
I want to be relieved that my mom’s okay. That she wasn’t hurt, or worse. But I can’t stop thinking about Dane and knowing whether or not he’s okay. I don’t like what I’m feeling, and it’s making me want to pull my hair out.
“It’s going to be okay, Rainy,” Mom murmurs and presses a kiss to the side of my head.
“How do you know it’s going to be okay? Do you even know what’s going on?” I ask, knowing she can hear the panic in my voice.
“I know because the Goddess won’t see my daughter lose her other half.”
The door flies open again, and a man who looks so much like Dane steps in, scans the room, and moves directly to where Karsyn is sitting with her son in her arms.
“Hey, Daddy,” Karsyn murmurs, though I don’t miss the hesitancy in her voice and the way her eyes also hold concern.
“Sweetheart,” her dad says, crouching in front of her. “What do you see?”
“You know I can’t tell you that,” Karsyn whispers.
“What’s going on?” Dad demands, his tone getting that booming one he gets when he wants to know something.
Dane’s dad twists his head, looks at me, looks to my parents, gets to his feet, and moves toward us. “I’m Dane’s dad.”
“I know who you are, Daniel,” Dad grunts. “Now, what the hell is going on? All I know is what my son said, and that was get my mate, then get to my daughter.”
“He didn’t tell you that your mate had a gun trained on her while grocery shopping?” Daniel asks, brow cocked.
“Oh, he told me,” Dad grinds out. “I personally took care of that one. Caught him off guard with his sniper rifle trained on my mate. I ripped his throat out before he even knew I was there to do it. Now, what the hell is going on? Why are you asking her what she sees?” he demands, jerking his chin in Karsyn’s direction.
“Daddy,” I murmur, wanting him to calm down.
“I can’t tell him,” Karsyn whispers, getting to her feet. She hands her son to Daniel and looks directly at me. “You feel him. You know. You need to be strong. Accept what the Goddesses above and around you have gifted you. It’s because of them that your brother found you when he did all those years ago. It’s because of them you have those who love you, that protect you. Now, it’s time for you to accept what they’ve given to you. When you do, only then will everything be back to as it should.”
What does that mean?
I don’t understand.
“You’re a dream walker, and he’s your anchor. Only you can reach him when no one else can,” she explains, and I swear I felt my heart plummet.
I nod, tears stinging my eyes. I got what she meant, and it kills me.
I twist away from my parents and clear my throat. “If you all will excuse me. I need to be alone.”
“You don’t need to be alone right now,” my dad growls.
“She does,” Karsyn retorts softly, not taking her eyes off me, and whispers, “save him.”
The tears stinging my eyes, spill over and roll down my cheeks. I nod and rush out to the back of the clubhouse and to my mate’s room. I don’t know what I’m expected to do, but I hope I’m right in what I’m going to do.
“Please let this work,” I murmur to myself, closing the door behind me to his room.
I climb into his bed and curl myself around his pillow, nose pressing to it, smelling leather and cedar, earth, and pine. It’s a head scent, and it’s him.
My Dane.
My mate.
My man.
Mine.
Just as I’m his.
He needs to know he can’t leave me. I need him as he needs me.
Closing my eyes, I allow myself to fall asleep in hopes of searching him out. Hoping to find him to keep him with me where I need him.
The lake is beautiful with the sun sparkling its sunset upon it. The oranges and yellows are nearly breathtaking on the rippling water. As beautiful as the sight is, the sight of the man sitting on the edge of the dock is even more magnificent. Never in all my dreams did I ever see him sitting there. He always stayed where his face was shadowed.
That is until after I met him in real life.
But a part of me knows something’s not right.
There’s a part of him missing .
Moving to him, I reach out and run my fingers through his hair, loving the silk of it all.
“You’re here,” he murmurs, his tone gruff.
“Of course, I am,” I whisper and sit next to him, hanging my legs over the edge of the dock. “What’s happened, Dane?” I turn my head to look at him as I ask him my question.
Dane shifts and looks at me, his eyes were that sapphire blue. “We’ve become one for you. No longer warring within.”
“I don’t understand. I thought you two were already one after merging.” The whole thing is confusing, but I thought with me accepting the bond between Dane and me he was okay. Still, I’d seen his eye color never staying the same.
“We were, but the man in me refused to stop trying to control everything. Never listening to his wolf instincts. Not allowing me to bond with my mate,” he murmurs, raising a hand to stroke the side of my cheek. “We never finished the bonding because of this.”
“Then finish it, Dane. I’m yours, and I don’t want to lose you,” I cry, breath hitching.
Twisting, I straddle his lap, wrapping my legs around his waist. If he wanted to reject me at this moment and shove me away, he’d have to throw me in the lake.
“Do you know what it means to be your anchor? To be your mate?”
“What does it mean?”
