Not again.
“Junior! Veronica!” I cried. Metallic, bitter blood poured into my mouth like it was alive and trying to choke me. Like it was personal. “I’m coming!”
I swam harder, my muscles screaming, my feet kicking, my lungs burning. I ignored all of that, focusing only on the raft. On the last two remaining members of my pack.
It didn’t matter how hard I pushed, I couldn’t get any closer to the raft. It was like the blood was alive and pushing them farther and farther away from me faster than any natural current ever could.
Then again, what was natural about the sudden malevolent sea that bloomed around us?
Perhaps, in any other situation, I would have thought more about that, but there was no room for practicality in my mind. There was only the desperate need to save my son and daughter.
As I pushed myself harder, something gripped my ankle and yanked me backward. I kicked viciously, snarling, but more things gripped me until I couldn’t even move an inch forward.
“Get off!” I bellowed, finally looking down to see what was trying to drag me under. Dozens and dozens of disembodied, rotting hands made of solidified blood gripped me and dug into my skin, which began to rot at their touch.
I knew what they were—the hands of the dead coming to claim me. To get their vengeance in response of my own. I fought against them. I fought with all I had.
But it was no use.
They pulled me under, and bit by bit, I watched the last of my pack get washed away in the crimson torrent, leaving me utterly alone as the blood consumed me.
I jolted awake,covered in sweat, my chest heaving. I blinked rapidly, trying to come to when I was pretty sure I had just died.
It was only a nightmare,I told myself, focusing on my breathing.
It wasn’t easy. I could still taste the metallic tang on my tongue, and my heart was physically hurting from how fast it was beating. If I didn’t have accelerated healing, I might have been worried about actually tearing cardiac tissue.
One of the upsides of being a wolf shifter.
Groaning, I picked my phone up from my nightstand and checked the time. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to fall asleep again with the echoes of my nightmare still in my head, so I was both relieved and disappointed to see it was only five minutes before I was supposed to wake up and pick up Junior from school.
I’d never been much of a napper before, but ever since having a baby to take care of, I’d?—
“Veronica!”
I was supposed to be watching her! I jumped out of bed and was nearly to the door before a low murmuring reached my ears, and my memory kicked back into action.
Right. Natalie was watching my two-year-old so I could get some much-needed rest. She was humming an old lullaby I vaguely recognized, one I’d heard Veronica’s mother use when the baby had been struggling with colic.
I went back to my deep breathing. I needed to get my panic under control before I stunk up the entire house with the acrid stench of my anxiety. Man, I longed for the times before I had to deal with such things. My life had once been soeasy, and I hadn’t even known it.
I supposed the good times were often like that. I wasn’t alone in wishing I’d been aware of it back then, because if I’d known…
No use chasing that thought. What-ifs only led to endlessly chasing my own thoughts, hoping that somehow the past could change. But it didn’t work like that, so it was better to ignore that impulse and just let myself be in the moment.
Especially since the present wasoutsideof a nightmare instead of being locked in it.
My alarm went off, and I realized I’d been standing there, stuck inside my own mind, for five minutes. Fuck, I really needed to get it together.
After taking one more deep breath, I got dressed to go pick up Junior. When everything had settled, I had considered pulling him out of school just so we could spend more time together. But I realized that as a kid who hadn’t gone through his first shift to become a wolf yet, he needed proper socialization and other things I couldn’t provide. So, I made the choice that was best for him, even if it left me feeling a bit useless from time to time.
“I’m headed out to grab Junior,” I called once I was in the hall. I could hear from Veronica’s breathing that she wasn’t sleeping, so I didn’t have to creep down the hall. Not for the first time, I was so incredibly grateful that our kids didn’t have the advanced senses we did. I couldn’t imagine trying to stay silent enough to keep a sleeping baby with super hearing safe in dreamland.
“Sounds good. Will you grab me a drink on the way home?”
I nodded even though Natalie couldn’t see me. “One of those supposedly healthy energy drinks, right?”
“Yup!”
