“I still don’t know if I can do this.” Raven listened to Brigid’s words and instructions about how she was supposed to build a new body for Dominic. She claimed he’d be the same as he was before. If that’s what she wanted. Oh yes, she’d hinted at the fact that Raven could tweak things if something needed changing. But she’d warned her that it couldn’t be too big of a change. Raven didn’t know what Brigid meant by that. But she was still having problems believing she could do this. How could this be something she’d be able to do? If she didn’t Dominic would stay dead. If she didn’t try, he’d be dead when they returned to their reality. If she tried and failed, at least she could say she tried. If she succeeded, she’d have Dominic back. What did she have to lose? Other than hope. “You won’t know if you can do anything the first time you try to do anything until after you’ve tried to do it.” Brigid said. She was being humorous and smiled at her in a mo
Dominic’s mind was still scattered, but he could move, and he did. He knew who he was and who Raven was. What was different was more than he had time to think about as they made their way back to where they needed to go. They had found their objective, and he had to push his mate to get them out of there. The enemy was in there and they now swarmed over the land searching for the small female with them. If they found her, then they’d find Raven. Both were creatures who could twist the very air of this realm into whatever they wanted. Goddess, he’d been killed hours ago. He remembered the searing pain as the Fae tore into him with a magical wild-fire spell. Dominic remembered his body being torn apart and burned piece by piece. These sick creatures created a spell that could keep their victims alive until the last piece of them was consumed. Yet, the Fae creature hadn’t realized his mate was a Dreamer and there. Brigid walked Raven through recreating
Their arrival didn’t go unnoticed for long. Which they were all thankful for. Brigid, though, was in a panic. She could do nothing in this realm to help save Tom. The arrows were poisoned. At the first mention of poison, the trickle of people became a flurry. Lily got word out to the closest healing center to expect him and arranged a mage portal to get him sent right there. In moments Tom and Luke were gone with two other wolves from their Pack. Raven watched as people moved about all weary of Brigid. They were unsure how to respond or interact with her. Did they worship her? Treat her as a ruler? Approach her as a friend or an enemy? What did they do? How did someone interact with a being they thought of as a god for thousands of years? Especially, when they’re standing directly in front of them looking rather bedraggled and lost. “Reality is never what the stories tell us. I wish it was. A goddess in one realm is a nobody in another realm. What c
“We couldn’t help Tom?” Kelly asked. She’d missed their arrival and Tom being bundled off to the healing center. “No, we couldn’t. Those arrows hit him when he was in this realm. We couldn’t do anything about the poison. Even in the Dream Realm the poison would kill him, and his mate must be a Dreamer to bring him back. Everything and everyone have limits no matter how powerful they are. Well, that’s what I’ve had to come to terms with.” Raven watched Brigid’s haunted face as she said this. The other dreamers were there with them now and they’d been discussing their abilities and learning about what they could do. Their situation within the Dream Realm and how much danger they were in. What dangers came from the realm and what came from the Fae. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m exhausted. There’s just too much to take in. I need time to take this all in.” Raven wanted to spend time with Dominic. She had so many questions for him. How had he
“Raven, I’ll say this right now. I’m looking to make a shift away from it and while some people will not like this I don’t care. But I won’t tell them why because I don’t want to put you in danger. If one of my enemies or rivals decides to use, you against me or use your abilities they may try to kidnap you. So, we’ll say nothing to anyone outside of our Pack and we’ll speak with those within the Pack that must know.” Dominic said. He tried to assure Raven about her safety and his sincerity. “Dominic we can’t tell anyone about what I can do. For one thing, no one would believe it. For another, you’re right they might try to use it. I never thought they might try to use me against you by kidnapping me.” Raven felt stunned at the thought that she was agreeing with him and accepting her. “So, what do we do now? You say I’m the important one, but I don’t feel like it, and I don’t know how to proceed. Or do I say, how we proceed with this.” Raven looked to Dominic a
It’s been absolute chaos since we returned and who can be surprised when we returned with a freakin’ goddess. Okay, she says she’s looking out for us, but in her mind she’s a teacher or mentor. A mother figure or a caretaker. Possibly a mentor. But she doesn’t see herself as a goddess. But when the word got out that she was here and real it became a problem. The guards and protectors went to work against the people. Then there was the dream realm. Lessons had to come fast. Once Brigid found the few missing Dreamers. Brigid started the lessons with a history of who she was, what she was, how she was connected to the Dream Realm, how supernatural creatures were connected to the dream realm, and what’s going wrong now. So, it turned out it’s not just the fault of the supernatural bomb exactly. That incident just sped up the process that was already happening. So, now Raven sat in a crowded room with other Dreamers learning about
