Chapter 17
Everly
That was the first night the dreams started.
I was standing in a grassy field. Wind rippled through the blades as I looked around me. There were no trees here, not like there had been in the other dream, and no river either.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
There was, however, an Elandor.
I turned to greet the dragon, who was watching me bemusedly.
This is going to be a regular thing, isn’t it, treasure?
I shrugged sheepishly. “I have no idea what I’m doing. I just woke up here.” I paused. “I’m sorry I yanked you out of Alaric again.” I hunched my shoulders. “Do you think he’s worried?” I asked softly.
Elandor chuckled. I don’t think he’s worried about my absence—not after last time, no. I do, however, think he’s worried about what it means.
I frowned at him. “What it means?”
That you are dreamseeking. And, worse to his mind, that he’s not here to protect you.
“Oh.” Then I brightened. “But you’re here. You’ll protect me, right?”
He peered down at me from his great height, his eyes a brilliant, glowing green. You do not need protection here, treasure, though I will protect you should you need it.
I rolled my shoulders back and looked around again. “Okay, let’s get this show on the road.”
Elandor chuckled, but I ignored him and closed my eyes to concentrate. On what, I had no idea.
Try to feel for the golden threads, Elandor suggested.
I nodded, picturing what I’d seen earlier—the golden thread, shining and shimmery, glowing from within, strong as reinforced steel cable.
I focused, calling up the image in my mind, then opened my eyes—and gasped.
The whole field was covered in golden threads.
There were hundreds of them. Thousands.
And every one of them was connected to me. It was like a bizarre, tangled maze, that frankly, made me nauseous.
I reached out to steady myself against Elandor’s massive foot as I stared open-mouthed at the glowing landscape. The light was so bright it left afterimages on the backs of my eyelids. I had to blink several times to clear them.
“Elandor. Tell me you see them all.”
I do. His voice was hushed and reverent.
I sank to my knees in the grass, my legs giving out beneath me. “How will I ever help them all?” I whispered in anguish. “There are too many! I couldn’t help them even if I had a hundred lifetimes!”
Elandor was silent for a long moment before saying, You help them, my treasure, one shifter at a time.
My gaze swept the golden field in dismay. Would one shifter at a time ever be enough in the face of so many?
It will matter, he said softly. It will matter to the one you helped.
He was right. I drew in a shaky breath, then let it out slowly. I might not be able to help them all, but for the ones I did help, my efforts would matter.
“Okay,” I said as I fought to stand again. All I wanted to do was lean on Elandor and have him steer this insane boat, but this was my magic, and my responsibility. “Any suggestions on which one to follow?”
Elandor studied the field of glowing threads, then shook his head. You are the dreamseeker. Though I could choose one, I’m not sure it would be the right one at the right time. You must choose.
I made a face and bit my lip. Of course he was going to say that. I knew this trope—the chosen one who didn’t want to be chosen, convinced she’d botch everything. And now here I was, living it.
I focused on the golden threads, trying to sense if any of them felt more urgent than the others.
Then—
There!
That one.
I cocked my head. “Do you hear that?”
An infant is crying.
I nodded grimly. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
I will protect you with my life.
I patted his warm scales and took another steadying breath. “Okay, I just... pull on the cord or something?”
Try it and see.
“You’re loads of help tonight,” I said dryly, and he snorted in response.
Reaching out, I gave a gentle tug on the golden thread—and the world spun into fast-forward. Mist and light shot past us in a nauseating blur. We didn’t move our feet, yet the scenery around us shifted until we were standing in a darkened hotel room.
Mist pooled on the floor around us, and Elandor and I appeared solid but faintly outlined in golden light.
Oh—and I’d somehow managed to shrink Elandor to half his usual size.
He had to crouch to fit in the room, but at least he wasn’t demolishing it or smooshing me into Everly dust. He was now about the size of two SUVs stuck together.
I snorted. “Master of the dreamscape, indeed. I don’t have the first clue what I’m doing.”
A woman spun around the moment we appeared, a baby in a sling on her back. She had a gun out that had been aimed at the door when we’d come in, but was now aimed at us. Her eyes widened when she saw Elandor—but her hands didn’t waver or even shake that I could see.
I had to admire that kind of courage. If I had a huge dragon crash into my hotel room, there would be shaking. And probably screaming.
I lifted both arms in surrender. The woman, realizing she probably couldn’t harm Elandor’s impenetrable scales, and that it would likely ricochet off of him and hurt her or the baby, turned the gun on me instead.
