Chapter Nineteen Dylan
M y body froze at her words. This was all a power play, and I fell right into it. Lupe somehow had Silas under her control. She compelled him to fight me to test my love and loyalty to him.
And I lost. I may have proven my love and loyalty to him in refusing to harm him beyond healing, but I also proved I was not willing to hurt my mates even if my life depended on it.
By not engaging in the fight out of fear of hurting him, I showed her I would choose our bond over anything else. If I would have fought like I did during our last match, it would've shown I hadn't accepted my fate of Silas being my mate.
Fuck.
I played right into her hands without knowing it.
"Dylan! Come back to me, love!"
Hunter's voice pulled me out of my doom spiraling thoughts.
I blinked at him, tears threatening to spill over as I glanced down at Silas's unconscious body.
What if I lost him forever because I didn't trust him fully until it was too late?
My pride being bruised after being rejected could be the reason I lost a piece of my soul.
"I did this," I croaked, my voice cracking as my emotions rolled over me.
My mate's hands grabbed onto my face. The warmth of his skin and the commanding power that crashed into me had me sighing and leaning into his hand. The strength and support I felt from this man’s touch alone solidified the reason I accepted his bond so easily.
"We need to get him to the infirmary. I think someone can help us get through to him while he is healing."
Words weren't coming easily for me, so I just nodded. I didn't know what to say as guilt consumed me. This wouldn't have happened if I had stopped chasing after Lupe and just lived my life as a student. It's not like this was my job. Hunter’s maybe, but not mine.
But no.
I decided to be the hero and fight against Lupe. Now my mate’s safety is at risk, and I don’t know how to rescue him.
Hunter picked Silas up, making it look effortless, like Silas weighed nothing, slung him over his shoulder, and walked toward the academy. I followed, knowing he would have a conniption if I tried to go back to the dorm room alone.
Glad you know how to be a good girl without me even asking.
If I had the energy, I'd smack him. Instead, I ignored it and tried to keep my thoughts to a minimum. My wolf paced inside me, worried about Silas. Nothing I could say would ease her mind since I felt the same way. If only I knew how to bring him back.
Lupe's control ran deep within Cole and his crew. They thought Lupe was the best thing to happen to our kind and walked under the radar. Silas did, too. I didn't even know Lupe had gotten to him since there was no mark to indicate her attempts.
So she must have made a breakthrough.
Double fuck .
I should have listened to Sera and my mates. They thought Lupe had gotten to him from the start.
Stop thinking about that. We will figure everything out.
Hunter's words came through the bond, and I tried so hard to believe him. Things weren't looking like it would break our way, especially with me losing Silas to her. Even if it was just for that match, she knew how to control Silas. I still wasn't even sure how that was possible.
Lupe outranks him in power.
My wolf was right. Lupe, being the councilperson and mated to a powerful wolf like Teowulf, could be why she could influence him. It made sense to me, but I knew I didn't have to bow down to Lupe when she gave me a command.
Why can't she influence us then?
We are mated. The severed bond is a weakness. Those who want control can if someone is weakened.
Great. Another reason for me to hate myself for rejecting Silas. It weakened him and made him susceptible to being influenced by Lupe. What else can go wrong?
It's not your fault. Why are you blaming yourself for something you knew was the right thing for yourself at the time? Hunter asked me, but it didn't make anything better.
I did it out of being vindictive. That's not how I should have handled it. I could have accepted the bond and still worked on things with him.
That's not you talking, Dylan. You are letting everything around you and what Lupe is doing to us to convince yourself you are the bad person. You aren't.
We walked into the infirmary, and nurses immediately ushered Hunter to lay Silas out on a bed.
They looked him over and asked what had happened.
Hunter explained everything but kept Silas being under someone else's command out of it.
He weaved it in a way to make it look like Silas lost control of his wolf out of grief of me being mated and him still having to work on things.
They went to work and hooked him to an IV that had a healing solution in it to help with the wounds from Hunter's fists and to soothe his wolf.
