Page 109 of Stubborn as a Shadow

Paws wove through the sea of pints and bottles on the tables as he approached us. He sat in front of me and narrowed his eyes. His tail flicked back and forth.

“What?”

“Day and time,” Paws said without any other context.

“This is about the pub bet, isn’t it?” I should have expected this.

Morgan grinned and wiggled in his seat. “So the pub betisabout you! I knew it was when you wouldn’t talk about it. What was it?”

“There are a few bets going on. If you want in on them, let me know. I’ll hook you up later,” Paws said. “But first, we need to settle the ones about Nelson. When did he find you?”

“Cool,” Morgan said. “So, day and time when he found me? That would be Friday at…” He glanced at me. “Say four?”

Paws might have the body of a cat, but the damn supe had very human facial expressions. And right now, he looked smug.

“Ash!” the cat commanded in a voice that reverberated through the pub. “Bring me the calendar!”

Ash rolled his eyes. “Really? Why can’t someone else get it?”

Paws narrowed his eyes at the fire mage.

“Oh fine,” Ash grumbled.

He got up to retrieve the calendar where all the bets were stored. His mate followed at his heels since Ash was too short to actually reach where it was secured to the wall. I sometimes wondered if Paws asked Ash to get the calendar all the time just because the fire mage was too obstinate to admit he was too short to reach it easily, and Paws got a kick out of tormenting him.

As soon as Dillon had the calendar down, Ash flipped to Friday.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he muttered. Then he marched back to the table and threw the calendar at Paws.

“I take it Paws won again?” I asked.

“Of course he did,” Ash said, returning to his seat.

Morgan picked up the calendar and flipped through it.

“What’s this other bet? Something about a vision?” He looked at me. When I didn’t say anything—because what the hell was I supposed to say to that—Morgan bumped his shoulder against mine. “Nelson? You said one vision was of me in that cage and the other showed me with you. Both of those things have happened. Why are you upset?”

Shit.

Gage put his elbows on the table. “If you want, we can show you the paintings later… Then you’ll understand.”

I took Morgan’s hand in mine and squeezed. “You don’t have to look at them.”

“Why don’t you…” Then Morgan nodded. “There is something more to the second picture, isn’t there?”

I nodded and squeezed his hand tighter. I wanted to believe what happened back at the cabin with the wolf was the vision coming true.

Wishful thinking? Absolutely.

When I’d first seen that painting, I believed it showed the moment I would meet Morgan. Some unknown person, who wasn’t in the picture, injured him and I’d arrived in time to save him.

But that wasn’t how we met.

And I hadn’t survived on Gage’s team for so long by avoiding hard truths. My gaze sought out my former leader’s.

“Can Jake paint over it yet?”

Gage grimaced and shook his head. That meant the moment captured in the vision hadn’t come true yet. Morgan was still destined to be injured, which meant I was going to fail to protect him.