Page 21 of Ruby's Strength

“Are you going to get your ass over here, or do I need to drag you to your spot?”

“I just thought, you know… I just.”

“Get over here baby.”

I roll over, so I’m resting my head in the crook of his arm, my hand over his chest, and my leg slung over his thigh. This is my spot that I sleep in every night, this is where I find solace from the world.

“I love you Ruby, more than anything in this world. I’ve had my world taken from me when I was really young. I’m not going through that again. Cole knew it wasn’t right and in the back of my mind so did I. I know he made the right call tonight, but I’m still pissed he just let them walk away. Something needs to be done about the wolves and soon. They’re gearing up for something, and we need to be ready.”

“We’ll go talk to Cole in the morning together. You’re right. We need to protect our family.”

“Thanks, baby.”

We fall asleep wrapped in each other’s arms. Hours later I’m woken up by a terrible dream. Gabe’s house was on fire, and we couldn’t save him. The more I sit here and think about it the more I need to make sure that it was just a dream and nothing more.

I nudge him a couple times trying to wake him up.“Everett, wake up.” I shout. He finally opens his eyes and sits up in bed.

“What is it?”

“I think Gabe’s house might be on fire. I need to go make sure.”

“Why would his house be on fire?”

“Trust me, we need to go and check. Come on.”

I pull on some leggings that are next to my bed and my fur-lined boots that go midway up my calves. Everett dresses quickly, and then we jump in his truck.

“Did you try calling him?”

“Yeah, he didn’t answer.”

“It is the middle of the night, he could just be sleeping.”

“I know you’re right, but I’d rather be safe than sor-”

“Do you smell that?”

“Oh my God, look,” I say pointing into the lit up sky, smoke billowing from below.

Everett presses on the gas pedal and in less than a minute we are pulling up Gabe’s drive staring at his cabin that’s engulfed in flames.

“Oh fuck. Of fuck. Oh, fuck.” I whisper to myself.

It wasn’t a fucking dream, it was a vision, and I was too late.

“Call nine-one-one.”

Tears start streaming down my face. “It’s too late.”

“I’m not even going to go there with you right now. As far as we know, he’s alive. If that fire spreads, it could torch the whole fucking forest. They need to get here now.” He says snapping me out of my hysterics.

We watch as the fire burns and destroys my brother’s house and everything he owned. Because we live so far out it takes the fire department over ten minutes to get out to us. I watch in horror for over an hour as they do their job and work to get the fire put out. The firemen work tirelessly, but don’t find Gabe when they are finally able to go in and do a look through. Rett is holding me in his arms in the cab of his truck when out of the corner of my eye I catch Gabe at the tree line.

“There. He’s there, he’s okay.” I point at the forest and shout at Everett, as well as Cole and Slate who are in the back seat waiting with me for any news. The guys look over and see what I just did.

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