Chapter Twenty-Nine

Serena sank down onto a rock on the edge of the steep drop-off, her lungs tighter than twisted rubber bands. “Tell me we’re not going any farther, Vince. This spot is gorgeous and I need to breathe.”

Vince walked up beside her. “No, this is it. Look at that view.”

They’d hiked through scrubby pines and aspen until reaching this spot where the woods fell away to a steep drop-off, and a wide valley spread out beneath them. Back beyond the closest mountains—much closer than she’d realized—were the tips of snowy peaks. “I can’t believe there’s still snow on the mountains in the middle of summer.” She looked down into the valley. “Is that the town of Wolf’s Peak down there?”

“Yep. And that mountain behind it is also called Wolf’s Peak. There’ve been pack in these mountains for generations. My family came out here with the first settlers over a hundred years ago to mine gold.” His voice filled with pride.

“I can’t imagine wolves working in mines.”

“They did it. They did what they had to do to survive. Shifters, dreamwalkers, even the spelltalkers.” His voice seemed to grow dark, and he stopped smiling. “Of course the shifters take all the credit. They always do.”

She wasn’t sure what was going on with him. Her wolf, now so close to the surface due to the rise of the fever instigated by Gabe, grew restless. She didn’t want to sit here, she wanted to find her mate. What was wrong with Serena, wasting time with this other?

Serena shook off her wolf’s need.

She’d already made her decision. They weren’t taking a mate, no matter how much she longed to stay in Gabe’s arms. Like Vince, she’d seen the prejudice that lurked under pack society, even within her own well-meaning family. There was no way she was marrying someone who wouldn’t treat her as an equal. She’d had enough of that at home.

“Okay, I’ve caught my breath.” She stood up. “Time to get back and finish packing.”

“Hang on a minute.” Vince drew close, so close his cologne made her wrinkle her nose.

She went to move away, but the rock was too close behind her, so she stood there, feeling uncomfortable. “Really, Vince, I have a lot to do before my plane takes off.”

He stroked his hand down her arm. She resisted the urge to wipe off the spot where he’d touched.

His breathing quickened, and he pressed even nearer to her. “Serena, I can’t let you leave without telling you how much you’ve come to mean to me.”

They were outside with lots of space, but with the lack of air in her lungs and the way he crowded her, she grew claustrophobic.

Serena dragged in more air and backed away, the rough sides of the rock scraping her bare legs. “Vince, you’re a nice guy and I’ve enjoyed getting to know you. But I’m leaving tonight.” She nearly fell over the rock in her need to get away.

“Can’t you give me five minutes?” Vince frowned. “I’ve been trying to talk to you all week and you’ve done nothing but spend time with one Wulfric brother or another.”

“What do you mean?” A frisson of alarm skittered along her skin. Something was wrong with him. She’d been too preoccupied with her life falling apart to notice it earlier, but he was taking her leaving much harder than a bare acquaintance should. “I’ve had lunch with you several times.”

“Lunch with everyone at the office, you mean. And the one time I’ve had you all to myself, you were so absent I had to carry the entire conversation.”

“I’m sorry, Vince. I’ve had a lot on my mind. Gabe—”

Something hot and angry flashed in his eyes. “Shut up about that fucking shifter. He’s no good for you.” The corners of his mouth twisted down. He ran a hand through his hair, destroying its normally neat layers and leaving it a wild mess with the ends sticking out. “That shifter,” he growled. “He’s so stuck on himself. He can’t see what you need. I can see what you need. I’m a dreamwalker. We can run together in the dreamscape.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been trying to talk to you, but you keep shutting me out.”

“You’ve been in my dreams?” The tightness in her chest veered into pain. She backed away from him, her eyes searching for the trail they’d left a few feet away. “Vince, you know you’re not supposed to walk in other people’s dreams uninvited. I know you’re not a therapist, but you’ve had the basic dream training.”

“Fuck that. You’ve been repressed by your family your entire life. Repressed by the rules and regulations the shifters impose on us to keep us subservient.” He pulled back his lips in a sharp, predatory grin. “We need to throw off the chains the shifters have imposed on us.” He seemed to focus on somewhere beyond where they were, on a landscape that she just couldn’t see. “Don’t you want to run wild in the dreams? Show those shifters that we’re just as powerful as they are, maybe more. Who else can go in and screw with their minds, if not us?” He refocused on her, a sly look in his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’ve never thought of it.”

“Vince, you didn’t.” Their earlier conversations loomed in her head. Small things that had made her uneasy at the time, which she’d blown off. A terrible thought occurred to her. She kept her voice smooth and even, just as she would with an upset client. “Vince, why aren’t you a dream therapist?”

“I failed the stupid morals test. That’s why they’ve stuck me at a desk. I’m not allowed to dreamwalk in anyone’s dreams but my own.” His eyes gleamed. “But I fooled them. I got around the blocking spell and I can enter people’s dreams. That Wulfric prick, all fever-high from meeting you just the one time at your interview. He was easy to tweak, to push down the path of no return.”

Horror closed her throat.

She took a couple stumbling steps toward the trail. Had he messed with Gabe or Sam? It couldn’t have been Gabe. He loved her, she knew he did. His fever had started the rise of her wolf inside of her. It had to be Sam whose fever was artificial. It was totally wrong of her, but she hoped it was Sam. Otherwise, everything she thought she’d had with Gabe had been a lie.

“Which one, Vince? Which twin did you push into the fever by walking in his dreams?”

“Sam, the asshole.” He laughed. “It wasn’t hard, you know. He was falling for you anyway. All I did was give him a little push.”

