No Promises: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance by Michelle Love (21)

The squeezing and the need to push fade away. Tears stream down my cheeks. “Oh my God! Hurry, before it starts again. I won’t be able to stop myself again.”

Kyle takes the washcloth and wipes my tears away. “You can do this, Al. I have faith in you. Our daughter needs you right now. Control yourself for her.”

The massive pressure builds again. I squeeze Kyle’s hand. “Jesus, Kyle, it hurts not to push. You did this to me. I hate you! I hate you so much, you fucking bastard! You better never come near me again. I’ll fucking kill you!” I scream as the pain wracks my body.

The doctor finally sets me free as he says, “Okay, Mrs. Stevens, the cord is free. You can push now.”

I let my body do what I’ve stopped it from and feel relief immediately. Then the urge passes. I breathe in several times and then feel the tightness begin again. I push as soon as the urge hits me. Suddenly I feel a relief and hear a cry.

“You did it, Alyssa. She’s here,” Kyle says softly to me as he leans down to kiss my forehead.

“Mr. Stevens, would you like to cut the umbilical cord?” the doctor asks him.

He looks at me. “You okay?”

I manage to nod weakly. He lets my hand go and goes to the end of the bed. I lay my head back. I’m exhausted.

How in the hell do women do this shit over and over again?

“Look who I have here, Momma,” Kyle says as he walks back up to my side, holding a red-faced, little, wrinkly, black-haired thing.

He puts her on my chest and I raise my arms to hold her. “So you’re Junior. You just about made me hate my husband,” I say.

Kyle laughs. “Not ‘just about.’ I’m pretty sure you’ve hated me for the last few hours.”

I smile at him, then look back at the little human we created. “Thank you, Kyle. Thank you for this. She’s precious.”

A nurse wearing scrubs with baby ducks all over the shirt comes into my view. “We need to take the baby for a little while, to make sure she’s fine.”

Kyle takes the little, wrinkly, red baby and hands her to the nurse. “Bye, Kyla. See you soon,” he says.

My heart fills up with so much love for him. “I love you, Kyle. I’m sorry I turned into a super bitch.”

“You weren’t a super bitch, Al. You were just a big, wimpy baby,” he teases me.

“A big baby? Watch yourself, boy.”

His sky blues eyes twinkle and he moves closer to me. “Can I give my wife a kiss?”

“You need permission now?” I ask him.

“Oh, I wouldn’t dare touch you without permission,” he says with a grin.

I manage a smile. “Yes, Kyle, you can kiss your wife.”

His lips touch mine softly. My heart beats hard in my chest. I move my hand up to pull him to me, kissing him harder.

He pulls away slowly. “I love you, Alyssa Stevens.”

“Time to get up, Alyssa,” a smooth, velvety voice whispers in my ear.

I open my eyes to see emerald green eyes looking down into mine. “Good morning, Eden.”

I’m wrapped in his arms as he looks down at me. “I had to wake you up. I was getting a little uncomfortable with your dream.”

I drop my eyes. “I’m sorry, Eden.”

“No need to apologize. It’s not your fault,” Eden tells me, then he gets up out of bed.

I pick up my phone and call Laura again. It goes straight to voice mail. It’s still early. Maybe she’s still mad. I decide to get up and get dressed. My body hurts. I can’t tell if it’s from my dream, or if Eden and I got too rough with each other last night.

I meet Eden downstairs. He and Kyle are eating muffins. “Good morning,” I call out to them as I enter the kitchen.

Kyle smiles at me, then looks at Eden. “I don’t envy you being the father of her children and having to be with her through all that. She wasn’t very pleasant to deal with during the delivery of the baby. I can still feel the pain in my hand from her squeezing it,” Kyle tells him.

Eden’s eyebrows raise. “Can you really feel that?”

Kyle nods. “Unfortunately, the answer is yes. That’s going to be a problem if this continues.”

“Kyle, those feelings are not real. You have to come to terms with that,” I say as I go to sit on the stool at the breakfast bar with them. I wince when I try to sit down.

Damn it! It hurts so bad!

“Not so fast, Alyssa,” Eden stops me. “Let’s get you to the sofa.”

“The dreams aren’t real,” I say as Eden and Kyle help me to half-sit, half-lay on the sofa. “Kyle, we have to stop giving in to these feelings.”

“Are you finding it so easy to do?” Eden asks me.

“No, it isn’t easy, but it has to be done. That life might have been one we would’ve had, but then again, it might be a figment of my imagination,” I say as I move a pillow under my aching ass.

Damn, this is insane!

Kyle looks at me, then sits next to me, searching my eyes for answers I don’t have. “How could I have the same dreams then?”

I take his hand in mine, stroking his knuckles with my thumb. “I’ve no idea. Nothing which has happened to me in the last few months can be logically explained. Perhaps it’s just my dreams and you’re picking up on them telepathically.”

He pulls my hand up to his chest, placing it on his heart. “Then why do I feel like this? Why does it hurt that I can’t hold that little girl right now? I miss her and want to see her again. I want to go back to sleep and back to that world.”

I reposition myself on the sofa, my ass is aching and my stomach sore. “Eden woke me up when we kissed. Is that where the dream ended for you?”

He lets my hand go and looks away. “Yes, I woke up too.” He runs a hand through his blonde curls. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about our dreams at all.”

“I don’t know,” Eden says. “Maybe they should be discussed. Things should never go ignored. We wouldn’t resolve anything if we ignored things and hoped they’d go away.”

Kyle is so close to me. His leg touches mine and I have to fight the urge to reach for him. I want to be wrapped up in his arms and feel the comfort I know is there. “I don’t think there’s much for us to discuss. Kyle was there, I was there, and even you were there for all but one of the dreams. No need to talk about it too.”

His hand touches my arm and my eyes shoot to his. Kyle sees what his presence is doing to me and gets up, moving away from me. “We don’t have to talk about them if it bothers you, Al.”

I watch him move clear across the room. “I hope it doesn’t hurt you, Kyle, but it makes me feel bad that I’m cheating on my husband in my dreams. I don’t ever want to hurt Eden. He’s everything to me.”

Eden comes to my side and sits in the spot Kyle vacated. His hand runs up and down my arm, making me grow warm inside. “Alyssa, you have no control over this. I don’t want for you to feel bad about it. Just like anything else in life, I would hope you’d embrace it and learn everything you can from it.”

I look up at him. “You’re crazy mature, Eden. I wouldn’t be so open to this if it was you dreaming about being married to someone else.”

The no-nonsense expression he wears makes me feel worse somehow as he says, “How would you change it?”

How would I?

Placing my hand on top of his, I stop him from moving it over my arm. I take his hand and place it on my stomach. “I couldn’t, could I?”

His eyes move to look at his hand lying on my flat stomach. “Acceptance is the key to moving forward with life and learning all you can as you go along the way. You’ve been given a gift. You get to see what could have been. Explore that. Not many people get to.”

Kyle sits in the chair across from us. “Dude, that sounds wise.”

I laugh at his words. “Yeah, he’s wise and exceptionally good natured. We should all strive to be a little more like him.”

Then Eden goes and acts so unlike himself, I feel as if I’m in another world. His hand goes up, he leans towards Kyle, and the two bump fists. “It’s crazy, guy! Like, as long as I touch my mate, I can see the dream and it’s real. But I’m like a spectator. That baby was so cute!”

My eyes go wide and I look at my husband. “Eden?”

He looks back at me and grins. “She was.” Then his eyes move to Kyle. “Alyssa was pretty cranky through the whole thing. I’ll make sure she has plenty of pain killers when she and I have our children.”

Kyle laughs and rubs his hand. “Hell, yeah, guy. As much as they’ll allow.”

I groan as I pull myself up to a sitting position, which hurts, but I can’t take these jokers anymore. “Let either one of you feel that horrible pain and I bet you’d be cussing like a sailor and throwing things at the person who got you in that spot. I think I handled it all pretty well, considering how many times I thought about doing some pretty bad things to you, Kyle.”

He smiles at me with that million-dollar grin. “I am aware of all you thought, even in the dream world, Al. Choke me?”

I nod and get up slowly and painfully.

I will not be wanting to experience real childbirth anytime soon!

“Okay, let’s lighten this up, then, shall we?” I say. “I need to call Laura’s mother to see if she went home.”

The phone rings several times before Laura’s mother answers it. “Hello.”

“Hi, Mrs. Tanner. This is Ally.”

“Is everything all right?”

“Why do you ask that?” I ask her.

“It’s awfully early and Laura hasn’t called me in two days.”

“Oh, I see. I was hoping you’d heard from her. She and Kyle got into a little argument and she left. I thought she might be on her way back home.”

“How would she get here? Did you send her on that plane?”

“No, she took her car.”

“What car?” she asks.

“Oh, we gave her a car. Don’t worry. I’m sure she’ll cool off today and come back, or call, or something. I just wanted to be sure she wasn’t up there before we started looking for her around here.”

“You gave her a car?” she asks.

“Yes, I’m sure she wants to tell you all about that. If she calls you, please let me know.”

“You do the same for me.”

“Yes ma’am, I will. Talk to you soon,” I say, and then hang up.

“Not there either, huh?” Kyle asks me.

I shake my head. “Let’s give her until this evening. If we don’t hear from her, we can figure out what else we need to do. She can be really stubborn.”

Kyle looks distracted, yet not all that concerned, as he says, “You know her best.”

I watch for his reaction as I say, “No matter how mad she is, or why, she’ll realize she can’t just turn her back on us. It’ll just take her some time, I guess.”

Eden rises and moves towards me. “Alyssa, maybe you should take a ride around town and see if you can find her car at a motel or something. If you can find her, you can talk her into calming down and coming back.”

“Alone?” I ask him.

“You have the GPS system. You’ll be fine,” Kyle says. “Go look for her, Alyssa.”

I head up the stairs to get my things. “Okay, then. I’ll grab my purse and keys and see you two later. I might stop and pick up some steaks or something to cook later.”

CHAPTER 66

ALYSSA

I drop the top on my BMW. The air feels cool and crisp. I’ve not driven the car very much at all. I turn up my radio and breathe in the fresh air. The pine trees that line the driveway give off an aroma that makes me feel at home, just like they do back in Cloudcroft. It’s hard to believe such a small amount of time has passed since we were there.

