Chapter 25 Ty
TY
It had been a long morning without Liza.
A morning I spent worrying, knowing what she’d suffered as I held her, oblivious to the dream that had fractured her sleep and woke her with pain and such a strong, lingering fear that I could smell it on her.
My worry for her had stretched into the evening and the night and another morning.
So, when she called me, relief came first and powered through me, right up until I heard her voice.
Then the worry slipped right back in. She was coping at best, still suffering at worst, and I wanted to fix it for her.
I wanted to make it all go away. Of course, that might’ve been selfish because if it went away, I would never have to tell her how my father and my pack destroyed her life.
Liza sighed into the phone. “I think I can tell you about it now.”
Because I wanted no one to hear my side of the conversation, I stood and closed my office door at the manufacturing plant, then pulled the shade on the window. Liza deserved my full attention, and damned sure, she was going to get it.
I was concerned about her. Even with a couple cups of coffee in her and a shower, she hadn’t been herself after the nightmare. She’d been so upset and exhausted that she couldn’t bring herself to talk about it. Not even with me. Now, a day later, she was ready to talk.
I slumped into my chair, wishing I could see her face. “I’m all ears.”
“It’s hard for me to describe it in a way that will do it justice.” She paused, probably to gather her thoughts. “It’s kind of like the nightmares I’ve had since I was a young kid, only this time it was different.”
“How so?” I asked.
I was afraid to hear her answer. Stone’s smug face popped into my head, and I couldn’t bear the idea of him influencing Liza’s memories—or lack thereof. Had his sudden presence in her life led to this horrific nightmare that was so bad she couldn’t even speak about it?
“Sometimes it’s only flashes of fire and blood and death.
This time, the dream was bigger, longer, and in sequential order.
” She paused and exhaled loudly into the phone.
“There were no missing pieces. I could see and feel and hear everything going on around me like I was actually there—like it wasn’t just a dream. ”
I grabbed a stress ball from my desk drawer and squeezed the shit out of it, preparing myself to hear what I was sure was a memory.
After everything I’d learned from Stone and what he’d said to Liza about waking up, I could only imagine the horror she’d witnessed in her dream.
But then I reminded myself that it was only a dream.
Liza was suffering from an insane number of hormones flowing through her body.
The hormones had probably made it all the more vivid and realistic.
Even as my thoughts tried to brush away the concerns, Liza continued. “A woman and a man who both looked a lot like me.” She paused. “My color, my features…I think they were my parents. They were terrified, trying to decide how to respond to some type of invasion.”
“Invasion?” God, I was an asshole, but I needed to know the details.
“Yes. I sensed someone was coming after them. After me.” She paused again.
“They were afraid someone would harm me, so they forced me to leave with a boy. He also seemed very familiar to me, so I wasn’t afraid to go with him, but I didn’t want to leave the man and the woman.
Before I left, the man told me to never forget that I was… royalty.”
Definitely a memory disguised as a dream, which meant I didn’t have much time to decide how to tell her I knew what had happened to her, and who and what she really was, because even I couldn’t explain this being a coincidence.
Liza continued. “Just as the boy pulled me from our home, I witnessed the woman shifting and then…” Her voice cracked, and she inhaled a shaky and stuttering breath. “She was shot.”
I closed my eyes. She had to be speaking about her real parents. “That’s awful, Liza. I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you. I know.” She paused again. “I wish I’d woken up at that point, but I didn’t.
” Liza’s tone thinned, becoming softer but shriller.
“The boy and I ran through the forest. The snow was soaked red with blood everywhere I turned. I could hear screaming and wailing from those who weren’t quite dead yet.
And someone was chasing me, telling others to find the girl. ”
Fuck. No wonder she couldn’t speak after waking from the nightmare.
“The boy helping me fell and broke his ankle, but he insisted that I keep running, not to stop until I reached the lavender field.”
I wished I could see her; hold her as she spoke. And I wasn’t sure if that was a selfishness on my part because I knew our time was ending or if it was truly for her. To say my motives were unclear was an understatement.
“I did as he said and hid for a very long time. I must’ve fallen asleep because next thing I knew, a man was standing over me.”
