Page 44 of Dane's War

“You’re a dream walker, and he’s your anchor. Only you can reach him when no one else can,” she explains, and I swear I felt my heart plummet.

I nod, tears stinging my eyes. I got what she meant, and it kills me.

I twist away from my parents and clear my throat. “If you all will excuse me. I need to be alone.”

“You don’t need to be alone right now,” my dad growls.

“She does,” Karsyn retorts softly, not taking her eyes off me, and whispers, “save him.”

The tears stinging my eyes, spill over and roll down my cheeks. I nod and rush out to the back of the clubhouse and to my mate’s room. I don’t know what I’m expected to do, but I hope I’m right in what I’m going to do.

“Please let this work,” I murmur to myself, closing the door behind me to his room.

I climb into his bed and curl myself around his pillow, nose pressing to it, smelling leather and cedar, earth, and pine. It’s a head scent, and it’s him.

My Dane.

My mate.

My man.

Mine.

Just as I’m his.

He needs to know he can’t leave me. I need him as he needs me.

Closing my eyes, I allow myself to fall asleep in hopes of searching him out. Hoping to find him to keep him with me where I need him.

The lake is beautiful with the sun sparkling its sunset upon it. The oranges and yellows are nearly breathtaking on the rippling water. As beautiful as the sight is, the sight of the man sitting on the edge of the dock is even more magnificent. Never in all my dreams did I ever see him sitting there. He always stayed where his face was shadowed.

That is until after I met him in real life.

But a part of me knows something’s not right.

There’s a part of him missing.

Moving to him, I reach out and run my fingers through his hair, loving the silk of it all.

“You’re here,” he murmurs, his tone gruff.

“Of course, I am,” I whisper and sit next to him, hanging my legs over the edge of the dock. “What’s happened, Dane?” I turn my head to look at him as I ask him my question.

Dane shifts and looks at me, his eyes were that sapphire blue. “We’ve become one for you. No longer warring within.”

“I don’t understand. I thought you two were already one after merging.” The whole thing is confusing, but I thought with me accepting the bond between Dane and me he was okay. Still, I’d seen his eye color never staying the same.

“We were, but the man in me refused to stop trying to control everything. Never listening to his wolf instincts. Not allowing me to bond with my mate,” he murmurs, raising a hand to stroke the side of my cheek. “We never finished the bonding because of this.”

“Then finish it, Dane. I’m yours, and I don’t want to lose you,” I cry, breath hitching.

Twisting, I straddle his lap, wrapping my legs around his waist. If he wanted to reject me at this moment and shove me away, he’d have to throw me in the lake.

“Do you know what it means to be your anchor? To be your mate?”

“What does it mean?”

Dane leans forward, one arm tight around my waist, the other hand going up and tangling in my hair. “Means everything.”

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