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Her lips curved. “So, this won’t be the last time we quarrel.”
“Not likely.” He smiled. “I’m okay with that, too.”
She dipped her chin. “So am I.”
There was one last issue to address and it was a big one. He doubted she’d agree to it. “All right, then.” He caught her arm with his hand. “You need to be open to something, however, and you’re not going to like it.”
“What’s that?” Her chin rose once more, an angled jut of dare-me-and-see-what-happens.
“You’ll need to start accessing your future, if we’re to have the smallest chance.”
Natalie’s chin rose a fr
action higher. “I told you, I avoid knowing my future. Too many nightmares.”
“Then you have a choice to make because I’m convinced it’s the only way. Kryder ruined your life because he has access to the future. I’m convinced he has a fae, a very gifted one, engaged in spying on you. She’s no doubt been dipping into the future for a long time. Maybe she’s even seen our conversation here. It’s my opinion that the only way we can do this is if we fight fire with fire.”
The line of her compressed lips grew grim. “I can’t do it, Grant. Don’t ask me to.”
“Then it’s simple. I’m not going forward unless you’re all in. That you would hold back what could be your most significant weapon, is unacceptable. I’ll leave now, or you take all that willfulness of yours and open up to the future. Your call.”
He waited but she made no move. Her expression didn’t change either.
“I have my answer. I wish you well, Natalie. Take care.”
He didn’t hesitate but turned on his heel and headed back up the hall. He’d seen this a dozen times with younger wolves. No good ever came from a wolf holding back. The equation, especially here in Five Bridges, could not support an attitude of ‘I’ll do everything…except’. The ‘except’ part of life got you killed every time.
This was Natalie’s ‘except’ moment.
She called after him. “I can’t do it, Grant. I won’t.”
He didn’t look back at her. He lifted his arm in farewell. When he reached the end of the hall, he turned left and crossed the tile toward the sliding glass door.
Just as he was reaching for the door handle, she cried out, “Grant, wait.”
He still didn’t turn to face her, though he let his fingers rest on the handle.
~ ~ ~
A ball of fear sat deep in the pit of Natalie’s stomach, a tight knot built from past experiences and nightmares. Each time she’d reached into the future on her own behalf, images had returned to her that had shaken her to her core. She’d seen herself shot and falling from the sky. Terrified she’d see her own death, she’d refused to follow the future event.
For months afterward, even with counseling she’d sought, she would awaken in a profound sweat from dreams where she was chased for what seemed like hours on end.
Now Grant was asking her to go back there, to start re-engaging with her own future.
She paced the long length of what she called her family room, the one with the Milky Way painting. She’d had the stone tiles laid because she wanted something solid underfoot in a world that could turn violent on the whim of a drug lord or uber-powerful, piece-of-shit alter, like Kryder.
She forgot Grant’s presence as she strode, as she thought about having to do the impossible all over again. Tears rushed to her eyes. She hadn’t wept so much in her life as she had in the past three days. She brushed away the few tears that dared to trickle down her cheeks. This wasn’t the woman she was, a weeper and freaker-outer. She prided herself on being able to keep her emotions in check.
But with the prospect of having to pry open things best left shut down, she didn’t know what to do with all that gut-twisting anxiety.
“What’s the problem here?” Grant asked, only it wasn’t harsh.
She was halfway back up the room when he finally left his position by the sliding glass door. He now stood a few feet from the end of the kitchen island. She lifted her arms up then dropped them to slap her thighs with her hands. “I had nightmares, Grant, for weeks after the first few times I looked into my future. I saw things I wish I could un-see. I saw myself getting shot while in the air and falling. I was in or near Savage at the time. It’s one of the reasons I’ve kept my distance from your kind.”
He moved closer. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“It was a door I’d shut. I’d even had therapy to overcome the nightmares. I never thought I’d have to look again. I never wanted to.”