Raven’s fears and worries were brought to reality when the news came through that after everyone left the Dream Realm. He hadn’t made it. Tom hadn’t taken a turn for the worse and lost his fight for life. Or that’s how it was said to Raven. “It’s not fair. I can think of so many other deserving people. Why did he have to be the one?” Raven voice held so many responses at learning of Tom’s end. Dominic hadn’t had a chance to speak with her yet. Brigid sat with her amid the class of Dreamers. Many were having trouble keeping up with what was going on right now with the report as they weren’t there when the incident occurred and never met Tom. So, the whispered explanations were happening fast and furious. “Hey, hey, hey. None of that please. This is a war, and we need everyone. I’m sorry about Tom though. I liked him. If only I could have helped him.” Brigid’s regret was clear in her words and more. Her tone too rang with her regret and sadness. She w
“Portals shouldn’t stay open. If they do stay open then they become rifts, tears, or fractures between the Dream Realm and our realm or another. If there are enough active portals to structurally weaken the Dream Realm, then it’ll collapse.” Brigid said as she tired to explain why the mage request was so urgent and why they came to them. “Why would anyone do this at all?” Raven asked not understanding the person’s motive behind the purpose of creating the portals. “It’s a power move. Transport. Power. Influence. They don’t need to use mages to open and close portals to transport people and cargo between two or more dimensions. They could move armies and supplies at will. Who cares about good or evil. It’s the will and the whim here. Who cares about the costs. What would happen if the Dream Realm collapsed, and the dimensions collided. There’s a reason they’re divided.” Brigid said in speculation and Raven could hear her concern about the costs.
FOUR YEARS LATER “Dominic, where is Romini?” Raven demanded as she stormed into the Great Room of the Pack House of the Silver Lycan Pack. They’d renamed the Pack when they discovered their wolves fur all took on a silver sheen in place of the colors they had. Brigid couldn’t explain why and when nothing disturbing or negative occurred they let it stay a mystery for the time being. “Where is your son?” “Last time I saw. He made his escape up to the Lady’s fortress to see Lothe and his latest creation. Has he done something?” Dominic said to Raven with an indulgent smile. He knew exactly what was coming his way as soon as he’d seen his pup run past the Great Room doors heading for the main entrance. Romini had been clutched in his jaws as his tiny claws skittered across the hardwood floors. He shouldn’t be able to shift, but it turned out that any shifter born within the Dream Realm could shift at a much younger age. “No, and that’s the p
Raven and Dominic learned they led a more import group than they had expected. Their enforcers soon became indispensable to the army units because their wolves heightened senses, speed, and stealth made them helpful with information gathering and following scent trails. Their speed had helped save several people from sudden attacks because they were so much faster. “I’m proud to say Raven that as of today your territory is stable. There will be no more time slips there. It’s time for you to take over and learn what is on your territory.” Brigid said in an announcement to the court of Dreamers and army heads. “Stage one complete and onto stage two then. We’ll enter the territory and record what’s left in the area. Then we can clear what we can.” Raven said as she looked from Brigid out through a window that showed a few of the territory they were speaking about. “Do be mindful of the shadows. There are larger ones out there than the ones
“I can’t believe that we’ve had so many wolves who’ve changed their minds and attitudes. There’s more wolves and things that are ready to go through the portals. It’ll take weeks to take everything and everyone through even with the help of other Dreamers. Are you sure this won’t be too much for your people Raven?” Dominic asked. His concern was real and obvious over his face. He’d been worried about this point for the entire time, but he'd held it back. “Het’ Tur has promised to open a portal for us, and he’s arranged it with the mages. So, we’re hoping there’ll be no conflict between the two portal systems.” Raven told him. Het’ Tur’s portals were far older and broke through between realms rather than ran between realms like the mage portals. With the mages communicating with Brigid now, it meant they now spoke with Het’ Tur too. They were working out how their systems could work together for everyone. The problem they had were vehicles wouldn’t w
