Chapter Thirteen Dylan
The plan was simple. Hunker down around the angel dorm and wait for the dumbass to walk around stalking Arabella some more.
Upon arrival, we found the place deserted.
I found myself staring up at the sky as if an angel would stare at us while we did this.
A faint trace of Noah remained near the dorm, suggesting a prior presence. It didn't deter us.
We needed to find this guy.
Hunter strategically placed us, preventing Noah from unnoticed entry or exit. It was a perfect set up and something I would expect from an Enforcer. The only exception to the placements was Silas.
Hunter gave Silas a different job.
My Enforcer mate still didn't trust Silas, even after they talked things out.
Instead of allowing him in an area where he could end up attacking me without my other two mates next to me, he sent Silas off to the guard booth at the gate to the academy to bring Noah here.
It was definitely a solid plan as long as Noah was at the gate.
If he wasn't, we would need to hunt for him through the woods.
According to Talia, he hadn't been staying in his quarters since the man knew he was in deep shit for attacking Arabella.
I had the perfect view of the door since I could shift into my wolf the fastest. We suspected the man would enter the building to search for Arabella, despite her absence from the academy.
No one updated Noah on this to keep her safe, which I agreed with.
No one needed to know she wasn't here–Noah, especially.
An hour had passed, and there wasn't a sign of Silas or Noah.
Without the bond completed, I couldn't reach out to Silas to ask what the holdup was.
Thoughts of Silas getting hurt came to mind, but I couldn't leave my position to go find out. Though I harbored some resentment, I didn’t wish him harm.
When I looked over in Hunter's direction, he shrugged. He must have been thinking the same as me about where Silas was, and I at least knew he hadn't seen Silas's whereabouts from his angle, either.
While distracted to look for them, I noticed Noah trying to rush into the dorm.
Silas was nowhere to be seen, making me believe he was running after Noah based on the man's pace.
Noah was nearly at the dorm; Silas was not.
If he had the keys, he could at least get into Arabella's dorm.
Even though she wasn't there, that felt right to me.
So I shifted.
Borrowing my mates' power helped the shift become seamless, and I sprinted toward the wolf.
He didn't notice my wolf until I leaped off the ground and was close to sinking my teeth into his shoulder.
He backhanded me, throwing me off my trajectory, and I landed on my side when I hit the ground.
The landing knocked the air out of my lungs, and all I could do was watch Noah lift his foot to stomp on my face as he hovered over me.
Hunter jumped toward Noah next, swinging his enormous fist toward the wolf's face.
Noah didn't seem to think I would have backup, so he didn't anticipate Hunter, giving him the advantage for the swing to land with a crunch against his jaw.
Jackson was at my side to check on me, but I sucked in enough air to get to my feet.
Hunter was in a fistfight with Noah, and it didn't look like my mate was losing.
For a moment, I thought it was a standstill as Noah blocked everything Hunter threw at him.
If me or Jackson didn't step in, though, Noah could escape.
That could not happen.
I had to bring this asshole to justice.
The bond Thalia placed between me and Arabella sang with life as I thought about her.
It was like how it felt when I thought about my mates, but nothing sexual.
It drove me to jump off the ground and onto Noah's back.
The fierce protectiveness I felt for her rolled through me, and if I couldn't settle it down, I would kill Noah instead of dragging him to Thalia.
My teeth sunk into the opposite shoulder of my first attempt, the metallic taste of blood coating my tongue.
I felt the wind through my fur as Noah's body tumbled to the ground.
He fought defensively, yet aggressively.
It was like he was hungry for blood... for violence...
It hit me like an ice bath. The reason Noah was hellbent on mating to Arabella was exactly what I feared.
The wolf dominated; a glance at his eyes confirmed it.
Noah was losing to his wolf, making him feral.
He wanted Arabella and created this need to bond with her in his head, making his wolf believe it was there, too.
His obsession mirrored Camilla's for Jackson; redemption proved impossible.
Noah writhed underneath all three of us, and it would continue until we managed to knock his ass out.
Most of the time, sheer power wouldn't make a wolf submit.
He was all animal now and wouldn't reason with his human side.
