7
Out of the darkness came flashes of red. I rose drunkenly to my paws and shook, dragging inhalations collecting barely enough oxygen to keep me alive—or was I even breathing? Heat enveloped me and wormed under my skin, sitting under my pelt with unbearable discomfort. A hellish glow burned between the trees, dancing out of the smoke in crackling, spitting embers. I could see it now—tongues of fire plumbing the forest, mounting the treetops and reaching toward the sky. A hot wind ripped through me, whisking the inferno into a storm. It was all around me, the thick smoke so harsh it debilitated my senses, smothering me completely.
I tried to run, but my legs wouldn’t move. Stumbling forward only brought me back to the ground, but I couldn’t give up, willing myself to find my feet. This was a nightmare, it had to be—but even if it were just an illusion of my unconscious mind, it portended the fate that was awaiting me. I wouldn’t be able to outrun these flames. My fate was already spelled out in the howling firestorm devouring the forest. I couldn’t breathe, and the fire was lurching ever closer.
A dark shape eclipsed the burning fire glow. My eyes strained upward and I slowly registered someone looming over me, a massive body, ears perched high upon their head and eyes like gunmetal glinting in the blaze. Helpless, I weighed whether or not my pride would allow me to reach out, to beg for them to take me away from the fire, and I almost didn’t move. I almost closed my eyes and let the inferno take over. I didn’t want help—I should have been strong enough on my own.
But I didn’t want to die.
A whine slid from my throat as I raised my head, imploring.
The wolf made his decision and ducked low, grabbing the scruff around my neck. It was only when he came close enough that I heard the whistling in his chest too, his breath raking out of his lungs as he clamored for air. I felt his limbs shaking, smelled the sawdust in his fur and the blood on his lips. He couldn’t breathe either, but all the same he wrenched me to my feet and pulled me alongside him.
We ran, clutching one another in our teeth, knowing that the fire would either consume us… or it would set us free from this nightmare.
Chapter 4: Everett
A
wildfire raged on the fringe of my awareness, flickering flames lapping at the images burning behind my eyes. The fire was so vivid it blinded me, and I felt it singeing my skin before I had fallen completely unconscious. Sweltering heat smothered me, and in the nightmare I couldn’t breathe, and I didn’t know why until I found her. She was an embodiment of the wildfire itself—out of control, staggering, impossible to touch, until she looked at me. I had to do something, or else this gluttonous nightmare would destroy us. She would have forced us both to burn if she hadn’t let me help.
Slumped over my desk, I woke gasping. Fire gnawed at my spine and shocked me into sitting upright. Beads of sweat rolled down my temple as I frantically searched the room, only to find everything still and silent like before the dream took me. No smoke was packed against the ceiling, no fire scorched the walls, just my empty white office, the soft whirring of the central air, my world untouched. This wasn’t just any dream, though, I knew that from the pain sitting deep in my chest like a blade. The tightness in my throat. Discomforts that had come not from some bad decision I made, but somebody else whose body I had become inextricably linked. I’d been dreading this day.
Coughing harshly into my arm, I stood and looked out the window, as though I could see the very person whose afflictions I shared. The crushing intensity of pain in my lungs was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. It made me realize then just how sheltered I was from the harshness of a wild life. I’d never sustained an injury so bad it made me feel like I couldn’t breathe. The person who experienced this Moondream with me was out there, somewhere, struggling just to fill her lungs.
I knew who it was, but part of me didn’t want to accept it. Because that meant venturing right into territory I didn’t want to be in—where I knew I wasn’t welcome. And because that meant entangling myself with somebody who only ever had been a thorn in my side, with her penchant for mischief and stubborn determination.
The Moon Goddess couldn’t seriously think she was my fated mate. Of all people…?
Yet still, uncertainty roiled inside me—was she dying?
With a deep breath in, I leaned over my desk and withdrew my smartphone, scrolling through my contacts. The Mundys. No, maybe Gavin. Maybe I should just call her directly. I had her cell number.
The phone on my desk rang instead. Taylor’s number appeared on the caller ID and I answered it out of reflex. “Hey,” I greeted, clearing my throat.
“Hey—are you okay? You sound rough,” he said.
“I’m fine,” I grunted. “What is it?”
“Guy from Rooster Alarms just finished in Hexen Manor. The mic is piggybacking off the signal booster in the manor, but even then, it only reaches about a quarter of a mile.”
That was unfortunate. We’d been banking on getting a half mile’s distance from the manor where we could safely sit in Taylor’s van, in the parking lot of a gas station, to monitor and record whatever audio the mic picked up and transmitted.
“I’ll have to park on Hedge Road if we want to get that audio,” continued Taylor.
“Do it then. Monitor for an hour to start, then let me know what you get.”
“Sure.”
It was going to endanger our operation to have Taylor sitting in the middle of a forested road like that. I couldn’t head out to join him, either, because he’d be right in the middle of Dalesbloom territory, but it was the best we could do. After hanging up, I braced myself above my desk and reconsidered if I even wanted to expose the contents of my Moondream to the Mundys. Why did this happen now, when the relationship between our packs had become so complicated and treacherous?
I called Aislin Mundy on my smartphone. She didn’t answer, and I didn’t have the words to leave her a voicemail.
Maybe it was better I didn’t get involved in whatever was wrong with her. I had a meeting with a new supplier over lunch and I needed to have my head on straight if I was going to secure this deal for a much cheaper supply of maple than what we were sourcing now. I couldn’t be fretting over what that spitfire was getting up to, even if I could suddenly feel every second of suffering she endured. The more I thought about it, the more obvious it became that such a connection between us was unsustainable. Assuming she was still alive the next time I saw her, I would have to make it clear our fated bond wasn’t meant to be.