LIES ARE IN BOLD

"It's you." He said.

"Yeah." I said. I think given the circumstances, I was taking it very calmly.

We spent the next few seconds just standing there. If you imagined a camera doing a 360 degrees around the both of us approaching each other under the moonlight with the lake glistening in the background, it could be a love at first sight moment. (But it wasn't. So don't imagine anything weird like that.)

Until this moment, everything in this dream was the typical shifting dream except for the fact that I had snuck around back to spy on Bell, and the fact that I ended up being caught sneaking around, and the fact that it wasn't Bell who appeared, and the fact that it was my own brother… I have had many gripes about how the goddess did things in my past life, but this hands down took the cake. Wth were you thinking goddess?

Maybe the goddess was really a webnovel writer with an overactive imagination and a lack of common everyday cow sense. I've been told since a pup that a soul mate was the other half of me that the strands of fate would draw close, and once we were together, we would be complete.

Maybe the goddess was really a lazy bum who decided that it would be easier to cut corners and link soul mates based on their physical proximity. I mean, have you ever thought about it? Of all the wolves born, how was it that your specific soul mate was usually born in your pack or in a neighboring pack?

And just to throw everyone off, every now and then, the goddess does a curve ball with the opposite side of the spectrum - where your soul mate was from the other end of the continent, or your worst enemy, or an Alpha-Omega pairing, or a human! She thinks no one would notice all the other times she just lazily picked the next-door neighbor, high school mate, childhood friend… adopted brother.

Yeah. At this moment, if you told me that my soulmate was my match made in heaven, I would laugh in your face. Ha-ha-ha-ha. Just like that.

I know soulmates by definition were two persons who were perfectly suited in temperament and understanding to spiritually, emotionally, and physically complete each other. But if that's really true, the goddess certainly threw a fast ball at me.

Mum had ever said soulmate pairings can be very surprising, but the goddess knows what she's doing, and in the end, it'll all work out in equally surprising ways. The goddess only hit home runs... eventually, anyway.

I honestly didn't have the same faith as Mum did. Seeing the number of cats the goddess had lost, I didn't think her sense of responsibility was anything to depend on in the first place.

Congratulations goddess, my impression of you had just hit an all-time low.

"What are you doing here?" I don't think there was any way to mask the upset in my voice.

Fluffy's smiling mask immediately materialized, "Who were you expecting, hm?"

Bell.

But the word got caught in my chest. I accidentally met Fluffy's eyes and panicked, "NO ONE."

Which was a lie. Since Fluffy was an Alpha wolf, I think it would have been obvious. And although I hadn't shifted just yet, in this dream my alpha wolf abilities were returned to me so I was quite aware of his lies too.

Thus began the most ambiguous conversation I had ever experienced, where I knew that he was lying, and he knew I was lying, and we both knew the other person knew - so we both had to understand what the other person was trying to say, or not to say. LIES ARE IN BOLD.

"Are you lying?" Fluffy asked. His smiling mask was still on so it looked like he was teasing me.

"NO." I lied. I was still in panic mode. Why was Fluffy here? I took a quick glance out to the clearing where Bell should have stepped out from. Half of me worried that he wasn't there while the other half worried that he was.

"I WON'T LIE TO YOU EITHER THEN." Fluffy smiled.

I just blinked at that. I mean, wth, right?

"Do you think I am lying?" Fluffy asked, still smiling, always smiling, but I had known all along, even in our original timeline that this was just his mask.

"NO." I don't even know why I was lying anymore. I wasn't a liar by nature, neither as Sam or Lala. I guess I just felt backed into a corner and freaked out.

Fluffy's smile widened, "Interesting…"

This reminded me of a fox who just figured out how to con a smaller woodland creature of its life. No one had ever made me feel this way before - which was what a lot of soul mates said about either other, but I felt sure they didn't mean it the way I did.

"I wonder what kind of dream this is?" Fluffy said it like he only just noticed we were dreaming.

"I DON'T KNOW." I shrugged, "Do you?"

