Knocks in the Night

She was dreaming about Rider again.

Mercy was walking through the battlefield, the smoke blowing around her, bodies lying randomly around her feet. Her eyes were fixed at a distant point where she knew he would appear.

Only this time, unlike all of the other dreams she’d had, Alpha Rider wasn’t showing up, and she didn’t understand why.

As she continued to search for him, her mind wandering, trying to sort out where he might be, where Alpha August might be, she began to hear a banging noise to her right. It was a rhythmic noise, but the longer she walked, the more persistent she became until she finally realized it wasn’t part of her dream.

“I’m dreaming,” she reminded herself.

Mercy sat straight up in bed. August was up, too, and he was pulling on some clothes over his boxers. Someone was banging on the door downstairs, hard. “Who is it?” she asked him.

“I’m not sure, but something’s going on,” he said. “Stay here.”

“Why would I do that?” she asked, getting up and rushing to the clos