He swung his arms, which were partially shifted to his wolf's paws, and swiped at all of us.
Hunter had his arms at his sides, but I wasn't sure if it would be enough to restrain him even with me on his back and Jackson on his legs.
This would suck if we couldn't knock him out. My wolf howled to kill him because it was the only justice that we could bring him, but this wasn't my call anymore. The most I could do was knock him unconscious and bring him to the angels. They wanted his head, and I agreed to give it to them.
Hunter was on it, though. With my weight as the wolf, it was more than my human half, but we needed Jackson's weight too to keep him down.
Hunter called out to Jackson to sit on his back, and I put my muzzle around the back of his neck while pushing my power into him, hoping to reach his wolf to make him stop so we wouldn't accidentally kill him.
Hunter got close, drew his arm back, and connected his knuckles against Noah's temple.
Finally, he stopped moving.
"What the fuck?" Jackson let out a snarl. "It should not have been that fucking hard to put this guy down. What the fuck is wrong with him?"
Hunter looked at me first as I sneezed at him to show I agreed with what he was thinking. "Crazed from going feral. Noah believes Arabella is his mate and won't let go of it until he bonds with her."
"Fucking great," Jackson said as he stood up. "First Camilla, now this guy. Between wolves going feral and Lupe trying to take over the werewolves, where the fuck does it end?"
My happy-go-lucky mate was gone, and I couldn't agree with him more. This academy had a lot of problems, and I felt that, by the end of this term, things would have to change around here.
Hunter had cuffs and put them around Noah's huge wrists.
The man was definitely someone I would have hired to be a guard here from looking alone.
Though I wondered if the school did enough background checks on people before they hired them.
Two people in the werewolf department becoming evil was two too many.
The cuffs would cut him off from his wolf and give us the time we needed to haul him over to the academy.
"Where do we need to take him?" Hunter asked me.
Talia's office. I can get the news up to Arabella along the way.
Hunter gave me a look. This was where I kicked myself for not mentioning the bond sooner. "How are you going to let the angel know we got, Noah?"
Uh... well... One of Talia's mates can create bonds between people. She put one between me and Arabella so I could notify her when we caught Noah.
He growled as I anticipated. "Want to tell me why you didn't tell me this before?"
Didn't come to mind. It'll fade.
Jackson growled next. "I don't like the idea of angels having access to you. We don't know anything about them, Dylan. What if they end up being corrupted like Lupe and band together with her?"
I shook my head and sneezed at them. They won't. It'll fade, remember?
He growled, but didn't respond. From the bonds, I knew they weren't happy about this. It wasn't far from what I expected would happen when they found out about the bond. With Silas coming into the picture before we came here, I wanted nothing else distracting us.
"Where the fuck is Silas anyway?" Hunter snarled as he hauled the hulking man that was Noah over his shoulder to carry him off to the academy.
Good question. I don't know.
I stayed in my wolf form and trotted alongside my mates. It didn't seem pressing to shift back just yet, and it had been a while since I ran in my fur.
Something that needs fixing, human.
I know, I know. Shush.
We must find Silas, m y wolf snarled.
She didn't like the idea of Silas running around without telling us where he was now. Last night opened the doors of us moving forward with the bond, but I could close that option if he wanted to play games.
It didn't take us long to get to the academy, and we got a lot of sideway glances from other students as we walked into the building.
We ignored them all as we navigated the halls to get to Talia's office.
I expected a teacher to stop us, but none did, which gave me hope Talia talked with all my professors about excusing me from classes for this mission.
It's not like I wasn't a top student in the classes.
To my astonishment, I excelled academically.
I hated it growing up because I wanted to learn all the good stuff my parents were teaching me about running the pack.
These classes taught me that information every day, making me wish every wolf had to come here to learn about being a wolf instead of just learning through rejection.
Maybe we should open up an academy and have these things taught to everyone. I told my mates.
"Not a bad idea," Jackson told me, finding the spot behind my ear to scratch. "Good girl for thinking that."
I growled and snapped my jaws at his hand. No need to treat me like a dog, jackass.