She had to know. “And Gabe? Did you give Gabe a push too?”

She didn’t know if she could take that. She’d thought Gabe loved her, but what if all this had been Vince’s playing in his head?

“No. That fucker is drowning in fever all on his own. I don’t know what the hell you’ve done to him, but he’s obsessed with you.” Vince rapidly closed the space she’d so carefully put between them. “Forget about him. He’s where he can’t find you now, anyway. I’m here. Talk to me.”

He reached out for her, and she ducked his hand, easing one more step closer to the trail. She’d nearly reached it, but the trail was just the beginning. How far had they come? It had been all uphill, but now it would be down. Thank God. She wouldn’t have so much trouble breathing going downhill.

“Hey, Vince, let’s head back to the car.” Maybe she could get him to take her back to the ranch. Sometimes one needed to distract a client with something else, keep them off-balance. “I’m a little tired. Remember, I’m not used to this high altitude.” She added, hoping he’d latch on to the need to take care of her. She moved around him and took the first step onto the trail.

“No!” His fingers dug deeply into her arm, and he spun her around. “You run from me in your dreams, you avoid me when we’re at lunch. It’s just you and me out here. You have to listen to me now. I love you, Serena. And there’s no way I’m letting you get on that plane tonight.”

His breathing was rapid with stress, his fingers digging deep into her arm. For a few seconds she understood how the rabbit felt when confronted with the snake. She stared up into his face, the fanaticism lighting up his eyes striking fear deep into her heart.

And then her wolf reminded her: they weren’t prey. They’d never been prey. Her social worker tactics weren’t working, but maybe pack behavior would. Females kept the males in line. Alpha females. She straightened her shoulders and jerked away from his clutching grip. “I don’t love you, Vince. I’m going back to the car.” She stepped all the way onto the trail and started walking, darting a last look over her shoulder.

Vince’s face contorted, turning bright red. Then something happened. The uncontrollable rage smoothed over in a way that chilled her blood.

He caught up and walked behind her on the narrow trail, never letting her move more than a few feet ahead of him.

“I’m what you need, Serena, not some blown-up, muscle-bound shifter. I understand what you go through when you have a tough night of therapy work in someone else’s dreams—feeling what they feel, knowing what they know. You need support. Do you think one of those shifters will give it to you? No. Look at them, so focused on what they want that they don’t give a fuck what anyone else needs.”

Serena kept walking, trying to figure out around which bend they’d left the car. Wasn’t Vince saying exactly what she’d been thinking about Gabe? That he didn’t understand her, didn’t think her wolf was real? But that didn’t mean he didn’t care. He might not understand what not having a physical shifter meant, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t learn. Right?

And Vince. She shivered in the hot sunlight, rubbing her hands up and down her upper arm where he’d bruised her skin. She’d been so wrapped up this week in what was going on with her job and with Gabe and Sam that she hadn’t even seen the real Vince. Her, a trained therapist. She should have figured it out sooner. But now she could see he was sick, very sick.

And she was scared.

They finally got to the car. She went to her side and tried to open the door. “Hey, Vince, can you unlock the car?” She didn’t want to get into the vehicle with him, but she had to get back to the ranch, and they were miles from town.

He pressed the button, and she got in. His movements were jerky as he got in the other side and started the car. He backed it up, the tires spitting gravel. Instead of driving back down to the main road, he drove farther up the narrow access road, the bumps and ruts rattling the sedan’s frame. Under her light jacket, she began to perspire.

“Um, Vince, isn’t the ranch the other way?” She laced her fingers together, trying not to show how worried she really was.

Vince shook his head, determination turning his face into a stranger’s. “I can’t take you back. I need more time to convince you. I’m taking you somewhere else. Somewhere you’ll have to listen to me.” He reached out and pressed a button. The locks of the car snicked shut.

Her chest was closing up, and she struggled for air.

He wasn’t taking her back. They were on some unmarked road in the middle of the woods, and she had no idea where they were. Or where he was going.

She tightened her fingers around each other, trying to hold on to some kind of sanity and trying to figure out just when she should try to jump. But the car didn’t slow down enough and the miles sped by. Finally, Vince slowed down to make a turn off the main road. Serena unbuckled her seatbelt.

“What are you doing?” The car swiveled to a stop, the wheels spinning in the dirt on the side of the road.

She stabbed the lock button and reached for the handle at the same time, but his arm lashed out, grabbing hers.

“What the hell?”

She yanked hard and threw her weight out the door, but he was stronger than he looked, and her arm was jerked back, almost out of its socket. Pain rushed through her, and she struggled to get out of the car.

Vince’s fist crashed down, hitting her in the jaw. “Fucking bitch.”

She saw stars, and he yanked her back in the car, reaching over her to shut the door. She shook her head, trying to clear it. Before she had a chance to regroup he’d started the car up again and driven it up the side road. “Don’t try anything like that again, Serena, or I’ll have to hit you so hard, you won’t be able to walk.” His voice shook. “I don’t like hitting women, but until you see sense, I’ll do what I have to do.”

Serena curled up in her corner of the car and watched the main road disappear in the side-view mirror.

She’d dealt with a few clients who’d been out of control on the dreamscape, but having him here, in person, was different. She smelled the desperation on his sweat. Saw the pulse throbbing in his neck. She couldn’t just wake up and be safe in her own bed, not this time. She was locked in a car and heading deeper into the woods with a man who didn’t want to let her go.

This time the dream was real, very real, but instead of being her own dream structure, where she was in control, this one was built of the stuff of nightmares.