Chapter Twenty-Six Jackson
Shit. Fuck. This wasn’t good. It was never good when a battle was on the horizon, and there wasn’t much of a plan. Valko rallied up his troops and called in everyone on patrol, but until we could see how many reinforcements Lupe brought, we wouldn’t know if it’s enough.
Dylan’s actions were driven by a need to secure the safety of everyone, particularly the mothers and their young.
Seeing her jump into that role made my heart swell with pride.
Dylan was born to be a Luna, though I’d argue she should be considered an Alpha to anyone who would listen.
She knew how to command and lead better than any other female I’d ever met.
And she was mine.
At first, I had thoughts about keeping her to myself.
When Hunter came into the picture, I’ll admit I wanted to secretly kill him so Dylan would only be mine.
I thought for sure Silas would keep his distance, and the average males any female had were around three in our species.
It wasn’t until Hunter proved himself, and Dylan marked him, that felt at ease about him joining in.
He was a tough bastard and sometimes kept our girl safer than I ever could have.
Silas coming back, though…I wasn’t happy about that in the least. It was hard to see him around her when I knew how much pain he caused my mate.
There were some serious doubts about him proving himself to Dylan, but he came through.
I still wanted to punch him for stabbing Hunter and causing Dylan to bleed, but I felt Hunter’s punch and Dylan kicking his ass made up for it, so I didn’t have to step in.
“How the fuck did she get through your patrol? Someone sounded the alarms AFTER she crossed into the territory!”
Hunter’s snarls filled the room, and I turned away from watching my mate take charge, getting people to safety, to seeing my pack mate screaming in the alpha’s face.
The ex-Enforcer scared the shit out of me when he got this level of angry . There was a vein popping in his forehead as he laid into Valko, and I knew shit would hit the fan if he didn’t calm the fuck down.
I walked over to where they stood, and I was surprised to see Valko remain as calm as he did while Hunter’s face reddened with anger. Hunter wasn’t an easy man to calm down. So far, I had only seen Dylan be able to calm him from any level of anger, but I had to try.
“Hunter, Lupe has gotten away with murder, literally, inside of the academy. If she has gotten under their radar with shit, I’m sure she can get past some people on patrol.”
He glared at me, but I kept my calm from showing any sign that I was ready to wet myself as his power washed over me.
I thanked the damn moon goddess she made him part of Dylan’s harem, and my pack mate, because I would cripple under that gaze and his power if it wasn’t for the bond making us an equal.
“We are running out of time. Lupe is nearly fucking here.”
“Then it looks like we need to strategize, man.”
He scoffed and stalked off to a table which had a map laid out of the territory.
Dylan burst into the room with Sera in tow and ran right to Hunter.
The way his features softened when he saw her made everyone in the room breathe easier.
Fuck, even I felt relieved seeing Dylan calming that mountain down.
Valko turned to me. “At least someone can keep him calm.”
I laughed and walked over to the table with the alpha.
Hunter shot us a look, but we ignored him as he tucked Dylan into his side.
Those two had grown close lately, and I knew he needed her at his side right now.
After this was over, we needed to take Dylan to that secluded cabin we talked about so we could all get some time with her before she would have to return to take over the pack.
After her parents mentioned she had grown past their power level and now outranked them, reading between the lines, that meant she would need to take her place as ruler of this pack.
I’m mated to a fucking queen.
“She is coming in from the north quadrant of the territory. There are no signs of her being anywhere else, so she is coming straight through the entrance to walk right through our front gate. Bold of her, since surrounding us would have been a better strategy,” Valko explained.
Looking at the map, the alpha was right. Lupe could have taken a route that led to our ambush, but she opted for an easier one. She had skirted around the academy and created so much smoke and so many mirrors that no one suspected her, but she couldn’t figure out how to overwhelm her real target?
That didn’t make sense.
I looked over at Teowulf and his stature was damn near like Hunter’s. That man was more terrifying than the Enforcer and was mated to Lupe for decades. How didn’t that woman learn a damn thing from her mate? Teowulf could be a significant advantage to her, but she rejected him?
