Turning onto the next road, I took a long, deep breath and braced myself for strange looks and demands for answers.
I wished I knew why I had these dreams but I didn’t. Some days, I saw them as a gift, like with Sylvie, but this time, it was more personal. I would follow those dreams to save Sylvie or Benji or any of their packmates or omegas, but I’d never raced to make my own come true.
A cabin came into view. My fingers tightened on the steering wheel. No time like the present. My heart slammed against my rib cage and drummed in my temples.
I got out of the truck and saw two men to the right of the cabin splitting wood. They were drenched with sweat and if I had to judge by the violence of their axe swings and the hundredsof stacks of firewood already split, they weren’t doing this for fun. Either they were selling all of this firewood, or this was the manifestation of the anger I felt from them in the dream.
One way to find out.
“Who are you?” one of them called out. No hello.Fuck you. Get off my property.Straight shooters. He was taller than the other one. Beefier too. The other man scrawnier. It took a bit more effort for him to swing the axe.
This one had an alpha’s bark. A zip of his power shot through me as he approached.
Interesting.
“My name is Tyrone.” I put my palms up just in case. “This is going to sound insane but I’m here because I have prophetic dreams.”
The other one tucked the axe into the stump they were using to split the wood on and came over. His eyebrows were bunched, but there was no push of power from him.
“What did you dream?” the lankier one asked. Felix. I knew his name from the dream, but I wasn’t going to tell him quite yet.
“You do something with numbers, right? Math. I don’t know. I saw a lot of numbers strung along and money signs. It was weird. And you…” I turned my attention back to the other male. “You are an alpha. Were an alpha. There was trauma and regret weighing you down. I saw the Fathom sign.” I sighed, rolling my shoulders. I knew this would be hard to explain, but I wasn’t helping anything.
“My name is Felix, and I’m an accountant.”
I nodded. Okay. Maybe this wasn’t a complete flop. I addressed the alpha. “And you’re Cannon? Is that correct? Either that, or you shoot cannons for fun. It’s all pretty obtuse.”
The alpha blew out a huff through his nose. “I am. My name is Cannon. So you came here to tell us your name and that you had a dream about our professions?”
“No. I came here because I think we’re supposed to be a pack.”
Cannon and Felix shared a look. They were feeling me out with their bears. Had no clue how I knew that, but my skin prickled, and my bear could feel theirs reaching out, testing what could be a lifelong brotherly bond. My bear submitted to them, but only for this moment. He wasn’t a submitting-to-others kind of guy.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Cannon asked.
“I have no idea. I have the dream. I follow the dream. They have never steered me wrong before.”
Felix cocked his head. “I’m the accountant. Cannon was an alpha. What about you?”
“I’m a defected member of the royal guard.”
“Oof,” Cannon said. “Quite a trio. Felix and I met a few months ago. I was on the run, and he was between things. His bear was restless and mine, well, I was just trying to get him not to go back and murder everyone who’d wronged us. We have been on edge.”
“It’s less now,” Felix added. “My bear likes yours. As a brother. It’s not that kind of party, Tyrone.”
We all chuckled, and something about laughing together smoothed the rigid edges of this encounter. “I’m not looking for that kind of party. But I’m assuming we become a pack and find our omega.”
There wasn’t a lot more to say. I was here. We were open to being a pack.
“We have an extra room. Any good at splitting wood?” Cannon ticked his head toward the woodpile.
“For selling or getting out aggression?” I asked, tucking my keys into my pocket. Maybe this was how they bonded. I’d seen weirder sleuths before.
“Both.” Felix turned around and headed toward the axes.
“I’m game.”
Chapter Three
