Chapter Twenty-Five Dylan #2
I could never get sick of seeing this place, perfectly centered in the middle of hundreds of acres, and a few dozen of the acres on all sides of the house were free of trees.
It allowed us to have killer barbecues and what not with the entire pack, and the pack runs were absolutely magical since we didn’t have to worry about a human for miles.
When my feet hit the porch, my mother’s face appeared in the doorway with her eyebrows furrowed before a growl emitted from her.
The bombshell of a Luna always made people do a double take, but this time I did it because I didn’t expect for her to be in the doorway.
The silver hair and powerful presence that was my mother wasn’t what I was expecting to walk into when we got here.
Where was Lupe? But before I could ask, my mother’s concern showed as she stared at the people behind me.
I could see what made her uneasy. Two young girls with four large and powerful wolves behind us, looking like they were chasing us, wasn’t a good sign, but I flung myself into her arms as the relief washed over me.
“Thank the goddess you are okay.”
She hugged me tightly back, but I could feel her head on my shoulder to give her the ability to see everything behind me. “Of course I am okay. What are you doing here? You should be at school.”
I stepped back and frowned at her, peering behind her to see where my father was or who else was in the pack house.
We needed everyone front and center before Lupe got here.
We didn’t know how many people Lupe even had at her disposal.
She had been abducting people right and left, and I knew most of them had to survive the procedure for her to feel confident enough to attack my pack.
“Something happened, Mom. We need to get everyone here at the pack house ready for a fight.”
“What? Wait. Back up. Who did you bring home with you, and what do you mean we need to be ready for a fight?”
She stepped back and ushered everyone inside, which was typical for her because she was always a hostess first. The Luna traits inside her always made her like this, even if she didn’t know who I’d brought along with me.
I quickly went through introductions before launching into my time at school when my father walked in.
I broke the conversation enough to give him a hug and went through the introductions again just to finish the story.
I don’t know when Lupe would show up here, but we needed to be prepared for a war.
When I finished, my parents rejected the idea of a teacher wanting to harm our people, but I noticed my mother eyeing my friends more than she was considering a plan.
“You have three mates,” she told me as she pulled me aside.
Valko, my father, immediately went to my mates and started discussing strategy.
I should’ve known my mother would pull me away to talk about this, but it was because she was rarely part of battle strategy talks.
My father liked to keep her safe in the pack house instead of with him in a fight.
The alpha in him couldn’t let his mate fight because of his worry of her getting hurt.
Meanwhile, my father prevented anyone from challenging my mother for the title of Luna and mating with him throughout their relationship.
She was a whirlwind of brutal force, leaving a path of destruction in her wake.
“Yeah. I don’t know why I had to be given so many, but I hope there isn’t a fourth out there. I don’t want another one.”
Sera came up to my side and smiled at my mother. “I’m pretty sure Dylan would kill him just so she wouldn’t have to bond to another alpha.”
Mom’s eyebrows raised to her hairline at the statement. “They are all alphas?”
I shrugged. “Technically two are betas, but they are both powerful enough to run their own packs; they just don’t.”
She hugged me and sighed in my embrace. “I’m so proud of you.”
It felt great to hear that, but now wasn’t the time for this. Though, I did have something to yell at her for. “Why the hell didn’t you answer the phone? I thought Lupe was already here because you didn’t pick up! You NEVER miss a phone call!”
She made a face before looking back at my father. “We were... out running. It was a pack run to get some energy out. We couldn’t explain why, but everyone felt kind of off tonight.”
Sera and I exchanged a glance, and I knew she had to be thinking the same thing I was.
Maybe Lupe worked more magic than just controlling Silas.
This was bad. If she could cast more magic than that, it would turn the tides in her favor before the fight even began. How could we possibly fight magically enhanced people, or even worse, people whose magic was suppressed?
“Who is on patrol tonight? Has any alarm gone off yet?”
“Our defenses are up, and we haven’t been alerted to anything abnormal. It feels like a quiet night, Dylan. Are you sure she is coming here?”
“Mom... this evil bitch wants to take over our race. Shadowborns are the key to that happening. She is going to come here. She wanted to use me, but I told her to go fuck herself.” My mother winced at my language use, and I could see her suppressing an eye roll.
“If she wants to take over, she will end up here. We are the strongest Shadowborns in our world. You and dad are the strongest before me.”
She smiled and shook her head. “Wrong. You are the strongest now.”
“What?”
She bit her lip and looked back at my dad. He noticed her gaze and stopped talking to my mates to walk over to me. He put his arm around my mother’s shoulders and gave me a big smile.
“Dylan, the reason we have been the strongest was because of the strength we have between us as a mated pair. You aren’t just mated to one powerful mate but three. You outrank us, now.”
Well, fuck me. Not only would Lupe have hit the jackpot by coming here, she knew I would come here to save my parents from her.
The bitch ran a risk of attacking me on school property, but there wasn’t much of one here.
Lupe could challenge me for the damn pack.
If she won, she would have all the power she needed to break through every damn wolf she encountered to turn them into one of her puppets.
My knees went weak, and I nearly fell to the ground, but a pair of arms grabbed me just before I got there and hauled me back to my feet. Hands flipped me around to make me look in their face, and Silas’s green eyes stared back at me. Silas examined me until he was satisfied I wasn’t harmed.
“What? What happened?”
The words were hard to gather because I couldn’t believe I fell for this fucking trap.
Lupe played her cards just right to get me in the right place.
Everyone I cared about was right here! I led her right into the den, and now my mates and my pack would be the casualties.
Even worse, she could use their lives to force me to do her bidding because I wouldn’t dare let her take them over me.
Then the sirens came.
Our watch tower by the northern part of our land sounded the alarm.
We weren’t alone anymore.
Lupe was here.