Page 18 of The Omega's Fake Mate

Then his text popped up on my screen.

Nothing to worry about. Everything's fine. We can talk tomorrow.

Yeah, right, like he was actually going to call me.

im holding you to that,I typed. Then I glanced at the time on the upper left corner of my phone.y are you up at 5am?

Bad dreams,was all he sent back. He didn't even bother asking whyIwas up. He probably knew. He knew why I was worried. But he wouldn't tell me.

My brother could be so damn difficult if he wanted to be, always keeping everything to himself. He'd been that way even when we were children. His toys he'd shared freely, but not his thoughts.

But this also meant that I had years of practice at getting information out of him. When I had him on the phone the next day, I would make him spill. I was happy to let him run off and do his own thing as long as he wasn't getting hurt, but the low-level panic that still hummed through me let me know we'd crossed that line a while ago.

I put my phone away and tried to go back to sleep.

It was no use.

I couldn't help but wonder. What had happened to Rhys? Hisbad dreamscouldn't be so bad that they would wake me, could they? If so, what had to happen to a person to cause that kind of reaction?

Around 6 a.m., I gave up on sleep, turned on the light and got out of the bed. There was still a bit of time before the rest of the house woke up, so I had to find a way to distract myself from all the questions and worst-case scenarios buzzing through my mind.

My gaze fell on the book lying on the desk in front of the window. It was the novel Zander had gifted me.

Read me,it seemed to say.What else have you got to do?

Sitting at the desk, I sighed to myself. I didn't want to think about Zander now either. Maybe I should just board the next plane back to LA.

Or better yet, I could drive down to Connecticut where Rhys was living with that asshole he called a husband. There had to besomeway I could get through the gates if I tried hard enough.

Lost in thought, I opened the book in front of me without really noticing what I was doing. It was there, and my hands needed something to do, and then I was reading.

And then I got an idea. Acrazyidea.

But those were kind of my thing.

* * *

Later that morning, after I'd wolfed down my breakfast, I grabbed Kade and dragged him out into the yard again, where we could talk in private. Well, relative privacy. Little Mary kept circling around the yard with her skipping rope, but she was counting her skips so loudly, I doubted she heard us.

Kade glanced back at the house. “I have a baby to nurse, you know? Where's the fire?”

“I nearly had a panic attack last night.”

My friend's eyebrows went up. “You mean you had a bad dream? Is everything all right?”

“No, not like that. It's like... you know that time Rhys was in car accident? Kinda like that. Only a bit different, I guess? But that's not what's important.” I gestured wildly with my hands. There were so many thoughts in my head and they all wanted to come out at once.

“You think something happened to Rhys?”

I nodded, glad that Kade wasn't giving me crap over this. He'd been with me the night of that car accident, and to date, he was one of the few people who didn't question the bond I had with my brother too much. Which made explaining everything easier.

“Did you try calling him?”

“I did, but he wouldn't answer.” I shook my head. “Got a message from him saying he was okay, though. I still wonder what happened but I don't think he's going to tell me.”

Kade's expression turned sympathetic. “That sucks.”

“Yeah, which is why I'm not going to sit around and wait any longer. I gottadosomething. He's my brother and I know he's not well.I know!”