“Well, that went a better than I thought it would.” Raven settled back into the limousine and looked at Dominic. She felt exhausted from the meeting with the military and scientific specialists. Several political faces were from human and supernatural groups. Everyone was there to discuss the surprise that humans were waking up to the magic from the Dream Realm. The supernatural world had to introduce them to what was for everyone’s safety. They planned to teach those who awoke to the Dream Realm for their own safety. They needed to know the warning signs. How to avoid and protect themselves. Raven wanted to say good luck. “Really, I thought the humans were going to call bullshit every time you said anything. I wanted to snap at that general and I suspect the scientists were about to have a fit when you told them that Fae was about as strong as the creation as the universe. They looked like they were going to have a heart attack.” Dominic said as he
“So, you are aware of other realms.” Raven sat across a large table from several humans. “Yes, madam we have many who swear they see things in their sleep. But when the numbers increased, and the dynamic changed to include a group who strove to prove what they saw in their dreams. Especially after supernatural beings came forward and it became clear that there was an unknown travel network. Then the Fae were revealed and other dimensions. It’s opened sciences we have kept as theory until now.” “I’ll tell you the truth right now that most realms or dimensions are too dangerous to interact with and it’s not worth interacting with them. The reason the Dream Realm and Fae Realm work with ours is because the Fae twisted our dimension to work for them. That includes twisting humans to work for them. Humans were a generic template that they could use to alter for any need. As in creating a shifter species. Now, we are sorry you had to remove them the first
Raven stood beside Dominic as they waited for the Pack to arrive and find their places within the great room. She’d been pacing behind him for the last twenty minutes as they prepared for this meeting. They’d not told anyone what this meeting was about but had told them that this was a mandatory meeting. Raven wouldn’t tell anyone when they called her and tried to pry the information from her as if she would betray her mate.It was too hard to believe that she was so loyal to Alpha Dominic which had several wolves scratching their heads. But they were struggling even more because he seemed more devoted than even before. The Pack in general were left scratching their heads as Raven had earned the loyalty of the other Pack leadership as well.“I am glad to see you at least are smart enough to attend this meeting.” Dominic hadn’t liked hearing confirmation of the odd opinions and complaints. The wolves shouldn’t have been concerned. “I’ve had several mixed feelings these last few we
Raven had gone to the meeting with Dominic and they’d discussed the situation along with as many of the complications as they could predict. Gregory had expressed his appreciation that they’d brought this idea to him before they had put anything into play. It meant he and the Council of Alphas could make plans to counteract any negative fallout.She had to admit she wasn’t sure if they’d be welcome to bring their Pack into the Dream Realm. Or if they would leave this realm entirely. It’s too early to know how they would proceed with this plan.The Dreamers had spread out and had begun to use their training. Stabilizing the timelines, dealing with the more aggressive shadow creatures, and learning about the abandoned things within their area. They had to record everything and the state it was in. With their contact with the mages it wasn’t difficult to reach out to other species who possessed magic. Much of the lost magical items were responding to one kind of magic or another.
“Brigid says she’ll be in touch soon with scheduling so we can have a rotation of sorts. That way we can have a consistent rebuilding going on inside the Dream Realm. So, how are we going to run this place around all that? I don’t even know what anyone thinks about all of this because no one’s dared to speak to me. It’s like they think I’ll unmake them or something.” Raven said to Dominic as she returned from the Dream Realm where she’d had a meeting with Brigid and the other Dreamers. Dominic had seen the changes in her and the Pack. He’d said nothing to anyone about his idea of taking the Pack into the Dream Realm and becoming part of the enforcement powers there. He could see their Pack as a foundation of a future power.He wanted to support Raven the best way possible and he didn’t think he could do it from here.“Raven, love. Everyone is in shock because nothing is how they thought it was. They’re trying to figure out where they and you now rest in the world. People have
“Dominic, don’t worry about it. I know you don’t have to explain to me. When you disconnect your call with me I received a message from someone that explained what was happening.” Lily said as soon as they returned and she made them sit down to eat a meal.“Then can you explain it to us?” Dominic practically begged Lily to explain what they had witnessed even though she hadn’t been there to witness So, he wouldn’t stop the stow for anything and allow her to explain what she’d pieced together through some of her very odd channels, not that any of this was straight forward.“Please tell me she isn’t doing the biggest mistake of all time.” Raven stepped in now and she was practically begging to know that they weren’t letting her do something foolish. It was something they’d all been questioning since Brigid first said she was going to investigate the situation and she didn’t want anyone else going with her, because she didn’t like the idea of the risk. She had Het’ Tur and she didn’