A small motel sign pops up as I drive down the road. It’s not far from the house. I pull into the parking lot, but her car isn’t there. I drive further down the road and find another little motel, but her car isn’t here either.

What is up with her? Why is she so mad? How can she do this to Kyle?

A small grocery store is up ahead. I pull into the parking lot. It’s such a small town that I decide I can leave the top down on the car as I run in. The small store has a pretty good meat market. I find several steaks quickly, then get some potatoes to bake and some fresh green beans.

“Will that be all for you today?” the lady at the cash register asks me.

“Yes, thank you,” I answer her.

I look out the glass front of the building and see a police car driving slowly as it passes behind my car. “Can I ask you something?” I ask the lady.

“Yes,” she answers.

“Do you happen to know the sheriff?”

“He’s my uncle,” she tells me.

“Oh! Then it is safe to say he’s a stand-up kind of person, right?” I ask, not believing how small this town is.

“He’s the best. Why do you ask?” she asks me.

“He was just driving by my car. Just being curious,” I answer her.

She looks out the glass wall. “That’s a nice car. He was probably just admiring it,” she says.

I smile at her. “I’m sure that’s it. Thanks,” I say as I walk away from her.

I drive through the little town, looking for Laura’s car. I notice the same police car turns out onto the road behind me. It follows me for three blocks. I decide I should go back to the house. I’m careful to follow all of the speed limits and use my turn signals. The damn sheriff stays some ways behind me all the way back tp the house. Just as I turn into the driveway and push the code on the gate to open it, the lights on the police car turn on.

The gates open. I want to drive in and close them behind me, but I’m a little bit afraid to. The sheriff gets out of his car and walks up to the side of my car. He seems to be purposely taking his time before he tells me why he’s bothering me.

“Sir, can you tell me why you’re stopping me?” I ask him.

Pulling down his dark sunglasses, he glares at me. “I’ll ask the questions, young lady.”

I turn my head to look forward. “Okay, then, what questions do you have for me?”

“Can you understand me? I will ask you the questions. Now be quiet,” he says.

I close my eyes. I just remembered Kyle told him my name is Kat. If he wants to see my driver’s license, he’ll know it’s not the truth and that won’t be good. Not good at all. I picture Kyle’s face in my mind and then call his name out in my head. I open my eyes and look at the gate.

“I need you to step out of the car,” the sheriff tells me.

I turn to look at him. “Why?”

“I’ll tell you only once more. I need you to step out of the car,” he says, then puts his hand on his gun, which hangs on a belt around his waist.

I laugh at his actions. “You must be crazy. You can’t pull a gun on me just because I won’t do what you say. You’ve not given me any reason as to why you’ve even pulled up behind me.”

I hear Kyle’s truck start up from the garage. It’s loud. To my surprise, the sheriff moves his hand off of the gun. He moves away from my car and goes back toward his.

“I’ll let this go for now, missy,” he says, and then gets into his car and pulls away before Kyle can make it all the way out to us.

I pull through the gates as Kyle’s truck comes into sight. I see that he’s alone in the truck. I drive past him and motion for him to follow me. I pull up in front of the house and he pulls back into the garage. I walk into the front door with my bag of groceries.

Eden meets me at the door. “What the hell happened? Kyle said he heard you calling him and saw the front entrance in his head. What is that about?”

Before I can answer him, Kyle walks into the side door from the garage. “Did I see a police car driving off, Al?”

“A police car?” Eden asks.

“The sheriff followed me out here and then turned on his lights just as I pulled into the driveway. I did nothing wrong. I felt like he was going to try and take me in or something. I pictured Kyle in my head and called to him. I didn’t call to you, Eden, because I couldn’t have you in danger of being taken into custody,” I tell them.

“You did the right thing, Al,” Kyle tells me.

“I thought so. I was taking a gamble it would even work,” I tell him.

Eden unpacks the bag of groceries and says, “Maybe you should try to telecommunicate with Laura.”

“I can try. I’ll go up to our bedroom and try to concentrate. I bought steaks for you guys to cook out on the grill later this evening. Can you put this stuff up while I go try to communicate with her?”

I go upstairs to our bedroom and lay down on the bed. I see Laura’s face in my head. I call her name over and over again in my mind. I can’t hear anything back. I can’t be sure this is working.

I have to stop myself from thinking about how it might not work. I sit up and hold my hands up to my head. I try to see her face again. An image of her with tears streaming down her face comes into focus. I open my eyes, then get up and run down the stairs.

“I saw her with tears streaming down her face. I think it’s time to ask for help,” I say. “We need to ask our security team to find her.”

Eden stands up and takes out his cell phone as he walks out the back door to make the call. I look over at Kyle. “She will get over this. She’s really madder at herself than at you,” I enlighten him.

“I doubt that, Al,” he says, sadly.

Eden comes back in. “You won’t believe this.”

“What?” Kyle and I ask at the same time.

“Her car has a tracking device. I should’ve thought about that before, but I didn’t. Anyway, she’s right down the road. You won’t believe where,” he says.

“Eden, just tell us,” I say.

“Sheriff Hardy’s house,” he tells us.

“How can that be?” I ask.

Kyle stands up. “I’ll go get her. You two stay here.”

“Wait, Kyle. One of our security guys works in Austin as a bodyguard for the governor. He’s coming out to take care of the situation,” Eden tells him.

“So we have to wait?” Kyle asks.

“It won’t be long, Kyle,” Eden assures him.

“I’ll make some sweet tea while we wait,” I say.

“Why would Laura be at the sheriff’s house?” Kyle asks us.

“I have no idea,” Eden answers him.

“We will know shortly, Kyle. Just try to relax until then. I found some chocolate chip cookie dough in the fridge. I’m going to make some cookies. Come help me, Kyle,” I tell him, trying to distract him.

“I guess I should find out where everything is in here. I don’t want Laura to have to do all of the cooking,” Kyle says.

“The cookie sheets should be under the cabinet, Kyle. I’ll pre-heat the oven.”

“I’ll be out back by the pool. I need to call our parents and let them know how things are going,” Eden tells us, then walks out of the back door.

I finish making the tea, then pour Kyle a glass. “Here, have some tea. It’ll calm your nerves.”

“Thank you, Al. Thanks for understanding. I feel like I’m going crazy here. I can’t figure anything out about any of this. It makes no sense why Laura would be over there,” Kyle says as he puts the tray of cookies into the oven.

“I know it’s confusing, to say the least. I mean, why in the hell didn’t the sheriff say anything to me about that?” I ask.

“It doesn’t make any sense at all. I just want it over soon,” he says.

The back door opens and Eden walks in. “He’s here.”

As we walk out the front door, a black suburban drives up. A well-built man wearing a black suit gets out of the car. Eden walks over to him as Kyle and I hang back.

“What do you mean, she’s in jail?” Eden shouts at the bodyguard. Kyle and I look at each other, then get closer so we can hear everything.

“The sheriff said she left here last night and he happened to be driving down the road on his way home. She pulled out of the gate here and sped down the road in front of him. She appeared to be drunk, so he had his deputy, who was riding with him, take her car to his house and he took her to jail,” the bodyguard, Jake, tells us.

“I don’t understand why she hasn’t called anyone to tell them that,” I say.

“The sheriff said the judge deemed her a flight risk. She was apparently very hostile towards Sheriff Hardy, hitting him repeatedly. The judge has not set her bail yet. They won’t let her make any calls until that time. They also have her in isolation so she can’t hurt anyone,” Jake says.

“This is ridiculous. We need a lawyer. That sheriff, a couple of his deputies, and a judge were here last night. They have an idea that we’re hiding what the jet was chasing,” Eden says.

“Then she needs to be out of there as soon as possible, before they get her to talk,” Jake tells us.

“She won’t say anything about that. She takes her responsibility seriously. She would never give up any information about them,” Kyle says.

“I am sure she would never deliberately give up any information. Unfortunately, drugs could be used to get the truth out of her,” Jakes says.

“Jesus,” Kyle says as he begins to pace back and forth.

I look at Eden, then turn to take Kyle back into the house. “Come on, Kyle,” I tell him. “Let’s go back inside. Your cookies are probably done.”

He follows me in. “This is bad, Ally. I just want her back here. What if they drug her? I can’t take that. This is my fault because I’m a mess up.”

“Kyle, stop that. This is no one person’s fault. Blame is not what needs to be done. We need to focus and take care of business. I’m positive we have lawyers who will get her out quickly. Have faith.”

Kyle looks at me, then hugs me tightly. “I love her, Ally. I know it now for sure because this is killing me.”

“I know you do. We’ll get her out,” I tell him.

Eden comes in the front door. “A lawyer is coming to see what he can get done. This is a bad situation, with the damn police department as well as the judge being against us. We’ll get her out, though, so don’t worry about that,” he tells us.

“Kyle, turn off the oven and take out the cookies, then let’s go get her car,” I say.

“Alyssa, I don’t think …” Eden says.

“I want to see this man,” I say.

Kyle looks at me. “Ally, there’s no way we can let you do that. You could end up in there as well. These are not people to think you can control.”

“We need to get her car back. That’s all I’m talking about. Let’s go get it,” I say.

“Don’t get out of the car, Alyssa,” Eden tells me as we pull up at the sheriff’s house.

I look over at Kyle, who’s sitting right next to me in his tall new truck. “You walk up there with him and don’t get back into this truck until he’s out the driveway,” I order him.

“Yes, ma’am,” Kyle says.

Then I turn to Eden, who’s sitting on the other side of me. “Picture the dogs in your head, They’ll immediately calm down.”

The minute both Kyle and Eden are out of the truck, the front door opens. An older woman is standing at the door and a large German Shepard stands in front of her.

“What do you want?” the lady shouts.

“We’re here to pick up this car. It’s my wife’s,” Kyle tells her.

“That girl ain’t your wife. My husband, the sheriff, told me that. So why’d you lie to him?” she asks.

“She is my wife. I don’t know why he would tell you anything different. I just need to pick up the car. I don’t want to upset you or anything,” Kyle says.

“You ain’t upsetting me, boy. You go on ahead and take that car. It ain’t mine. I’ll tell you one thing, though. You’re starting things out all wrong here,” she says.

“I don’t mean to be doing that, ma’am,” Kyle says, then motions for Eden to take the car.

Eden starts to walk towards the car and the dog standing in front of the lady begins to bark. “He don’t like you,” the lady tells Eden.

