Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

Lake

"It's all going to be okay, Lake. It's all going to work out. You can do this," I mutter to myself, pacing back and forth just outside the back of the clubhouse.

Technically, I'm not supposed to be out here, but I needed to be. I needed to be free of the stuffy walls I felt collapsing in on me.

Tucker was in church with his brothers, all of them planning how to best go about going through with getting into the dragon realm and doing what they need to do and get back. I'm not a big fan of it, but if it means they're able to go and bring my dad and uncles back, I won't argue. I only hope that they're able to do it without anyone getting harmed in any way.

I also get they don't want me to help. I felt it in Tucker when I suggested it. I thought he'd tell me to drop it and that I wasn't to be a part of it all. That they were going to contact Nyx or another Fae. But he relented and agreed.

I can do this. I'm sure of it. Scared maybe, but I've no doubt that I can take them where they want me to.

Needing to focus, I stop pacing and plop down in the middle of the grassiest area. Images of what I experienced when Tucker took me that first time filter in my mind. Everything is so clear and real that I feel as if I were experiencing it all over again. It's beautiful and vibrant. Tucker made me feel so alive, so treasured.

Beneath my fingertips in front of me, I feel the grass growing, tickling my palms, curling around my fingers. The dirt beneath hums. I look up ahead, and there it is, the strands that I'd seen the other night. They call to me, sing in fact, wanting me to reach for them, to peel back and open up to another world.

I reach up to touch it with one hand to see how easily my fingers thread through the strands of time. That's exactly what they're called. Touching them, they tell me what they want. What to do. How to control them. I didn't think something so simple could have a voice, but it does. It's unlike anything I've ever heard. It's like it's filling me with a knowledge as old as time itself. I suppose that's precisely what these strands are.

Without them, time wouldn't exist. They wouldn't be able to separate the many different dimensions. Like the one that belongs to the dragons. Another that belongs to the Fae people. Both realms or kingdoms upon themselves, without them all connecting in one way or the other through the threads of dimensions, the world itself would cease to exist.

Both dragons and fairies have the ability to come through dimensions, but can't stay for long, not without a connection to the other.

"Beautiful Lake," the strands call to me, whispering over my skin. Wanting me to come through, to explore what only I can see.

Without thinking, I stand and take a step forward. "Come, Lake, join us."

"Lake," Tucker roars, his voice sounding farther away than it should.

I look over my shoulder and frown. Why is Tucker running? How did I get so far from the back door?

I yank my hand back from the strands just as Tucker makes it to me and blink up at him, the strands still visible behind him, surrounding us.

"What's going on?" I ask, confused by the furious expression on his face. "Why do you look mad at me?"

Tucker's eyes bore into mine, and he looks ready to strangle me. "You serious right now?" he snarls, eyes glowing gold. "You even realize what you were just doing?"

I shake my head. All I was doing was . . .

My face pales as I think about what I'd been doing before I heard him roaring my name.

"Do you have any clue what could have happened had I not felt you? Heard the thoughts going through your mind?" Tucker's grip on my body doesn't lessen. In fact, it tightens to the point it's painful. "I could have fuckin' lost you. Who the hell knows where you would have ended up."

"I'm sorry," I whisper, lowering my gaze.

I didn't know what I was doing. I'd been enthralled by the strands, learning of how they work.

"You can't be doing shit like that without me, Lake. I can't risk you being taken from me." There's no missing the fury in his voice, but he loosens his grip just a bit. "I won't lose you."

"I don't want you to lose me either," I admit. I haven't known this man, this shifter, for more than a week, but he's gotten under my skin. I slump into him and plant my face into his chest. "I'm really sorry. Can we go inside?"

Tucker just stands there holding me for a long moment before shifting us in the direction of the clubhouse. "Come on, little Fae."

A few steps toward the back of the clubhouse, Tucker stops and scoops me in his arms. "We're going to have to talk about you doing things like this without me," he states, carrying me the rest of the way to the clubhouse. The door opens for us, and standing just inside are several of Tucker's brothers.

Great.

Talk about feeling embarrassed.

To avoid looking at any of them, I curl into Tucker and bury my face in his neck.

"Everything good, brother?"

I hear Corbin ask, but don't lift my gaze. I don't need to in order to know he's pissed. Pissed at me.

"Yeah," Tucker grunts. "I'm gonna have a talk with Lake, then rejoin y'all in church."

There's a long pause before Corbin says anything else. When he does, it's one simple word. "Right."

A shiver runs through me, and it's not because I'm cold, though I feel the chill coming off him, and it's aimed at me.

Tucker carries me the length of the hall and down another to his room. Once inside, he sets me down on my feet, facing him. Only then does he speak again while reaching up with both hands to palm either side of my face.

"You can't do things like that without me present, Lake," he says far too gently.

"I was just sitting there, and then the next, I was reaching for the threads that weave together," I tell him, being honest. "Did you know those threads are called the strands of time? That they can speak? They have a voice. They'd been telling me how everything works, showing me how I can use them."

"Fuckin' hell, Lake, it was stealing you away from me," Tucker remarks, sliding his hands from either side of my face into my hair. "It wasn't just showing you." He dips his head forward and presses his forehead to mine. "You were being taken from me, little Fae. I felt it. It was consuming you, into whatever the fuck it was taking you into."

"It was showing me how I can go through any dimension. I could stay wherever it took me or go to another," I explain and jerk my head back when I realize the rest it was showing me. "Tucker, I can go to any dimension because of my lineage. I can't be imprisoned in one or the other. It wasn't stealing me away from you. It was taking me through to show me that where others can't, I can. I can control the strands of time, whereas it cannot be done by any other."

"We can't know that for sure." Tucker protests, shaking his head.

"I can," I tell him. I stretch my arms up to be able to curl my hands around Tucker's neck to keep him still enough to meet my gaze. "Listen to me. Listen as only you can listen."

Tucker goes still. His body tightens. Still, he doesn't take his gaze from mine. I can feel him inside me as he can feel me inside him. His beast is raging inside him, fighting for control to be able to reconfirm the bond between the two of us. What's going through him can only be described as feral. A part of me wishes for him to lose all control and take me. Force me to submit in ways that I won't ever allow another person to control me.

Tucker jerks back, snarling, eyes narrowing. "You want the beast, Lake?" he demands, voice graveled rough. Nearly animalistic.

"Yes," I answer honestly. Somewhat breathy-like.

"You want to fuck a beast?" he asks, lips curled back, baring his teeth.

"Yes." My answer is barely loud enough to be considered a noise.

With a growl, Tucker wraps his arm around me. His mouth slams down on mine, tongue spearing in and taking control.

None of his other kisses have been like this. It's different, and my body instantly reacts to it.

Twisting us so that I've got my back to the wall next to the door, he lifts me by my bottom. Fingers digging in, and his hardened cock presses into the most sensitive area. Even with the barrier of my jeans and his, I can feel just how hard he is.

He feels good, and I want more. I want to scream for him to do more. Take more. Force me to accept more.

But in a split second, everything goes from heated passion to full-on terror as I feel the dark energy of the enemy wash over me. Calling to me. Demanding I come to them.

I swear I hear the words whisper in the air of complying with what they want, or they'll kill Tucker and everyone within the walls of the clubhouse. How could they get through the barrier? Get this close.

Dread replaces the lustful thoughts, and without meaning to, I reach for those strands of time, and in a moment of fear, I take not just myself through but Tucker as well. I won't let them get me. Nor will I let them harm the man who is my mate. This shifter who has always been the one I've dreamed of as mine. My tiger prince. I can't let them strike at him and destroy the last only hope I have at finally feeling something more than loneliness and despair.