I rolled my eyes at that. And then I told him everything.
When I was done, he was silent for a very long time. Then he said, “I need to call you back. There’s someone I must speak with.”
With that, the line went dead.
I lowered my hand and looked down at the phone screen blankly, slack-jawed at being hung up on.
Sure, he was new to having human emotions again, but what in the actual fuck was wrong with him?
I wanted to get angry, but instead I felt unsettled and raw. I started pacing, my hand tight around my phone. Something about the tone in his voice when he’d said he needed to talk to someone, it had been… off. Too serious. Verging on anger.
He called back twenty minutes later. I answered with, “Cole, what the fuck is wrong with you?”
“You’ll forgive me when you hear what I’m about to share.” Then he paused and added, “You know, I don’t murder people for sport anymore, but I may make an exception for Reed.”
I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. His tone was anything but light.
“What are you talking about?” I demanded, shoving down an insane protective impulse—like I somehow had to defend Reed from Cole, of all people. “Who did you call?”
“My brother,” Cole said tightly. “He and Jeremy are trying out some new café in the city.”
“Good for them,” I replied. Then I added, “Okay, so for the record, when someone shares something deeply personal with you, please don’t hang up on them without explanation, Cole.”
“Ididexplain. I said I needed to talk to someone and that I’d call you back.”
I counted to ten. “Okay. So you called Thierry.”
“Like I said, Jeremy was with him, too. We also spoke.”
“That’s great,” I said, too baffled to even be annoyed. It wasn’t like Cole, dancing around the point like this. “And?”
“From everything you described, you’re having the mate dreams,” Cole said flatly. “I called Thierry and Jeremy to be sure.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m not having… whatever those are.”
“Mate dreams. And yes, you are. Jeremy himself confirmed it.” He added, “You know, Jeremy also didn’t tell Thierry thedreams were being shared right away. I suppose that’s a wolf thing. They do tend to be rather isolationist, though—”
“Wait a fucking second. Slow down. What, exactly, are you saying?”
“Okay, so you know my brother is mated to a werewolf. Jeremy isn’t so bad, of course, but—”
“Cole.”
“Right. When a werewolf meets their fated mate, they share their dreams with them. Literally. Not in a poetic, romantic way, though there’s probably lots of that, too…”
My stomach dropped as I processed what he was saying.
Cole, oblivious to my reaction, continued, “Anyway, these are basically lucid dreams that you and Reed are occupying at the exact same time. It’s exceptionally rare and only happens when a wolf meets their fated mate.”
I should have felt relieved that there was an explanation, but I didn’t.
Fated mate…
Well, if we were destined to be together, that would explain why I had immediately trusted Reed. Why his face was seared into my mind. Why my dream-self had wanted so badly to comfort him last night.
I flinched as I remembered the way he had whimpered, his eyes so full of anguish.
Cole kept on talking. “Thierry did say that the spell would spread through the pack sooner or later. It makes sense that it started at the top and is working its way down. I wonder if—”
