Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
“Sophia.”
The sound of my name broke through the hazy view of sleep. Damn it, I’d just dozed off a few minutes ago. Didn’t Felicity know that? She must have seen me come into my room and close the door. She knew I hadn’t been sleeping well lately.
Not since I’d come to the Wilds.
Wait…
No.
Since I lost my job. That’s what I meant.
The Wilds were just a place I dreamed about. LA was my real life.
Or was it the other way around?
In this fog of half-consciousness, it was almost impossible to tell.
“Sophia. Open your eyes.”
Why was everyone always telling me that? Lately, I couldn’t even rest for a few minutes without someone barging in and forcing me back into wakefulness.
It didn’t matter if I’d just come home from a double shift or a stressful day waiting for news of Thorn’s return.
No, that wasn’t right, either.
Those two scenarios couldn’t exist at the same time. Could they?
“Damn it, Sophia. Get the hell up!”
This time, the sound of Felicity’s voice was followed by an unexpected nudge to my midsection. The shock of sensation was enough to make my eyes fly open.
“What the hell, Felicity!” I shouted half a second before realizing I wasn’t where I thought I was.
I was stretched out on a floor—but not of our shabby Hollywood apartment or of Kyre’s family home. Wherever we were was cold, damp, and hard as a rock.
Actually, it was rock. Solid stone. Rough and ragged and not at all comfortable.
Where the hell was I? And what was I doing here?
“God, you’re hard to wake up,” Felicity said. “Even in dreams.”
It took a few blinks to get my eyes to focus. Once my vision cleared enough to look around, I realized I was in a cave.
And not just me. Felicity was here too.
It only took a second for everything to come back to me in a rush.
My dreams. Her kidnapping. My night with Kyre.
Nights, now. Plural.
It had been three days since I’d come to stay with Kyre in the village. Three days of hellish anxiety, waiting for any news on Felicity’s fate.
But all that worry and fear was over now.
Because here she was, still very much alive. Not just breathing, but looking relatively well.
Sure, her clothes were dirty and ripped in a few places. And I had the feeling she wouldn’t refuse a nice, hot shower. But other than that, she looked fine. I couldn’t see so much as a scratch on her.
As quick as I could, I jumped up from the floor and wrapped my arms around her.
“You’re okay.” I nearly cried with relief. “You wouldn’t believe how worried I’ve been.”
“I betcha’ I would,” she laughed—but the sound wasn’t quite right.
Usually, Felicity’s laugh was the most carefree sound I knew, but now it was weighed down with a heaviness I’d never heard before. Something was wrong.
Pulling back from the hug, I looked her in the eye. “Where are we? What’s going on?”
“I don’t really know how to answer either of those questions,” she said. “But I can show you.”
Wrapping her arm over my shoulder, she guided me over the shadowy rock surface toward a blinding white light a few feet behind her. It wasn’t until we were just a few feet away that I realized it was an opening to the outside world.
“A cave?”
My jaw dropped as my eyes adjusted to the daylight, revealing a stunning vista.
At least a hundred feet up on a rocky cliff, I could see for miles over rolling hills and craggy peaks, all of them covered in a sea of green treetops.
White mist clung to the shadowy valley crevices, hiding from the rays of the sun.
Overhead, a dome of blue sky and wispy clouds stretched all the way to the horizon, where it was swallowed up by a just barely visible sliver of the sea.
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
“In this cave? Just one night,” she answered. “Every night we find somewhere new. Lash says no one will be able to track us as long as we stay up high. But we need to keep moving just in case.”
Cold chills raced up my spine at the mention of his name. “Please, tell me he hasn’t hurt you.”
“He hasn’t.” She shot me a reassuring smile. “And I know this might be hard to believe, but he won’t.”
“Damn straight, he won’t,” I agreed. “Because we’re getting the hell out of here, right now.”
I grabbed her hand, but Felicity surprised me by shaking her head. “No, Sophia. We’re not.”
“What are you talking about?”
“This is a dream,” she said. “We’re not really together.”
Just a dream?
Of course, it was. How else could I have found myself suddenly transported to a cliffside cave? How could I have found Felicity without looking?
“So this isn’t real?” My heart felt like it was going to shatter.
“No, it’s real,” she assured me. “As real as any other dream you’ve had about this place. Right now, I’m asleep in this cave, just like you’re asleep in Kyre’s bed.”
My eyes went wide. “How did you know about that?”
“Because I’m seeing it in my dream, the same way you’re seeing this,” she said. “While you’re here with me, I’m there with you.”
I shook my head. “That’s crazy.”
“It’s confusing, I know. I don’t really understand either,” she admitted. “Everything about this situation is bonkers.”
“But you’re really alive?” Hopeful tears stung my eyes.
“I am, and I’m so happy you are too.” She squeezed my hands as she nodded. But then her eyes narrowed. “Though I am totally pissed off at you for following me into the Wilds. What were you thinking, girl? You could have gotten yourself killed.”
She sounded just like Kyre.
“What else could I do?” I said. “There was no way I was going home without you.”
“Home?” She cocked her chin to the side. “LA, you mean?”
