Looks like the Moon Goddess had been busy last night. Did everyone get a prophetic dream?
"What did you dream, Dean?" Jessica asked.
Dean paused before he answered, a flush creeping up his cheeks. Our table went quiet to hear his next words.
"I was…" Dean's voice dropped so everyone had to strain their goddess-given wolf-hearing to catch the words. "I was running… late, but I made it onto a large stage with bright lights. I had my guitar, and there was a huge crowd there to see me play."
"Wait, what?" I interrupted. "What kind of dream was that?"
"It was my prophetic dream!" Dean declared.
"Don't those start with running in the forest?" I asked.
Everyone laughed.
"Yeah, Dean, run in the forest… like a girl," Tim chortled.
Dean turned red, and I realized my mistake. I guess that meant running in a forest was a "girl type" of dream. How was I supposed to know that?
"You were on the stage, continue…" I said, feeling bad but because I had no idea how to deal with the misunderstanding. I tried to just ignore it.
Dean considered it, then continued, "It was an outdoor stage. The moon was so big and bright that it lit up the stage like a spotlight. And next to me was this girl… She was my beautiful mate. She had a beautiful smile, and beautiful eyes, and beautiful hair… When she opened her mouth and sang, her voice was…"
"Let me guess, beautiful?" Tim snarked.
Dean was immediately miffed, "I was going to say amazing."
"Yeah right." Tim chuffed. Someone sniggered.
"How do you know that was a prophetic dream?" I asked, because I had no idea how to deal with Tim either, so I was ignoring him too.
Dean looked unhappy with me. "I just… know it," he said.
"Are guys' prophetic dreams so random?" I asked again.
"It's not random!" Dean growled. "Just because I had a prophetic dream before you did…"
"That's not it, Dean," I tried to explain, but Dean cut me off. "Why can't you just be happy for me?"
"I'm just asking how you knew it was real."
"You know what, Sam?" Dean was genuinely upset now. He raised his voice at me. "Just forget it. I thought maybe we could work it out, but if you can't accept that you're not my mate, then we need to break up now."
Now the whole table—and the tables around us—had gone silent. What the hell.
"Look, Dean, I don't care if we're not mates. I don't even know what that has got to do with anything." How dare he? What. The. Hell.
I think I must have still been smarting from the breakup with Madison. Hearing the words "break up" from Dean made the blood rush to my head. Was I going to lose two best friends in one weekend? Like seriously! What. The. Hell.
Shannon was even madder than I was, his voice was carrying a gruff, growling sound. "Shut up, Dean. Sam was never dating you, so stop faking it!"
Wait, what?
Dean stood up. "I'm not faking anything!"
Shannon stood up. "Then stop wearing her jacket around school like a trophy!"
Silence again.
Wait, what?
"I want my jacket back," I told Dean.
"Sam, don't talk to him," Shannon snapped. "He's not worth s***."
Ben stood up. "That's enough, Shannon. Sam can do what she wants."
But Shannon wouldn't stop. "Stay out of this! You may be her Beta, but I'm her friend. I'm done with his crap."
Ben was growling now. Jonah stood up too, but only to hold Ben back so he wouldn't throw a punch across the table.
I stood up. "Everyone just sit down!"
I must have alpha-commanded; I hadn't meant to, but everyone sat. The whole packhouse dining hall went silent. Way to go, me.
"Let's get this clear: there's nothing going on between Dean and me. We're good friends and training partners." I didn't dare use the 'best friend' label anymore—it just seemed to overcomplicate things. "And Dean, I'm not upset with you for anything. I am just wondering how a guy knows when he has a prophetic dream. How do you know for sure? Isn't that an important question?"
Dean looked teary. "You just know it. You won't understand, Sam. You haven't had it."
I wanted to facepalm, but I needed that hand to hold up at Shannon. I didn't have to look to know he wanted to chew Dean out.
"I've already had my prophetic dream, Dean—twice."
The moment I said it, it was like a floodgate opened.
"I had a dream last night too," Ben said.
"I dreamed I was running in a forest," Lizzy admitted.
So it was just the twins. Not really a full flood.
But prophetic dreams were ultra-personal, once-in-a-blue-moon events—not something that happened en masse on a single night. And they were really rare for Ben and Lizzy's age group too. Something was definitely off.
"Okay, who else?" I asked.
"Me," Jonah admitted. He sounded uncertain.
No one else. Okay, so we had everyone in my year accounted for, but that was just Dean and me. And all the kids from the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma families received their prophetic dreams at least a year early on the same night.
I needed to tell Dad. This was not normal at all.
"Alright, everyone, share your dream," I commanded.
Lizzy went first. "I was running in a forest by the light of the moon when I came to a lake. Suddenly, I heard a growl, and a light brown and white wolf stepped out from behind the trees. His eyes were an amazing grey-blue. And then I woke up."
