Chapter 27
Our next training was very different.
Natalia had asked me and our mates to meet her in the clearing, and when we arrived, I noticed we weren’t the only ones present.
Alyce and Vanessa were there, but so were Gustav and Zelin.
“Glad you all could make it,” our mate announced entering the clearing after us. “I need all the help I can get.”
“We are happy to help you spar, but you honestly have more than enough skilled partners to help you already,” my twin sister pointed out, seeing Zelin and Gustav nod.
“Except, I need you to use your powers against me,” Natalia declared.
“No!” the Beast roared through me before I could breathe.
His thunderous voice carried through the entire clearing and into the Origin Forest while it rumbled through my body. The force silenced every living being in the forest, leaving everyone around me shaken. Even my sister.
The ripples of power had been palpable.
A few seconds passed as everyone still looked at me, rooted in place. The Beast’s roar was still clicking in the back of my throat, echoing around us while it asserted its dominance and made its will known.
Glancing down, I realized I was no longer the man, and I was evidently not in control either. Shaken by what had just happened to me too, I swallowed, trying to regain control.
What the hell had just happened to me?
“Mine…” The word thundered in my mind, disconcerting me. “Protect.”
Okay… That was a first.
When had the Beast switched from needing to protect me from Natalia to ripping out of me to protect her?
Sure, I had used my beast side to protect her, the Beast however, hadn’t been too keen on the idea from the start.
His behavior just confirmed that every single side of me was hers now. Natalia had won over the Beast, although we hadn’t yet claimed each other.
“Are you okay, Bruderherz?” Alyce asked through our family pack link.
I didn’t have an answer.
When my attention returned to the others, Natalia’s gaze was firmly pinned on me, but there was no oh hell no, he didn’t just tell me what to do air in her expression, she appeared to be realizing something.
“We’ll be okay, Beast, I promise,” she whispered sweetly into my mind… knowingly.
“We are very resilient,” Starlight assured.
My gaze roamed the faces of our other mates, Vanessa, my older brother, and my aunt who still glanced at me expectantly. Growling, I just crossed my arms over my chest and straightened to my full height… never mind that my heart thundered in my chest. “I have spoken.”
Natalia smirked a little, as though it was endearing, then faced the others. “Anyway…”
“I know you are a capable woman, Cuore mio, but I’m starting to question your mental clarity.”
She rolled her eyes at Dante. “I don’t see why. This is the next logical step.”
“You are not serious, Natalia,” André added, trying to play it cool but he appeared to be as disturbed as my beast.
Oh, shit was the sentiment they all shared.
“Um, I love you girl, but I’m not going to do that.” Vanessa shook her head adamantly, her brown curls bouncing. “I’m not taking that chance.”
Sighing, Natalia stepped closer, her gaze understanding. “Vane, I need your help.”
“Not this way you don’t!” Vanessa squealed, anxiousness gripping her. “I almost killed you once when I was trying to defend you, Tasha. I mean, Natalia.” She corrected herself but our mate didn’t appear to care. “Can you even imagine how bad is going to be when I actually aim to attack?”
“Okay, first of all, you all really need to stop treating me like a fragile little thing. I am arguably more dangerous than any of you.” Natalia added air quotes to that part. “Remember when you told me that?”
Vanessa paled when her own words were thrown in her face, and I grunted because I already knew how this was going to end. I might as well see the future too.
Natalia got what she wanted, always.
“Second, those monsters that took my mom are somehow recreating Vampiri powers, which means I need to be prepared for anything. This rescue mission will be an ambush.” She glanced at André, Dante, and me, throwing our own words in our faces too.
“They will be waiting for me, so please, stop being over-protecting assholes and help me prepare for this!”
“I actually agree with you,” my older brother added, getting glared at by everyone else. “But, unless you want me to fight with you hand-to-hand, my power can’t help you,” he explained to her apologetically.
“I already know hand-to-hand combat, Gustav,” Natalia protested.
“Yeah, but my husband can take away your wolf and your Vampiress essence with a touch, so it’s best not to tempt the devil,” Zelin warned.
“Wait. What?” Natalia gawked at him, shocked. “You can do that?”
My older brother nodded. “I can take away the supernatural nature of anyone who doesn’t deserve it anymore. I can also give shifter power to someone I deem worthy… Aside from my normal Moon Prince powers of course.”
“He’s the Wolf Overlord.” Zelin shrugged as though it was self-explanatory.