"NO." Fluffy smiled, "I HAVEN'T THE FAINTEST IDEA."

I felt my hands clench by my side. I really should file my nails.

I took another fugitive glance out at the lake. At the back of my mind, I think I was still expecting Bell to show up and see me in my pink flannel PJs. I don't know why that was my most predominant fear, but it was.

"Are you expecting someone else?" Fluffy asked as he glanced over to the lake as if to check it out too.

"NO." I answered immediately. I wasn't actually lying, okay, I was lying, but it wasn't because I was trying to hide Bell's existence from him. Fluffy clearly knew about Bell - which made me feel worse really. But I was lying because I was trying to give the "correct answer" and what I felt was the right thing for a girl to say to a guy she sees in her shifting dreams in the woods was, "No, I wasn't hoping for someone else. In my heart, there's no one but you."

Which, if I did say aloud, would all be in BOLD.

Okay, goddess, I ran in the woods, I met the guy, so all that's left is for me to wake up from this nightmare. Anytime now…

But nooo…. The nightmare continued. Fluffy nodded towards the lake, "Oh, who's that?"

"WHAT?" My head shot up. Oh, sorry, this wasn't a lie, it was me shouting.

Fluffy laughed. I don't remember him laughing so much in the original timeline, and when he did laugh, it was only very momentarily. But in this life, Fluffy always laughed leisurely. His laugh had a raspy growly undertone, which I suddenly realized was a very nice sound. It made my heart glow and the earlier tension in my shoulders melt away.

I don't know why I never noticed before, but standing next to Fluffy right now felt like cradling a warm cup of chocolate in my hands on a frosty winter day. Looking at him, I couldn't help but feel he was the only bright and warm thing sustaining my world. I know his bloodline power was heating up to a molten lava being, but how did that suddenly make him the sun in my life?

OMO. Somebody just shoot me. Like right now. Or if murder wasn't up your alley, just wake me up from this nightmare. Please.

In a day or two, we were going to hit the Undo Point, and I'll open my eyes and… and then what?

I should want to go back to our Original Timeline. Bell was mine, my moon and my rose… so why did my inside wither at the thought of a life without my sun?

Aruggghhhhh…. Excuse me while I go internally implode.

"La?" Fluffy's smile stopped. He reached out and then stopped his hand. I watched him clench his fist and noticed how his fist looked suspiciously seasoned for someone who would never lift his own hand in a physical fight. (The Young Alpha Kai was notorious for ordering someone else to be his rep whenever it got rough.)

Lala never noticed because she wouldn't know any better, but Kai's build, posture, and movements were also suspiciously warrior-grade. I narrowed my eyes at my brother, "You've been secretly training all these years, haven't you?"

Fluffy paused, and then his smiling mask returned, "NO."

"You're lying." I accused.

"As my lovely beta likes to say, its not lying if the other party knows you're lying." Fluffy answered sagely.

"You're taller in this life too." I noticed belatedly.

"I grew up with proper nutrition." Fluffy answered mildly.

"What would happen if we return to our original timeline?" I worried. There was a part of me that felt deeply wounded to hear that Fluffy had lacked anything in his puppyhood.

Maybe it's better we stayed in this timeline.

O.o. Wait! I DID NOT JUST THINK THAT! Wth was wrong with me?

"Don't worry, Pretty Alpha." Fluffy promised suddenly, "I never expected to be able to stay."

What? He wasn't lying right?

"That's how dreams are." Fluffy smiled. His voice dropped to a whisper, the rasp underlining it making my spine tingle, "No matter how perfect, they always end when you wake up."

"Nightmares are like that too." I blurted out to his face.

"Is that what you think this is?" Fluffy asked, his smiling mask very firmly in place, "A nightmare?"

"No." And to my surprise, I wasn't lying, "I don't know what this is though."

I honestly didn't know what to make of all this.

"JUST A RANDOM DREAM. DON'T OVERTHINK IT." Fluffy told me calmly, "IT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING."

Oh, good. That would definitely make things easier for me to go back.

Why did my heart want to cry?