“Yeah, of course. Where else?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “It’s just that you seem pretty cozy where you are now.”
“You have to be kidding.” Why else would I be laughing?
“Sophia, I’ve never seen you this relaxed before,” she said, looking me up and down.
“You’ve never acted so confident. Back in LA, you were barely treading water.
You couldn’t stand people giving you a single dirty look, but now you’re standing up for yourself with alphas three times your size.
You’re asking for what you want. You’re finally getting laid. ”
I rolled my eyes. Suddenly, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind. This was definitely the “real” Felicity.
“There’s more to life than sex, you know,” I told her.
“That’s what you keep telling me,” she joked. “But yeah, I know. It’s just that when the sex is this good, it has a way of making everything else better.”
Sure, she had a point, but…
“How do you know what the sex is like?” My eyes narrowed. “Did that son of a bitch touch you? Because if he did, I’ll—”
“Sophia, I’m fine,” she cut me off. “I told you, he hadn’t hurt me. I swear it.”
“Not yet, at least.” But I didn’t like her chances going forward. No one could trust an alpha like Lash. “Which is why we need to find you as soon as possible and get you out of here.”
But Felicity shook her head. “That’s not a good idea.”
“What are you talking about?” I couldn’t believe my ears. “Of course, it is.”
“Sophia, listen to me.” Locking eyes with me, Felicity let out a sharp sigh. “I know the ferus you’re with are obsessed with capturing Lash, but he isn’t the one they need to worry about. It’s this other lady—Nelissa. She’s the real dangerous one.”
Oh God.
“I know who she is,” I said. “She killed the last pack leader in the village where I’m staying.”
“And now she’s hoping to kill the new one,” Felicity said. “Now that Lash has left her, she’s hoping to frame him for some raid against your friends. Then, when this Calindra lady sends out her best warriors to catch him, Nelissa will send her men into the village to kill her…and you.”
“How do you know all this?”
“That’s not important,” Felicity insisted, shaking her head. “I just do. And I really need you to trust me on this.”
I’d never seen Felicity speak so seriously in her whole life. She was practically crushing my hands in her grip as she spoke.
“Of course, I do,” I said. “I’ll always trust you.”
Even in a dream.
“Good, then the second you wake up from this, you need to go and talk to the pack leader,” she said. “Tell her everything I told you. Well, not everything, but you get the idea. Her life and yours depend on it.”
“Right, I promise I will,” I said, nodding. “But what about you. You know I can’t just leave you out there in the Wilds with a madman. I have to keep looking for you.”
“No, you don’t,” she said. “Nelissa is searching for us, too. She’ll just follow anyone you send to find me. Right now, I need you to be patient. If all goes to plan, I’ll come to you.”
How could she expect me to be patient? Especially knowing that none of Felicity’s plans ever worked out the way she hoped.
“But—”
“Just trust me,” Felicity broke in, her voice crackling with desperation and fear…for me. That was new. Our whole lives, I’d never been the one in trouble. I’d always been the one pulling her out of hot water. “Just this once, please.”
“Okay,” I agreed, nodding reluctantly. “But when do you think you’re coming? Just so I can know when to send out another search party.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “A few days.”
“How many is a few?” I demanded. “Two? Three? More?”
“I don’t know,” she repeated with a laugh before pulling me in for a hard hug. “But it won’t be long. And I’m going to need your help once I get there.”
I pulled back from the embrace to look her in the eye. “What kind of help? With what?”
“You’ll know when the time comes. I promise,” she assured me, before taking a step back.
What was that supposed to mean? I didn’t understand.
A strange black fog had started to roll in from the opening of the cave, blowing into all the corners and crevices, making it hard to see.
“Felicity?” I called out as she kept moving backwards, disappearing into the dark mist.”Felicity! Where are you?”
Soon, the fog was everywhere. In my eyes and lungs, wrapping itself around every part of my body and carrying me far away.
Back to the land of consciousness, I realized.
Back to Kyre’s bed.
Back home.
He was already awake when I opened my eyes. Propped above me like a couple of nights ago in his bachelor cabin, his hand rested on my shoulder, and his mossy eyes were filled with concern.
“Sophia,” he said gently as I came out of the dream. “You were having a nightmare. I tried to wake you, but you wouldn’t respond.”
“I couldn’t.” Not until Felicity had told me what I needed to hear.
Throwing back the covers, I sat up and slid my legs over the side of the bed.
“Where are you going?” he asked as I started to pull on one of the plain linen dresses that Hannah had brought by for me to wear.
“To see your mother,” I said, before snatching up his leather jacket and pulling it over my own shoulders. Suddenly, I was surrounded by his warm, earthy scent. Funny, how it only took a little thing to fill me with courage when I needed it most.
“Why?” he asked.
“Because that wasn’t a nightmare,” I told him. “It was a vision. Your mother is in danger.”
He didn’t hesitate. Flying out of bed, Kyre threw on his clothes and joined me by the door.
And I swallowed down the guilt of lying to him.
Felicity had been clear. Calindra wasn’t the only one in danger.
But the less Kyre knew about that, the better.