Chapter Thirty-Three Sera
I stared out the window as the battle raged, hating my confinement inside to protect the women and children hiding in the lower level of the pack house.
The tugging in my chest felt like it would snap my ribcage in two.
The sight of the huge man with a buzz cut staring at me spiked my heart rate before someone ordered him to fight alongside the alpha.
Those gray eyes locked onto mine, sending a shiver down my spine.
He looked as though he wanted to throttle Alpha Valko for giving him that command, but he walked out that door.
And I’ve gone insane sitting inside, running to every window to catch a glimpse of him. To know he was okay. To know he was alive and that he would walk back through this door.
When he shifted into his wolf, it took my breath away.
His coat was a range of colors; black down his back, white on his stomach, and a mixture of grays along his side.
I watched as his head swiveled back to look at me.
His gray eyes, still in wolf form, looked silver from afar, but glowed white as the rage of his wolf in battle peered back at me.
I could feel his stare even with the small distance between us, and I wanted to go out there and fight by his side.
I didn’t know his name, but I knew he was about to throw my entire world upside down.
This feeling wasn’t unfamiliar to me, and it sent my entire system haywire, knowing it was happening again.
My wolf was pushing on the edges of my mind, fighting for control.
It’s been months since I’ve felt this way.
I thought this was over, and I didn’t want to go back to the time before I understood it was okay to not have a mate.
But my wolf was not having any of it.
Mate. Our mate is out there.
We need to stay in here . Dylan needs us in here .
Mate needs us out there.
It took more energy than normal to keep her down. After what happened... I hoped I would have more time than this before I found more mates.
There was a power shift outside. I felt the power swell even inside the house.
There was no visibility of the battle from the house.
Even checking every window on the first floor, I couldn’t see a way outside.
My heart felt like it was in my throat knowing that Dylan, Hunter, Jackson and Silas were fighting out there.
And now this Shadowborn man who had me and my wolf losing our minds as we tried to find him through that black cloud.
No. Not a cloud. Shadows.
This was not like any other battle I’ve ever seen.
My pack has gotten into some tussles with rogues and other packs, and they were always bloody.
That was the way of werewolves. Fights were never something that could be fought without spilling blood and some death.
It was a part of our history and life we all had to accept.
But I didn’t want to accept it right now.
He was out there and I wanted to see him again.
The way he looked at me wasn’t like the one who tossed me aside.
He was ready to fight his alpha to stay with me.
Even during the battle, I noticed he fought close by to the house.
Every so often, he would look toward the house as if he knew I was watching him.
It made me smile during this dark fight, knowing he was looking for me as much as I looked for him.
Another surge of power swept through, driving me to my knees.
The shadows were gone, but Dylan was on the ground.
“DYLAN!” I howled, seeing my best friend on the ground.
Her mates losing control didn’t bode well.
With no kind of pack bond to Dylan, I didn’t know whether that meant she died.
Hunter, Jackson, and Silas looked like men on a warpath.
They were taking on the Monarch of all people, fighting in tandem like they had fought like this since they were young.
I couldn’t sit here any longer.
When my feet landed on the porch, the large, multicolored wolf came into view.
He snapped his jaws as if he protested my presence out of the house.
I growled at him, but there was a snarl returned from him before a wolf jumped on his back.
I ran onto the grass only for the multicolored wolf to get out of the wolf’s hold and push me back toward the house.
“Excuse you! I am combat proficient, you know!”
That didn’t stop him. He pushed me with his muzzle all the way to the door before turning back onto the wolf and re-engaging in the battle.
Another surge of power released, sending me to my knees again.
I knew this power. The blackberry and current carried with it, and it took me a moment to remember who it belonged to, as my mind was swirling with too many directions to look from the battling raging around me.
The power belonged to ... to Dylan! I looked out the window again, and I watched Dylan stand up again.
The wolf I had been watching had stopped just to stare at Dylan, and I snarled seeing him look at her.
But even I looked away from him to look at my best friend.
There was visible power swirling around her, and my jaw dropped.
Every part of the surrounding shadows in the night’s landscape looked as if Dylan was calling onto it.
The wolf wasn’t looking at her with any type of intimacy.
He was looking at her because of her power, calling on him to do so.
It was calling to me the same way.
My wolf wanted me to get on my knees and bear my neck to her, even from a distance. Whatever just happened, it unlocked something in my friend to make her scary as her damn mates with just her presence alone.
There were shadows everywhere and I lost sight of that wolf along with my best friend.
My body trembled, knowing I couldn’t see anything going on out there.
I hugged myself as I waited for it to dissipate.
My heart felt like it was in my throat again, pounding as I tried to see through the thick shadows covering everywhere I could see.
No one had tried coming to the house since the battle started.
Lupe didn’t want anyone other than Dylan, and I felt useless standing here.
My wolf urged me to go outside, calling on our magic for me to shift.
I stepped back out onto the porch, ready to shift when it all faded away.
Another wave of power rocked through me, but I knew it wasn’t Dylan’s this time.
It was someone else’s.
