He’d had some batshit crazy dreams over the past few months, but this last one...fuck...it took the cake.
Another deep, shaky breath and his heart finally settled.Dum..dum...dum,instead ofdumdumdumdum.
He glanced at the empty space beside him. It had been too late the night before to return to The Neighborhood and Demi’s bed, so he’d slept on base. And thank Christ for that. Demi wouldn’t have slept through his over-the-top reaction to that last nightmare. And waking her up would have led to endless questions and the insistence that he seek help.
After a few minutes of heavy breathing, he glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table. The time glowed like a demon’s eyes in the darkness of his quarters. According to the blazing red numbers, it was barely 5 am. He sighed, then scrubbed his palms down his damp face. He might as well hit the shower and force his brain to start working. There would be no more sleep this morning.
The shower spray was hot, hard, and steamy, just what he needed to pummel the remnants of the nightmare from his brain. He braced his palms against the tile and bent his neck, letting the water hammer the knots from his shoulders.
What the fuck had his subconscious been trying to tell him with that dream anyway? What did telepathy and shape shifting women have to do with the clusterfuck they were currently wading through? Benioko’s show and tell in the cafeteria hadn’t been that bad. Annoying, for sure, but not too extreme. The crazy hadn’t started until Benioko’s female sidekick shifted into a mountain lion, screamed in his face, and chased him through base.
He hunkered beneath the water until it cooled, then dried, dressed, and headed out the door. First stop was the obstacle course where he gave his heart a real reason to pound and his muscles an excellent reason to sweat. When he couldn’t feel hislegs or arms anymore, he headed to the gym and got in line for the free weights. By the time he finished there, he’d exercised his body into a stupor and managed to eighty-six the nightmare from his mind.
A text from Wolf hit his phone as he walked to the cafeteria.Thirty minutes.War room.
Perfect. He tucked his phone back in his tactical pants. He had just enough time to fill his empty belly. He took a right at the mess hall and waited for the doors to slide apart.
That’s when the trouble started.
That’s when the nightmare from last night unleashed its fangs and claws and ripped its way into the waking world. He froze just inside the cafeteria as reality warped—twisting and churning around him—dragging him back into his nightmare...except he wasn’t asleep. He wasn’t dreaming.
What...the...fuck?
He glanced around the cafeteria, watching the exact scene from last night’s dream playing out in front of him. It was instinct to glance to his left, waiting for Benioko to materialize by his side like he had in the dream. Only the dead shaman didn’t appear this time. But everything else...everything happening in front of him played out exactly as it had in the dream.
The clusters of warriors and base personnel sitting around the silver tables...the line of men at the counter...the cook ringing the bell as he shoved platters of food onto the warming shelf...He’d watched it all happen last night.
Only with Benioko by his side, pointing out random shit he would never have noticed on his own. Like the warrior sliding the salt across the table before anyone asked for it. Or the dude returning from the coffee station who suddenly turned around and filled a second cup with water, grabbed a tea bag, andcarried it back to his table, where he set both in front of his buddy—all without being asked.
Instinctively, he took a long step to the left. In the dream, Mackenzie had clipped his shoulder as he came through the doors—then gave him a rash of shit, like he hadn’t been the one who caused the collision. Typical Mackenzie bull crap.
Sure enough, his former commander strode through the door with his typical lack of brakes. Cosky, Zane, and Rawls followed. Just like in the dream.
“There a reason you’re just standing there?” Mac demanded, turning a glare in Aiden’s direction.
“Considering how wobbly and pale he is, he obviously overdid it at the gym,” Cosky drawled. “Doesn’t have enough energy to make it to a table.”
Aiden didn’t doubt the veracity of his brother by marriage’s description. He probably was pale. His legs were unsteady. None of which had anything to do with his workout regime. He’d recovered from the obstacle course and the weight room, long before he’d reached the mess hall. But this unexpected schism in reality...now that was gonna take longer to recover from.
An arm dropped over his shoulders. A Southern drawl assaulted his ringing ears. “Now boss. Just ignore those ignoramuses. They’re just jealous of...of..” His forehead knitted as his voice trailed off, like he didn’t know where to go from there. “Anyways...” He steered him toward one of the gleaming tables to their left. “You can sit with us.”
A couple of warriors came toward him, their hooded gazes sliding across Mackenzie’s and Cosky’s face. They said nothing. At least with their mouths and tongues. But he could sense their contempt. Their disdain.
In the dream, Benioko had pointed out their hooded gazes, how their eyes had glazed over. And then their voices had filled his head...not through his ears, but in his mind. And he’dlistened to an entire derogatory conversation between the pair concerning his former teammates. Yet not one word had escaped their mouth. They’d been communicating telepathically.
Frozen. Dizzy. His pulse whooshing through his head. Aiden watched the warriors’ eyes glaze as they approached, and he knew—was absolutely certainty—the fucktards were talking to each other without words.
Benioko had called this mental speech theNeealaho, some kind of neural net. Like a group text or telephone call but done mentally.
What...the...hell?
But the worst part of Benioko’s explanation was when the ghost shaman insisted Aiden had to be linked to thisNeealahoimmediately, so he too could enjoy the convenience of this neural net.
Why the fuck would anyone want a permanent, multi-person communication system in their mind?
As he wobbled his way to the table his former teammates had claimed, reality rocked and rolled beneath his feet. Everything happening around him...every damn thing...had already happened last night in his dream. And he knew—he could fucking see—that the eyes of the Shadow Mountain warriors surrounding him were glazing over off and on.
Chapter fifty-four