They told us we could wait in the room until he woke up since we were his bonded pack, regardless of the bond not being completed.
I sat in the chair next to Silas and stared at his face.
I didn't understand how things went so wrong.
What if we would have asked Jackson or Hunter to go alert Noah to come to the dorm instead?
Would it be one of them on this bed instead?
Or even Sera. We could have gotten her to do this, but I didn't want to put her at risk, either.
Hell, we could have paid someone to go tell Noah, and not used any of us.
If I hadn’t been petty and kept Silas at a distance, maybe he wouldn’t have been taken.
"Stop blaming yourself, love. We couldn't have predicted this to happen."
"Lupe knows I care about him now. We should have expected her to keep tabs on me enough to use anyone I cared about against me. We know her secret. Maybe this is all over our heads, and we should get the teachers involved."
He sighed as he crossed his arms over his chest. Hunter stood by the door as a guard and leaned against the wall.
The nurses couldn't even explain why Silas hadn't come to yet because being knocked out by a punch shouldn't have caused this much damage.
It made me think Lupe did more than just command him to attack me.
Maybe his wolf was melding right now and taking over his body.
If that were the case, would I need to kill my mate?
Was there even a way for him to come back from this?
I wasn't sure. Cole and his friends didn't seem to want to come back from having their wolves take over, but then again I was talking to their wolves.
Of course, they wouldn't want to go back to normal where they had to share everything with their human side.
They didn't want that because they were bitter about being only a soul to begin with.
What do you mean?
We are spirits and are chosen by the Great Moon to pair with a human. We have a choice in who we pair with, but sometimes she nudges certain ones to choose certain people, knowing what we could do to help their destiny along.
You chose me?
I did.
I never knew this about our kind.
Most don't. We are the ones who hold that knowledge. If the people who know this don't write it down in history books, then the rest aren't aware of it.
So... Cole and everyone's wolves bonded with them so they could eventually overrule their humans?
We have evil amongst us, too. It's not just humans.
Well, that wasn't something I ever expected to be dropped on me.
I didn't know if my father was told this or not by his wolf.
If he was, he never chose to tell me. This made sense.
If there was evil amongst the wolf spirits who chose to bond with our human halves, then that could be what Lupe was searching for.
People's wolves who wanted to take over and then help her with her plans.
Silas wouldn't want that, though. He was a better person than that.
His wolf wasn't evil either. At least, not from what I could see while being around him.
If his wolf was a spirit that leaned toward the evil side, it was only showing itself now.
That could be a huge problem to overcome for Silas.
How could we get through to his wolf not to go to the dark side?
Or worse...The only thing I could think of sounded crazy.
Remove his wolf from him entirely.
It cannot be done. Rip the wolf from your soul, it would break. It isn't like rejecting your soul mate.
Of course. Nothing can just be easy.
Silas stirred in his bed, and I gasped from his sudden movement.
His eyes fluttered open, and I could see him trying to take in his surroundings as he looked around.
I noticed his eyes stayed on Hunter for a moment, and there was a look of something I couldn't explain that passed through his face before he continued to scan, his eyes finally landing on me.
He immediately looked down, and I could see the shame he felt.
I swallowed hard as my eyes watered. This meant he didn't want to attack me the way he did on the sparring mat, right?
That had to be what he was thinking with a look like that.
I could smell the guilt rolling off him, which made my heart soar with the possibility he didn't want what happened.
"Silas?" my voice broke when I called out to him.
He still wouldn't look at me.
"Why are you here?" he whispered.
He didn't want me here? Why wouldn't he want me here? I was his mate. I cared about him. There wasn't anywhere else I would want to be when he was hurting.
"Did you forget we are mates?" My tone was harsh, but I didn't know how else to ask that question.
He looked away from me completely, hiding his face from me. Another moment I wished the bond was complete so I would know what was going on in his head.
"You should go."
My heart broke with those three words. What did he mean by that? Why wouldn't he want me here?
"Why?"