“I know it sounds like he’s a villain, but it’s actually pretty cool. The Moon Goddess chose him to wield that power.” Alyce grinned with pride.
“Holy shit. This family is something else…” Starlight whistled, impressed.
“Sorry. Wish we could help more,” Zelin sincerely offered.
“I understand. Thanks for indulging me with your time.” Natalia sighed, sharing a brief hug with them before they headed back into the castle. “Anyone else feel like leaving me high and dry?”
Seeing it brought a smile to my lips.
“Natalia…” Dante grunted.
“Don’t you Natalia me. We are doing this.” Her narrowed eyes shifted, pinning André in place. “You all know my fire acts like my venom. It will protect me from your attacks too. I just need you to be willing so we can test it.”
“Any of our powers could kill you.”
“You don’t have to shoot to kill, André. Just give me enough of your sun force so that my fire can feel me vulnerable and learn how to protect me from your light force, light weapons, or whatever. You said the venom learns and evolves to protect, right? Then it stands to reason that my fire—”
“We don’t know to what length your fire will act like Vampire venom,” Dante tried to reason.
“Well, there is only one way to find out. Isn’t there?” She crossed both arms over her chest, signaling the discussion was over.
“Caralho!” André cursed through our shadow link, knowing she had a good point.
“She’s right and she knows it too,” Dante sighed, defeated.
“We will try,” I spoke, finally feeling in control once more, although I still hadn’t shifted back into a man. Everyone glared at me like I was a traitor. “This will be an ambush, and now they know about her fire…”
“Which means they might throw every power they have access to at her.”
“We need to prepare her.”
André and Dante dejectedly agreed, seeing no other way, like I had.
A gloriously triumphant smile curved our mate’s lips.
“But first—” I interrupted. “We’ll work on the ambush. Hand-to-hand against all of us at once. If you beat us like this, you can fight against our other abilities.”
“We’ve been sparring with each other for the last five years…” Dante added as a warning.
“Good luck getting past us. We fight as one.” André grinned crookedly at her.
Natalia’s eyes dangerously narrowed while she glanced at each of us, settling on me.
My wolfish smile returned just as Alyce shifted into her wolf, swiftly standing on all fours.
“Damn, you are gorgeous even as a she-wolf—wait, I don’t get to meet your Beast?” Confusion creased Natasha’s expression.
Alyce simply shrugged.
“She doesn’t have one,” I admitted, it was something my parents and I never understood.
“So, what I’m hearing is the Beast is a misogynistic asshole who only chooses men?” Her eyebrow sharply arched when she looked at me, promising pain for the Beast while the others chuckled.
Vanessa adopted a fighting stance next to Dante and her brother, who spread out his wings.
“Challenge accepted,” Starlight growled a little too excited.
“Let’s do this.” I smiled.
“There, I managed to fight all of you without dying,” Natalia announced, turning her head to spit blood onto the snow, wiping her mouth with her sleeve. “Can we do the powers thing now?”
The split on her mouth from where Alyce had slammed her against the tree trunk was already healing, the tiny flames rushing toward the cut on her cheek. Needless to say, the exercise had gotten rough, but that didn’t deter her.
Our mate fought back with everything she had, and she’d actually gotten past us to the tree line.
I shifted into a man while André’s wings went back into his back. He’d used them in a few aerial attacks, but she caught on fast after the first one, learning how to avoid them or fight back in the sky.
My sister shifted back to her woman form too, limping, but only for a moment since her ankle swiftly healed thanks to her nature. Vanessa’s claws and crimson eyes receded, her venom rushing over the scratches on her arms.
Panting from the exertion of the last hour of sparring, they both glanced expectantly toward Dante, André, and me.
Their gazes pleaded for us to put a stop to this madness but as much as it killed us to admit it, Natalia was right.
“I hate to say it, but we have to at least try,” André conceded through our shadow link, exchanging a glance of concern with us.
“I could place a protective spell on her, but that won’t defend her against supernatural abilities like Vanessa’s. There are too many variables for me to accurately create a spell against each one. Even if I did, a spell against each ability could mean infinite spells.”
“My body can take anything they throw at her,” I added. “I can rip them all to pieces to protect her but if whatever power they use gets to her before I can get to them…” I shook my head. “We have to see how far her fire healing goes so we can be prepared.”
When our attention returned to our mate, André nodded, giving in.
Natalia smirked as he faced his sister.