Astrid leaned up. "When was the last time you had cotton candy?"

He frowned at her unexpected question. "What's cotton candy?"

She gaped in shock. "You don't even know what cotton candy is?"

He shook his head.

Smiling, she stood up and pulled him to his feet. "We're going to the boardwalk."

Okay, she really had lost her mind. "There's not a boardwalk."

"Oh, yes there is, just on the other side of those rocks."

Zarek looked over to see a pier that hadn't been there earlier.

How weird that it had popped into his dream at her bidding and not his. He eyed her suspiciously. "Are you a Dream-Hunter Skotos pretending to be Astrid?"

"No," she said, smiling. "I'm not trying to take anything from you, Zarek. I'm only trying to give you a pleasant memory."

"Why?"

Astrid sighed at the look on his face. Kindness was so far beyond his comprehension that he couldn't even understand why she wanted to make him smile.

"Because you deserve one." "For what? I haven't done anything."

"You live, Zarek," she said, stressing the words, trying to make him understand.

"For that alone, you deserve some happiness."

The doubt in his eyes stung her.

Determined to reach him, she "conjured" herself a pair of white shorts and a blue tank top, then helped dress him in a pair of black jeans and a T-shirt.

She led him toward the "dream" crowd.

Zarek was silent as they walked up the stairs that led to the old-fashioned boardwalk. He tensed visibly as people brushed too close to him. She had the distinct feeling he was one step away from uttering a vicious putdown.

"It's okay, Zarek."

He sneered at a man who came too close. "I don't like for anyone to touch me."

And yet he didn't say anything about the fact that she had her arm hooked in his.

It made her melt.

Smiling to herself, she took him to a small stand where a lady was selling hot dogs and cotton candy. She bought an extra large bag and dug out a handful of the light, fluffy pink sugar, then offered it to him.

"Here you go. One bite and you'll know what ambrosia tastes like."

Zarek reached for it, but she moved her hand out of his way. "I want to feed this to you."

Fury snapped in his eyes. "I'm not an animal to eat from your hand."

Her face fell at his words and her good humor was instantly dampened. "No, Zarek. You're not an animal. You're my lover and I want to care for you."

Zarek froze at her words as he stared at her lovely, sincere face.

Care for him?

A part of him snarled in anger at the idea, but another, alien part of himself jerked awake at her words.

It was a hungry part of him.

A yearning part. Needful.

A piece of him that he had sealed off and abandoned so long ago that he only vaguely recalled it.

Pull away. He didn't.

Instead, he forced himself to lean down and open his lips.

She smiled a smile that burned him even as the strange sugar evaporated inside his mouth.

She placed her hand against his cheek. "You see, it doesn't hurt."

No, it didn't. It felt warm and wonderful. Joyful, even.

But it was a dream.

He would wake up in a short while and he'd be cold again.

Alone.

The real Astrid wouldn't offer him cotton candy and she wouldn't hold him in the surf.

She would look at him with fear and suspicion on her precious face. She would be protected by a white wolf that hated him as much as he hated himself.

The real Astrid would never spend the time it took to tame him.

Not that it mattered. He had a death warrant out on him. He didn't have time for the real Astrid.

Didn't have time for anything other than basic survival. Which was why this dream meant so much to him.

For once in his life, he'd had a good day. He only hoped that when he woke up, he'd remember it.

Astrid led him around the arcade, playing games and eating junk food Zarek told her he'd only read about online. Even though he never smiled, he was like a child in his curiosity.

"Try this one," she said, handing him a candy apple.

Astrid quickly learned eating candy apples with fangs wasn't an easy thing to do.

When he finally managed a bite of it, she looked up expectantly. "Well?"

He swallowed it before he answered. "It's good, but I don't think I'm willing to repeat that experience. Not good enough to make up for all the work it takes to get to it."

She laughed as he tossed the apple into a large white garbage can.

She took him inside the arcade so that she could teach him to play Skee-Ball, one of her favorites. He was amazingly good at it. "Where did you learn to throw like that?"

"I live inAlaska , princess, land of ice and snow. There's not much difference between this and tossing a snowball."

She was surprised at that. She had a funny image in her mind of him playing in the snow, which would be completely out of character. "Who do you throw snowballs with?"

He rolled another ball up the ramp and into the center circle. "No one. I used to toss them at the bears so that they would get mad and come close enough for me to kill them."

"You killed little bears?"

He gave her a droll look. "They weren't little, princess, I promise you. And unlike rabbits, you can make more than one meal off them and it doesn't take as many hides to make a coat or blanket. In the dead of winter, there's not a lot to eat.

Most times before there were grocery stores it was either bear meat or starve."

Astrid's chest tightened at his words. She'd known it wouldn't be easy for him to survive, but what he described made her want to reach out and hold him close.

"How did you kill them?"

"With my silver claws."

She was aghast. "You killed bears with a claw? Please tell me there are easier ways to do that. Spear, bow and arrow, gun?"

"It was long before guns, and besides, it wouldn't have been fair to the bear. He couldn't attack me from a distance. I figured he had claws and I had claws. Winner take all."

She shook her head in disbelief.

She had to give him credit, at least Zarek was sporting about it. "Didn't you get hurt?"

He shrugged nonchalantly, then tossed another ball. "Better than starving.

Besides, I'm used to being cut up." He gave her a mischievous look. "Want a bearskin rag, princess? I have quite a collection."

She didn't find any humor in his question.

Her throat tight, Astrid wanted to weep from what he was telling her. Images went through her mind of him all alone, wounded, dragging a bear that outweighed him by at least ten times through the arctic snow just so that he could eat.

And getting the bear home was just the beginning of it. He'd have to skin and butcher it before the other animals smelled his kill or their blood.

Then cook it.

No one to help him and no choice except to do that or starve.

She wondered how many days he'd spent with no food at all...

"What about food in the summertime when you have twenty-two hours or more of daylight? I mean, you couldn't preserve the meat for long and it wouldn't give you enough time to plant or harvest anything. What did you do then?"

"I starved, princess, and prayed for winter."

Tears welled in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Zarek."

His jaw flexed. He refused to look at her. "Don't be, it's not your fault. Besides, the hunger wasn't as bad as the thirst. Thank the gods for bottled water. Before that there always were a few days when I couldn't make it to the well even though it's just a short walk outside my door."

He reached for another ball.

Astrid placed her hand on his to stop him.

He turned to face her, his lips slightly parted. She pulled him into her arms and kissed him, wanting to give him some comfort, some degree of solace.

Zarek crushed her to him. She opened her mouth to taste him fully and to let his strength wash over her.

He pulled back with a groan. "Why are you here?"

"I'm here for you, Prince Charming."

"I don't believe you. Why are you really here? What do you want from me?"

She sighed. "You are amazingly suspicious."

"No, I'm realistic and dreams like this don't happen to me."

She arched a brow at him. "Never?"

"Not in the last two thousand years, anyway."

She smoothed the line on his brow with her fingertip and smiled up at him.

"Well, things they are a-changing."

Zarek cocked his head at that, not believing it for a minute.

Some things never changed.

Never. "Zarek!"

He felt an odd tugging at his chest.

But it wasn't Astrid doing it.

"Is something wrong?" Astrid asked.

"Zarek!"