Chapter Four

Who are you?I asked in my mind, hoping the question would penetrate the distance between me and whoever shared my dream.

Sharing dreams wasn't for the faint of heart. My mind was cradled between sleep and waking; the cool sheet lay beneath me. I fisted bunches of the comforter covering my body as my heart raced beneath my sternum and images fluttered in my mind.

In my dream, I was on all fours. My nose picked up scents that weren't familiar to me. Overpowering sweetness. Children. Maple syrup. Fear and joy tangled together. The unease of tension lingered like a sourness.

I was in a home full of children.

Not me but the one who reached out through our night visions.

Who are you?I repeated, lifting my head a bit as though the motion would propel my thoughts better.

The turn of a doorknob caught my attention, and my bear turned to see who was coming in. All sound in the house ceased instantly as a shadow filled the doorway. Toys were dropped. Chattering and giggling halted.

The joy was sucked out of the room and from the faces of the children.

One boy in the corner's chin quivered as he wrung his hands.

What is this?I asked but again received no answer.

Tears pricked my eyes as I saw more men come into the room, each one assessing the children. Eyeing them from head to toe. They paced the room, sometimes touching the head or chin of a boy or girl.

None of the children moved. Fear took over the other scents.

Something was wrong here.

Something huge.

Alpha, we need help. They need you. I need you.

The terror-laced words came from the person sharing the dream with me. I closed my bear eyes, focusing on my senses, trying like hell to uncover who this was. A male; that much I knew. An omega—there was no denying that gentle demeanor and honey scent. It saturated all of him, even though he was nowhere near me.

Find them. Find them before it's too late. Find me, please.

I woke with a gasp, inhaling every bit of air in my bedroom. My skin was coated with a sheen of sweat. My temples pulsed with the abrupt departure from the dream.

Who in the hell was I sharing the dream with? A regular occurrence between my twin brother and I was one thing, but having a stranger delve into my mind in that space between consciousness and unconsciousness was quite another.

But, as I stood and caught my breath, another wave of recognition passed through me. Though I didn't know the name or the face of the person who had been with me, there was a recognition I couldn't deny.

I refuted the claim of my bear telling me he was my omega.

The damned grizzly was horny as fuck and lonelier than a man on the moon.

Males like me didn't have omegas. We didn't deserve them and, even if we had them, they deserved better than a contract killer.

I need you.

His words still echoed in my mind. Before I forgot, I reached into my bedside table and wrote everything I could remember down. What kinds of trees I'd spotted outside the window. The fact that the children were wearing shorts and T-shirts, so they must be in a warmer climate.

Anything I could recall, I scribbled down.

I had to tell the others, but I hesitated with my hand on the knob. Hammer knew a little about my brother and I dream walking but, just like me, they probably thought all of that ended the day Tyrone died.

We were both wrong.

Putting my fear in its rightful place at the back of my mind, I turned the knob and walked into the kitchen, following the scents of breakfast.

"We need to have a meeting, team members," I barked.

"Good morning to you, too, sunshine," Pop-Tart commented.

The other team members turned around and, once they saw me, they all pushed back from the table. "Gym," Hammer said.

Since the omegas took up most of the warehouse space, we did our work where we could. In an effort to shield them from the gruesomeness that could be our jobs, we often had meetings in the gym now.

"Everyone?" Gray asked.

Hammer looked to me for that answer. I cleared my throat. "Yeah. You and Hutch and Jack are family and team now."

Once we got into the gym, I took my time forming the right words. They had to know the seriousness of this.

"I called all of you in here to tell you about an omega and a lot of cubs who are being held somewhere. They are all scared, and I'm not sure of the exact details, but their lives are in danger."

"This was a tip?" Hammer asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"No. I found out another way." Gods, I didn't know why I was so closed off about this. Perhaps because when Tyrone and I told our parents about sharing dreams when we were kids, they told us we were making things up and never to talk about it again.

"Tyrus?" Hammer said, taking a few steps toward me. "What aren't you telling us, brother?"