“We haven’t had one ofthosedreams since I got here. It’s been days. I thought you said we’d have them for the rest of our lives.”
“We will,” Reed said cautiously. “Nothing has changed.”
I went silent, waiting for him to explain himself. Because obviously something had changed, otherwise we would have shared our dreams at some point over the last four days.
“We’re not sharing our dreams because we both need to be asleep at the same time for that to work,” he said at last.
“Wait—you’re notsleeping?”
He winced, his eyes fixed on the wall. I could feel the way he tensed up at my question. His voice was careful and measured when he said, “I’ve been catching naps here and there. In the back office at the bar, mostly. I have a cot set up in there.”
“Why?”
“You know why. I can’t protect you if I’m passed out. You injured that thing in the woods. It might come for you now and I need to be awake in case it attacks.”
“If that happens, we’ll fight it off together. And we’ll have advance warning—Daniel’s been putting up spells daily to let us know if anything crosses the outer perimeter around the cabin!”
“I’m okay, Harris. Quit worrying about me.”
A flash of anger tore through me. “You’re sure as shit not okay! You’re running on maybe a couple of hours of sleep, tops, over the last four days! What the hell is wrong with you?”
He sighed. “Wolves don’t need as much rest as a regular human. I’m fine.”
Right then, I realized my feelings weren’t really anger at him. It was because Reed hadn’t gotten any proper sleep in days and I somehow hadn’t noticed. Maybe Reed was just really good at hiding when something was wrong, or maybe I was fundamentally self-centered—which is why I hadn’t been paying close enough attention.
I sensed the ripple of dismay from Reed a moment before he rolled over to face me. He fixed me with a steady look. “Don’t be dumb.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, playing dumb. I was pretty sure he’d sensed my emotions.
“It’s not your fault you didn’t know. I kept it from you.”
I tried not to let him see the way his admission affected me. “Seems like a pattern,” I replied coolly.
“I’m still trying to figure out how to do this, okay? It’s only been a couple of days.” Then, when I didn’t reply after several moments, he added, “Dammit, Harris. I just wanted to protect you. That’s all.”
“I thought we already established that we protect each other.”
“Yeah,” he said, his voice going rougher. “I guess we did.” Then he followed that up with a grimace. “Sorry. Feels like I keep having to apologize to you.”
The last of my anger left me, even though I wasn’t sure I was ready to let go of it yet. I was starting to suspect I was going to have a very hard time staying mad at Reed. “For the record, I get it. This is all new to me, too.”
He let out a breath and nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
“Being in a relationship with someone was the last thing on my mind. And with another guy on top of that. And a werewolf, so there’s a whole new set of rules. It’s a lot to get used to.”
He tilted his head to the side. “Is that what this is? A relationship?” Then he paused. “Is this our first fight?”
“It’s at least our third,” I shot back.
Reed grinned, unrepentant. “Yeah, I guess it is. Look, do you want me to go sleep on the couch? Because I will.” He paused. “I think that’s what human folks do when they’re ticked off, right?”
“Dude, you’re not even being crafty about it. No. Absolutely not.” Then I paused, steeling myself to let down my guard. “I want to sleep next to you tonight. That hasn’t changed. But you’re actually sleeping. Deal?”
He hesitated, his gaze sweeping my expression. Then he deflated. “Yeah, deal. I’d feel better about it if you put your gun on the nightstand next to you,” Reed said, turning more serious. “Just in case.”
My eyebrows shot up. I had been careful not to leave my gun out where he could see it. It was loaded with silver bullets, which were apparently lethal to werewolves. “You’re not worried?”
“I trust you.”
