Chapter Seven
Scott
"Run that by me again?" Zade was staring at me, his disbelief obvious.
I swallowed an impatient sigh, well aware of just how crazy I sounded. I glanced at the closed bathroom door, the only barrier between Harley and us. "I said, I was in his nightmare," I repeated.
"So, what, you're a psychic now?"
"Of course not." I groaned and reached for the bottle of water in front of me. "Look, I don't know how," I admitted, "but I saw everything that was happening."
Zade's head just swayed back and forth. "It's not possible, man."
"What if it is?" Levi asked, breaking his silence. "I mean, I know Trevor can sometimes communicate in dreams." When Zade snorted, Levi frowned at him. "He can, Zade. I've seen it." Levi studied me seriously. "Maybe if you told Doc what you saw, it would help."
When Zade snorted again, Levi's eyes flashed. "Well, it's not like it can hurt, now, is it?" he snapped at his husband.
"No, of course not," Zade agreed quickly. "I'm sorry I'm being an ass." He turned to me. "Can you write down what happened or describe it?" When Levi huffed, Zade smiled at him. "I'm trying to help, V, I promise. I don't know how we can explain Scott's absence?"
I considered that for a minute. "Why don't you just tell him I went out to pee and you saw me chasing a rabbit into the woods? That way he shouldn't worry, and it'll buy me enough time to make it to town."
Zade nodded slowly. "All right. How are you traveling?"
I laughed. "Well, as long as no one has towed or stolen my ride, I'll be fine. Maybe even get a chance to sneak it up here."
Zade nodded again. "Be safe."
Thankfully, my van was right where I'd left it. Even better, with the rain we'd gotten the day before and the late afternoon sun beating down on me, the solar-heated water tank was primed for a hot shower. I climbed into the tiny shower stall, my shoulders touching the walls as I scrubbed three days of accumulated grime from my body. As much as I enjoyed being a wolf, there was really no better way to get clean than a hot, soapy, shower.
The sky was streaked with red and gold when I parked in front of the small building that housed Doc's main practice.
"Come on in, son," he greeted after the receptionist had announced me. "Zade called and told me to expect you."
"Great." I followed him into a cozy office and lowered myself into the stiff wooden chair he gestured to. I took a deep breath and repeated my story of being in Harley's dream to Doc, holding my breath when I finished.
Unlike Zade, Doc seemed anything but disbelieving. "So you say you were in the dream?"
I nodded.
"Could you hear anything? Smell anything? Or was it just visual?"
I closed my eyes and concentrated. "We were in a forest – I'm pretty sure it was the one surrounding Zade's house – but there were no forest sounds. No wind rustling the leaves, no night birds calling, no rodents scurrying through the leaf litter on the ground." I made myself rewind the tape in my head and replay it. "Harley was panting. The thing chasing Harley growled right before grabbing him." I popped my eyes open. "There weren't any other sounds."
"What about smells?"
"Just the usual. Dirt. Bark. Rotting leaves." I closed my eyes and again concentrated on the memory. "He was facing into the wind," I surmised. "When he was grabbed, I think he was too terrified to look for a scent."
"Very well done," Doc said approvingly. "I'm not sure how you managed it, but it sounds like you are correct. You were in the dream." He scribbled a few notes on a pad in front of him. "We're going to need to figure out how. Tell me about your relationship with Harley. Zade mentioned you had a history, but didn't have many details."
Of course. "What do you need to know?"
Doc smiled kindly and leaned back in his seat. "Start at the beginning, son."
"Well," I said hesitantly, "I've known Harley since we were young. His mother was the Alpha of small pack in the Everglades. My parents were Betas, nomads, and we spent a lot of time in an unclaimed territory nearby."
"You're older than he is."
It wasn't a question, but I nodded anyway. "I am. Ten years. He was sixteen when we started to see each other as more than friends, as potential mates."
Doc raised a brow. All I could do was shrug. "We waited until he was eighteen to get physical," I tried to defend myself. "I had just finished my doctorate and landed a job at the community college as a junior professor when his mother sold him to Zade's pack.”
I knew I was scowling as I looked down at the smooth, dark-brown skin on the back of my hand but couldn't help it. "When I got to their lands to offer for him, she sneered and told me that she'd sent him somewhere that I couldn't pollute the bloodline."
"Oh, dear."
I blew out a breath, struggling to keep a hold on the beast inside me. He was not a fan of rehashing the past. "Yeah. Then she told me that I'd be wasting my time looking for him, because she'd assured him that I'd been offered the chance to claim him and I refused."
Doc made a small pained sound and scribbled more in his book. "Then what?"
I shrugged. "Then, I quit my job and started looking for him."