Clare’s POV
In dreams we can be anything, so why was I scared?
I could feel the cool chill taking over my body and my eyes locked onto his, burning with urgency as he seemed frozen where he stood and unable to move. The world surrounding him was dark. Thunder roared and lightning flashed, blinding me to his features–everything except his piercing emerald eyes.
“Go!” he shouted, but my instincts told me to go back for him. “Go! Don’t come back!”
My mind was compelled to obey his command, but in my heart, I knew I needed to go back. I needed to reach him.
“Don’t!” he shouted again, forcing an anger in his voice that melted into a gut-wrenching emotion I could not name. “Just run!”
I couldn’t run away. If I did, I knew that I would be lost to him.
“No!” I shouted in return and pushed my body against whatever force compelled me to stay in place. He began to fade away.
“Please! Please, don’t leave me alone,” I shouted with all my power and strength breaking through into a run. I ran until I was panting and breathless.
As much as I screamed, I knew that he could not hear me. His eyes gazed into mine, looking at me with a glint of a smile. He wanted me to live. But it felt like so much more than that. He needed me to live. It was like, even if he did become lost to me, so long as I lived, he would be alive as well.
But if anything were to happen to me, he could never live without me.
“No!” I was crying, screaming. A searing pain filled my chest and threatened to consume me as I watched him fade into dust.
“Ring, ring, ring!”
A cold sweat greeted me as I suddenly woke up, still panting, and opened my eyes. The white of the dome ceiling replaced the dark dream world as it immediately came into my sight.
I took in a deep breath, willing the rapid cadence of my heart to stop racing. It was just a dream.
With no doubt. I was dreaming. The same dream I always had.
I could not remember how many times I’d had this dream in which I always ran and ran, and the man… Who was he?
I couldn’t even recognize what he looked like, but his voice, loud and strong, still seemed to echo in my ears. He was always asking–no, begging me to leave as if we were in great danger.
I thought I was used to it by now.
But today, something was very different and strange. When I woke up with his voice still fresh in my mind, a name floated in the silence that followed.
It sounded like Leo…? Or maybe Leon…? Or something like that.
I shook my head and scoffed at myself.
Why was I making such a big deal out of it? Who cares what a person in a dream might be called? He's not even real, is he?
I took in a final sharp breath and exhaled the last of the tension that had creeped into my body. I forced myself to stop thinking about the dream and I started my morning routine.
When I was ready to leave my quarters, I went to the dining room of the pack house where all the strongest young wolves in the pack gathered for meals every day.
As I entered, the delicious aroma of warm pancakes, bacon, eggs, and coffee enveloped me and I was greeted by all members of the pack who noticed my entrance. I nodded to them and made my way to the breakfast line.
My best friend John, who was one of the strongest wolves of my pack, came to me with his tray balanced in one hand and on the tips of his fingers. It was piled high with a prepared breakfast of fresh bacon and eggs.
His other hand brought a mug of coffee to his lips as he gave me a lazy once over.
“You look like sh*t,” he commented.
“Gee… Thanks,” I responded and suppressed the urge to tip his tray over onto the floor.
“Are you sure you will be able to finish training with us today?”
“Yeah,” I assured him and stole a cut of bacon from his tray as the line slowly moved forward. I waited for him to protest as I chewed on the meat and wondered if I should tell him about my dream. But his expression suddenly turned thoughtful and then serious.
“What? It’s only a slice of bacon,” I said.
“No,” he murmured, his face changing from serious to worried. “I’m really gonna miss you.”
I felt my eyebrows shoot up in confusion. “Why? What happened? Where are you going?” I asked, feeling worried and confused. John wasn’t just my best friend; he was more than a friend, even though we hadn’t bothered to put a label on it.
“Not me,” he clarified. “You.”
“What are you talking about? I’m not leaving the Blue Moon pack.”
“I heard your father talking with the elders about your future.”
“What about it?” I felt my jaw clench as I imagined them thinking about marrying me off to some ugly Alpha.
“The Avondale pack is going to be here soon to choose a Beta.”
“What!?”
A kaleidoscope of emotions ran through me as my blood began to boil. The Avondale pack was the main reason we trained so hard every day.
I was still in school when we’d heard the rumors of the Avondale and their Alpha’s demand that each pack surrender their Betas, especially born Betas, to join and train with his pack when they turned 18. Even the Betas born to the Alphas of other packs were compelled to join.
“Sh*t,” I muttered.
“Yeah,” John agreed. “It's almost certain he will want to choose one of the Alpha’s children. You or…”
“Aiden,” I breathed and hurried from the pack house to my father, the Alpha’s, office.
We were on the furthest reaches south of the Avondale pack. The demand had reached us three years ago when Aiden turned 21, but by then he was already engaged and my father refused to send him. He began the elite security training for Betas of our pack in case we ever had to fight them.
But now it seemed as if my father was interested in appeasing the Avondale Alpha like all others. If he were truly going to let one of us go to the Avondale pack, it meant he would be under that Alpha’s thumb.
It was well known that Betas from other packs were tortured mercilessly during training.
I felt the need to hit something on the way to see my father. My fist slammed into a tree, sending a crack to split up the middle. I continued on, not feeling any better.
My father sat at his desk slumped over with his head in his hands before he noticed my entrance.
“Clare, you should be in training,” he admonished me as he sat up straight.
But I could still see the tension in his shoulders as I made direct eye contact with him. “Have you decided yet whether you will send me or Aiden to the Avondale pack’s Beta training?”
He sucked in a breath as his jaw rippled over his clenched teeth. “How did you know about this?”
“Does it matter, Father?”
“No, it doesn't matter. You would have found out soon enough.”
“Are you sending me?” I asked, and his eyebrows drew together as if he wondered why I might think that.
I felt my spine stiffen. It was true that I was smaller than my brother, but it couldn't be said that he was faster or stronger than me. In fact, I was the strongest Beta in our pack now, and Aiden was a married family man with a baby on the way.
When was the last time he’d even thought about combat training, let alone picked up a weapon?
If he left, then it would fall to me to run the pack if anything happened to our father.
To be honest, I had no desire to go willingly and take up this so-called training under the devils of the Avondale pack. But if my father’s only other choice was letting my brother, who was more capable managing the pack, go… I knew it was my responsibility to step in and take his place.
“I want you to send me,” I told him.
My father looked stricken by the thought. But he and I both knew it was the only way. He was struggling and uneasy with allowing himself to admit it. I could tell that it was hard for him to make a final decision.
Even though I had already made the decision for him, I left him alone to think about it.