I focus on the dog and he stops barking. Eden continues towards the car, getting in and starting it. He drives past me as he leaves the driveway.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Kyle says to the lady, then walks back to the truck.

I see the lady lean down and say something to the dog, then it takes off running towards Kyle. She must have given it an attack command. I open the door and jump out, running towards the dog as Kyle moves quickly towards the truck.

“Get back in the truck, Alyssa,” he yells at me.

I stop, standing perfectly still as the dog stops in front of me, growling and barking. I look up to see the lady has shut the door. I see the curtain pulled back some, I guess so she can see out.

“Be quiet,” I tell the dog in a hushed voice.

The dog stops barking and turns his head sideways as if asking me how I did that. “Go back to the house,” I tell it. He turns and trots back towards the house.

I turn to go back to the truck. Kyle’s waiting for me. He picks me up, putting me in the truck on the driver’s side. “Eden is going to kill me,” Kyle says under his breath.

“That dog wasn’t going to hurt me. You, on the other hand, were fixing to get torn up,” I say.

“I could’ve outrun it,” he says.

“Just say thanks, Kyle.”

He looks at me with a frown. “Thanks, dog whisperer.”

CHAPTER 67

KYLE

My cell phone rings as we approach the gate to our house. “Hello, Eden. Yeah, we’ll go right over there,” I say, then hang up the phone.

Ally looks over at me from the passenger seat of my truck. “What did he say?”

“Eden said the lawyer is at the jail and we can go over there now.”

Alley asks, “Is he going too?”

“He’s almost there now,” I say.

When we arrive at the jail, we see the lawyer talking to Laura through a thick glass window. Her eyes fly up as we walk in. I turn to look for Eden and find him standing up by the wall with a frown on his face.

I walk up to her. Laura puts her hand on the glass and I press mine up to hers through the glass. She wears a pained expression.

“Is she all right?” I ask the lawyer.

“Not really. She’s been sick,” the lawyer tells me. “Here, you can talk to her through this phone. I have to talk to the sheriff.”

Ally walks up to the glass. Tears are rolling down Laura’s face. “Tell her we’ll do everything we can. She’ll be out soon,” she says.

I tell her what Ally said and Laura tells me, “I know that. I need you all to pray for me. I’m afraid they might be poisoning me. I’ve been throwing up a lot.”

Now I see red. “Have you told them you’re sick?”

She nods.

Ally asks, “Are they asking her a lot of questions?”

I ask Laura Ally’s question and she answers, “Not a lot. Just a couple of them. They want to know what flew to our house and where they are now. They said they won’t let me out until I tell them.”

Eden walks up and says, “We’ll figure this out.”

A lady in a uniform comes and takes Laura away. Laura looks back at us as tears flow down her cheeks. I’m trying so hard to stay strong for her, giving her a smile as she’s lead away before we turn and walk out of the room.

Ally almost runs into the sheriff.

“See you finally came looking for your little friend,” he says.

Ally looks up at him and says, “Do you not have a conscience?”

Eden and I go to her side, trying to keep her from getting herself in trouble.

“You should watch how you speak to me, young lady,” he tells her.

Ally looks him right in the eye and says, “You should watch who you mess with, sheriff. You’re in over your head. You just haven’t realized it yet. Let her go and you can avoid a lot of trouble.”

His demeanor changes some and he says, “You think you’re pretty tough. You might know how to get animals to do what you want them to, with that commanding attitude. Unfortunately for you, I am no animal. My brain works on its own.”

Eden tugs at her to leave. “Come on, Kat. Let’s go.”

Ally holds her ground and keeps her eyes on the sheriff’s. “It would seem you’re determined to underestimate us, sheriff. It’s a shame you want to do things this way.”

Eden manages to pull her away and I follow behind them. Looking back at the sheriff, I say, “You might think about letting my wife go. I hate to see what will happen to you if you don’t. You’ve made Kat mad and that never turns out well. The last guy who did ended up in a mental institution. Make wise choices, sheriff.”

The sun shines brightly as we walk out the doors. I blink and shield my eyes as Eden pulls Ally to Laura’s car. “I’m going to talk to the lawyer. Please just sit in the car and don’t talk to anyone. You’re going to get yourself locked up, Alyssa,” he tells her as he sits her down in the car and seat belts her in, then hands her the keys. “Start the car. I’ll be right back.”

I get in my truck and head back to the house. My mind is flying with what we need to do to get her out of there and to teach these idiots a lesson. They can’t be allowed to do this to people. I can’t wait for the legal system.

Eden and Ally are right behind me. I wait for Eden, then we walk up to the front door. “What did you think about what the lawyer said?” I ask.

“I think what he has planned will take a while,” Eden answers.

“I want these people to understand that messing around with things which are beyond their imagination is a dumb thing to do,” Ally says as she walks in and grabs a bottle of water out of the fridge.

I lean past her to grab a bottle of water myself and say, “Ally, you have to simmer down.”

Eden takes her hand in his. “Your temper is as bad as your jealous streak. You have to make decisions with a calm mind. Don’t let blind fury run you or you’ll make mistakes, and that could cost you and me both.”

“I hate it, but I think we have to wait for the lawyer to do this the legal way,” I say as I sit down on the sofa.

“We could do that, or we can give them what they want,” Eden says.

I look at Eden. “You can’t mean that.”

“They want the birds. They can have the birds,” Eden states flatly, then pulls out his cellphone and makes a call.

CHAPTER 68

EDEN

I hear the rattling sound of a truck coming up the driveway. I shout out to Kyle and Alyssa, “They’re here.”

I head out the door as my mate grabs a flashlight and shouts back at Kyle, “Come on, Kyle, hurry up! We have to get them into the barn!”

“I’m right behind you,” he tells her as he picks up his flashlight.

A member of our organization has brought us the much-needed diversion that will get Laura out of jail. I jump into the truck with the man and show him to the back of the property and the barn, where we get out of his truck.

Kyle jumps out of his truck and helps my wife down. “You’re a freakin’ genius!” he says.

“I have to agree with, Kyle. Your resources seem to be unlimited. Who else can make a phone call to the San Diego Zoo in California and get a pair of California Condors delivered to their door in a matter of hours?” Alyssa says.

“Um, you could,” I remind her.

She blinks at me a few times, then says, “Oh, yeah, but I didn’t even think of it. Being brought up normal has been a real drawback for me.”

“No, it hasn’t,” Kyle says as he jogs up to her, putting his arm around her shoulders. “You met me by being normal. I’m not a drawback. I’m an enhancement.”

She laughs at him as the truck backs up to the barn doors. “Time to see if these birds can get along with us,” I say.

“We need to keep it dark for them. They can get upset pretty easily,” Leo, the man from the zoo who is wearing khaki shorts and a shirt, tells us.

“This is Leo,” I say, introducing him. “This is my wife, Alyssa and one of our guardians, Kyle.”

The man smiles at us. “It’s good to meet you. I’m really interested to see if you two can communicate with Lucy and Ricky.”

“Those are their names?” I ask.

“Yeah, and I want to be really clear that we have to get this done tonight. I can’t have these guys away for long. I’m supposed to be taking them to the vet. They have to be back by tomorrow evening,” Leo tells us as he lowers the wooden door on the crate, revealing a large metal cage with two massive black birds in it.

Alyssa sucks in her breath and says, “They’re so large and a little scary looking.”

I reach out my hand to touch the cage. “Hi guys,” I whisper.

The larger bird comes towards my hand. “That’s Ricky, the male,” Leo whispers.

To my amazement, the bird leans its head to touch my hand. I release my breath. Then I reach my other hand out behind me, gesturing for my mate to take my hand. She does and giggles quietly, then says, “I immediately felt the fast pace of the bird’s heartbeat.”

The female bird comes closer to us. Alyssa puts her hand out for the bird to come touch if she wants to. The bird presses her face against the cage. Alyssa touches her face and says, “Her face is bumpy. I can feel the bird’s anticipation of what’s going to happen.”

“They will work with us,” I say quietly.

“This is amazing,” Leo says. “Let’s get them out of the cage then.”

Leo opens the cage door slowly. I stand in front of Kyle, just to be sure they don’t find him a threat in any way. They walk out of the cage cautiously, looking at their surroundings.

I look at Kyle. “Time to go get the sheriff.”

Kyle backs out of the barn slowly. I can hear the truck start outside, then he drives off. I say a little prayer that this farce works. Then my attention is drawn back to the large birds as they walk in a circle around us.

I slowly hold both of my hands out and begin to turn the opposite direction they’re going in. They turn around to go in the same direction we are.

“Amazing,” Leo mutters.

I stop and so do they. I turn Alyssa and myself to walk away from them and they follow us.

“They’re ready to go outside and fly,” I tell Leo.

I see Leo make the sign of the cross over himself. “I hope you have them in control. I’ll be killed if I lose these birds,” Leo tells us.

I smile at him. “Don’t worry.”

Leo walks back to the large barn doors and opens them. Alyssa and I walk toward the open doors as they follow us. I feel the cool night air on my face as we leave the security of the barn. The birds are feeling a little confused by the freedom we’re allowing them.

“They’ve never flown freely?” Alyssa asks.

“No, they haven’t,” Leo answers.

“How sad to be a bird and never get to use your power of flight,” she says.

“Well, they get to fly tonight,” I say as I raise my free hand up high over my head. “Raise your hand, Alyssa.”

She does as I do and we continue to walk forward into the dark night. The birds take off running past us, one on each side of us. Then they pull up into the air. Both of them shriek at the same time. I find I’m smiling like a child.

I look at my mate. “This is cool.” I begin to turn us around slowly. “Keep your arm raised until we want them to land.”

They follow our movements up in the air. I see car lights coming down the dirt road. “Here they come. I pray this works,” I mutter, mostly to myself.

Kyle’s truck pulls up, followed by another truck. Kyle gets out of his truck as the sheriff and two of the guys from the other night get out of the other one.

“You have to be really quiet,” Kyle tells them.

“Okay, let’s bring them down,” I whisper to Alyssa.

We drop our arms slowly. The birds come in to land, running up to us and stopping just in front of us. I turn us to face the group of men.

“Time to put on a show,” I say quietly. “Raise your arm, pointing to just over their heads.”

She does as I say. The birds run past us, right at the men, then pull up to fly inches over their heads. Their majestic ten-foot wingspans and the wind they create blow the cowboy hat off of the sheriff’s head.

