“I asked him not to,” Sabina said huskily, her face tipped toward the breakfast table.
Her statement had my brows arching. “Huh?”
She bit her lip, but kept her gaze almost defiantly focused on anything other than me. Which was fucking annoying, considering I was the one she should be looking at.
“Why?” I asked calmly, even though I wasn’t feeling calm.
“Because I have a bad feeling about what’s going to happen, and I didn’t want you anywhere but here.”
I stiffened at that. “You don’t trust me to keep my head attached to my shoulders?”
“Don’t take it like that, Austin,” Ethan rumbled, his tone sharper than usual, but nothing that I wasn’t accustomed to hearing.
“Don’t take it like what? Like a hit to the pride? That my mate doesn’t think I can run a simple errand without fucking shit up and getting myself killed?”
Her eyes flashed at that, and finally, she looked at me. “That’s just it,” she ground out. “It isn’t a simple errand.”
“Of course it is. Where your mom is concerned, I’d just go visit and talk to her, get an address or some info on your sister, that’s it, for fuck’s sake.”
Knight grumbled at that, his hands waving as he twisted around to glare at me.
Well, the little dude could glare at me all he fucking wanted. I was wicked pissed, and I wasn’t afraid to show it. For years, I’d had to hide my feelings, had to shelter them because no one gave a fuck. Now I had two brothers, a kid, and a mate. Someone in that tribe of four had to give a shit, otherwise what was the point of my being here?
“I’d say don’t be ridiculous, Austin, because you know what you mean to me. You’re the one who’s taking umbrage here, you’re the one who’s offended, but the truth is, I’m the one who should be. You’re taking this out of context—”
“Because I was never put into the context,” I ground out.
“Yeah, because she knew you’d react like a chump,” Eli said, his tone bored.
She scowled at him. “You aren’t making this easier, Eli,” she snapped. “There’s no need for that. I don’t think Austin is being a chump, and I kept it from him for the same reason I kept things from you—”
Eli’s mouth rounded at that. “Are you shitting me? You kept what from me?”
“Most of it,” Ethan said dryly.
“From everyone apart from you?”
“I had to ask him. He’s very knowledgeable, but even he didn’t have the answers I was seeking.” She rubbed her forehead, letting her fingers smooth up the center of her brow and over to the sides, where she massaged the temples slightly. “I didn’t want you to think I was crazy or that my word couldn’t be valued. If anything, that’s why I stayed quiet. Not because I don’t trust you. It’s because I don’t trust myself.”
Of course, because I loved her, because I’d fucking die for her, that had guilt settling into me so sharply that it was like I was being bashed in the head with it.
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek, fighting the urge to tell her I was sorry, but when she caught my eye, a rueful gleam in hers, I knew she heard my pathetic attempts at fighting the apology.
In a rush of breath, I exhaled, and muttered, “What’s going on, mate?”
“I wish I knew. But those dreams are more than just dreams. They’re a—” She shook her head, but her gaze had shifted from knowing to troubled. “The first time I had one, it was after the council attack. I thought it made sense for it to happen then. But when they started reocurring, it was clear it was more than just an aberration.
“I want to say they’re a portent, but I never had those talents before. Never had the sight. Could never read dreams or analyze them.
“Some people in my family could. I think my great grandmother had the gift, but I didn’t. I never had it. So that’s why it’s unusual for me to have this same repetitive dream.”
“Aren’t they just nightmares? I have them too. Where I’m running and running and running, just never able to stop running, and I wake up feeling more exhausted than when I went to sleep.”
Ethan snorted. “That probably says a lot about you, Austin.”
I glowered at him. “What crawled up your ass today, butthead?”
He didn’t say a word, just carried on cooing at Knight in between pissing me off.
Jerk face.
We’d been getting on better since we’d claimed Sabina, but that didn’t mean we weren’t averse to ramming heads every now and then.
Now, instead of bickering every day, we went at least every two days.
Might not have seemed like much of an improvement, but it was something. Better than nothing at any rate.
I grumbled under my breath at him, then queried, “Well? Is it that kind of dream?”
She shook her head. “No. I’ve had those before. This is different. It’s so real. It’s tangible. I feel like if I don’t get to the creature in time, if I don’t stop them in time, then it will reach me and kill me.”
“At first,” Ethan intoned calmly, but his gaze was concerned as it touched our mate, “I told her it was very natural. A part of pregnancy, in fact. While I was reading up on things, I found that most women have very lucid dreams during the early trimesters. Very peculiar ones, and they’re just founded in the fluctuating hormones that are bombarding their systems. But when she persisted in having them, I knew they were different too, but I have no idea why that might be.”
“Do you think they’re dangerous?” Eli asked, his voice husky with his concern as he settled his ass on the dining table.
He was a braver man than me, because to me, it looked like it was going to fucking break under his weight. Instead, the antique piece of shit just groaned and absorbed the extra pounds.
Ethan shrugged. “I’d say not, because how can a dream be dangerous? But equally, Sabina’s instincts are very strong. Incredibly strong, in fact. Plus, she leads with them. They take her where she needs to be, and I have a feeling that even if she doesn’t recognize it, every step she takes is leading her in a direction she’s destined to reach.”
Sabina released a shaky breath. “Kali Sara, Ethan. You say stuff like that, and it gives me the willies.”
“I can help you there,” I teased, and watched her smile bloom and blossom on her face like the first spring flowers come April.
“Thank you, mate,” she whispered into my mind, and I registered that my place, my humor, was vital to her because with these fucking sourpusses around the table, she’d never get any jokes that would put her mind at rest.
I shrugged but didn’t say anything, because my brothers were sniffing their disapproval at my ill-placed humor. I didn’t give a shit, so long as she found it funny. So long as it lightened her load.
They could think I was a jackass until the cows came home, but after that, they could go fuck themselves.
“But it’s true,” Ethan carried on. “Sabina, you keep on doing things that make no real sense, and it turns out for the best. I think we need to have faith in you. If you say that you have a bad feeling about this situation, then it’s for a reason, and we need to act accordingly and with due caution.”