Chapter Twenty-Four Dylan
When the dorm came into view, I wanted nothing more than to soak in a hot bath.
With completing the bond, the energy inside me renewed, and I felt like I could run until my legs fell off again.
It was the feeling of the dried blood and needing to relax as the mental exhaustion took over me that had me wanting the bath.
Jackson noticed my slowing gait and grabbed onto my shoulder to stop me.
He walked in front of me and lowered himself enough for me to get on his back.
I took the opportunity and laid my head against his back as we walked up to the dorm.
“We need to get you into a bath and then bed.”
I hummed against his back in agreement.
“There’s no rest for us. Something is off, and we will need to act on whatever is going on.”
When Hunter finished his sentence, a growl echoed through us, and I looked over Jackson’s shoulder to see Teowulf come out of the dorm. Silas moved to walk behind Jackson, blocking me from being seen. Hunter took point and stepped in front of Jackson.
“Dylan!” I heard Sera yell, and I wiggled against Jackson to let me go. He clutched my legs tighter against him and shook his head. Not a chance. Teowulf could be trying to get through to you through Sera.
Then why the fuck did you let her out of your sight?
I told her to keep safe in her dorm while I helped Hunter per your request !
Hunter’s snarl as Teowulf approached us made the professor stop in his tracks.
Jackson put me down for me to see around them, but they still blocked my view to keep me far enough away from Teowulf.
When the red curls of my best friend came into view as she walked around Teowulf and ran toward us, the relief I felt nearly made me weak in the knees.
I really didn’t want anyone fighting against Teowulf. That man could kill us all.
Sera ran past Hunter and flung herself into me when she saw me. This entire night had been one disaster after another, but I couldn’t put into words how relieving it felt to know nothing had happened to Sera. Just like my mates, I would burn the world down if something had happened to her.
“I’ve been so worried! Jackson said he felt the dagger in Hunter’s chest and that he was dying.
He didn’t know where you were, and then the wall in your bond made him freak out.
Oh!” Sera released herself from me and threw herself into Hunter next.
When she broke away, she punched him in the chest. I saw her wince and shake her hand, but that didn’t stop her from laying into him.
“Don’t fucking do that to us, you big tree! ”
The laugh that came out of me sounded strangled because of how much I didn’t expect it. Jackson joined me, and Hunter just smirked at my best friend.
“I’ll try not to, little one,” he told her as he ruffled her hair.
She smacked his hand away and put her hands on her hips. “I thought you died! I sat in the room and had to watch Jackson lose his shit because of you!” Then she rounded on me. “And you! Don’t scare me like that again!” She slapped my shoulder and I was still laughing.
“Like I could help any of this shit! Lupe made Silas go insane. It’s a miracle I even brought him back to us.”
“That’s another thing. What the fuck happened to y’all?” She looked past me and glared at Silas. “Weren’t you trained better than to go off somewhere by yourself so no one could get the jump on you?”
Silas’s eyebrows furrowed as he threw his hands up. “How am I getting blamed when I was the damn victim? Lupe was controlling me! Didn’t you get that part of the memo?”
“Yeah and you’re the dumbass that didn’t watch your back long enough to get kidnapped. I thought they trained the new alphas better than that.”
“Ouch... what the fuck, dude? I just wanted to help my damn mate on a mission, and now I’m getting yelled at for going crazy when someone else assigned me to my position without backup, and then had mind-warping magical bullshit done to me!”
Jackson and I laughed, and Hunter looked amused. Sera didn’t back down as she glared at my mate. I could see her looking at his neck and then move closer to get a better look. When she turned to me, she had a smile on her face.
“You completed your last bond?”
I nodded, and she squealed. When another laugh escaped me, Teowulf cleared his throat.
I forgot he was even there, though it didn’t look like Hunter had the same problem.
He was between Teowulf and us, but the professor had an amused expression on his face when we looked at him before it disappeared.
Another emotion had replaced it, but it was unreadable. Then it hit me.