If it weren’t for him looking broken up about his mate coming in to attack a pack, I would call bullshit on her even rejecting him.
When he told his tale about what happened between them, I could smell the truth in the words, and Dylan confirmed she didn’t smell a lie either.
It was hard to deceive our noses. If I was younger and less experienced, sure.
But Hunter’s nose? No. Hunter mentioned he didn’t smell a lie either.
So how didn’t Lupe know how to set up this battle better?
Rejecting her mate would have made her weaker, too.
That didn’t seem like a smart plan before trying to take over a strong Shadowborn pack.
They were made to be better fighters than us regular werewolves.
Lupe may have been a Shadowborn herself, but this still didn’t add up to me.
“She’s going to want to come after me. Maybe I should go off somewhere and draw her away from the house.”
Silas and Hunter joined in with my growling at her suggesting that. “NO,” we said in unison.
She snarled back at us and snapped her teeth from her frustration.
I could feel it through the bond. She may love that we protected her, but she also hated how we didn’t let her do things the way she wanted to do them.
Could I blame her? No. I’m sure we were annoying.
This was just part of being a dominant mated male, and she would have to grow used to it.
I heard that, asshole. No. I won’t get used to it.
I growled at her through the bond. You need to understand we are trying to keep you safe because you mean far too much to us. You are our future.
And we won’t have a future unless we kill Lupe. I am the best person suited for that because we know she will come after me.
Mentally, I groaned. She had a point, and none of us liked it, but Lupe wouldn’t go out to her unless she was alone.
Like we would allow her to go out on a battlefield alone.
We weren’t stupid. Lupe could be setting up a trap by having her minions use their Shadowborn power to keep them cloaked until they were ready.
Double fuck. Did anyone else realize this?
Lupe could storm the gate, but she was jailbreaking everyone’s minds who followed her to become one with their wolves.
She needed Shadowborns to do that since they could all go astral when fighting.
With that ability, she could bring their shadow wolves to the forefront and teach them about their power.
“What powers do Shadowborns have outside of going astral?”
Everyone looked at me funny for a second, but I could see the wheels in Dylan’s mind working. She was picking up on why I asked that question, and her eyes widened when she followed that thought to the answer.
“Fuck! We can do more than go astral. We can practically teleport short distances and bend shadows to our will. It’s fucking NIGHT! The whole damn territory is in one giant shadow she can bend!”
“Which means-“
More alarms sounded around us, and my heart sank into my stomach. Our pack house had the same safety measures. That alarm meant there were people near to the house now. Lupe tripped the alarm to alert us she was coming.
Alarms were going off all around the house’s quadrants.
Lupe learned some things from her mate after all. We thought the ones she was bringing with her were all following her.
“Can other Shadowborns see the person wielding those shadows?”
Valko growled. “No; not unless they are from the same pack. It’s how we use that ability in battle.”
Valko barked orders to the others throughout the house and told them all to spread out around the house and into the clearing to block anyone from getting in here.
Hunter pulled Dylan to the side, and I could hear him telling her she should stay inside for now and come out when we have weeded out the herd of minions surrounding us.
She didn’t agree to it, and I saw Silas stepping closer to her.
I joined the small huddle just as Silas backed up Hunter.
“He’s right. If she is coming for you, we need to keep you in a spot where we can get to you if she gets inside.”
“I should fight! I am better than half this pack in using my abilities now, and my power is stronger than my parents. I would be more useful out there.”
I pulled Dylan into me and inhaled her intoxicating blackberry and currant scent.
She melded into me, and I could feel the anger rolling off her without the bond.
I could also tell how scared she was right now, and she needed to know why listening to us was better than her going into the battle half-cocked from her rage.
“We know you can fight, but we want to keep you safe until you need to fight. If you go out there and use your power and energy to fight the minions, you won’t have enough to use on the boss.
We can feed into that through the bonds, but we will need it to keep from everything getting in.
We don’t even know how many there are out there. ”
“Dylan! Get out here!” Valko yelled from the front porch.