Chapter Thirty-Two Dylan
It was a whirlwind after that battle. There were so many things that we had to do one of them being to burn the bodies of those who had fallen.
This would never be a favorite moment of my life.
It smelled putrid, and I almost threw up more times than I could count, but this was the way we handled things.
It was all members of our pack we focused on first, needing time to help the families prepare to see the members of their family like that.
There were just more bodies from the enemies than not.
It took a lot more time to alert the families due to not knowing where many of them came from.
Lupe had stretched her nets out wide to get this many people to fight for her.
The Monarch had done most of the work to track everyone’s families down to find out what the deceased wanted when it came to burial.
Taking over the pack meant I had to take on a lot of responsibilities I wasn’t trained for.
This being one of them. We didn’t have a death in the pack for a long time.
We lived long lives and it only came down to battles like we just went through.
There was a lot more to it than I thought, and it took far too much time away from my mates.
Silas stepped in and helped where he could. He had been groomed to take over the pack since he was born, so he knew more than what I did. I just sat back and watched so I knew what to do when this happened again.
Though I was going to try extremely hard not to ever let this happen again.
Jackson and Hunter filled in where Silas couldn’t. Watching the three of them work like this brought a smile to my face. Though it was nice having some time with Silas when my head wasn’t on a platter.
There were documents I had to look over and they were on the far side of the desk. When I bent over to grab them, Silas popped up behind me, running his hands down my ass.
“I will never get used to being able to freely touch you like this,” he murmured as his fingers bit into my skin as he grabbed it. “If it weren’t for the fact I know the moment I would do something to show you how much I love this, your father will walk through that damn door.”
A rumble before a growl emitted from his throat. A throaty chuckle released from me before I threw my ass into his crotch.
“Could always lock the door.”
The way he stiffened and then ran toward the door made me laugh. As soon as he went to lock it, my mother burst through the door with a smile on her face. Silas groaned but he covered it up with a cough.
“Hello Luna Loveta. How are you today?”
She beamed up at him. “I’m wonderful! How about you?”
He looked over at me with a pleading face to make my mother leave.
THrough the bond, I felt his urgency to be with me alone, but I couldn’t ust make my mother leave.
There were still so many things to transfer over and walk me through before we took over the pack.
If she was here, it meant she had another lesson to teach me.
It’s getting to be where I am going to join in with the others about stealing you for a week and take you to a cabin so we can just fuck the shit out of you so we can hear you scream.
It was hard to contain my laughter or smile. We will do just that, but we have to finalize some things first.
The groan he sent through the bond made the smile grow. I ignored him so I could find out why my mother was here so I could send her on her merry way.
Then maybe I could have loud sex with my mate in this soundproof office.
“What’s up, mom?”
She practically vibrated as she ran over to me. When she grabbed onto my hands and gave them a squeeze. “The Monarch wants a meeting with you.”
I expected the Monarch not to want anything to do with me or the pack after the battle.
His face was ridden with guilt; he said Lupe had laced drinks for the members of his pack when she came to them with a proposal on how to make werewolves the top species of our world.
He planned to delineate Lupe and take her down.
But then his wolf had taken over and followed Lupe here.
When Lupe’s heart stopped beating, those who drank the serum returned to normal.
It was the ones who had their human side terminated that we had to worry about.
“Is this a formal request?”
She bounced in her spot again. “Yes. The Monarch has made a formal request to meet with the Luna of the pack.”
Fuck me... that meant I couldn’t get out of it.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The Monarch made Hunter look small, and that was fucking hard to do.
The man looked like he was at least seven feet tall to me, but he was just two inches taller than Hunter, putting him at six and a half feet tall.
He had a buzz cut with his hair, but I could see it had dark roots.
The way his eyes scanned me and my mates over made his gray eyes look like a damn storm brewing.
It shocked me to see him alone in the room.
I thought for sure he would have his top five in the room like most alphas had when accepting company.
But the Monarch came to my territory, and came alone.
The Monarch bowed his head to show respect to me and my mates after he walked up the driveway from his car. I did the same as he lifted his head so he knew I acknowledged what he had done and gave the respect in return.
“Luna Dylan, a pleasure to see you again. I’m glad this time is in better circumstances.”
I laughed nervously. “You can say that again.”
He smiled. I didn't even know this dude could smile. He was someone everyone said just radiated power and made you shit your pants from fear as it wrapped around you. It made me look at the Monarch with suspicion as I tried to feel that power. Some alphas could hide it until they wanted people to feel it. The Monarch must have had that ability since I couldn’t tell if he was a powerful wolf or not from how much I sensed his wolf and power.
If you think he is compromised, I’m not sure if all four of us could even take him down.
My wolf was right on that one. The Monarch was the one who had killed my packmates during the battle. It wasn’t until Hunter, Jackson, and Silas entered the fight against him that he slowed down.
Slowed. Down. As in they had trouble taking him on and they were three on one.
“Would you like to have this meeting in your office, or would you like to take a stroll with me on your territory?”
The way my mates growled made me question their sanity.
What the fuck is wrong with you three?
It felt like a come on! Jackson snarled. Like we are going to stand by and let him make it seem like he wants only YOU to go on that walk.
“Judging by your mates’ reactions, I assume they think it would only be us.” He smirked at them. “No disrespect intended, men. You may come along as well since you will play a part in what’s to come for Dylan.”
