We were all thinking of Elder Joshua. “I’m sorry I left you. I can’t control when the dreams come and go anymore.”
“It’s okay,” Michelle said. “Luke explained that to us.”
“Us?”
“Me, Gabby, Clay, and Emmitt. They didn’t trust Luke alone with us,” Michelle said with an apologetic shrug.
“What did he do to deserve all of this hostility?”
“He stole Emmitt’s bike.”
“And he and some of his friends ganged up on Clay before I Claimed him,” Gabby added. “Luke’s your mate, right?”
“He is a possibility,” I agreed.
Her frown grew more pronounced. Her eyes flicked around the room. “I’d really like to talk to you alone, again. I have so many questions.”
The door opened. “As do I,” Nana said softly. “But I think it would be best if you sat while we discussed this. I don’t like how pale you are.” She motioned me toward the couch.
“This would be better in the soundproofed room,” Gabby said quickly.
“Of course,” Nana agreed.
As we walked to the room—at a very slow pace because of me—I contemplated where I wanted to start and what exactly to explain. I couldn’t completely trust the Elders with everything I knew. Not yet. I didn’t have the right answers to explain our purpose fully. Sure, we were here to maintain balance between the three groups, but how? I wasn’t sure I was ready to share the who. At least, not until we weeded out the Urbat hiding in the pack. I believed wholly that the Taupe Lady’s warning was serious. The world would burn if we failed. Though I trusted that knowledge, I doubted that anyone else would.
The door to the room stood open. Two other men sat inside. I recognized one. He’d brought up my bag.
Nana made official introductions as we sat. “Bethi, this is Sam and Grey, Elders. People you can trust. Elder Joshua is on his way here. We are missing two others, who are currently assisting in Europe, but we will communicate with them through our link.”
I didn’t say anything about her trust comment.
“Hello, Sam.” So, that was the man who Gabby argued with. He looked nice enough. Grey hair, neatly dressed. The memory of him eating spaghetti surfaced. He reminded me of my grandpa. I smiled and looked at the other one Nana had indicated. “Grey,” I added as an acknowledgement as he shut the door. “Thank you all for your help. I didn’t think Luke and I would make it here when they all came on us like that.”
Sam cleared his throat, his troubled gaze meeting mine. “We’d never seen anything like that. Our kind...we’re peaceful.”
I nodded. He seemed so sincere. Could the betrayal go deeper than Joshua?
“We’ve had instances where we couldn’t communicate with a few of our kind in the past, but never so many. Can you tell us why they were attacking you?” Sam asked.
Michelle glanced at me, but I didn’t meet her gaze.
“The simple answer is that they were trying to take me back to their leader. There are so many things I don’t know. Who their leader is and what they want to do with me when they get me.” I rested my hands on the table, took a calming breath, and began my careful tiptoe around explanations that would trip me up and darted to the ones that would get me the result I needed.
“But I think it has to do with what’s happening to me. I’m reliving past lives through my dreams. This had been going on for several months. Somehow, those guys learned that I had these dreams and started chasing me. When Luke showed up, I thought he was one. As you know, we were pretty much chased the whole way. Luke kept me safe.” I could feel Gabby’s eyes on me and struggled not to meet her gaze. “Anyway, he brought me here, thinking you might be able to help me.” I couldn’t come up with anything better without spilling that there was a definitive difference between the people at the table and the people who’d chased me.
“Why do they care if you are having these dreams?” Nana asked.
“I’m not sure. The dreams seem like pieces to a puzzle. Some of them are fitting together, but I haven’t fit enough of them together to figure out the big picture.”
“Tell us more about the dreams.”
I regretted that Nana had overheard what I’d suffered in them and hoped she’d let me get away with a vague answer. “Mostly they are the same thing. Something is chasing me or comes to my home. Usually it looks like a really large dog. Then it changes into the shape of a man. Those dreams always end with me dying.”
“You’ve dreamt of us killing you?”
No, it was the Urbat. But I couldn’t say that.
“Not just me,” I said looking at Michelle and Gabby. “I’ve seen their past lives, too. We all die.”
The room was eerily quiet for a moment.
“Why?” Nana asked looking deeply troubled.