Chapter Twenty-Two Dylan
How did this man keep cutting into me with just his words? I wanted to throttle him for his tone with that question. What the fuck did he mean by that? The bond hummed in my chest, and I could feel his anger replacing the love I felt.
Maybe it wasn't there at all.
I could have imagined it since I desperately wanted him to break through whatever was going on and be the Silas I fell in love with again.
The cockiness could stay. It's not like Jackson and Hunter weren't cocky bastards when they wanted to be.
I just wanted him. The Great Moon did a good job of finding the right men for me.
I didn't see it before, but now, with one of my mates hanging in the balance, I could see what she was trying to get me to see.
They brought me so much balance. My father and mother were right. I found the balance I had struggled with for years inside myself, and I could use my power as intended. The fight with Silas showed me that, and I used it just to make him mad.
"Why the fuck did you accept the bond, Dylan? I already told you I wasn't sure about wanting you! Don't you think I would just reject your skanky ass again?"
The words felt like a slap to the face, but I could see something in his eyes.
There was a minor glow to them, which meant his wolf was fighting for the driver's seat.
Right now, I wasn't sure if that was a good thing.
His wolf could be much worse than this because of Lupe's spell.
We were in an academy full of magic users, so I was sure she had potions or spells up her sleeve to make Silas lose all the progress he made when coming here.
Maybe we need to accept that he could just feel this way about us now.
That truth was too hard to swallow. It would mean my actions caused this, and we would have had a much happier ending if I would have accepted the bond when Silas first came here. Though my wolf was right.
This could be just Silas not wanting the bond anymore after everything that had happened between us.
Anger bubbled inside of me, knowing this could have ended differently.
It may have been my fault, but some of the blame was on Silas, too.
It changed nothing, though. I thought this would show him I would be there for him and fight through this thing together, but if this was Silas with some clarity, that meant he didn't want me.
I got to my feet and lunged at Silas. While on top of him, my fist connected with his cheek three times before he registered my attack. He threw me off him and the fight continued.
We circled each other first, waiting for an opening as we stood in our fighting stances.
There wasn't an opening for at least a minute, and my anger had brewed to an unbearable level.
I charged in again, keeping myself astral until the last moment.
Silas still hadn't learned how to fight me while using this method, so it made it easy to land a right hook to his jaw.
There still had to be a way to get through to him. Part of me still didn't want to let go. My wolf stayed on alert to see a glimpse of the Silas I loved in there while I focused on knocking his ass out, but neither of us could see it.
Maybe we should mark him. That's still an option. My wolf suggested as we went back to circling each other.
Marking him sounded like a plan, but that didn't feel possible at the moment.
Silas didn't seem like he would enjoy being bonded to me now.
Without confirmation that he wasn't part of Lupe's army, that could also put me and my bonded mates at risk.
Just like my ability to share my power with my mates through the bonds, what if that could give Lupe access to me and my mates?
That wasn't a good idea at all.
Silas lunged, this time trying to do a sweep with his leg, but I went astral before he could land the blow.
I could see his face turning red before he just charged into me.
With the astral form, it was all too easy not to get hit.
It made this fight much more fun when I kept myself corporal long enough to make him think I was out of juice just to go astral until I could get him on his back.
The problem was that Silas had just as much training as, if not more than, I did. He was a skilled fighter, and a much better one than me. If it wasn't for my astral form, Silas would have had me ages ago. If he had that dagger, he would have gotten too many chances to use it on me, too.
As I evaded some swinging, my mind went to Hunter briefly.
I still didn't know if he was alive or dead.
The bond wasn't telling me anything, especially with me having it shut down so Jackson couldn't figure out where I was or what I was doing.
He needed to keep Hunter alive, if he was, and I needed to bring Silas to heel.
That's when the ripple of magic happened.
Silas shifted back into his wolf form, and I could see the rage in his eyes even in this form.
I could see some logic there, though. Maybe the wolf thought he could break through the magic Silas couldn't. He could try, but it wasn’t likely.
He couldn't tap into the magic from my bond yet, either.
We needed to have the bond completed for that to happen, and he didn't seem like he was ready for that kind of commitment.
The bond!
I yanked on the bond, and the wolf went rigid. The wolf whined and batted his head like he was trying to shake it off. When he looked at me again, he bore his teeth and growled at me.
"No! I will not stop trying to break through this bullshit she has you under.
You are MINE Silas!" The wolf lunged again, and I kept the astral form.
It was weird to feel my mate jump through it, but I had grown used to it from this fight.
Yanking on it again, it was a good chance to bring him to heel long enough for me to talk to him.
"You are mine , and I am yours. " It seemed stupid, but it couldn't hurt to try to over enunciate these points.
"Do you feel this?" I tugged on it again, and I tried to push the way I felt into him.
The wolf whined again and shook his head. Maybe whatever was going on inside of him, I was messing with it. I could get through to him just by using this to my advantage.
Another tug. "This will not go away. Even if you reject me, I will keep fighting for this, Silas. I'm not giving up on you. I'll never give up on someone I love, damn it!"
I pulled up the memory of the night of my heat and pushed the images through the bond and into him.
I could see the moment it must have gone through his head because his wolf yelped and lowered himself on the ground.
There were so many whines and his paws were scraping against his head.
It looked like he was trying to fight what I was pushing into him, but it also could have been him pushing through the magic that was keeping him from me.
"Fight this, Silas! You belong to me, and I belong to you. Jackson and Hunter, too! We are your pack, your family!"
I had to shift the focus from just images to the feelings I felt during the night of the heat.
How I loved feeling his touch, how he learned every inch of my body and committed it to memory.
I replayed the moment he told me how I didn't have to like him in the morning, but he would take care of me.
That moment he said "fuck it" and devoured me with his kiss.
There were so many moments of that night I relived and I felt the tears streaming down my face when the next memory came to mind.
Of him telling me he wasn't sure if he wanted the bond with me anymore.
I let the heartbreak of that moment roll through the bond. The wolf whined again and crawled toward me. I wanted to drop the astral form, but I couldn't tell if this was my Silas or not.
But I knew this was working.
If I couldn't complete the bond with him and know he was mine again, then I needed to be completely sure this was the Silas I fell in love with, the one who could break through the control Lupe had on him and be the mate that I needed, before I shifted back.
"Do you feel that, Silas? That's how I felt this entire time.
I tried for so long to hate you, but as soon as you walked back into my life, I knew it was game over for me.
No one ever told me it was a mistake to walk away from me before.
You did." I went to my knees to be closer to him, keeping the astral form in place.
"So much has happened in these past few months.
With the other two, they let the bond do the work, and we fell so fast. Not me and you, though.
You made me work for it just as much as I made you. "
Another whine from the wolf, but there was still something in his eyes I didn't like.
He was almost there but not quite. Maybe Lupe's control was loosening because of me accepting the bond.
She wouldn't have accounted for that. If I learned anything while at this school, it was this: love conquers all.
And I fucking loved Silas. Me fighting to keep him like this showed me that. Before I came to this place, before I found these bonds, I wouldn't have done any of this. No one ever made me care like this and no one else would. Silas changed everything for me.