Chapter 17

“Nate!” Zeke ran inside. “I have to go,” he half shouted to the mouthpiece. “I’ll call you back.” He hung up without waiting for a response, tossing his cell phone on to his bed and climbing up the other bed to sit next to Nate and drape an arm around him. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.” The way Nate simply melted against him and clawed at his shirt made his heart clench.

“I couldn’t find you when I woke up. I—I couldn’t even hear you. I thought you left.”

“I’m not going to leave you now that I got you here. You know that.”

“That—that’s not what they said.”

“What did they say? Who are they? People at the hospital?”

Nate nodded slowly. “They said you didn’t exist, just like the werewolves in my nightmares. They said I just had wild imaginations. They called me crazy. But I kept having the nightmares and kept calling your name. So, they zapped me, over and over. They said it’s to get rid of my nightmares and fantasy about you.”