“I think I do.” Melony grinned.
She looked over at Sherry, loving the way the happiness radiated from her and knowing she had a part in it. Maybe this trip wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why don’t you hang around with Lorent any longer?”
Melony shrugged. “It’s kind of a long, complicated story.”
“All the lycan men are complicated, Mel.”
“Yeah, I guess they are, but Lorent is just so . . . so intense.”
“Again, they all are, sweetie.” Sherry chuckled.
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“Yeah, I guess they are, but he mixes me all up when I’m around him.
And the dreams. Ugh.”
“The dreams?” Sherry sat up straighter and stared at her.
“Yeah. Since I met Lorent, I’ve had some really strange dreams. They seem so real. I’ve never had ones like that before.”
“Oh hell. No one’s told you about the dreams,” Sherry muttered.
“Told me what about what dreams?”
“Mates can communicate with one another in dreams. They are as close as you can get to reality in dream world.”
“Wait. What?” Holy crap. If what Sherry was saying was true—and she had no reason to believe Sherry would lie to her—that meant . . . “I’m Lorent’s mate?”
Now that she thought back on the last dream, the one where he’d finally told her about his past, he’d said something about claiming her. Wasn’t that a mate thing? Or maybe it was just a lycan thing, although she’d never associated making love to someone with claiming them.
“Sounds like.”
“But why didn’t he tell me?” Melony was happy and pissed all at the same time.
“As I said, the lycan men are complicated.”
“Obviously.” Melony was going give Lorent a serious ass-kicking when they got back for not telling her she was his mate—if she was in fact. Maybe he didn’t tell her because he didn’t want her? But if the dreams were real, he’d come to her and confided in her about his past as she’d asked him to.
He did care for her. Damn it. Why couldn’t he have told her?
Then it dawned on her. The dreams were Lorent’s way of being himself with her without the guilt of reality weighing him down. There were no rules he had to follow, no one he had to answer to in the dreams, but himself and .
. . her? He’d opened up to her the only way he knew how. She wanted to cry in relief. He did love her, and she had to figure out a way to make him realize it.
Shortly after that thought, things went to hell in a handbasket. Sherry screamed at the same time Melony spotted a figure standing in front of them 135
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on the road. She braked hard, and the SUV skidded sideways, down an embankment, and slammed into a tree that was now wedged against and blocking the driver’s side door.
“Oh my God! Are you all right, Sherry?” Melony fumbled with her seat belt to scoot closer to Sherry.
“Yes, yes. I’m okay, but we need to get out of here.”
“I think we are stuck.” The way Sherry’s eyes darted from window to window was starting to scare Melony. “What’s wrong?”
“I think that was a rogue. If I’m right, we may be in big trouble.”
“A-A rogue? We need to use the walkie. Now!” Melony reached for the glove compartment and noticed it had been jarred open from the crash. The walkie was no longer inside, and she started searching for it frantically, figuring the impact must have thrown it under the seat or in the back.
“Um, we have another problem.”
Melony turned to Sherry. “What?”
“My water just broke.”
“Oh, Sherry. Please tell me you are joking.”
“No.” Sherry’s tearful whisper gave all the proof Melony needed that it was, indeed, not a joke.
“I’ve been having dreams about him coming early, but Piers and I talked about it and decided it was just nerves. Janine told me the same when I confided in her.”
So the unease she’d picked up on with Janine and Sherry had had some merit to it. Freaking great! This is just what she needed.
“I’ll find the walkie, and everything will be fine. Just stay calm.” Staying calm was easier said than done, but she had no choice in the matter. If she got all worked up, Sherry would as well, and that wouldn’t do either of them any good.
“I’ll try.”
Melony climbed into the backseat and searched for the walkie.
“I’m starting to have contractions, Mel!”
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Great! Just what I need. Can anything else go wrong? Ask and ye shall receive.
She cried out in relief as she found the walkie, but just as she picked it up, something slammed into the side of the SUV.
“What was that?”
“Mel! It’s the rogue. Hurry, call for help.”
She pushed the button on the side of the walkie. “Can someone hear me?
Please. It’s Melony.” No answer. “Please. Can someone hear me?”
* * * *
Lorent had been deep in the forest all morning while the others were in a meeting. It was his turn to patrol the property, and Brent was supposed to meet with him later to give him the details of everything discussed. He was about to head back when the walkie he had clipped to his belt hissed and a familiar voice came over it. He froze for a moment. What the hell was Melony doing on the walkie?
He slipped the walkie from his belt and pressed the button. “What are you doing on the walkie, Melony?” They usually only used the long-range walkies for emergencies.
“We’ve wrecked, and there is something—a rogue—trying to get into the vehicle with us.”
His blood ran cold. “Where are you? Who’s ‘we’?”
“Sherry is with me. We went to town, and on our way back, we wrecked.
Please, Lorent. We need help. Sherry’s water broke. I’m scared.”
“Tell me where you are.”
“Sherry says to tell you we are on the Nine Road cutoff.”
He closed his eyes. By his calculations, he