“Shit,” one of the guys shouts as he ducks down.

“They’re huge!” The sheriff says, with excitement in his voice.

“So, you see, Sheriff Hardy, that’s what we’ve been hiding. A pair of escaped California Condors. This is Leo. He’s here to pick them up and take them back to the wildlife park they escaped from,” Kyle tells them as Leo walks up to the group.

“Hi, guys. They’re pretty cool, huh?” Leo says.

“I’ve never seen birds that big,” the other guy tells Leo.

“I bet you haven’t. They aren’t found in this area. These two accidently missed out on getting their wings clipped and ended up taking off one night. We’ve been missing them for about a month. We were sure they would never make it out on their own,” Leo tells them.

“Why was it so secretive?” the sheriff asks him.

“I have to be truthful with you. It was my doing. I’ve been covering up their absence, hoping to find them. I met Kat and Koby a while back when they came to a training seminar. I called them and many other trainers to help me find the birds,” he answers.

“So you made them keep it a secret that they’d found them?” the sheriff asks him.

Leo nods his head yes. “I would lose my job if the truth came out. I had to make up a reason to come all the way down here. It took me several days to get the time off and drive here with a cage to take them back home with. I hope you don’t turn me in. I didn’t want to tell anyone I didn’t have to about this. But these guys tell me you have their friend’s wife in custody.”

“I had to do whatever it took to get to the bottom of this. I live here, you know?” the sheriff says.

Alyssa and I drop our hands, bringing in the birds once again. They come in just over their heads. They land, then come to us, stopping in front of us. We turn to walk back into the barn and the birds follow us. Once in the barn, I turn to the birds.

“Thank you for helping us out,” I tell them.

“Time to go back home, Lucy and Ricky,” Alyssa tells them as we walk to the door of the cage. The birds walk into the cage, then turn around to look at us.

As I close the door to the cage, Alyssa says, “I hate that we have to send them back into captivity.”

“It’s for a good cause, Alyssa. The conservation program is bringing them back from near extinction. Ricky and Lucy are helping to increase the California Condor population,” I explain.

She takes a deep breath and sighs. “Bye, guys.”

I hold my hand out to them. They both come to touch my hand with their bumpy faces. My mate touches them too, wishing them a safe journey.

Leo comes back into the barn. “I think it worked, guys. They all just left to go to the jail.”

I smile at him, then Alyssa walks to him, giving him a hug. “I can’t thank you enough, Leo. We’re going to come see you at work soon.”

I shake his hand and laugh. “Thanks so much for all of your help. You are a great actor.”

“I guess those acting lessons paid off after all,” Leo tells us.

“When you get back, you’ll find that The Phoenix Foundation has given a generous grant to your California Condor Program, as well as a generous grant to you for all of your help,” I tell him.

“That’s really not necessary, guys,” he says. “I’d do anything to keep your secret.”

I smile at him. “Your protection is greatly appreciated by us. Please accept our gifts to you. It would make us happy.”

“Thank you, I will,” Leo says, then closes up the wooden door on the bird’s crate.

He gets back into his truck and waves goodbye to us. “Come on, Alyssa. Let’s walk up to the house,” I say as I take her hand and lead her up the dirt road.

She puts her head on my shoulder as we walk back up to the house in the darkness. “You handled that situation really well, Eden.”

“Kicking ass and taking names isn’t always the best thing to do,” I say, then laugh a little.

“I guess I was a little bit ready to go to war with these people,” she admits.

“You have to learn to take some time to completely assess the situation before you make a conclusion about how to handle it,” I say.

“You’re so mature. I’m lucky to have you,” she says.

I stop, taking her hand and touching my lips to it. “I’m the lucky one, Mrs. Fontaine,” I say as I take her arms and wrap them around my neck, then place my hands on her waist. “I love you so much, Alyssa. I feel closer to you every day. You have no idea what you mean to me.”

She smiles up at me. “I have some idea. You mean everything to me, Eden. I couldn’t love anyone more than I love you.”

I continue to lead her up the road to the house. “I can’t wait for Laura to be back,” she says.

“You know that Kyle is going to ask her to marry him some day, right?” I ask.

“No, I don’t know that,” she says. “And with my connection to him, I’d be the first to know if he even had that thought for a micro-second.”

“Will it bother you if he does?” I ask.

“It’s a bit soon for them to take that step. Look how badly they can fight. It might not be the right thing for them to do, at least not right now,” she says.

“You do know you care more for Kyle than you do Laura, right?” I ask.

A long sigh comes from her. “No, that’s not really true. Laura is just as important to me as he is. Though if she knew about our little dream-life, I doubt she’d be too thrilled with me. I know Kyle and I both know our lives are better on this path, rather than that one.”

“I know, but you two fall asleep and have a different life. Who’s to say when it’ll stop happening,” I say.

“Do you think it’ll continue, even though we both think our lives are better this way?” she asks.

“I don’t know, Alyssa,” I tell her as we approach the house. “I do know it’ll be hard for Laura to handle. It was difficult for me at first.”

She drops her head. “Maybe you shouldn’t touch me at night if it bothers you, as it’s something I can’t help,” she says as I open the door.

I laugh a little. “I can’t not touch you when we sleep. That’s impossible. I’m fine with it now anyway. At least Laura doesn’t have to be a witness to your dream lives. You should limit your discussions about what all went on in the dreams, though. At least with her.”

She nods. “I’m sorry, Eden.”

I lift her chin up and say, “I can take it. I can take whatever comes with being with you. I know Kyle can take whatever comes with being with you too. Laura is lacking the connection, so watch what you say to her. I’m not saying to lie, but I am saying not to be so upfront with this thing.”

“Okay,” she says. “I would control it if I could. You know that, right?”

I smile at her. “I know that, Alyssa. I wish there was something I could do too. I guess this is just another thing we have to go through. We’ve been given special gifts. Some really crazy things go along with that, apparently.”

The door opens to reveal Kyle carrying Laura into the house. “Is she okay?” I ask.

Laura’s head is lying against Kyle’s chest. She’s pale and looks very weak. “No, she isn’t all right. She almost fell as she walked out to me,” he tells us.

“I’ll call and get a doctor over here,” I say as I take out my cell.

“Lie her down on the sofa. I’ll get her some water,” Alyssa tells him. She takes the water to Laura, sitting next to her. “Laura, what’s wrong?”

“I’ve been really sick, Al. I can’t keep anything down. I feel really tired and weak,” she tells her.

Alyssa takes the straw she put into the bottle of water and puts it up to Laura’s lips. She takes a sip of it. “Kyle, bring down a blanket,” Alyssa directs him and he dashes off.

After a very brief conversation with my doctor from home, I tell them what he told me. “We need to go ahead and take her to the hospital. She’s most likely dehydrated and they need to get an IV in her and start giving her fluids as soon as possible. One of our doctors will meet us there. He said there’s a small hospital right here in town.”

Kyle comes back down the stairs with the blanket. “We have to take her to the hospital, Kyle,” I say.

“What? It’s that bad?” he asks.

“The doctor said that, since she’s been unable to keep anything down, she’s probably dehydrated and we need to get that taken care of as soon as possible,” I tell him.

Kyle wraps the blanket around her. “Let’s take her car, Eden. You drive and I’ll ride in the back with her,” Kyle says, then he picks Laura up and walks to the door.

Alyssa follows behind us. “Don’t worry, Laura. You’ll be feeling better in no time,” she tells her.

We pull up at the hospital’s emergency entrance. Kyle gets out, picking her up. “Go with them, Alyssa. I’ll park the car and be right in,” I say.

When I come in, I see them all still sitting in the waiting room. “They should be taking you straight back,” I tell Kyle.

A nurse opens the door. “Laura Stevens?” she calls out.

Kyle looks at me. “Stevens?” he asks.

“Take your wife and follow the nurse, Kyle,” I tell him.

Kyle stands up, taking Laura and following the nurse. Alyssa and I walk behind them, only to be stopped by the nurse. “Only her husband can be back here for now. Sorry guys. Hospital rules,” she tells us.

Alyssa looks at me as the nurse shuts the door in our faces. “Now I see why you lied when you took me to the hospital,”

I smile at her. “I know she’ll want someone in there with her. It should be him.”

She nods in agreement, but I feel the pain in her heart.

She’s not ready to let him go.

CHAPTER 69

ALYSSA

Just as Eden and I sit down, I realize I need to let Laura’s mother know we found her. “I need to call her mother.” I tell Eden. “I’ll be right outside.”

I take out my cell phone and walk out the sliding glass doors. “Hey, Joan, I know it’s late. I just wanted to let you know we found Laura and it’s a long story, but she’s okay,” I tell her.

“I want to talk to her,” Joan says.

“She’s sleeping right now. I’ll get her to call you in the morning,” I say.

“Ally, please. I am worried sick,” she says.

“Look, Joan, I don’t want to wake her up. Please know she’s okay. I’ll have her call you first thing in the morning,” I say.

“You better, Ally. You have no idea how hard this has been. You’ll never understand until you have children,” she tells me.

“I’m sorry. Just know that she’s okay and she’ll call you as soon as she wakes up,” I say to her before I hang up.

Eden comes out just as I turn to walk back in. “We should go home and rest. The nurse came out and told me they’ll most likely be moving her to a room later. She’s severely dehydrated. They’re going to run tests on her to find out what’s making her sick.”

He puts his arm around my shoulders and moves me towards the parking lot. “I feel bad about not being able to tell her mother everything. She told me I would never understand how she feels until I have children. I hope we’re doing the right thing for Laura,” I say.

Eden opens the car door for me. I sit down and he leans across me and fastens my seatbelt. “She’s being taken care of. Don’t second guess things,” he tells me, then shuts my door.

I look at Eden as he drives me back to their house. “Do you think that they were poisoning her?”

“I don’t know. God help them if they were,” he says.

“God won’t help them if they were,” I say. “Then we can kick ass and take names.”

The little ducks quacking in the box next to the bed wakes me up from a dreamless sleep. I rub my eyes and look over to see Eden sleeping next to me, his leg draped over mine. I gently move his leg off of me so I can get the ducks something to eat.

I pick up the box and take it downstairs to find their duck food. Each little ducky eats like they were starving when I put the feeder down for them. I stroke each one’s little head as they quack and eat, leaving the box on the table as I go to get ready to go up to the hospital.