Elandor growled, but I quickly hushed him.
“We’re not here to hurt you,” I said quickly.
“I’m going to be the new shifter queen. This is Elandor—he’s the dragon half of the man who’ll be the next Prime.
” Man, did that sentence sound bizarre to say.
“I have an ability that leads me to shifters who need help, and your need felt the most urgent. Elandor and I are here to help, I promise.”
Her gaze darted between me and Elandor, then flicked toward the door. Whatever was outside scared her more than we did, because she turned back toward the door.
A hose was shoved under the door, releasing a thick gray gas that filled the room. I covered my mouth and nose with my sleeve, my eyes immediately watering from the fumes.
We had to get out!
The woman didn’t waste time. She flipped the safety on her gun, holstered it, and ran to the closet. Grabbing two backpacks, she ran to the bed and flipped the mattress in a quick, practiced motion, retrieving ammo and weapons from underneath, then she bolted for the hotel window.
Elandor, however, had other ideas.
With one nudge of his nose, the hotel door crumpled. He shoved his scaly head through the frame—taking a good chunk of wall with him.
Shouts erupted in the hallway. The woman warily hesitated by the window, weariness etched in every line of her face.
My heart ached for her.
She looked like she’d done this a thousand times—
A thousand hotel rooms.
A thousand frantic nights.
Always running. Never safe.
I tuned out the chaos in the hall—the shouts and the screams at the sight of my dragon—and focused on the woman.
She was beautiful, though worn. The hallway light illuminated her short strawberry-blond hair, tired brown eyes, and pale, drawn features. Exhaustion clung to her like a shadow.
The infant, now crying again, had wisps of light brown hair and bright blue eyes. The woman moved her to her chest, murmuring soothingly.
“Shh, Alanna,” she whispered, still watching the door. “Let the nice dragon have his snack.”
“What are you?” I asked over the sound of Elandor’s maniacal rumbling laughter.
“I’m a bear shifter,” she said hoarsely. She’d calmed the baby, who now watched Elandor’s tail knock over the dresser with fascination. It fell with a crash, breaking apart.
We were going to owe this hotel for damages.
Elandor pulled his head back, and more of the wall crumbled because his head was too big to fit through the doorway.
We were really going to owe for damages.
He glanced at me, his eyes gleaming in excitement. Most of them ran, but I got one.
The woman startled at the sound and feel of Elandor’s telepathic voice speaking to us, then cautiously stepped into the hall. Whatever she saw there made her shoulders slump in disappointment.
“It’s not him.”
“Who?”
She studied me for a moment, clearly debating whether she could trust me. “You’re really the next shifter queen?”
She really is, Elandor said, and that seemed good enough for her.
She patted the baby as she started fussing again, then nodded decisively and began gathering the things she’d left behind in her frantic packing from earlier.
“Alanna’s father.” Her voice was low and rough. “He killed my sister—his mate. She’d left him before the baby was born. In our phone calls, she told me he’d gone crazy and that she feared for her and Alanna’s safety.”
She slung the backpacks onto the overturned bed, then ducked into the bathroom to grab a few toiletries, moving with a precision that spoke of long practice.
My heart hurt for her—for the life she’d been forced to live.
“I was worried about her,” she continued quietly. “I took leave from work and went to visit. She’d already planned everything. She handed me custody papers with my name on them, gave me Alanna... then hugged me and disappeared.”
She zipped the bags and faced us.
“I only know he found her and killed her because he bragged about it when he tracked us down. Usually, he doesn’t do his own dirty work. He has a pack of cronies who do it for him—probably because he pays well. Barrett comes from money.”
She looked up at the ceiling, blinking hard to keep her tears from falling.
“Lyla was so happy about that,” she whispered. “We were raised dirt poor.”
“Come with us for a bit,” I said softly. “I know trust might be hard for you right now, but I can take you somewhere safe. We’ll worry about the tomorrows tomorrow.”
“Where?”
I glanced at Elandor, who seemed content to let me lead.
“I’m with my mate, Alaric, staying at a bear-shifter clan’s lodge. I can bring you to the alpha for protection.” I hesitated. “I don’t want to say where, just in case. I’m suddenly paranoid.”
She nodded seriously. “Smart.”
Her hands tightened on the backpack straps as she weighed her options. “This alpha,” she asked, “he’s a good man?”
Yes, Elandor rumbled, and that seemed to settle it.
She drew a deep breath. “Let’s go, then.”