“Lupe is gone,” I said with a growl.
“Yes.”
I stomped up to him and Hunter’s hand grabbed onto my arm to stop me from closing the distance. “Have you known all along what a piece of shit you’re mated to?” She is putting the entire race in danger!”
He sighed, and his eyes softened as tears glistened in his eyes.
“No. I don’t know how, but she has masked herself from me for years.
There were moments where I should have guessed she was turning herself into a monster, but I thought it was from the stress of running this school.
But..” He paused and bowed his head. The scent of shame and remorse filled the air, and there was a silent sob coming from him.
He really didn’t know what was going on. Lupe had covered her tracks enough, even in the bond, to keep him from knowing what she really was. My heart broke for him. To watch your mate descend into madness and evil couldn’t have been easy. I wondered when he even recognized this was happening.
“Teowulf,” I called to him and waited for him to meet my gaze. “When did you know?”
“Today. She woke up today and decided to stop hiding behind a mask. She rejected the bond this morning.”
Ouch. After knowing what that felt like when the bond was still new, I couldn’t imagine what he was going through when they had spent decades together. That had to make the pain worse. To have the love and life you built with someone ripped away without reason.
“I tried to talk to her about it, but she said I was with her or against her. She told me the things she had been working on.” He shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe she thinks that is better for our kind.”
“Is her wolf the one in charge? Has she done the procedure to herself?” I asked, hoping to be told no.
Lupe anticipated the surge of power that would follow the ritual’s success.
Without the restrictions of her human half, she would also fight harder and have fewer limitations.
The problem at hand was that she was a Shadowborn.
Depending on if she bonded herself to other wolves, she could do more damage now.
“I don’t know. She wanted me to do it, but I told her no.
It seemed like too much of a risk because, if me and my wolf didn’t agree, it would do enough damage to our system to kill us.
That was the problem she was having, but now she knows if a Shadowborn is used in the process, the walls can become less of a problem, and the wolf can take over with ease. ”
So Lupe wasn’t looking for others to bond with.
She was looking for a Shadowborn powerful enough to bend the walls with our shadows.
I knew that, but the people she was rounding up and going missing told me everything.
They were her new recruits who accepted the procedure but still needed a Shadowborn to complete her cause.
She hadn’t come after me yet, though. With all my bonded mates, I would be someone powerful enough to do what she needs. So why hasn’t she come for me?
“Where is she now?”
Teowulf didn’t have an answer. This threw a wrench into everything. If Lupe was out there, that meant she was a problem. Her mate wasn’t holding her back anymore.
So where would she go?
See you at the pack house.
That’s what she said to me. She told me where she was going, and I didn’t pay attention. Too many things had happened since then, and I forgot that she had already told me her destination.
“FUCK!” I screamed and pushed past everyone to get into the building.
I needed to get to my room. There was a call I needed to make to tell me I was right or wrong.
While looking up to the moon, I pleaded with the goddess for this not to be happening, that I was wrong about this and Lupe went somewhere else.
Everyone called out for me, but I kept going.
Running to my dorm, I needed to get to the phone.
I practically kicked down the door to get into my room, and I leapt across the room to get to the phone.
I quickly dialed my pack’s number, and the ringing kept going.
With each round of new rings, my heart plummeted to my stomach.
“Pick up... please pick up...” I looked at the clock, and it wasn’t even ten. My parents would be awake since they felt the need to check on all the pack members in the house before they felt relaxed enough to go to sleep. “PICK UP!”
Everyone came into the room, and my mates ran to the bed to hover around me. No one on the other line picked up. This couldn’t be happening. I gasped as the sinking feeling of my pack being under attack overwhelmed me.
“She’s at my packhouse,” I said to everyone, and I heard them all gasp.
There had to be another reason my parents didn’t pick up. Lupe would be an idiot to attack them. We were the strongest Shadowborn pack, and we were damn close to being stronger than Silas’s pack. It would be self-destruction to go after my pack.