“You’re up,” I say as I walk in to find Eden sitting up in the bed.

“Yeah,” he groans, then stretches.

“Meet me in the shower,” I tell him as I walk into the bathroom.

I hear him get out of the bed and walk to the bathroom. I turn on the water in the rather small shower, then stand under the water as it helps me to clear my head.

Eden steps into the shower with a smile on his face. “I noticed you slept dreamlessly,” he says.

I smile back at him as I put a dollop of shampoo in my hand. “No dreams,” I say as I raise my eyebrows. “I had a quiet night in my head for a change.”

He presses his body up against mine, holding me back against the wall, his forehead touching mine. I feel his hands moving over my wet skin.

“I suddenly feel very happy to be awake,” he tells me.

“You’re making me pretty happy too,” I tell him, then his hands pull me closer to him and I am lost.

I button my shirt as Eden walks past me, delivering a slap to my bottom as he does. “Let’s get a move on, Alyssa. It’s almost time for visiting hours,” he says.

“Eden, you are very promiscuous this morning. What has gotten into you?” I ask him.

“I don’t know, maybe the fact that a whole twenty-four hours has gone by since I’ve had to watch my wife making love to her dream husband has perked me up some,” he says.

I smile at him, but inwardly I feel sad. “I hope the dreams are over for good. I hate that you have to see that.”

“I hope they are too,” he admits. “I don’t like to share you, even in a non-existent reality.”

I walk to take his hand. “I love you, Eden. You understand even the craziest things. Now let’s go see how Laura is this morning.”

“She’s in room 222,” the lady sitting at the desk tells us.

“I can’t believe she’s still here. I thought they would give her some fluids, and boom, she would be better,” I say.

“We’ll find out soon enough why she’s still here,” Eden tells me as we get in the elevator and go up to the second floor.

The elevator doors open and we see the room number right away. “Here she is,” I say.

Eden knocks lightly on the door. The door opens and Kyle’s unshaven, very tired-looking face peeks out at us. “Oh, good, it’s you,” he says as he stands back for us to come in.

“Kyle, you look terrible,” I say.

“I haven’t slept,” he tells us.

No wonder I had no dreams about him. “Why not?” I ask him.

“I think Laura will want to tell you that,” he says as he shuts the door.

I look at Laura, who is fast asleep. “Is she okay. Did they find poison?”

He shakes his head. “No, it wasn’t anything that they did to her,” he says.

“That’s a relief, because I would’ve lost it if they’d done something to her. Probably just the stress of the situation had her like that,” I say.

“Eden, can you take me back to the house so I can get cleaned up? Ally can you stay here with Laura for a while?” Kyle asks Eden.

“Sure, Kyle, whatever you need me to do,” Eden says. “We’ll be back in a little while, Alyssa.”

I look at Kyle and sense something’s wrong. His mind is blank, though, almost as if he’s closing himself off to me on purpose. “Kyle, you sure you don’t have something you want to tell me? You seem out of it.”

“No, Ally. I’m really tired,” he says. “She needs you right now, a lot more than she needs me anyway.”

I watch them walk out the door, knowing full well that something has happened between them. I turn to look at Laura sleeping. Her color is better; there are still black circles under her eyes, though. I sit down in the chair next to her bed. The TV is on, so I flip through the channels, leaving the volume on low.

“Ally?” Laura says with a hoarse voice.

I stop and put the remote down. “Yes, Laura, it’s me,” I say, then move in front of her. “Can I get you anything?”

She smiles weakly. “You can get me out of here,” she says as she laughs a little.

“I bet you are ready to come home and sleep in your own bed. Hopefully the doctor will let you go today,” I say.

“I’m sure he will. What’s wrong with me can’t be fixed by staying in the hospital,” she says.

“So what is wrong with you?” I ask.

“You must have seen Kyle,” she says. “He didn’t whine to you about it?”

I shake my head. “Why would he whine about what’s wrong with you?”

“I can’t believe he didn’t tell you,” she says, almost to herself. “I thought he would come crying to you for sure. All he could say when they told us was that you were going to be so upset. It was pretty embarrassing, as the nurse thought we were married and might actually be happy with the news.”

I frown at her. “Well, he didn’t. He asked Eden to take him home so he could get cleaned up.”

“I see. He’s going to cry to Eden about it, then,” she mumbles.

“What is he going to be crying about, Laura?” I ask, getting tired of this runaround.

“I’m pregnant,” she states flatly.

My jaw drops open. “I thought you were using birth control!”

“The thing about birth control pills is that you have to remember to take them and I have trouble remembering that. So I got myself in this predicament. It’s not really Kyle’s fault. I was taking the responsibility for keeping myself from getting pregnant and I failed. He probably hates me now,” she says.

“No, he doesn’t hate you at all, Laura,” I tell her, reaching out to hold her hand. “He was worried sick about you. He told me he knew for sure he loved you because he was so upset over what was happening to you.”

She looks up at me with a blank expression “Do you know that he had the nerve to suggest that we get married?”

Why do I feel like I have just been slapped?

“What do you mean by that?” I ask her.

“I won’t be marrying him just because of this thing,” she says as she motions towards her stomach.

“Laura, I know this is a shock to you and you had not planned on any of this, but it is your future now. Accept it and be happy. Don’t shut Kyle out. He’s a great father.”

She turns her head to look at me with a quizzical look in her eyes. “Did you just say that he is a great father, Ally?”

Oh, no! Did I say it like that?

She can’t hear about that right now.

“I mean I know he will be one. That’s what I meant. Laura, maybe he was going to ask you to marry him anyway.”

“The hell he was, Al! He’s still all about you. I could see it in his eyes when he said you would be upset. Can you tell me why you would be upset?”

“I’m not upset. I don’t know why he would think that. I will set him straight, though. This baby and you are his future. I’m only a small part of it. You and your children will be his world,” I tell her.

“No, we won’t. We will always be second to you and that isn’t enough for me. I’ll always be your guardian, Ally, but I won’t always be with him. I can’t short change myself like that. Maybe someone else can, but not me.”

“He loves you, Laura. I wish you would stop thinking you’re second to me in his eyes, because that’s not true,” I tell her. “I wasn’t going to tell you this right now, but I have to, so maybe you can see where he’s coming from.”

She looks at me. “What is it? Is it that the two of you have been sleeping together? Since I’ve been gone you have, haven’t you? I can see it. Does Eden know?” she asks.

I nod. “It’s not how you think it is, though.”

“Ally, this is really low. How could you do this to Eden? I knew Kyle had that dream about you. I never thought he would talk you into it. I feel like I’m in an alternate reality.”

“That is how it happened,” I tell her. “In an alternate reality is where we’ve been living, once we fall asleep. He and I dream the same dreams, somehow. We think it’s so we can see how life would have turned out if Eden and I had never happened.”

Laura looks at me in disbelief. “So you haven’t been together in the physical sense of it?” she asks. “Only in your dreams?”

I nod my head yes. “The only thing is, it feels real. Even now, it feels like something which has really happened. That’s why he thought I would be upset. He and I had a baby together in our dream the night before last. I have been a little bit sad that she’ll never really exist. In our dream marriage, he was a great father. He loved that baby so much and he will love this one even more,” I explain to her.

“This is completely whack, Al. I don’t see how this is going to make me change my mind. I mean, he’s married to you, having kids and shit in his head. So I get the daytime Kyle and you get the nighttime Kyle?” she asks me.

“I hope our dream life is over, since we both know this path is the right one and the best one for all of us. This baby will be loved so much, Laura. You don’t have to worry. Just have faith,” I plead with her.

“I don’t know, Ally. I won’t be deciding anything right now. I want to go back home, to Cloudcroft,” she tells me.

“What, Laura? No, please don’t do that. You’ll never come back. I know this is a very different situation and one which could never have been predicted, but you belong with us. You and he really do belong together. Please stay with us for a while, please,” I beg her.

“I need to call my mother, Al. Can I use your phone? I don’t know where mine is,” she says.

I hand her my cell phone. “Do you want me to leave the room while you talk to her?” I ask.

“I’m not telling her I’m pregnant yet. I’m only a couple of months, so you never know what might happen. I might lose the thing,” she says, and I feel like she hopes she will.

“I’ll let you have some privacy. I’m going to get something to eat in the cafeteria. I’ll bring you something back,” I say.

“I really want pancakes, Ally. They brought me breakfast at like six this morning and I’m starving.”

“Got it, Laura. I love you, and Junior too,” I say, then I walk out the door, closing it behind me.

I stop as soon as I walk out and fall against the wall.

How do I feel about this? Why does this have to happen so fast? How is Kyle taking this? Why can’t life be simpler?

“How is she?” Eden says as he walks off the elevator, noticeably alone.

I walk to him, taking his hand and pulling him back into the elevator. “Did he tell you?” I ask him as we go down to the cafeteria.

“Yes. So she told you, then?” he asks.

I nod. “She isn’t taking it well, even though he suggested they get married. She’s just not feeling like he really loves her.”

“He loves you so much more,” Eden tells me.

I look at him like he’s crazy. “No, he doesn’t.”

“Yes, Alyssa, he does. This is making him feel awful. He isn’t ready for this. This dream life you two have has really messed him up. You know how everything feels real to you? Well, it does for him too. It’s too soon for him. He hasn’t gotten over the fact that your child will never be, and he doesn’t want any with anyone else’s yet,” he says.

“Well, I can see I have to talk to him. He has to get over it. He has a real child on the way now and he has to put whatever happens in our dreams into the proper perspective. He can’t live his life in dreams alone. His future is with Laura and their children. His real life is with them.”

“You know what I found out I can do now?” Eden tells me.

I shake my head. “What can you do now?’ I ask him as I pick up a tray and look at the lady across the glass from me. “Pancakes, please, with bacon.”

Eden leans down closer to me. “I tried something and it worked.”

I pick up the plate the lady is handing me, then walk over to get Laura an orange juice. “What did you try, Eden?”

“Kyle fell asleep on the sofa as soon as we walked in. He was exhausted. I went up and brought a blanket down for him. As I put the blanket down on him, my hand brushed his back and images started to appear in my head,” he says.

“You and your spying on people’s thoughts, Eden. Really, you have to stop that,” I whisper, because it has become obvious people are eavesdropping on us and our ridiculous conversation.

Alone in the elevator, I feel we can carry on our conversation. “So what did you see?” I ask.