I offered to carry one of the bags, but she shook her head, then I turned to Elandor expectantly.
Yes, my treasure?
“How do we get back?”
You’re asking me? He shrugged, knocking some of the plaster coating his shoulders to the ground. I would guess what we did to get here, just in reverse.
Okay. I could do that.
I closed my eyes, found the golden thread that had brought us to the hotel room, made sure I was holding all of the occupants in the room in my mind, just in case, and tugged...
We landed back in the field we’d started in—thankfully all in one piece.
Well, this is promising, Elandor said.
I put my hands on my hips, looking around. “Yeah, small problem? I’m not sure how to get us out of the dreamscape.”
At least baby Alanna seemed delighted. She was babbling happily, though her aunt’s anxious eyes scanned our glowing surroundings.
Elandor tilted his head at me, patient as ever. Everly, my treasure?
“Yes?”
Are you not master here? Just will us out of the dreamscape.
Oh. Right. I could do that.
I hoped.
I thought of the Bear Clan Lodge, focused hard, then opened my eyes and slumped in relief.
We were there.
So were Alaric and Alpha Riggs.
Several things happened at once.
Baby Alanna squealed in delight, Elandor vanished into Alaric, Alaric pulled me into a bone-crushing hug, and both the woman and Alpha Riggs froze, staring at each other in shock.
“Woman, you are going to be the death of me,” Alaric growled in my ear.
“My dragon snatched out of me in the middle of the night. You, going places I can’t follow, into who knows what danger.
..” He only seemed to be picking up steam as he continued.
“I need to tie you to me. That way whenever and wherever you go, you’ll take me with you, and I can protect you. ”
I ignored the frozen pair and looked down at my mate, still trapped in his arms. “I think it has to be Elandor with me in the dreamscape. Sorry, Alaric.”
I smiled softly and patted his shoulder, which didn’t soothe him one bit. He grumbled under his breath and hugged me tighter.
I spoke over his shoulder. “Alpha Riggs, this is—”
“Piper Winstead,” the woman said hoarsely.
“Piper Winstead. The baby is her niece, Alanna. She’s on the run from the baby’s father. Could she… stay for a bit?”
I looked between them, frowning at their odd behavior.
What was happening here?
Mates, Elandor whispered weakly.
My gaze dropped to Alaric’s chest, though I knew that wasn’t where Elandor truly was. Are you okay?
I am, my treasure. Our adventures have tired me. I’ll be all right after I rest.
I closed my eyes, guilt prickling. I’m so sorry. I keep forgetting you and Alaric are still recovering.
It’s all right, he murmured. All will be well.
His voice was faint, and worry twisted in my stomach, but I turned my attention back to the others.
Riggs and Piper were talking quietly now.
“There’s a room near mine,” he said. “It’s large enough for you and Alanna.”
“No offense, but I don’t know you. I’d feel safer near Elandor and—”
“Everly,” I supplied.
“Elandor and Everly,” she finished.
Riggs hesitated, his eyes glowing bright ice blue, then nodded. “There’s a suite on that end too. I’ll ask Everly to show you.”
“The one to the right of us?” I asked, and he nodded.
“Yeah, we can do that.”
“Thank you, Everly,” he said quietly. “I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
He left quickly, and I exchanged a look with Alaric.
Riggs had been in pain. Deep, aching pain.
“Can you check on him?” I whispered.
Alaric nodded, and we split up. I guided Piper to our section of the lodge and opened the door to the right of our suite.
The room had the same layout as ours but was bathed in sunset colors—soft orange rugs over pale wood floors, pale purple couches, seashell-pink kitchen walls glowing under a small lamp, and sand-colored curtains drawn over the windows.
Piper gasped softly. “It’s… lovely.”
It really was.
“I’m right next door if you need anything, okay?” I said. “I’d offer to watch Alanna in the morning so you can sleep in, but I’ll probably be a puppy or a raven again and, well… lack thumbs.”
Her expression said she had so many questions, but she kept them to herself.
“Thank you, Everly. For tonight. For everything.” Her voice was husky with emotion. “I haven’t had a safe space in a long time.”
I wanted to hug her, but I sensed she wasn’t ready for that. “Genuinely, I’m so glad we could help. Sleep well, Piper.”
I went back to my suite to wait for Alaric, expecting another gentle lecture about scaring him half to death. But it never came, because the moment I sat down on the couch, I fell asleep.
I was with Elandor on this one.
Our adventures were exhausting.