I really must ask her how she could see those colors so clearly. Had the lighting in my dream been that much worse? It hardly seemed fair. But then Ben spoke, and what he said caused my blood to freeze over.
"I was chained to a stone wall in a dungeon. I could see the moon outside from a small window with silver bars on it. My wrists were burning from the silver cuffs, and my stomach burned. It hurt so badly I kept blacking out. Then Sam walked in…"
"I did?" I asked stupidly. Why was I in Ben's dream?
Ben nodded.
"Then what?" somebody asked.
Ben looked like it was physically painful for him to recount the dream. "She walked up to me, and cut me open with a knife, then she put her hand into my open wound and pulled out a silver bullet."
Wait, what? I did WHAT?!
"No way!" I said. "I would never do that!"
"Then how would you save my life?" Ben asked.
"How was that saving your life?" Tim laughed. "You're so messed up, Beta."
"She was removing the bullet," Ben insisted. Was I? Was I? I had no idea.
"That's kind of violent," Flynn said. We all blinked up at him and realized that Flynn and Hank had come over to join us.
"I dreamt something bad too," Jonah confessed as if he had committed a grave sin. "I was a brown and white wolf…"
Lizzy gasped.
"My eyes are not blue! See! Not blue!" Jonah quickly clarified. In his panic, he must have forgotten that eye and hair colors could change at our first shift. At the moment, though, I needed to know how bad things had gotten in his dream. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to stab another friend.
"Go on, Jonah," I said.
Jonah did, his expression darkening as he remembered, "Ah… it was bad…"
"Anyway, rogue wolves, so many… we were surrounded. I was guarding Alpha and Luna," Jonah choked back a bit. "But the rogues, too huge and fast, and our wolves, all taken down… till it was just me, Alpha, and Luna." He paused to take a deep, shaky breath.
It struck me that as they shared their dreams, the guys sounded like they had to relive the strong emotions that came with them.
Then Jonah continued miserably, "I knew we had lost. Even if the Alpha took one and I took one, there were still three more… our Luna, defenseless… more and more rogues around us…" Jonah's voice trailed off as if he didn't want to say it. "And then they jumped—all at once. Two on me… and I knew it was over… I'm sorry, Sam."
"Where was I?" I demanded.
"You were busy stabbing Ben," Tim informed me.
"Not helping, Tim!" Shannon growled.
"She was saving him!" Lizzy shot back too.
I don't know what I had ever done for these two to believe in me like that. To be honest, I couldn't feel sure I was saving him. But why was I in Ben's dream, when I should have been in Jonah's, helping him protect my parents?
"So… what was your dream, Sam?" It was Ben. I didn't want to tell them, but it was Ben who asked—Ben, who I would apparently stab in the guts one day.
I sighed. "I was running in a forest. I met my mate—he was covered in blood," I said in one breath, not wanting my voice to betray any potentially raging emotions.
"Oh," I heard from more than one mouth at the same time.
"What's the second dream?" Savy asked quietly.
"My second dream didn't have running, forests, or blood, and I had it first—the night before, to be exact," I told them. It sounded similar to the dreams the guys had. Suddenly, I was awash with vivid feelings of determination and anger, as fierce as if I had just woken from the dream.
"I dreamed of an arena full of strong warrior wolves. My mate stood on a platform and said something to them. I could hear the sounds but could not make out the words. I didn't know it was a prophetic dream until I had the second one in the forest and realized they were the same person. And I wasn't even sure they were prophetic dreams until I heard the rest of yours."
"He had an army with him?" Flynn asked.
"Maybe. I don't know. They all wore different things; there was no uniform. All their armor and weapons were of different designs and materials too..."
"Was it a rogue army?" Lizzy asked.
"They didn't give me that impression. They were very strong, powerful warrior bloodlines, clean hair, nice clothes, expensive gear… not very rogue-like," I answered. I was frowning at the memory of my dream, trying to see it again.
"Were they good-looking?" Jessica asked.
Everyone broke out into laughter. But now that I was feeling the dream fully again, the memory of it returned. I was seeing everything clearly again, as if the images were suddenly sharpened into focus. I noticed details I hadn't seen the first time: the banners and weapons the warriors bore, the way they were well clad and properly groomed, and the way my mate looked older than my mate in the forest. The planes of his face were harder, his body broader, his mouth and eyes forming firm lines—the way only adults do when they are about to deal with something hard. Was I seeing him at different points in time, or was it just a trick of dastardly lighting in my second dream?
"We need to tell the Alpha," Flynn said finally. The little bell chimed—it was time for study group. Around us, the other wolves stirred, finishing their breakfast and returning their cutlery.
"Maybe later, after study group," Flynn amended.
Then I remembered that my mum and dad had plans until dinner time. "Ah, after dinner would probably be better."