“I see that he only sees you, Alyssa. We have to give them time alone, to bond. Your presence is stopping that from happening.”

“I can talk to him. We don’t have to leave. That’s not the answer, Eden. My best friend needs me right now. I’m not leaving her,” I tell him.

Eden opens the door to Laura’s hospital room. I take the tray of pancakes and set them down on the little table. “I found you some pancakes, Laura,” I say.

“Hey, Laura, you look a lot better. I’m really glad to see that,” he tells her.

“You are looking gorgeous as usual, Eden. Do you have any flaws?” Laura smiles as she asks him.

He smiles back at her. “Many of them. You know, Laura, I can see a glow about you,” he tells her as he sits down on the bed next to her. I hang back a little.

“He told you, huh?” she asks.

He nods and takes the back of his hand, running it over her pale cheek, then letting it rest on her shoulder. “You have nothing to fear. All is as it should be. I have seen the future, Laura, and it is good.”

He’s lying to her!

I can’t believe he’s making this up. I have to stop him. I move closer to him, reaching out to touch his shoulder to try to stop him from giving her any more false hope.

As I touch his shoulder, images begin to appear in my head. There’s a small boy with a head full of golden curls swinging in the backyard of the house we gave to them. Laura looks beautiful. She’s pregnant and smiling. Kyle pushes the swing and the little boy is laughing.

“Can you really see that?” she whispers.

“I can. Ask Alyssa. She saw it too. You’ll be a very happy family. There’s nothing to worry about,” Eden tells her as he pulls her hand up and kisses it gently.

A tear rolls down my cheek and I notice Laura has tears rolling down hers as well. “Eden, you have made me feel so much better. You have no idea.”

The door opens as the doctor comes in. “Hi guys,” he says as he enters. “Oh, tears. We can’t have any of those around here. How would you like to go home, Mrs. Stevens?”

Laura smiles at him. “I would love to go home.”

“Then get dressed. Eden, come with me, and bring your magic card so we can get her paid for and out of here,” the doctor says.

“Yes, sir,” Eden says as he follows him out of the room.

The doctor stops and turns around. “Laura, come see me within a month. My address is on the paperwork. I like to see my mothers once a month, as soon as possible. The nurse will be bringing some prenatal vitamins to you. Please take one a day and try to take them a bit more religiously than you did your birth control pills, young lady. Tell your husband congratulations for me, and I hope I’m invited to the real wedding, Ms. Tanner,” he tells her, then walks out.

Laura and I look at each other, then laugh. “Well, there you are, Ms. Tanner. Looks like you and junior are in good hands,” I say.

“Guess so,” she says as she gets up out of the hospital bed. “Now home we go. Am I ready for this, Al?”

I put my arm around her shoulders. “Probably not, but this life has a way of making us get ready for things we never expected.”

A nurse comes in to take Laura out in a wheelchair. “I’m fine. I can walk,” she tells the nurse.

“Hospital policy, Mrs. Stevens,” she says.

“Come on, Mrs. Stevens, just accept the free ride,” I tease her.

Eden meets us in the front of the hospital in Laura’s car. He jumps out when he sees us and helps Laura into the back seat. To my surprise he reaches across her, buckling her in.

“You doing okay?” he asks her.

“I’m fine, Eden. You don’t have to fuss over me,” she says.

“Let me fuss. I like it,” he tells her as he closes the door, then turns to help me in, buckling me in as well.

“He’s so attentive,” Laura comments.

“Yes, he is. I forget how attentive he can be,” I say offhandedly.

Eden gets in and drives us home to find Kyle laid out on the sofa, still asleep. “Looks like Big Daddy is catching up on his z’s,” I say.

“Alyssa!” Eden admonishes me. “Let’s go out back so they can have their privacy.”

The last thing I hear as Eden pulls me out the patio door is Laura’s voice. “Kyle, wake up. We have a lot to talk about.”

CHAPTER 70

KYLE

“Are you sure you’re okay with me doing this, Ally?” I ask.

“I think that, given the circumstances, it’s the best thing to do. In a normal situation, though, I wouldn’t really think it was the thing to do,” she answers.

“You said you saw us together and happy, so it must be the right thing to do,” I say as I take the small black box off of the dashboard of my truck.

I asked Ally not to show me what she saw. I prefer to be a little bit surprised.

I get out of the truck, putting the black box in my pocket, then turn to help her out of the truck. I reach up to catch her as she slides off the seat and into my arms. I hesitate before putting her down, looking into her deep blue eyes. I have to blink back the tears I feel welling up.

“You’re not okay with this, Ally. I hate that I’m making you feel this way. Shit, why did I have to hurry this thing with Laura?” I ask myself.

“Don’t blame yourself, Kyle. I’m the one to put all of the blame on. I should’ve handled it extremely differently,” she says as a tear runs down her cheek.

I wipe the tear from her cheek. “I don’t want you to do that to yourself. You had no choice, Ally. I did have choices. Unfortunately, I made some bad ones. I should’ve taken more responsibility. If I had done that, then this wouldn’t be happening right now,” I tell her, then pull her to me, hugging her tightly.

“You’ll be a fantastic husband and father, Kyle. I know that because you’ve been so good to me in real life and in our dreams. I just hope we can stop this dream marriage we have going. It’s making this so much harder for me to take,” she confesses to me.

I kiss the top of her head. She pulls her head off of my chest and looks up at me. Her eyes glisten with tears. These damn dreams are confusing me, and her too it seems. We fall asleep and wake up in a world where we’re making a life together. I feel closer to her with every dream we share. Now I’m going to be someone else’s husband and have children with her.

Ally shakes her head and says, “What kind of a brat am I? I’m happily married to the best guy in this world. Here I am wanting to have it all. I’m selfish to the core. My best friend needs you. You need her too. You can’t live the rest of this life without knowing what true love in the physical world is like. It wouldn’t be fair to you.”

“I guess you have to be careful about what you wish for, Ally. You have gifts you’ll need to learn to control. Maybe you can stop the dreams if you try hard enough. I don’t want to put a lot of pressure on you about it, but life is going to be kind of tough if I have to live like this forever,” I tell her.

She smiles up at me. “I believe you might be right, Kyle. I’ll make an effort to stop the dreams. If my wish to see what life would have been like with you came true, then I should be able to wish for it to stop.”

Taking her hand, I lead her to the house. “Things sure have changed quickly for all of us, Ally. My mom is going to freak out. I don’t even want to think about what Laura’s mom’s going do. Thankfully, you gave us this house. It’ll make things a lot easier,” I say as I open the door.

Laura’s sitting on the sofa, watching TV. “I’ll disappear out the back door so you two can be alone,” Ally whispers to me.

My heart is pounding in my chest. I make my way to her and she smiles up at me. A real smile, a genuine smile, a happy to see you smile. When Laura smiles, it radiates over her whole face. She’s beautiful and good, and she’s carrying my baby.

This is right.

“Hi,” I say.

“Hi to you too.”

I kneel in front of her. My hands rest on her knees as her smile fades. “I love you, Laura.” My voice quivers and I swallow hard to steady it. “I want to ask you something and I don’t want you to answer right away. There isn’t just one reason why I’m asking you this. It’s for many reasons.”

Her light blue eyes darken and she frowns. “Kyle, wait,” she says and places her hands on top of mine. “You don’t have to do this. I’d never keep this baby from you.”

Moving my hands from under hers, I run them along her thighs. “Laura, please listen to me. You’re strong, smart, funny, and beautiful.” My hands run up to her waist and I pull her to me as I lean toward her. I place a light kiss on her lips. “You’re sexy as hell and make me feel like I’m the only guy on the planet you care to show that side of yourself to.”

The touch of her hand on my cheek makes me turn toward it and kiss her palm. Her words are quiet as she says, “You are the only one I care to show that part of myself to.”

Pressing my forehead to hers, I forge ahead. “I respect you, want the best for you, and for our child. Just know that I’m not asking this for the baby, Laura. I know you’re incapable of hurting a child to spite anyone. This is not something I’m doing to ensure you let me be a part of our child’s life.”

Her hands cup my face and she tilts my head, placing a kiss on my cheek. “It’s okay. I get what you’re saying, Kyle.” Gently, she pushes me back to my knees. “You’re a great guy. I know you want to do the right thing. We’re young and we’ll change as we continue to grow up. We’re nowhere near who we will become.”

I press my finger to her lips to silence her. “I know that, Laura. There are no guarantees in this life. There is the time you live in at the present and that’s what matters is right now. And right now, we love each other. Right now, I can’t think of spending a day without you. Right now, I can’t think of spending a night without you. And lastly, right now, you and I are going to have a baby and I want it done right.”

My finger still rests on her lips and she takes my hand, pulling it away. “I suppose you’re right. My mother left my real father when she got pregnant, panicked, and ended up marrying someone anyway while she was still pregnant. Their divorce, and the person I thought was my father leaving us, never to return, messed me up. I don’t want that for this child.”

“That won’t happen to this child,” I say, with a tap on her leg. “I’m not your father. I’m solid and you can count on me. We have this house, we have all the money we will ever need, and we have one another. Now I’d like for you to share my name. That way we can be a real family. Not a couple of kids who went and got knocked up.”

Her eyes glimmer with the beginning of tears and I lean up to kiss her. Her hands catch in my hair, holding me to her as if she doesn’t ever want to let me go. Finally, I pull back. “Kyle, you can ask me now. I’m ready.”

I get on one knee and pull the box from my pocket. The large, three-karat diamond shines like the sun as I open the case. Her hands fly to cover her mouth as an audible gasp falls out of it. “Laura Tanner, would you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”

Tears flow over her pink cheeks and she leans towards me. A sob comes out of her mouth, then her arms are around my neck as she hugs me and whispers in my ear the one word I’ve been waiting to hear, “Yes.”

CHAPTER 71

ALYSSA

Eden is sitting by the swimming pool. He looks up at me when I walk out of the back door. He sets his cell phone down on the table and stands up, taking me in his arms. Tears flow out of my eyes as my cheek touches his shoulder.

“I know this is hard for you, Alyssa. You know it’s the right thing for them to do. You’ve seen that everything turns out well for them,” Eden tells me.

“Why does everything have to be so damn hard?” I ask him.

“To make us stronger,” he answers me.

“Just like your devil trainer, Beck, almost kills us with his workouts and somehow that makes us physically stronger?” I ask him.