A man emerged from the clearing shadows and didn’t stop until he stood before me.
His energy wasn’t like the other’s, a little less demanding than his, and I knew immediately he wasn’t an alpha, but a beta.
Thick, brown, messy hair and brown eyes looking into mine.
His clothes showed he hadn’t shifted into his wolf during the battle, but I didn’t know whose side he’d fought on.
He advanced on me and my feet backed until I hit a wall.
His power slammed into me, but my wolf rumbled at the sight of him.
Another push from her and the tugging in my chest returned.
The tugging yanking toward this guy, but it looked like he wanted to eat me alive.
He continued to move forward and everything inside me wanted to throw me into his arms.
“Wh-who are y-you?” I stammered. “S-stay back!”
He reached out with his hand and tucked one of my red curls behind my ear.
“The real question is, who are you? Where have they been keeping you?”
My breath halted in my throat as his brown eyes scanned along my body.
The way I felt my body thrum with heat from his gaze alone had my knees wobbling.
He smirked at me as if he knew what he was doing to me.
I opened my mouth to give him my name, but a blur hit my vision, and someone took the man down.
The other guy I had been trying to keep tabs on throughout the entire fight had this one on the ground.
His arm moved so fast as he slammed his fist into this one’s face.
There was growling and snarling, and I did not know how to make it stop.
They were both rolling on the porch, trying to get the upper hand. They were going to kill each other.
And I felt the pull of both of them.
“STOP!” I bellowed.
Their movements halted as if I had all the power. Me. Serafine Osmera, the orphaned daughter with no title to her name. This had to be a joke, right?
Both of them got to their feet and looked at me, fire raging in their eyes as they stared into my eyes. They were waiting for me to give them a new command, like I was their Luna.
Dylan’s pack mate stepped forward first. The other growled at him, getting close to me, but I kept my eyes on the approaching man.
Even if there was little light on the porch, I sensed his body creating the shadow around me as his form towered over mine.
He was at least a foot taller than me. The power rolled off him, at least manageable compared to recently hanging out with Dylan and her mates, but still enough that made me want to disappear into the wall.
“Why are you so frightened, little rose?” His voice felt like velvet to my ears.
It made me lean forward as I felt his warmth and power cocoon me like a hug.
I had to stop myself from fully caving in.
This was already too much. My wolf wanted me to go to him, but with him covered in blood.
It took until now for me to notice how he was only in a pair of sweats.
Every inch of him was hard muscle. My hand involuntarily reached out to touch the planes of his abs, and my damn mouth watered at the thought of how it would feel.
“Do I frighten you?” That little drawl on the “I” made my body quiver. This man would be the death of me if I let him touch me. Everything about him set off every nerve ending with just speaking to me. It was unlike anything before.
This was stronger.
This was harder to ignore.
“Who are you?” I asked again, not letting him ignore me. “And back the hell up.”
Dylan told me how it was important to make sure the men in my life would know I wouldn’t be submitting to them every time they told me what to do.
If I didn’t want to be dominated by anyone, I needed to stand my ground.
These two not answering me would be my first way of showing them I wouldn’t let them ignore me.
The one in front of me smirked, but didn’t move away from me. “I’m Luca Howlcrest . Beta to the Silver Moon pack,” he lifted my chin so he could see into my eyes, “and you are my mate.”
The other snarled and stepped forward. “Take your hand off her.”
Luca snapped his neck in his direction with a menacing growl emitting from his chest.
“Who are you to tell me what to do with my mate?”
The other snarled again and stepped forward. “Because I’m her mate, too. I don’t know you. I don’t even know if you are her actual mate or if you are just trying to claim someone who isn’t yours.”
I put my hand on Luca’s chest and he immediately turned back to me. The way his face softened when he looked at me made my stomach do a flip.
No. I can’t react this way. Even my wolf wanted me to mark them both right now.
Luca moved to my side after I nuzzled him so I could face the other wolf.
“And you are?”
“I’m Kage Nightborne.”
“I’m Serafine Osmera.”
Both of their chests rumbled hearing my name.
As my gaze bounced back and forth between these two wolves, the thought of them both claiming me overwhelmed me.
How did I know they would even claim me?
The last wolf didn’t want me. I was nobody when he wanted someone powerful.
If he had met Dylan while visiting me at the academy, he would have tried to convince her to take him as a mate.
I felt my heart break again at the thought of the person who threw me away, and seeing these two standing here, staring at me, helped nothing. He did the same thing at first.
“Sera... what pack are you from?”
I didn’t want to answer that. They would learn who rejected me. Both of them would learn how my mate didn’t want me for being unapologetically ME.
“That’s not important. I’m not ready for this.”
Both of them approached me, surrounding me with the warmth of their bodies again. I desperately wanted them to wrap me up in their arms and tell me it was okay, but I knew this wasn’t how this would go. If I was rejected before, I would be again.
I couldn’t risk my heart again.
I wouldn’t survive it a second time.
“Luca Howlcrest and Kage Nightborne... I reject you as my fated mates.”
“NO!”