Page 28 of Tucker's Strike

“Lake,” Corbin calls, getting her attention. “When it comes to protecting what’s ours, we’ll do whatever it takes. This club, it’s a brotherhood, and when one of us is threatened, all of us are. You’re Tucker’s mate, which means you’re one of us. Tucker is our brother, and he will not fight this alone.” Corbin shifts his eyes to me. “You lost your family once. You won’t lose another.”

“What about Lake’s family? Her father? Her uncles?” Karsyn asks, her hand firmly planted on her stomach in the protective way I’ve seen her do more than a few times. “The Drakon King has them.”

I think about this for a moment, and a thought occurs to me as I look toward Orpheus. “What do you know about a Fae named Nyx Iceclove?”

Orpheus straightens in his seat, eyes narrowing. “I know Nyx Iceclove. How do you know of his name?”

“I believe he’s Lake’s biological father from what Lake shared of her dream,” I explain and glance around the table. “The Fae and dragons have been at war with each other for well longer than a millennia. What if we contact the Fae and ask them to fight alongside us?” If we could get them to agree to work with us, it could work out. The Fae can open the portal needed to enter the dragon realm.

“You think they would do that?” Corbin asks.

“Not without a price,” I answer, leaning back in my seat, bringing Lake with me, locking eyes with Corbin.

My Prez’s eyes are calculating, watchful, and alert to all around him. I could see his mind at work. Maybe even running through scenarios and putting together a plan.

“If we could get Nyx to agree to help us into the dragon realm, we would get Lake and Abel’s family back, and we could potentially do it without being detected. Once we get them back here to Redwich, we could even the playing field. We’re more powerful here than we would be there,” Corbin states and looks to Karsyn. “You would have to stay out of sight.” He shifts his gaze to Lake. “And you would as well.”

“Do you need to contact a Fae to open a way to the dragon realm?” Lake asks, turning in my arms, so that she’s sitting on one leg, her body twisting more toward me, eyes locking with mine. “Couldn’t I be the one to do it?”

“You have to know where the dragon realm is. And we don’t know if you have the ability to do just that,” I tell her, not wanting to hurt her feelings.

“But I think I could do it.” The adamant tone she uses catches my attention, and I wait for her to continue. Lake nibbles her bottom lip for a moment and takes a breath. “Last night in the woods . . .”

“Go on,” I urge.

“You know during . . .” Her cheeks tint a bright blush as she lowers her lashes. “Well, I was able to see the strands in the air. I felt it calling to me. Like I could rip the strands apart and open the world to a whole other new one.” She pauses and takes a breath. “I’m not sure how to exactly explain it, but I do think I could open it. And with my dream, I feel like I might be able to get us there.”

I stare at her briefly and nod. She wants to do this. She doesn’t want to have to possibly face a man who helped in creating her. And going to the Fae, it would come with a price, just as anything does. As much as I don’t want to put Lake in theway of danger, my every instinct tells me to shield her from it, but the Fae could demand her in reward for their help.

If Lake thinks she can take this one and be safe about it. Then maybe, just maybe, it will work. I can protect her at the same time getting her family back. Corbin’s right, we can level the field if we bring them here.

“Alright, little Fae, you think you can do it, we’ll give it a try.”

Chapter Eighteen

Lake

“It’s all going to be okay, Lake. It’s all going to work out. You can do this,” I mutter to myself, pacing back and forth just outside the back of the clubhouse.

Technically, I’m not supposed to be out here, but I needed to be. I needed to be free of the stuffy walls I felt collapsing in on me.

Tucker was in church with his brothers, all of them planning how to best go about going through with getting into the dragon realm and doing what they need to do and get back. I’m not a big fan of it, but if it means they’re able to go and bring my dad and uncles back, I won’t argue. I only hope that they’re able to do it without anyone getting harmed in any way.

I also get they don’t want me to help. I felt it in Tucker when I suggested it. I thought he’d tell me to drop it and that I wasn’t to be a part of it all. That they were going to contact Nyx or another Fae. But he relented and agreed.

I can do this. I’m sure of it. Scared maybe, but I’ve no doubt that I can take them where they want me to.

Needing to focus, I stop pacing and plop down in the middle of the grassiest area. Images of what I experienced when Tucker took me that first time filter in my mind. Everything is so clear and real that I feel as if I were experiencing it all over again. It’s beautiful and vibrant. Tucker made me feel so alive, so treasured.

Beneath my fingertips in front of me, I feel the grass growing, tickling my palms, curling around my fingers. The dirt beneath hums. I look up ahead, and there it is, the strands that I’d seen the other night. They call to me, sing in fact, wanting me to reach for them, to peel back and open up to another world.

I reach up to touch it with one hand to see how easily my fingers thread through the strands of time. That’s exactly what they’re called. Touching them, they tell me what they want. What to do. How to control them. I didn’t think something so simple could have a voice, but it does. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard. It’s like it’s filling me with a knowledge as old as time itself. I suppose that’s precisely what these strands are.

Without them, time wouldn’t exist. They wouldn’t be able to separate the many different dimensions. Like the one that belongs to the dragons. Another that belongs to the Fae people. Both realms or kingdoms upon themselves, without them all connecting in one way or the other through the threads of dimensions, the world itself would cease to exist.

Both dragons and fairies have the ability to come through dimensions, but can’t stay for long, not without a connection to the other.

“Beautiful Lake,” the strands call to me, whispering over my skin. Wanting me to come through, to explore what only I can see.

---