Chapter Twenty-Seven Dylan
Silas threw me back into the house when Lupe’s fingers snapped.
Hunter and Jackson blocked the door to keep me from coming out, and Sera came up from behind me with panic in her eyes.
Sera had only been in little fights her whole life, like sparring matches for training.
This was all unfamiliar territory for her.
The terror I could smell on her triggered my wolf to come to the surface, and I itched to shift to take Lupe on.
Hunter turned to face me and shook his head. “Let us get the numbers down. Teowulf is going after Lupe. If he loses, you are our only hope of taking her out.”
He disappeared through the door and I looked out to see Jackson and Silas already in the midst of the battle with Lupe’s minions.
There were too many of them. Lupe had been working hard to bring together this army, and clearly she had gone outside of the academy and nearby communities to gain more.
I thought I counted one hundred, but now seeing them all swarming the door, I’d at least double that number.
Odds were not in our favor, and this might have been the worst idea I ever had.
My wolf pressed for us to join the fight, and I wanted to listen to that urge.
Lupe had caused too much shit in my life, and I wanted to be the one to tear it all down.
Sera walked off toward the back, and I could see her head bobbing and weaving to get a better look.
There was an urgency to her movement, and I could hear her whines from where I stood.
What was that about?
The only people she knew here were me and my mates outside of our professors. Who was she trying to keep tabs on out there?
A sudden pain rang through the bonds, and I clutched my chest as I winced.
FUCK! That was a death coming through. Someone had died on the battlefield, and my mind couldn’t zero in to figure out who.
I couldn’t gulp down the air to fill my lungs as I dropped to the floor as mournful howls sounded all around the house.
Sera came to my side and grabbed my head in her hands.
She tilted my face up so she could look at me and brought my focus to her.
“Check your mates! Their bonds will come more naturally than the pack bonds!”
My eyes closed, and I instinctively reached out to my mates.
All three were still strong as ever and vibrating with rage as they fought through the enemies.
I sucked in the deepest breath to stop myself from crying.
It was a relief to feel them there, and a wave of love rolled into me from each of them.
They felt my crazy mind unraveling and did their best to help me through it while they fought outside.
“It’s not them.” I said breathlessly, as I tried to regain a normal breathing pattern.
“Who was it?”
Sera looked like she needed to know this answer more than I needed to know it was my mates.
It felt weird to see Sera like this, and she kept looking toward the doors with a frantic look.
During another trip into the plane, I felt the pack’s bond with a mid-level wolf had been severed and smelled of death.
I didn’t know him well, but my father had said he was a decent fighter.
There was an upcoming fighting competition, and this guy had been training day and night for the qualifying match.
I was pained by his inability to prove himself the worthy fighter his training had prepared him to be.
“Paul. Good man that was training to be a boxer in an upcoming tournament.”
She sighed and ran back to the windows. It was odd to see her like this. She didn’t know my pack mates like I did, and she’d only met a few of them before the battle started.
This wasn’t normal for her Sera, and I wanted to ask her about it, but since we were the only two in the house to stop anyone if they came in to attack the females and pups, I couldn’t lose focus.
But then I felt her.
Shadows wrapped around the doorways, and I knew it was her.
The power to wield shadows was only for those strong enough to master it, and I didn’t know Lupe could until now.
I walked to the back door, where the shadows swirled around the edges.
My mouth went dry as I approached. This was suicidal just to open that door, but if she was close enough to do it, then I needed to fight to keep her out of the house.
She may have been coming for me, but I refused to let her know there were kids down in the basement.
Over my dead body would she snatch up some pups and then raise them to do her bidding.
“Dylan!“Dylan!” Sera screamed as someone pulled the door outward from its hinges. Darkness saturated the outdoors, and Lupe stood in the doorway.
“I thought you were better than someone who hides away inside.”
It wasn’t the taunt that made my legs sprint towards her. I was better than that. It was knowing that I couldn’t let her inside, and, since she brought the fight to me, it looked like it was our time to dance once and for all.
