Page 66 of Tangled Fates

“I’m missing something, Dean. Something big. Something right in front of my fucking face. And I can’t figure out what in the world it is.”

I reached out and rubbed her back. “It’ll come to you when you least expect it. But it does you no good not to get sleep while you can. Have you slept at all since we got back?”

She dodged my question. “None of this makes sense. Absolutely none of it. Why was Levi so confident in that cave, and then so not confident? Why did I see Brody in a red wood house, but we went to go seek him out in a cave? Why the hell am I seeing my father and hearing his voice? None of it makes any sense, Dean. Why doesn’t it make sense?”

Her babbling broke my heart. “I take it you’re going through your father’s things to try and find that answer?”

She slowly stood, stretching her arms toward the sky as her back popped. “All for nothing, I suppose. He doesn’t even have anything in here that would trigger him coming back over the veil to talk to me, face to face. I just don’t get it.”

“Come here,” I murmured.

I reached out for her and she leaned into me, giving me all of her weight as she collapsed. We sank to the floor before I pulled her into my lap, and as I cradled her close, I buried my nose into her soft, ebony tendrils. I rocked her side to side, trying to comfort her as her eyes slid closed.

She smelled like she hadn’t showered in days.

“Sorry,” she murmured.

I shook my head. “None necessary.”

“I don’t know what to do, Dean. An Alpha always knows what to do, right?”

I smiled softly. “Not always.”

She peeked up at me. “Really? Even Dad struggled?”

I nodded my head. “A few times that I can recall. Leading is hard, but being the head of leadership is even harder. You’re expected to have all of the answers, which makes times like these even more harsh.”

“I wish he was here. He’d know what to do.”

I kissed her temple. “I do agree with you, though. None of this adds up. Levi is the most skilled tracker to ever grace this pack. So, for him to have been so sure, and then so not sure, was shocking.”

“I know.”

“But tearing this house apart isn’t going to give you the information you want. Colin kept his personal life and his Alpha life separate for a reason. I doubt he’d hide anything so substantial within the walls of the home where he raised you.”

She looked back up at me. “Have you had any visions at all? Anything?”

I shook my head softly. “No.”

I wrapped my arms tighter around her. “Come here. Just let me hold you for a little?—”

The world around me undulated, like someone tossing a rock into a still-life stream. It rippled before my very eyes, shaking the bedroom as the scenery around us morphed. Darkness faded from its epicenter, devouring the room as I clung onto Raven for dear life.

And when a new scene unfolded, I realized something.

“Raven?” I asked.

Her voice was weak. “What’s happening? Why did it go dark?”

I blinked a few times to make sure I was seeing things correctly. “I, uh…”

“Dean? Talk to me. What’s going on?”

I held her even tighter, pulling her flush against me. “I think I’m having a vision.”

“But I’m with you.”

I looked down at her and, sure enough, she was still there. “Yeah, you are.”

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