“Who?” I furrow my brows.
Eziah’s shoulders slump even lower. His eyes focus on something in the distance as desperation and pain radiate off him. Well, call me fucking worried now.
“My mate and I can’t help her.” Eziah’s voice breaks mid-sentence. The poor guy looks like he is about a second away from breaking down and bursting into tears.
I squint at him. I understand that some of his words have to be true. There’s no way someone could fake the look on his face or the aura shifts, but he still sounds a bit balls-deep mental. “But you haven’t met your mate yet?” I blurt out before I can stop myself.
He shakes his head. “Not in person. I don’t know how to explain it, but I know she is my mate because my wolf goes berserk whenever we’re… You know… He wants to help her. He is desperate to get her out of that place.” Eziah pulls his bottom lip between his teeth and huffs, as if even he finds this conversation unreal.
“What do you mean, and how long have you had these out-of-body things for?” I ask.
If anything, what he tells me is even half true, once we find Rose, I need to think of how to help him. Regardless of how many times he steals my sleep or how often we argue, he still technically is my brother-in-law.
“They appeared about two years ago. The thing is that they weren’t frequent, just some fragments here and there. Trust me, I thought I was going crazy myself. At least at the beginning. But lately, they happen more often. And now, they are constant every night,” he explains.
“Have you told your mother? Maybe she can help?” Kat might be able to help him. No, she definitely would. Eziah has to seek help there, because she is his mother first and foremost, and after that, she is the Moon Goddess.
Eziah’s eyes snap back to mine. “No, I can’t.” He shakes his head. “You know how the future changes. I probably shouldn’t even tell you. I know mom will interfere and put me on medication to help me, but I can’t lose the connection to her. Besides, if I tried to ask my mother, she would tell me nothing, except that apparently she mated me to a German Shepard!” Eziah tells me, and I try not to snicker.
Eziah sighs. “I can’t tell her; it is my only connection to her. I need to know she is at least alive,” he says.
“So, what happens in these dreams?”
He just stares at me, as if he is trying to find something in my eyes. He’s possibly looking for a glint that will give out how I think he’s crazy. I mean, I do, but he already knows that.
Those bits and pieces aside, I believe it will be better if he tells me. Whatever happens in his dreams has to be something bad, especially if it affects him like this.
“It’s so dark where she is, but it’s… I don’t know. Sometimes they drag her out and hurt her, but mostly she is in the dark, scared.” Eziah looks away again. I think he’s ashamed to show more weakness than he already did.
For the record: no fucking shame of being weak when it comes to your mate. The Goddess didn’t pair me with Mara, but I would cry and leek for that woman. No shame whatsoever.
I chew on my lip and furrow my brows, more than a little confused about his words. “So, she is being held by her pack?” I try to guess.
The bits he told me remind me of something very fucking close to the home, and I freaking hope it’s not the same. No one deserves that. She never did, and neither does Eziah’s mate.
Eziah groans in frustration and throws his head back to stare at the sky. “I’m not sure. I can just see glimmers, like last night. It was the same place. They were torturing her, waterboarding her. That’s why I woke up gasping,” he says, rubbing his face.
“You have to tell your mother, Eziah,” I insist.
He looks at me, wide-eyed, as if I’ve lost my mind, and shakes his head. “I can’t. She will make them stop. I need to know she is alright.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. I think his frustration is rubbing off on me, and I really don’t like the feeling. “Your mother will help. Surely, there can be a way to find her. Your mother is the Moon Goddess.” I can’t believe that I have to actually say that out loud, to remind him of his mother’s status.
“And she can’t interfere, you know that. If she does, it could end worse than it already is. They could kill her,” he insists.
I understand that she can’t interfere, but what she can do is try to locate her. Then Eziah can grab some of his friends, go there, play the hero, and get his mate home to safety.
“Tell your mother,” I repeat the same thing, this time in a snarl, as I grip his arm tighter. He parts his lips, I know to argue with my insistence, but I shake him. “If they are torturing her and what you are seeing and feeling is what she is now enduring, death would be a blessing. Tell her, at least let her try to help. Because by doing nothing, you are torturing yourself and her. Let the future change. Any fate would be better than the one she is stuck in,” I tell him.
This situation really hits too close to home. Dad has told me some bits and pieces about mom’s past and if Eziah can see, and feel, all the same things happening to his mate, he is a fucking coward if he refuses to act.
Fuck fate, fuck changes – we are talking about his mate. If it were Mara in her place, I would turn heaven and hell upside down, fuck the fates sideways and get her out. No matter what it cost me.