My body collided with hers before she could blink.
The beast inside of me surged to the surface at the right time to pull all the energy into my speed so she wouldn’t see it coming.
Lupe landed with a thud into the backyard, and my fists slammed into her face several times before she registered what was happening.
Shadows wrapped around my wrists and threw me forward.
I couldn’t see the ground coming from the darkness until I landed on it, and I heard my shoulder pop before the pain registered.
My mates roared in my mind at feeling my pain, but there wasn’t much they could do.
I felt their panic and understood how surrounded they were, unable to reach me through the darkness.
This wasn’t something I had mastered yet, but I knew if I tried to layer my shadows that it would become too confusing of a fight.
Pulling onto my wolf’s magic, I made it so I stayed astral until I could pop my shoulder back into socket.
It hurt like a bitch, but I ran to the tree line and slammed my hand against my shoulder to snap it into place.
I bit my lip and drew blood to keep from telling Lupe my position.
“Come out, little wolf. You know this ends with us, so you might as well come out from where you are hiding.”
I couldn’t hide my revulsion as the shudder went through me.
If she could see me, I hoped she could also see how repulsed I was by her.
There was no time to think of a strategy.
Lupe had decades more experience with fighting and using her shadow magic than me.
The only thing I had that she didn't have were mates to keep me anchored.
Staying in astral, I moved around in the shadows. I felt something run through me and the disorienting feeling of not seeing anything in front of me hit me hard. It felt like I should wave my hands out in front of me to see where the hell I was going.
This shit was nuts.
How the hell was I supposed to fight through this? How was anyone fighting through this?
I checked the bonds with my pack and my mates, and they were still there.
It felt good to see they were at least holding their own, fighting well and keeping themselves alive.
I didn’t know if this shroud of darkness spanned out across the entire battle area, but if it did, I wasn’t sure how we could win.
The shadows were my friend since I was a Shadowborn, but I did not create these. I couldn’t control them.
Using my other senses, I listened for movement.
If I couldn’t use my eyes, my ears and nose would need to lead the way.
The scents were being washed out from the trees, dirt, and wind, but I could use the pack bonds to sense where my fellow pack mates were and listen if there was an approaching enemy.
“It’s pathetic to watch you try to navigate this. You were the only equal to me, you know.”
I heard her, but I couldn’t sniff her out. The voice was clear as day, but it was like the shadows were carrying it to my ears. There was no clear cut direction of where it came from, so I didn’t know which way to walk to find Lupe.
Damn. This was going to be harder than I thought.
“How am I an equal to a lunatic titbag ?”
There was a chuckle, and I rolled my eyes, hearing her find my joke amusing. It made me want to punch her in the face more for her even suggesting we were equals. Equal in power, sure. Equal as a decent human being? No.
“I thought you would be the one to see the world like I did.”
Oh great. A villain monologue. Yay to me.
“You’re psychotically naive if you think good people would think like this.”
There was a swing of an arm that passed through me, and I thanked the gods that I was in astral form. There was a flicker of metal through the shadows, and I could have died if I hadn’t been.
Lupe brought a damn sword to a claw fight.
She wasn’t taking any chances at taking me down. It made little sense to kill me, though. Why kill me if she needed my power and magic to break the walls of every wolf out there?
“Of course you are using your magic. Couldn’t stand up to me without it. Typical,” Lupe growled.
I still couldn’t tell where the fuck she was in the shadows. There was no way for me to move to get a clear shot of knowing where she could be or use my magic to override hers. Shadows didn’t work that way.
No... Shadows didn’t brighten with more shadows.
It needed light.
Even with their magical nature, someone could outmaneuver and obliterate the shadows we wielded. The pack house had flood lights. If I could get them turned on, the shadows could be lifted. Maybe not entirely due to Lupe’s power, but enough to give me an edge in the fight.
But I didn’t know which way the house was. Between the wolf jumping through me, which still weirded me out, and Lupe trying to run me through with her sword, I got turned around.
Well, there went that plan.