“Am I correct to believe what you just said, the protections that prevented us from entering the Dream Realm aren’t working so I could follow Raven in. Taking my physical form and objects with me? Leave the realm in a different location later. Like the dragons do.” Dominic asked the Oracle. He couldn’t believe what he heard. It boggled his mind not because he could enter the Dream Realm again, or that he could do it in his physical form. It’s the fact those creatures could cross over into this realm and harry them which bothered him more. The innocent was in danger. The Red River Pack was an example of how dangerous these things were. “Yes, Alpha Jones. That’s what I’m saying. Just like the dragon shifters do. Add in I suspect we’re on a timeline as well. After they have everything repaired, we don’t know what they will do with her. We do know these gods can be killed so it’s an option and a warning.” Lily said. She watched him and enjoyed the changes in his ex
“So, just wearing these makes it impossible for them to find me? No one will pull me into the Dream Realm. Or track me? Is that right? Are you sure?” Raven asked. She stared at the heavy necklace that now hung around her neck. It looked like a cheap piece of costume jewelry and nothing special at all. Tarnished silver. “Yes, that should work for now. On to finding out what’s going on with the others. If we can get the information we need. Then we can get this show on the road.” Lily went a computer and sent off an email. “Okay, now we must wait. I’m sorry but I’m not even sure where to send you in there and the place is vast.” “That makes sense. I’ve never wanted to wander around there. It’s scary as anything. Things get crazy and everyone is always telling me to stay away and how dangerous it is. So, I did. I tried.” Raven said. She gave a little shudder. The place had a cold gray almost dead feel to it. With landmarks from the past and present in
“Is there a way of tracking her? If the nightmares can hunt us. We’re wolves don’t tell me we’re useless at hunting.” “It’s not that Raven. It’s finding someone who knows how to do that who’s willing to risk going back in there. The complication to that is finding the person willing to keep silent about what we’re doing. Add in, will they be missed out here?” Lily hated saying this to her. But the truth was, they had eyes and ears of several factions waiting for an opportunity to do many things. Some of those opportunities were worse than others, but no one wanted any of them to happen. That’s why Lily hated being what and who she was. The fact she had to grow up the hardest way possible and learn lessons the worst way didn’t matter. She had to deal with her regrets in the dead of the night alone these days and pray no one paid the price if she screwed up again. Lily had seen snippets of Raven’s life and not by choice. The Goddess or som
“Are you sure you are okay with explaining this to the Pack over a video call? What about how the Pack feels? Won’t they feel like they are being dragged down or used? Shouldn’t they have some kind of choice in this?” Raven asked as they settled into a set of guest rooms at the Oracle’s Facility. “Pet, stop it. Packs aren’t a modern convention. Yes, I’m fine with telling them they have a mission over a video call. If they don’t appreciate it that’s their problem and maybe they need to find a new Pack. I’m sick of stepping around everyone worrying about how they feel and how they’ll react. We fucked up and now we’ve a chance to do something to repair our mistake. A Pack isn’t a democracy in a modern sense so it’s not like I’ll be voted out. It’s a lot more difficult than that too get rid of an Alpha, but we still must be careful. Honesty is important. But honesty and how the details are disclosed must be tempered. That’s where the limit is placed. Who learns wha
Raven soon learned the others consisted of four. There were five people who could do what she did and fell within an age range where they could physically do the job. The others were either too young or too old. There were two wolf shifters, a druid, a vampire, and a bear shifter. All they needed to add to the group was a mage and a dragon. Why? To round out the main controlling factions and have most magic types covered. The group would have fourteen going in and scattering to manage different parts of the mission when the time came. But until then Raven and Dominic would need to wait. They’d meet the others so if they encountered them, they’d know they could trust them and how the should expect them to act. Lily still hadn’t found that supposed dreamer who spoke to Raven. This disturbed Raven a lot. She’d almost been sucked in by whoever they were, and she may have gone with her at the time. Or believed anything she’d said.
Raven hadn’t expected training to include fight training for her. She thought she’d learn about building the Dream Realm or maybe interacting with things and creatures there. But it wasn’t, they put weapons in her hands and expected her to learn to shift with speed. When Striker, their head training instructor insisted, she start strength training. Raven lost her mind and broke. Dominic was furious when he found her crying in the corner of the training area. Striker and he almost came to blows three times that week, but now there was nothing Raven could do to stop Dominic from going after Striker. She knew it would be a mess as the two males would be evenly matched. But Raven didn’t want a war happening either from this. So, instead of following Dominic, Raven went in search of Lily to see if she could do something about this. After all, Striker was one of her people. She didn’t want there to be trouble between them from this. “Lily. Lil
“What is going on in here? Has everyone and his uncle lost his mind? STOP!” Lily’s voice rose at a steady pace until she screamed the last word. The protectors and mates were all fighting among themselves. Not sparring or training. They were slugging it out and ripping into each other. Lily knew this would happen it had to. This is what happened when you dropped too many strong-willed leader types into one space. Then didn’t give them directions on where to look for leadership. Lily saw this happening and now she had to deal with it. But Dominic was the lynch pin right now. She had to get him to go to Raven and get them to bond. Without that trust they wouldn’t be able get through this. She wasn’t a large being by anything and getting between several scrapping large almost feral males wasn’t a smart idea, but she did it anyway. She wasn’t sure what she was screaming or who she was screaming at, but Lily wanted them to stop and take notice. It took s
Dominic came barreling out of the training room looking rather worse for wear. He wasn’t sure where he’d find Raven or what mood she’d be in. Lily seemed so sure of herself and what Raven thought. Goddess, he was afraid Lily was right and Raven had kept quiet. She shut down about anything and everything that bothered her. He didn’t know half of what went on in her mind because she wouldn’t tell anyone. It was like she was a scared rabbit in a wolf’s body. It had been all he could do to get her to shift the first time they’d started to train. Now here he was trying to find her to pled with her and reassure her that he what? Would stop saying conflicting things? Doing conflicting things? Fuck. He’d screwed himself up good and he didn’t have anyone but himself to blame. Oh, sure he could blame the elder council for their stupid demands, but he could have shut them down whenever he wanted to. If he’d only stepped up and showed some of his strength and n
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’