Page 178 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)

AUDREY

My eyes flew open, and I jerked upright, my sheets stuck to my sweat-drenched body as I gasped for air.

“Audrey?” Bishop gasped, jerking upright a second later. “What’s wrong?”

“I—” My throat tightened and I struggled to breathe.

It had just been a dream.

Except none of my dreams about Sterling had been just anything.

“I have to go to Whil. Now.”

I glanced at the window but couldn’t tell through the crack in the blinds if it was still the middle of the night or closer to dawn. I didn’t want to bother Whil, but I couldn’t risk the block in my mind being broken. If Sterling could influence me, I needed to know so I could protect my mates and my pack.

And I needed to know right now.

Bishop grabbed my dress from where it lay on the floor and tossed it to me before pulling on his pants — also on the floor where we’d left them.

“Talk to me, Audrey,” he said, worry pouring through our mating bond as we rushed out the French doors in my sitting room.

“I think the block in my mind is breaking.”

Please let it just be the block.

But I had a horrible feeling something else was happening. I couldn’t shake the ominous feeling inside me or the hint of grimalkin reek caught in my nostrils.

Sterling hadn’t tormented me like he had in the other dreams. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more it felt like he hadn’t even been aware I’d been there. Without a doubt, he’d have rubbed in how helpless I was while he murdered Mila and Porter and opened a rip in the realms to get to me.

My pulse lurched.

I’d dreamed he reopened the rip. Had the dream been a threat… or reality?

Bishop and I rushed across the Residence’s grounds to Whil’s cottage, the whimsical glass light hanging above the doorway to the English cottage part of her residence bright in the pre-dawn gray.

With a growl, Bishop banged his fist against the cottage door, making me cringe.

“Whil!” he yelled as he threw open the door and strode inside.

Two wall lamps in the entranceway flared to life, revealing polished wood floors and clean white walls. Straight ahead rose a staircase with a wooden banister carved to look like vines, and a long narrow hall led to the back of the house. To my left stood a wide arch opening into a sitting room.

I peered into the darkness at the end of the hall but couldn’t see beyond the warm halo of light. Somewhere, farther back, lay the entrance to the massive greenhouse attached to the cottage.

“Whil,” Bishop called again.

“Coming,” she yelled back from somewhere above us.

Wood creaked at the top of the stairs, a pale light started to illuminate the walls, and a second later Whil appeared, her perpetual fae glow lighting her way.

“Audrey thinks the block is breaking,” he said as Whil hurried down the stairs.

“Sit,” she said, jerking her chin toward the archway beside us, “and tell me what happened.”

“I had a dream,” I told her, crossing the threshold into the sitting room and activating the three magical lamps in the room with my movement.

Three large armchairs and a couch as mismatched as the seating area in the greenhouse, crowded around a squat table covered with books, while more books and knickknacks filled the floor-to-ceiling bookcases taking up all available wall space. The only places where there wasn’t a bookcase was the fieldstone fireplace on the interior wall and the two large windows overlooking Whil’s perpetually blooming garden.

“And…” I sat on the couch knowing as soon as she checked my magical block, I was going to pass out for most of the day. “And I think there’s something else going on.”

Bishop sat beside me and pulled me into his lap, holding me tight. Worry tinged with fear whispered through our bond despite the fact that I could feel him trying to block his emotions from me.

“I think I controlled the grimalkins and made them run away. They have an alpha power, and I could feel it, and when those last two came and I was barely hanging on, I screamed at them and, with my own power, willed them to go away,” I said, the words pouring out of me.

“What did their power feel like?” Whil asked, and I released the breath I’d been holding even while knowing I hadn’t needed to hold it.

Whil and Bishop had always believed me. I’d never had to convince them that what I’d experienced or felt was true.

“It made my skin crawl and upset my stomach and when I used my power on them, black smoke came out of my mouth.”

Bishop stiffened, his grip around me tightening, and he buried his nose in my hair.

“It’s been over a day,” he said, his voice soft even as a torrent of emotions: fear, anger, and frustration roared through the bond. “You should have said something.”

“Whil’s been at the hospital, Knox is hunting, and you and Cyrus have been dealing with a crisis.”

It wasn’t as if I’d wanted to keep it a secret. I’d just recognized that there were more important things going on, and I’d wanted to do my part and hadn’t wanted to worry anyone.

“The nausea and smoke went away and I thought I could wait until I found a moment to talk to Whil.” I leaned back far enough to meet his wolf-darkened eyes. “The second something changed, I told you.”

“You should have told me right away,” he growled. “You’re the priority. You’re always the priority.”

“You know that isn’t true,” I said. “The pack?—”

“The pack doesn’t matter without you.” He pressed his forehead to mine and drew in a shuddering breath. “I know you want to protect those who can’t protect themselves and you think that sacrificing your needs is how to do that, but it isn’t.” He huffed. “I already have a brother who always puts himself last. I don’t need my mate to do it, too.”

More frustration rolled through our bond, and I pushed love back to him. We weren’t going to agree on this, and I didn’t want to argue. He could teach me how to put me first later, once the crisis with the merchants and grimalkins and whatever Sterling was doing to me was taken care of.

“Whil,” I said without turning away from Bishop. “Let’s find out what’s going on with me.”