He laughed. "Awww. Does someone need a treat? Are we getting hangry?"
I growled before Hunter smacked Jackson on his arm. " No intentionally pissing off our mate. You have a room here that I can send you to for misbehaving."
"Then I won't have access to that sweet ass!"
Hunter turned to narrow his eyes at Jackson. "Exactly, dumbass."
I rumbled in enjoyment seeing these two battle it out.
Hunter certainly stepped up to the plate as my protector, and Jackson was always the one to make me laugh, and it seemed that when Hunter was being protective, Jackson being his goofy self had become my new favorite thing.
I just hated it when they joined forces against me. That shit wasn't fair.
Hunter opened up Talia's door and threw Noah into a chair. I pulled onto the magic to shift back, and Jackson handed me new clothes for me to change into. When I had them on, I heard something being smacked. Turning toward Noah and Hunter, my mate was slapping Noah in the face to wake him up.
Noah came to and looked dazed. It was almost comical to see him struggling to get his vision to clear as Hunter continued to smack him. When it did, his eyes landed on me and I did a little finger wave at him.
"Hi, asshole. You fucked with the wrong people."
He growled, but Hunter's hands hit his shoulders and kept him from moving. "What the fuck am I doing here?" He sniffed around the office. "I'm in an angel's office?" He looked around the room. "Is my mate here?"
I growled at him. "No, because she isn't your fucking mate. Get a grip."
He snarled at me, and it almost looked like he was foaming at the mouth as I felt his anger flood the room. Noah didn't see reason for anything I said, and I doubted anything we said right now would sink in.
But I had something he needed to answer.
"Where is my mate, Noah?"
He looked at me, and a sickening smile spread across his face. It almost looked like the one Cole gave me, but I could still see the humanity in his eyes. Thank the Moon.
"I'm pretty sure I watched him chase after a pretty red head toward the werewolf dorm. If he is your mate, why is he chasing after another female?"
His words caused more pain than I thought they would. I paid attention to his heartbeat, and it didn't change to indicate a lie. Then I sniffed the air and his perspiration didn't change either. He wasn't lying.
Silas ran off with another female?
After spending an entire day and night together?
That didn't make much sense. Silas had been pleading for a chance to make things right with me.
He wouldn't throw it all away right after I gave it to him, right?
Silas may have tossed me aside after learning I was a Shadowborn, but he confessed about meeting the Great Moon.
That alone had to show he wouldn't throw me aside just because he got sex.
He stood in front of Hunter and Jackson, pleading his case for them to accept him.
He wouldn't have done that if he wanted to throw all that progress away on someone else.
Right?
Hunter snarled and slapped Noah across the face. "You lie."
My face fell at Hunter's actions. Even though he hated Silas right now, he still defended him. That was surprising.
"Why lie? He ran off as soon as this pretty redhead came up to him. He looked mesmerized and then ran off with her like a man being promised his dick would get sucked." Noah looked at me. "Looks like he upgraded. A mate who doesn't want him to someone who does. I'd jump on that ship, too."
I snarled and slapped him before I could stop myself. "How would you know? You're chasing after an angel who wants you dead. Why do you think we delivered you here?"
His eyes widened, but a smile spread across his face. "My mate is coming? When? I must see her. I must mark her and make her mine."
Noah's eyes flashed gold, and I knew talking to him was done.
The only thing he would want to talk about was Arabella, and I wouldn't be the one to acknowledge that.
I crossed to the other side of the room and reached out to the bond I shared with Arabella.
With that tug, I knew the angel would feel it and would be here soon enough.
Now we had to wait.
I wanted to tug on the bond I shared with Silas, but it was severed.
The chord between us looked like frayed rope to me, but still looked healthy.
It must have been from us connecting last night, but not completing the bond.
Part of me hoped I would feel something and the chord looking like it was forming again gave me a hope I could reach out to Silas.
But it remained frayed and broken.
Maybe it was a mistake to put my faith back in Silas. I should have known better. The man didn't want me when he rejected me. Not even the Great Moon could make him see we were destined for each other. If that wasn't enough for him...
Then it shouldn't be enough for me .