She fell silent.
Had she seen my father’s face in her dream? Surely if she had, she would mention it. “Did the man talk to you?”
“Yes.” Liza’s voice lowered. “He said he’d make sure I was taken care of. I tried to focus on his face but then I woke up. I don’t know who he was.”
Thank the fucking gods. “I can see why you were so upset, baby. That must have been terrifying. Do you have any idea what it all means?”
There was a long pause before Liza finally replied. “I’m not sure. It seemed like a memory”—because it was indeed a memory—“but there’s no way any of that could’ve actually happened, or that I would be able to remember it with such clarity and vivid detail.”
Standing, I started to pace the length of my office. She remembered because it had happened. It wasn’t a dream. It was a memory of a trauma she’d endured—been forced to endure because of my father and our pack.
She’d been four years old when her parents were killed.
I didn’t know or understand how she was able to have such perfect recall about the battle my father had described.
Her wolf hadn’t even been present at the time, so they couldn’t be her memories.
I wanted to believe that so much, to tell myself it was so, but I didn’t buy my own bullshit.
Or perhaps having a strong memory was another power of an omega. All of the stories I’d heard about omegas painted them as almost mystical creatures with abilities that went far beyond that of an average shifter.
“Are you still there?” Liza asked.
Fuck. I needed to pay attention. She needed support. I was the man for that. “Yes, sorry. I was just trying to make sense of your dream.” I stopped pacing and rested my free hand on my hip. I needed a lie, and I needed it fast. And she would have to forgive me. I had no other choice.
“I was trying to think of what you had for dinner. Sometimes strange foods can give me nightmares.” The lie came too easily. I was ashamed.
Liza scoffed. “No, Ty. You don’t understand.”
“Okay, Liza.” I kept my voice calm despite the frustration aching through me. “Make me understand. What are you trying to say?”
She choked back a sob. “I think it was more than a dream. Beyond that, I just don’t know.” She let out a shaky breath. “Either way, I want to learn more about my family. Not the Mims. My original birth family.”
Fuck. I had to stall her while I got to the bottom of everything with Stone.
“I think that’s a natural desire for someone who’s adopted.
Listen, let me get through this work day, then we can meet for dinner and talk this through.
” That bought me about four hours. “Please, try not to worry about it. I know that’s easy for me to say since it isn’t my life in the gray area, but try not to focus on the dream.
It sounded pretty traumatic to me. Dwelling on it will only upset you more. ”
“I’ll try.” Liza’s voice leveled out and wasn’t as highly-strung as it had been a moment before.
We hung up, and I jogged over to the manager’s office. “Hey, I’m heading out early.” I had to let someone know or there would be questions, and I didn’t need more of those.
He popped his head up from his computer. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I just need to take care of something back at the estate. Call me if you run into any more issues with the temp employees.”
I wasn’t scheduled to be at the plant today, but I’d woken up to a text from the temp agency saying that they couldn’t fill the scheduled shifts for the day.
After many threats to move our business to the agency in the next town over, they miraculously filled our request. I’d still needed to check that things went well, though.
With everything else going on, I needed business to be solid.
My mind raced, trying to determine if I had some other option, but I couldn’t think of an alternative. I needed to talk to Dad and tell him that my idea to negotiate with Stone hadn’t worked out. We had no other option but to take him out, officially removing the threat forever.
After days of waiting for a response from Zephyr, I determined he’d been unsuccessful in finding dirt on Stone. My hands were tied, and I hated having to admit that to my father.
The drive home seemed longer than usual as I imagined the curse-laden lecture I would receive after admitting failure to Dad.
He would feel compelled to remind me that he was, after all, the alpha, and that I should’ve listened to him.
He would certainly say he had been around much longer than me and knew what kind of person Stone was, that the guy couldn’t be reasoned with or threatened, which had been my plan.
Just as I pulled into the driveway, my phone rang. Zephyr’s name flashed on the screen.
A sliver of hope lodged in my stomach. “Speak of the devil, Zephyr. I was just thinking about you.”
He chuckled. “I don’t know if I should be flattered or creeped the fuck out.”