That didn’t seem ominous at all.
I moved my arm so we could head toward my favorite trail.
There was a spot I loved to go to when I was a kid.
It was off the normal trail and a beautiful stream ran through it.
With trees all around it and a small back for me to sit on, it was my own little sanctuary.
Others in the back never came there, so sometimes I would go there when I wanted to get away from everyone.
The Monarch walked by my side, making my mates walk behind us. They weren’t happy about it, grumbling through the bonds about how they should be with their mate and not the oversized king. I didn’t show how badly I wanted to laugh about that, so I just waited for him to start this conversation.
“You are a major talk through our people. The word has gotten out about what has played out here.”
This got my attention. I didn’t know anyone outside of those who fought here had heard about it.
I sure as hell didn’t talk to other packs and I didn’t think anyone from the pack would have.
It was a dark day in our history, and it would be written down so future generations would see the signs, so it would never repeat in our history.
“What has been talked about?”
“How a Shadowborn rose above the shadows to save not only other Shadowborns, but all of the werewolf species. It didn’t matter to her who she was fighting for because it wasn’t for one side or the other. It was for them all.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I didn’t want us all to fall. It didn’t occur to me that it would make a difference for everyone. At least not make me the center of a conversation. Sure, it was a Shadowborn who fought another Shadowborn who was trying to take over the werewolf population, but-“
“You’re rambling, love,” Hunter cut me off.
The Monarch chuckled, but didn’t seem to mind.
“It’s become something we need to pay attention to.
For the longest time, we thought Shadowborns were ones who we would need to be concerned with.
Shadowborns were the “evil” ones of our kind, and we may need to eradicate them from our world.
” He looked at me. “That was never the case, and you sure showed everyone how wrong that ideology was.”
“I did what anyone would have done.”
“Yet there were half a dozen teachers who weren’t Shadowborns that did nothing to stop Lupe from gaining the power she did.”
My mates’ energy brushed against my mind, telling me they were there if I needed them. It made my heart race hearing the Monarch talking about this to me. He was making me out to be this amazing hero when I was just someone who didn’t want Lupe to take over the world.
“There has been a lot of movement from rogues since the battle. At that time, I thought they were moving in a weird pattern. It turned out they weren’t. It took me a bit to get the right people in the right places to take inventory of how many rogues there were and if they were Shadowborns or not.”
I bit my lip. I had a feeling I knew where this was going, but it had to be too good to be true. More Shadowborns? We thought we were losing numbers. If they were turning rogue, that explained why we lost so many. It also meant we could finally have more packs!
“And what did you find out?”
“The majority of them are, in fact, Shadowborns. They had grown afraid of being part of a pack from how Shadowborns were hunted down. There was a sanctuary they lived in for the longest time. Until they heard about you.”
I stopped walking and Jackson nearly walked into me. He wrapped me up in his arms as I tried to center myself. It was one thing to have Shadowborns out there, and it was another for them to want to be part of my pack.
Hunter stepped closer to me and put his hand on the back of my neck to massage it.
It helped me center myself as I stared at the king of the werewolves.
Where was this going? Our pack was at capacity.
If I had to take care of more wolves than I already had, there would be a lot of adjustments I would have to make.
It would also increase my power, and I could see the Shadowborn hunts starting up again.
“Where is this conversation going, Alpha?” Hunter asked him as Silas came over to the other side of me.
We weren’t far from that little place I loved going to.
I wanted to go there now to get my head on straight.
This conversation was more dangerous than I thought it was since too many people still hated Shadowborns with a passion.
Silas’s father, and Alpha of his pack, was one of them.
That was someone else on my list I had to freaking deal with.
“We want Dylan to be the Ambassador to the Shadowborns.”
My jaw dropped to the damn ground. This couldn’t be real life.
“What does that entail?” Jackson asked him.
My mates were handling this conversation better than I ever would have.
This opened a lot of doors for the Shadowborns.
An Ambassador meant I wouldn’t just be a Luna of my pack.
It meant I would be the person who could advocate for Shadowborns and show our world we aren’t the monsters they think we are. This opportunity was life changing!
“It would mean I would be the one who shows the world who Shadowborns really are instead of the enemies everyone needed to fear–just wolves trying to live in this world just like them. We can just do cool magic shadowy tricks, too.”
The Monarch chuckled, and my mates looked at me, all beaming with pride.
Their love for me crashed through the bonds, and I had tears brimming in my eyes.
This was more than I could have ever hoped for.
A few months ago, I thought finding mates would end my freedom.
Being an Alpha-female meant I would be mated to powerful and dominant males, and they weren’t easy to live with.
I knew that because of how my father was with my mother and me.
But these three men wouldn’t do a damn thing to hurt me, not even try to contain me in a small box to keep me out of harm’s way, even if they wanted to sometimes.
They let me fight Lupe without taking away the glory of ending the person who was stopping me from living this happy life.
Now, not only did I have three amazing mates who brought balance to my chaotic life, but I was being given a title that meant I would change the lives of every Shadowborn out there.
The Monarch nodded at my statement. “Yes. We want you to help us create the bridges needed for the Shadowborns not to have to live in the shadows anymore. Would you do me the honor of being the Ambassador of Shadowborns?”
My wolf howled joyfully as the tears spilled down my face.
“Hell yes! When do I start?”