Dane leans forward, one arm tight around my waist, the other hand going up and tangling in my hair. “Means everything.”
The words barely leave his lips before he’s kissing me.
Full on. Mouth sealed to mine. Tongue spearing inside in a claiming manor. It’s amazing and thrilling. I love it.
I moan into his mouth to let him know this and find myself rolled off his lap and onto the deck. Our clothes vanish, and he’s pressing inside me. No foreplay needed. Slowly, he takes me. Making me his.
Dane breaks the kiss only to shove his face in my neck right where he’d bitten me the first time, but this time, when he latches his teeth into my neck, it’s not like the first. It feels different. More . . . I don’t even think there’s a word that could explain how powerful it feels. The two of us coming together. In the times before when we’d been like this, I thought we had connected, but it wasn’t like this. He hadn’t fully let me in . . . I could hear him in a way I couldn’t before. It’s the bonding in which he was talking about.
Breathing his name, I hold tight to him, feeling the release he’s building inside me, ready to take me away with its magnitude. When it does, Dane growls against my neck, not letting it go while he pushes me over the edge into something so beautiful. Even better when he joins me. I know it from how his cock thickens and locks in places, his release spurting inside and filling me.
Long moments later, he finally releases my neck and looks down at me, a smile curling his lips. “Now, we’re complete.”
“Good.” I smile back at him and stroke my fingers along his back. “You know if this wasn’t a dream, I might have splinters in my back from this dock.”
Dane chuckles, and in doing so, his cock jerks inside me, making me moan.
“I wouldn’t let so much as a splinter mar your skin, dolcezza ,” he says and dips his head to brush his lips against me.
Suddenly, I remember what I’d fallen asleep for, and I bring my hands to cup either side of his face. “What happened to you?”
“Nothing for you to worry about, baby. I’m coming home to you. I would never leave you. You being here, though, it helps in healing me.”
“What does that mean? Are you hurt?” Panic threatens to overwhelm me.
“I was,” he answers and strums his thumb over my nipple. “It was bad, but you came to me. Accepted what is your gift. There’s more to you than you know, and I’ll tell you, but for now, let me just have you. Here and now. We’ll have time for you to learn everything we both need to know.”
I don’t know what that means, but still, I agree.
The bed dips, stirring me awake. Slowly, I open my eyes to see who it is and blink them open again, gasping at the sight of him. Naked, from the waist up. Hair wet. Chest holding some wicked red welts on it.
“What happened?” I whisper, reaching up to touch his chest. “Are you okay?”
“I’m gonna be okay, dolcezza ,” he murmurs, leaning down to kiss me. “You saw to that, Raine. Saved us when we were dying.”
“You were dying?” Tears spill freely.
“Yeah, but I’m here now. You helped me while Zavier got the bullets out of me. They got me back to the clubhouse where Karsyn did what she could, but it was you who made it so they make this happen.”
“I didn’t do anything but sleep.”
“You kept me grounded, baby. You’re a dream walker, Raine. You used your gift to come to me. To keep me with you,” he murmurs, his eyes going to my neck. “You finished what I didn’t let happen. We’re whole, and my inner war is over.”
“That’s good.” I like that, but still . . . “What did you mean we’ll learn everything we need to know?”
Dane sighs and gets fully in the bed to hold me close. “You need to know I went to look at a potential route for the club. That’s what I was doing when I left earlier, but it turns out it’s a dream walker burial ground. Seems, from what we can gather, you are to be the guardian of those grounds. As your anchor, I’m to help you.”
Whoa.
That’s not what I was expecting.
“There’s more you should know,” Dane says quietly and fills me in on the rest that I wasn’t aware of. By the time he finishes telling me about what Brady told him, I’m stunned speechless. None of it was anything I thought possible. He finishes with, “You don’t have to worry about any of this, though, Raine. It’s over. Brady’s gone. Dead and not coming back. He can’t touch you again. Not even in your dreams.”
I nod and give him a small smile. “So, I’m a dream walker and I’m supposed to be a guardian to a burial ground. My ex is dead, and he long ago made a deal with a demon to become immortal. Only he didn’t think about having his head ripped off. Now, it’s over. Well, except for the first part.”
“Yeah,” he agrees, watching me closely.
“And you’re my anchor. You keep me from becoming someone’s nightmare.”
“Yeah.” Again, he agrees.
“So, I could be your sweetest dream or . . .”
“My most beautiful nightmare,” he finishes, though, that’s not what I was going to say, but still, it works.
I don’t mind being his anything, so long as I was his. Which works out for me because I am his. His mate. His woman. His dolcezza .
Now, without him warring with himself, everything can be as it should be, and neither of us has to worry.
Well, we don’t have to worry about what we have between us, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to worry about what comes next. Not for us, but for the club and those who are close within it.The beauty in all that we have will see us through it all. I just know it.