Chapter Eleven
Serena curled closer to her mate. Usually she could sleep through Gabe’s soft, even snores, but tonight they kept her awake when she should be sleeping. Nighttime was work time for dreamwalkers, time to check in on friends and patients alike on the dreamscape, but for the first time in two intensive weeks of working with Glenna, tonight she was supposed to have a break. No work tonight, just plain old sleep. But not anymore. Now, the council wanted her to invade Glenna’s dreams and rip away the block that kept her safe from her own memories.
She sighed. Sleep wasn’t coming. The council. Their agenda. Glenna’s pain. It all whirled round and round in the blender that was her spinning brain.
Two, long, tension-filled weeks of living in the same house with Sam, all to get to the point where she could greet Glenna on the dreamscape with ease. Typically, Serena visited her patients in their sleep and they let her in, but then typically her patients were pack and knew what a dreamwalker was. But Glenna had been so filled with fear, slipping into her dreams from a distance had been impossible and Serena had had to make the trip to physically get her permission to help.
Glenna trusted her now. Serena could be sleeping anywhere in the world and she would welcome her into her dreams as a friend. But tonight, Serena would betray that trust.
“Gabe, wake up.” She nudged her mate. “I can’t sleep.”
“So, do that meditation thing you do.” He rolled over and put his back to her.
God, she didn’t want to do this. She wanted to press against his warm back, reach her arms around his waist, and stroke until he woke up and took her with the same passion he’d taken her with when she’d gotten home earlier today. The same passion that had nearly broken them when she’d mistaken him for Sam. She’d never make that mistake again. The electricity between her and Gabe was palpable. More palpable than the lack of heat and ramped-up tension between her and Sam. Even now, tired and stressed as she was, Gabe’s body called to her.
She waited a moment. Tried settling down. No joy. Grr, she’d never be able to meditate with her mind a swirling mess of confusion.
“Gabe.”
He sighed, rolled back over and held out an arm. “Come here.” She snuggled into his warmth and strength. Took a deep sniff and felt some of her worry ease at his familiar scent. He chuckled. “You sure do act like you are a wolf shifter, the way you’re always sniffing me.”
“I like your smell. You smell like home.” And sex. And Gabe, always Gabe.
His arm tightened briefly and she smiled in the dark against his chest. “Are you ready to tell me what’s wrong? You wouldn’t even talk earlier. What did the council say?”
She’d come home too agitated to talk, just wanting the repetition of their day-to-day life to cocoon her from what she had to face.
“I don’t know if I can talk about it.”
“Is it someone’s personal stuff? Why would the council be involved with something like that?”
She never talked with him about her clients. That would be unethical and she shouldn’t talk to him about Glenna. But if she didn’t, she would never get to sleep. And she had to. She had to make peace with what she was supposed to do. And there was no one she trusted more than her mate. He’d already proven he’d die for her.
“They want me to go into my patient’s dreams and force her to face some very bad memories.” She held on to him, letting his strength cradle her while she spoke. “So they can find someone and punish them.”
“Someone committed a crime and they want you to find them? Isn’t that an enforcer gig?” Gabe sounded wide awake now. He rubbed her back. “Serena, if someone committed a crime, don’t you think they should be brought to justice?”
“That’s easy for you.” She sat up, leaving Gabe’s warmth and safety in her agitation. “Your job is to do what the council tells you to do, no questions. But that’s not my job. My job is to protect my patients, protect the pack’s emotional and spiritual well-being. The council has no idea what that means.”
“Is it that bad?”
The council’s request was bitter in her mouth. “They want me to betray my oath, betray my calling for the safety of the pack.” She’d spent days getting Glenna to trust her. Days more helping her wall away her memories, memories that would stay walled up until she was strong enough to face them. Or maybe stay walled up forever. It was the way dreamwalkers kept PTSD at bay. Let the person remember when they were ready, when they were strong. When they’d had some distance. “I know you have an oath, but if someone hurt your client so badly the council is involved, don’t you think it might help her to know he was punished?”
“I don’t know. You’re an enforcer. You deal in black and white, pack law. This is different.” She gathered handfuls of sheet in her fists, clenching them tightly as if they could anchor her to her oath. “If she faces this too soon, she might never recover.” Her fingers gripped tighter. “She’s out there, Gabe, able to live a normal life in the pack. But now”—she swallowed, her voice dropping to a whisper—“now I have to force her to regress. I’m not ready to do that.”
She let go of the wrinkled sheets and dropped back into his arms, pressing her face into the security of his chest.
“So don’t do it tonight.” His arms came up tight around her, holding her, no matter what. “Talk to the shamans’ circle tomorrow and get some advice. The council isn’t always right, even enforcers know that. Now get some sleep.”
His breathing evened out, and once again, he started to snore. Easy for him, he wasn’t wrestling with any demons tonight. She burrowed into his chest, knowing she’d be awake for a while. She’d wait and talk to the Circle tomorrow.
But she knew what they’d say.
Someone from one of the packs had attacked Glenna. Someone had infected her with the Bite—the sacred virus that created each and every pack member. And by doing that crime, the perpetrator had violated more than Glenna, they’d violated the pack’s most sacred spiritual beliefs and exposed their entire society to danger.
The shamans’ circle would say it was up to Serena to see if Glenna knew who that was—even if it meant violating Glenna’s trust and her sanity.