She smiled.  “This is the past.  Just minutes old.”

“Why am I dreaming this?”

“I’m bound to the past as much as I’m bound to the present, floating in the shadows in between.  This is the only place we may speak.  You must hurry to find your sisters.  His anger is growing and even she won’t be safe much longer.  Tread carefully, loved one.”

She smiled and reached out to pat Luke’s bare arm.  He shifted in his sleep.  Then, she leaned over him to place a kiss on my sleeping self’s cheek.

I bolted upright, eyes wide, the feeling her lips lingered on my skin.  The place beside the bed was empty, but I couldn’t shake the creeped out feeling.

“What is it?” Luke asked, instantly awake and sitting up with me.

I turned worried eyes to him.  “I don’t think I’m done dreaming, yet.”

He kissed me gently, coaxed me back under the covers, and encouraged me to lay my head on his chest.  He ran his fingers through my hair and rubbed my back until I relaxed again.  Still, I lay awake long after he started snoring.

She was worried about Courage, I was sure of it.  If she lived in the past and the present, she had to know what we planned and where we were headed.  I bit my lip thinking of what Courage might be enduring despite Michelle’s vision of gentle treatment.

Luke inhaled long and loud just then, his fingers twitching in my hair.  I smiled at the sound before closing my eyes again.  We would never need to share a room with anyone else with the noise he made.

Epilogue

The morning brought heartache for the group.  We all witnessed Michelle hold back tears as she pasted on a bright smile and said goodbye to her brothers.

I glanced at Nana and wondered if she’d reached my mother.  She met my gaze briefly, but her expression gave nothing away other than how she felt about the current situation.

Liam gave Emmitt a hug and asked him to watch over Michelle.  Everyone heard his loud whisper. “I think she’s sad we want to play with Paul and Henry.”

Emmitt smiled and hugged the boy until he protested.  Then, Emmitt promised to take care of Michelle, always.

“You too, you know,” Luke murmured close to my ear.

Puzzled, I turned to him.

His eyes looked slightly green in the morning light.  He wrapped his hands around my arms and pulled me close.  “I promise to take care of you, always,” he whispered just before his lips brushed against mine.

“Always is a long time for a girl who keeps coming back,” I said leaning into him.

“Forever isn’t long enough,” he said enfolding me in a warm embrace and taking the kiss to the next level.

Nana cleared her throat.  “All right you two.  We need to travel today.”

Luke pulled back with a sassy grin and clasped my hand.  I needed the support after that kiss.  My head spun and heart stuttered.

*    *    *    *

We arrived at the last hotel I hoped we’d need to stay at.  Well, in our search for Peace anyway.  There was still a lot of traveling and waiting to do when—if—we exposed werewolves.  The Elders still hadn’t given us their official decision.

“It seems like she’s staying in one spot now,” Gabby commented sitting on the edge of the bed in Nana’s room.

“I think it would be best if just a few of us go,” I said.  “Gabby, since you can locate her, an Elder, and myself.”

Nana looked worried about that but didn’t need to comment.  Gabby did for her.

“We’ll need more than that.  There are more Urbat here than there should be,” Gabby said.

I wrinkled my nose.  It was a big city.  We didn’t have much of a choice.  We needed to be here.  I understood the need to protect ourselves but didn’t like how it would look to Peace.  Having a large group of strangers come up to you and try to convince you to leave with them...I didn’t see that going over well with her.

“What do you suggest?”

“Six of us.  Grey, Carlos, Clay, you and Luke, and me.  It’ll give us better protection and still leave enough protection here for the rest,” Gabby said.

I knew she was right.  “Okay.”

“Sam’s out driving to see what kind of place she’s stopped at.  When he gets back we can go,” she stood and walked to Clay who waited by the door.  “If it’s somewhere nicer, Nana promised we can raid her suitcase.”

“Absolutely,” Nana agreed, hanging some of her things.  Most of her wardrobe was a little more mature than I’d ever worn, but she always looked nice.

I looked down at my worn jeans and stained t-shirt.  Ugh.  Clothes kept you from being naked and cold; I hadn’t thought about them any further than that.  How had I not noticed?  I looked at Luke.

“How can you—”

“What you wear doesn’t matter.  You are beautiful,” he said leaning in to place a tender kiss on my forehead.  “Your clothes just help hide it from all the other guys out there.”

Smiling, I shook my head at him.  Possessive creatures.

*    *    *    *

Four hours later, Gabby and I sat in the car with a very mulish Luke, and stoic Clay.  To me Clay didn’t act much different, but Gabby kept glancing at him and telling him to calm down.  When she’d found out Peace was at a club, she’d insisted that we change since we needed to look like we fit in.

Nana agreed and took us both on an impromptu shopping trip that had me twitching.  I didn’t mind shopping.  In fact, I used to love to go clothes shopping.  Before the dreams.  Before Urbat started hunting us.  Before I had a mission to bring us all together.  Now, however, the time we spent shopping and being in the open troubled me.  When we walked out of the store, I sighed in relief.  We had made it through without incident.  And I had new clean clothes.

Initially, Nana and Gabby had gravitated toward cute little party dresses that were sure to make a man’s eyes melt and his tongue swell, but I’d flat out refused.  If we were caught between an Urbat and Peace, I wanted to be able to run.  Who ran in heels and a skirt?  The movie extras that always died first!  I did not want to be an extra.  Neither woman could argue with my logic.

In our bags of purchased items, we both had stylish new jeans—mine hugged my thin frame in a sexy way rather than a sickly way—and very gossamer tops to go over low cut camis.  Gabby went with pink over a red top, and I went with blue over a green top.  My eyes stood out even more with the color combination.  I even purchased makeup, surprising both Nana and Gabby that I knew how to use it.  To me it was just a depressing reminder that I used to have a frivolous life.  Now I had a life worth living.

Luke shifted uncomfortably beside me.  He wore his own jeans and a shirt he’d borrowed from Sam.  I couldn’t believe how trendy Sam dressed.

When I’d stepped out of the bathroom dressed for our encounter with Peace, Luke hadn’t said a word.  He moved toward me then did a slow walk around me.  He’d whispered words to melt my heart.  “I can’t believe you’re mine.”  However, he ruined it by telling me to go back and change.

I squeezed his hand and gave him a quick smile.  He frowned at me, his eyes dropped to my top.

“Ready?” I asked the group. Carlos and Grey were up front waiting for Gabby and me to give the word.

“She’s still in there,” Gabby confirmed.

“Let’s go,” I said with a deep breath.  I struggled to contain my excitement.  Five of us together again.  My last memory of that was tainted with blood and battle.  I hoped for more from this life.

Luke opened the door and extended a hand to help me out.  Though I’d won the argument about the dresses, Gabby and I still wore trendy shoes instead of the sneakers I would have preferred.  It gave me a few extra inches, which I liked when standing face to face with Luke.  I gave him a quick kiss and moved out of the way so he could shut the door.