“Pretty much the same, I guess. Maybe we all need our heart broken at least once, so we know what it feels like when love is lost. That way we know exactly how precious it is,” he tells me.

I pull my head up off of his shoulder. “Eden, you somehow always know the exact words to use to make me understand things I never thought I would.”

“It’s my job to make you feel better. You are my world, Alyssa,” he tells me.

“Eden, you’re my world too. I don’t know why I’m such a brat, but I intend to try my hardest to stop,” I tell him.

He wipes the tears from my eyes. “I have received some news that will take your mind off this for a while.”

“What?”

“We have to go back home in the morning,” he says.

“Eden, no, we can’t leave. Not right now when Laura will need me so much.”

“I have been shown what our next mission is. We have no choice,” he tells me.

“How bad is it?” I ask him.

“It’s a little hairy and pretty far away. We have to go get our passports.”

“How hairy?” I ask, feeling nervous.

“Where we are going, the weather can get rough pretty quickly. A small boy is going to get lost in the forest near his home. If we don’t intervene, he will die in a storm which comes up suddenly,” Eden tells me.

“This boy must be pretty important.”

“I guess he will be, but right now he’s an orphan and I’m afraid no one gets very upset at his disappearance. In fact, no one looks for him at all,” he says.

“Eden, that’s so sad. What are we supposed to do?”

“We have to go to him and bring him to safety.”

“So where are we going?” I ask.

“Korea,” he tells me, like it’s nothing.

“South Korea?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “The other one—the one where they hate Americans.”

“We have to do most of the mission as birds, don’t we?”

He nods. “It isn’t going to be easy, Alyssa. We’ll have help from some people in South Korea. A family there will take him in and raise him. We just have to get in, get him, and then get him over to them without being spotted by anyone,” he tells me, like it’s not a big deal.

“Eden, how old is this kid?” I ask.

“Three years old. He’ll be afraid of us, Alyssa. He’ll have no idea what we’re doing to him,” he tells me.

“I doubt there will be many times when we’re helping people and they realize we’re not there to eat them,” I say.

“Alyssa, you certainly have a unique way of looking at things,” Eden tells me.

The back door opens and Laura walks out. “Ally, can I talk to you for a minute?”

“I’ll leave you two alone,” Eden tells me and then walks back into the house.

Laura walks up to me, holding her hand out for me to see the engagement ring Kyle gave her. “It’s so beautiful. Thank you for helping him pick it out for me.”

I smile at her. “I’m happy you decided to accept his proposal. You two will be happy together and you’ll have a beautiful family.”

“Thank you, Al. Thanks for everything. You have no idea how much I appreciate it. Kyle and I have decided to go back to Cloudcroft to get some of our personal possessions and to tell our parents everything. There is so much to tell them,” she says.

“That’s good. You can get that out of the way and begin to move forward. Eden and I have to take off for home and then head off to North Korea to save a little orphan boy,” I say.

“Okay, just like that, huh?”

“Apparently. It came to Eden just a little while ago. He’s getting so in tune with his gifts. I guess his openness to all of this is helping him to figure these things out more quickly than I’m able to,” I say.

“You’re doing pretty well with it too, Al. You sure are better at accepting the bizarre than I could’ve ever imagined,” she tells me.

“Once you guys are back and settled in, we’ll come for a short visit. I want to give you guys plenty of time to bond and get into a normal routine. You know you can use that credit card for all of your needs and wants, so please treat yourselves to some nice dates.”

She smiles back at me. “Damn, Al, this is all so generous. I can’t imagine how we can ever do enough for you guys to deserve it all.”

“You kept our secret, didn’t you? That’s a lot right there. You will do so much more for us in the future as well. You both deserve everything you get. I just want you to know that, Laura,” I tell her.

“I love you, Alyssa Fontaine. I’m going to miss you guys.”

“We haven’t done anything since we got here. We should all go out to dinner to celebrate your engagement and new baby,” I say.

Laura takes my hand and leads me back into the house. “Let’s go make the guys get cleaned up and take us out.”

Kyle stands up when we walk in the door. “Can you believe she said yes, Al?”

I smile at him. “Yes, I can. She would have been a fool not to. Congratulations, you guys. Laura and I have decided you two need to take us out to a fancy dinner to celebrate. I was thinking about the dinner cruise in Marina Del Rey that Eden and I went on.”

“Marina Del Rey, California?” Kyle asks.

“Yes, if you think that you can handle it, Laura,” I add.

With a nod, she says, “I would love to go. What do you think, Kyle?”

“I think, hell, yes,” he shouts.

Eden smiles at me. “Then let’s get ready and I’ll let Jeffrey know we need him to come and get us.”

Eden and I follow Kyle and Laura up the stairs to our rooms to get ready. I notice that Kyle and Laura look so much happier than they have in the last few days.

The thought that this is the way it’s supposed to be makes me feel better. I find that I’m feeling thankful for knowledge of the future. Without it, this would be practically impossible for me to take.

“The jet looks so cool. I can’t believe we have access to such cool stuff,” Laura gushes as we pull up to the tiny airport where the jet is.

“Take it all in, Laura. Your children will have such a different life than you’ve had,” I tell her.

She smiles at me as we walk up the stairs to get on the plane. “This is just surreal, Al. It’s almost overwhelming. I have an idea of how you must have felt when you found out about Eden and your destiny. It all happened so fast and that’s just what is happening to me now. I just graduated from high school and suddenly I am going to be married to a guy who I’ve only dated for a couple of months, and we’ll have a baby seven months from now. A month ago, I would never have believed it if someone told it to me.”

“Life is weird, Laura, but it’s a good weird,” I say as I take the seat next to Eden.

Simultaneously Eden and Kyle reach across us and buckle our seatbelts. It makes Laura and I both giggle. “So well taken care of, we are,” Laura says, and then gives Kyle a little kiss.

I look at Eden. “Are you ready to dance the night away before our mission starts tomorrow?”

“Yes, I am, Mrs. Fontaine,” he says, then kisses my hand lightly.

I smile at him. “I love you, Eden.”

The evening air blows through my hair as we stand on the deck of the boat. “That was the best dinner I’ve ever eaten,” Laura says as she lays her head on Kyle’s broad shoulder.

“I’m glad you were able to enjoy it, Laura. I was a little worried that you might get a little queasy with the baby and all,” Kyle tells her.

“Maybe it’s the fresh, salty air, or the fact I feel so much better about things, but I don’t feel bad at all,” she says.

Eden pulls me to dance with him as the small band starts to play. “Come on, Alyssa, dance with your husband, please.”

I smile up at him as he takes me into his strong arms and begins twirling me around to the music. I drop my head to his shoulder and watch as seagulls fly through the orange sky as the last rays of the sun slowly fade out. My mind is blissfully at ease. All seems right in the world again.

CHAPTER 72

ALYSSA

“This is crazy, Eden. We can’t do this. We have no idea of where we are going or how to get back here,” I say.

“Our senses will be different once we transform, don’t worry,” he reminds me. “All you have to do is follow me. Once we see him, I’ll pick him up with my claws and you’ll move in underneath me. I’ll get as close to you as I can and drop him onto your back. He’ll instinctively put his arms around your neck and hold tightly to you. Then I’ll lead you back here. It’ll be easy, Alyssa.”

My frown shows him I have little faith, even though he shared his premonition with me. I’m so unlike myself this evening. “Yeah, that sounds so easy. I hope it goes like that, Eden.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Eden tells me, and then transforms instantly, a loud clap of thunder sounds out around him.

I follow his lead and jump into the air, transforming into my bird form. I can hear and see so much more clearly now. The night doesn’t look nearly as dark as it did before.

We fly away from behind the little shack in the back of the house that we were brought to, and that we will bring the little boy back to once we have him. The sweet smell of spicy chicken cooking somewhere fills my nostrils.

I look down to see the trees we’re flying close to, hoping they will hide us from the radar of both South and North Korea. With them both so ready to kill each other, what we are doing could start a war of great proportion. The need to do this as quickly as possible weighs heavily on me.

Eden falls out of the sky just in front of me. I look to see that he’s found a clearing he’s landing in. I follow him down. A huge bolt of lightning fills the sky and the rain begins to fall immediately.

‘Damn, that was fast, Eden,’ I send to him.

‘I told you there would be a sudden storm,’ he sends back to me.

We walk under the cover of the thick trees. They keep the rain from battering us too badly. The wind howls around us.

My eyes scout the area for the little boy. It’s difficult to see with the rain and wind. A bolt of lightning brings light to the wooded area and I think that I see movement. My ears pick up a cry. I move toward a sound that’s faint because of the howling wind.

‘There he is, Alyssa. Just keep an eye on him. We have to wait for the storm to subside before we pick him up. Don’t let your eyes off of him.’

The little boy is crouching down, holding his head down on his knees as he wraps his arms around them, keeping himself in a tight little ball. I find I want to transform back into my human form and go pick him up and comfort him. I want to do this so badly, it’s hard to stop myself.

‘You can’t do that, Alyssa,’ Eden’s voice rings out in my head.

‘He’s so tiny, Eden. He’s freezing and so afraid. I have to do something to help him,’ I think to him.

‘You are, Alyssa. You’re taking him to a family that will love and care for him. This is a hard time for him, but it will soon be over, and great things are ahead for him after this. Have patience. The storm won’t last much longer,’ he tells me.

The little boy hasn’t seen us yet. I shudder at the thought of how afraid he’ll be. As if this storm and the fact he’s lost isn’t enough for him to go through, he has to see a couple of monsters as well.

There is a huge bolt of lightning, then an enormous clap of thunder rings out, and as suddenly as the rain started, it stops.

I can’t believe the weather here. Its harsh, to say the very least.

I look to see that the boy is still huddled up against a tree, not moving.

‘I need for him to stand up. I’m going to fly up and make a small sound. I need you to be ready to fly underneath me, so you can catch him. Be ready, Alyssa,’ Eden sends me, and then he flaps his huge wings, lifting his body up off of the ground.

My eyes are trained on the tiny boy. I hear Eden shriek and the boy’s head turns up to the sky. He screams and stands up, running as fast as his little legs will go. He’s heading right toward me, but he doesn’t see me, as he keeps looking back at Eden who follows him with his claws stretched out to pick him up.

I flap my wings to bring myself up into the air, readying myself for when Eden picks him up. The boy stops as I rise up in front of him and screams again.

