Page 30 of Rising Luna
"There. I walked you to your class. Now leave me alone."
With a glance over my shoulder, I noticed Lupe was no longer behind us. I thought she was following Dylan, but I guess I was wrong. If she was following us, wouldn't she still be behind us?
"What's going on with you and Lupe, Dylan?" I demanded.
Dylan's lip curled, and she let out a growl. "You don't need to be caught up in all that, Silas. Leave it alone."
"No." I retorted. "Something is going on, and I want to know everything. I can't really be there for you and work on things with you if you don't let me in."
Students were moving around and weren't paying attention to us. With my mate so close to me, I could feel my wolf's yearning for us to touch her. I breathed in her berry scent, and it took so much energy to focus on Dylan instead of trying to throw her over my shoulder and go mark her. The outfit she wore clung to her curves perfectly and showed off her toned body. I noticed a hint of a tattoo on her right shoulder, and my eyes lifted in shock. I don't think I noticed that the night we found out we were mates. If she had one, did that mean she had more?
Dylan snapped her fingers in front of my face. "Focus!"
I smiled and looked down at the ground for a second. "Sorry. It's hard to focus around you sometimes."
"Well. Try harder." I snorted in response, but kept my gaze on hers to show her she had my attention. "Do you seriously want to know?"
"I can't help if I'm left in the dark, Dylan."
Dylan shifted from one foot to another, and I could see her thighs rubbing together. Her berry scent got stronger, and I couldn't keep my focus on her for too long without running my gaze over her body again. I've been around Dylan before, and it never took this much energy to not want to mark her. What was going on? Her scent had me wondering if it would coat my tongue if I ran it along her body. Would she taste just as good as she smelled? Gods, I hope so. This scent of hers made my mouth water, but also made my mouth go dry. Would the taste of her make this thirst go away?
Stop that.
"Fine. Let's go to your dorm. If I am going to divulge everything, we need privacy, but we are just talking! Understood?"
Ugh. I would love to do more than that, but I can't push her away."Whatever you want to happen will happen. If that's just talking, so be it."
Dylan turned on her heel and led the way toward the dorm. I practically panted after her like some kind of love sick pup, but I didn't care. She wanted to let me in on what was going on around here. I could see it plain as day something more was going on than she was telling me. Lupe couldn't really keep her eyes off Dylan, almost like she wanted Dylan to be her mate, maybe even the conduit of power she needed to make her own power grow.That was too bizarre to ignore.
Walking toward the dorm, I had another feeling of being watched come over me. I looked around and couldn't see anyone. Could Shadowborns go completely ghost enough to disappear? From what I had learned so far from Wilcox, no. However, Wilcox also mentioned some Shadowborns' power exceeded others and gained more abilities. That could mean Lupe had figured out how to disappear–a frightening thought, but I didn't know how true my guess was right now. There wasn't even a reflection of eyes or a weird movement of trees from where I was looking.
It's probably in my head. Just focus on Dylan.
Once inside the dorms, I took the lead to take her to my room. It was under her room, but I was thankful the rooms were sound proof. It had been bad enough I could feel her with her other mates through the bonds. Even though it was severed, I could get inklings of things she felt. One of those feelings was her excitement and happiness at being with her mates at night. I hoped someday that I would be involved in there, but that was something that was all on Dylan.
When we made it to my room, I opened the door and allowed her to walk in first. As I stepped through the door, she sat on my bed and waited for me to walk in and lock the door before she started talking.
"Lupe is an evil bitch. It started off that she was an excellent teacher. She helped me gain control of my wolf and my power, though I really think it had more to do with completing the bonds with Jackson and Hunter than it did with her teachings. But. When I dealt with Camilla trying to kill me about being mated to Jackson, I ended up bumping into some of her groupies. It was weird. They seemed normal until you actually paid attention to how they moved and talked. It was like they were human on the outside, but not on the inside. Like they couldn't be human anymore."
I nodded, remembering how I thought the same thing about a student after I first came here.
"So. It turned out they were her experiments. Lupe believes we should all be like those kids. Something about being at full power if we remove the walls between our human side and wolf side."
That got my attention. I put my hands up for her to stop and thought back to the student that I thought was off. It didn't seem like they were in control of their wolf. They even smelled more like a wolf than they did a human.
"That couldn't work, could it? Our wolves are powerful creatures, but they also couldn't thrive in our world without our human half. They are more about emotion and instinct than they are about anything else. Not to mention, if our human half would get overpowered by the wolf, we would just lose control. We would attack other people."
“That's the thing. I didn’t think it would work either. Even worse, I thought these things would turn into monsters. Like they couldn't be a part of everyday life because all they'd wantwas to feed, breed, and whatever else our wolf wants. If the wolf was in control, they couldn't do day-to-day things like we can."
"That's what I would assume."
Dylan took a break, and she rubbed her legs together again. Her eyes rolled and her hands were keeping herself upright on the bed. I wasn't sure what was going on, but her scent had become the focal point of the room. I tried to walk over to the other side of the room to put some distance between us. My thoughts became mostly about how I wanted to lay her back on that bed and do every perverted fantasy I had ever thought to her until we were forced to leave the room. If it hadn't been for her voice bringing me back from my thoughts, I would have caved into it.
"Whatever she did to them, it worked. They had become their wolves within their human bodies. The way they shifted too–it was so fast, and they were mating with each other without bonding. It was like they were choosing what to do and when instead of leaving it up to fate. Their anger could be triggered too easily, though. It's something she wants me for. Apparently, Shadowborn magic is the key to it all. If we mate to others who aren't Shadowborns, we can push our magic through the bond and cause every wolf to lose control of the wall between our human half and wolf half. I didn't believe it was possible, but somehow she made it work. I think she is tracking down more Shadowborns. Like...even descendents of Shadowborns to use the magic to do whatever she is planning. She wants this to work on every wolf. I'm not sure if she has worked out all the kinks, but she has worked out enough to turn anyone willing into these creatures, assuming they survive."
This wasn't what I was expecting at all. I assumed, maybe, Lupe wanted her to lead an enormous pack or something. Hell, I even thought Lupe might want Dylan to form a pack herself and lead more Shadowborns. That would be more of what I expectedthan this. To turn someone from a werewolf to a... wolf man? I don't even know what to call this. Or why Lupe would want this to happen.
"Let me get this straight. Lupe wants the walls between our minds to meld into one so the wolf would be more dominant and prevalent than the human. What would that do for her?"