I cringe at the fact that we’re terrifying him. I see his eyes full of fear as Eden grabs him up by his shoulders, lifting him off of the ground. The child’s screams climb up a notch and hurt my ears.

I fly underneath Eden as quickly as I can. I feel the weight of the boy as he falls onto my back. He almost weighs nothing.

I’m reminded that this poor child has been neglected terribly. This is his only chance at survival. Maybe one day he’ll look back to this horrible scene and realize we helped him.

His tiny arms wrap around my neck. I can feel his heart beating wildly. I hum the same tune Eden hummed to me in my premonition of being killed by that Stiles man.

It vibrates my body. I hope it will help this poor child to not be so afraid. It seems to work. He’s not screaming anymore, at the very least.

The sound of people running through the trees underneath us fills my ears. The voices sound excited, but I can’t understand any of what they’re saying.

A beam of light shines up through the trees. I see Eden avoid letting it catch him. They seem to only be aware of his presence, so my cargo is safe.

‘Alyssa, I have to take them a little off the path. You have to make it back to the house on your own. I’ll be right behind you as soon as I lose them,’ he sends me.

‘Damn, I’m not sure where it is,’ I send to him.

‘Focus, girl. You can follow the smells and sounds. Just remember those things as you get closer,’ he sends and then flies away from me.

The lights follow him and I’m left alone with my precious cargo. I fly in the darkness, looking down, trying to see anything I might recognize. I remember that the house I need to go back to has a small blue light at the back of it. I look for that. The smell of the chicken cooking brings my attention to the fact I’m getting closer to the house.

The little boy on my back is holding tightly to my neck. His head touches mine as he repositions himself on my back. His thoughts fill my mind.

A room appears in my head, a dark room full of small children. Some cry and others stare blankly at the walls. I feel a pain in the pit of my stomach. It’s because I feel hungry.

The child on my back has felt hungry most of his little life. I find that so sad. There’s no reason that any child should ever feel like that. I pray this child grows up to make a difference in his home country.

The sudden smell of laundry pricks at my nose. There was a clothesline in the backyard of the people who will take care of the child.

I move towards the smell. I can’t believe Eden had to leave me like this. I have no real knowledge of where I am.

‘You’re on the right track. Keep following your senses. You are almost there,’ I hear Eden’s voice in my head.

The blue light comes out of the darkness. The little man and lady are standing by the shack in the back. I drop down lower and land in front of them.

The lady rushes to take the little boy off of my back. She has to pull at him as he’s holding so tightly to my neck. He finally releases his grip on me. He begins to cry as the lady carries him away quickly.

The man stands and looks at me. I hear the sound of wings beating through the air and Eden lands next to me. The man bows to us and says something I don’t understand, then he turns and runs into the house.

I walk behind the shack and transform back into my human form. Eden is hurrying as well. We have to hurry. Our driver is waiting down the street for us. We can’t have anyone see us at this house.

“Well, that wasn’t too hairy, was it?” Eden asks me.

“I lived through it, but it could’ve gone a little smoother. I hate that the little guy had to be so afraid. I hope he can forget about all of it,” I say as I follow Eden down a dirt alley.

“He’s alive and safe now. That fact trumps all the negative aspects of it,” he says as he walks up to the waiting car.

He opens the door and lets me get in the back seat first, then slides in beside me. “Back to the real world,” I say as I lay my head on the back of the seat.

“The real world, huh?” Eden asks me.

“You know, the one where we can be just you and me. No birds, no missions, no crazy dream life. Just the two of us, back in our home, alone. I’m finding I’ve missed that,” I tell him.

“I have too. I can’t wait to get you back home, in our own bedroom,” he says.

“I miss my jacuzzi. I could really use it about now,” I say.

Eden laughs at me. “You and your bathtub, Alyssa. Here I am, talking all about how I want to get you back into our bed, and you can only think about that tub.”

I smile at him. “It’s more than a bathtub, Eden. I will be happy to get back to it all. Back to some alone time with my husband. It’ll be nice.”

I didn’t dream about life with Kyle as I slept on the plane on our way here. I made another wish. I wished that Kyle and Laura would be happy and have a healthy family. I guess our dreams would’ve been unhealthy for him and his new family.

I turn my head away from Eden so he can’t see my face. I feel a tear run down my cheek. That part of my life is over and I have sadness in my heart about it.

I will never see that baby in real life. I will never really feel Kyle’s love for me in that way. I pray my selfishness lessens with time.

I wipe the tear from my cheek and take in a deep breath. “When we get back, I think that you and I should take a trip all alone. Maybe to the Caribbean. I bet we could get a private island and stay on it for a while. Just the two of us. I want to be with you and only you,” I tell Eden.

“That sounds nice, Alyssa. I’m not sure we can do exactly that, but I’m sure we can figure something out,” he tells me.

His hand touches mine and he sighs. “Alyssa, please don’t feel sad about never getting to see the baby in real life.”

“What?” I ask him.

“I can see your thoughts, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m jet lagged or something. My mind is so scattered. The little boy and his horror at us kind of messed me up. I feel like crying, not only for him but for all the children going hungry and being neglected. How can Our Creator let these things happen?” I ask Eden.

“It’s not for us to question,” he tells me.

I sit up, finding myself mad at his words. “When do we question? When is it finally time to question?”

Eden smiles at me. “Alyssa, this serves no purpose.”

“That is your answer for everything. What does serve a purpose?” I yell.

Eden lifts my hand to his lips and places a kiss on it. “I have news for you, Mrs. Fontaine.”

So he’s trying to divert my attention. I can’t be so easily manipulated. He, of all people, should know that.

“Oh, for the love of everything holy, Eden. Not another mission. Not so soon. I’m exhausted. The long flight, the anxiety, the long flight back home. No, I can’t take anymore,” I whine.

“Okay, I won’t tell you, then. Just rest, Mrs. Fontaine,” he says softly.

I drop my head onto his shoulder. My eyes close, but my mind can’t stop.

What news does he have? Can it be any good at all? Oh, damn my curiosity!

I sit up and look at Eden. “Well, you have my mind going, so tell me before I go and make myself crazy.”

“No, you should rest. I can tell you another time,” he says.

I close my eyes again. Whatever he’s doing isn’t going to work on me. I’m exhausted. I will rest. I don’t even want to know what he has to say. I drift off for a minute and suddenly I am being carried onto our jet.

“I can walk,” I say to Eden.

“Just stay asleep, Alyssa. I’m taking you to bed,” he whispers to me.

He lies me down on the bed in the jet’s bedroom. I feel him on the bed beside me, then he wraps himself around me. His hand rests on my stomach, his warm breath on my neck.

I turn my head to look at him, his face is about an inch away from mine. “I think I can hear your news,” I say softly.

“You sure, Alyssa?”

His emerald eyes dance with his question. I look into them, trying to see what his mind has hidden from me. There is nothing but a black wall. Maybe I don’t want to know after all.

That damn curiosity I have overtakes me. “Eden! Yes, I’m sure.”

He looks into my eyes and smiles that smile which melts my insides. “When you turned into the bird, I heard something different. I heard more than I usually do.”

I frown at him. “What are you talking about?”

“I heard your heart beat. It’s loud and strong,” he says.

“Oh, that’s cool. I hadn’t paid any attention to that. I’ll see if I can hear yours next time we turn into the birds,” I say, thinking to myself he made a bigger deal out of that information than it was worth.

I lay my head back down on his shoulder, but he takes my chin in his hand and pulls it back up so I have to look at him. “Alyssa, that’s not all I heard. I heard your heartbeat and I heard another one as well. A little heartbeat,” my husband tells me. Then it all goes black.

A baby! Already …

EDEN’S ENDING

Our daughter, Gwen, was born on a Tuesday morning in the month of April. It’s been four years since that day. My connection to my mate is still strong, but thankfully not the same. With the pregnancy, we found the child connected us even more so than we already were.

I experienced everything Alyssa did throughout the pregnancy and the delivery. Thanks to that knowledge, I now have a new respect for mothers. The whole thing is hard and the end is a nightmare of squeezing pain.

But in the end, you get this perfect little person and somehow it makes it all worth it.

Thankfully, that condition is gone, and I can feel only my feelings and she can only feel hers. We still have our telepathy, and it keeps getting stronger.

With the arrival of our own child, we became aware that many children need our help, so we’ve moved our foundation in that direction. Not only feeding and educating children, but also setting up programs for people to spend time doing meaningful activities with them.

We educate their parents about how to make a happy life for them by putting family first and material items second. We build homes for needy families and help the parents get educations if necessary.

It was my mate’s idea to build a better furture for their children and I quite like it. We want to make the world a place where the importance of the family is in the forefront again, like it once was.

My wife is a professional speaker now and holds seminars on the importance of finding a balance in relationships. Her disdain of the ancient ways made her seek education and she found anthropology is what excited her the most.

She’s on her way to a master’s degree. She says she’ll be content to stop there, but my bet is on her getting her doctorate. My wife, Dr. Alyssa Fontaine. I like the sound of that.

Kyle has an MBA and his own band. He and Laura married. They still live outside of Austin and have two children now, both boys, a farm full of animals, and a yellow lab they treat like one of their children.

Laura has just started college. She wants to be a school teacher. It turns out she loves kids and teaching them things. She found that out through helping with our foundation.

Me, I’m into spreading the word of Our Creator. I studied religions from all over the world, then majored in philosophy. Now I am the pastor for our organization and also for The Rising Spirit Church.

We have a little television program that comes on Sunday nights and a following of a few million people from around the world. It’s a nondenominational church, of course. We welcome all kinds.

It’s getting to be time for dinner. The whole clan is coming to the mansion this evening. Scotty is introducing us to his new girlfriend. It’s not his first girlfriend, but it’s his first serious one.

Scotty turned out to be a player in more ways than one. Those days might be numbered now, as he talks about this girl constantly, a sure sign.

My mate is at the door to my office. I can tell she’s ready for us to go downstairs. I walk to her and take her hand. A flash of her naked body lying across our bed with a large stomach blasts through my mind.

“Where’s Gwen?” I ask.

“With your father. He took her for a walk,” she tells me. Her hair is curled and falling down around her face. Her lips are so red and shiny and I can’t focus.

I can only think about how beautiful she is and how much I want her. Oh, Lord, help us, here we go again. And I couldn’t be happier.

The End.