Page 83 of Rising Luna
We got these! You need to fight Lupe.
Hunter commanded me to do the very thing I couldn’t wait to do. Lupe’s face was one of horror as she saw my mates taking over the fight and leaving her standing in the middle of the back yard. A smile spread across my face as I let the magic go to release my astral form. I stepped forward with all the confidence in the world.
My mates were here.
I’ve got this.
This was the very thing I had been dreaming about for weeks—kicking Lupe’s ass and ridding the academy of her evil.
The snarls and yelps of the battle around me fell away as I focused on Lupe. Marching right up to her wasn’t the best idea, but I wanted this over with.
“This won’t end here, Dylan. You are just going to strike down a domino instead of cutting off the head of a snake. My work is now out in the open!” Lupe’s attempt at distracting me didn’t work.
Calling on my wolf’s power, I used my enhanced speed and strength to begin the dance of a lifetime. She evaded several of my swings, but I knew the key here would be to not become predictable. A change up in my swings, throwing all sorts of combinations so I wouldn’t fall into a rhythm she could guess, and it took longer than I wanted to land a blow on her. An uppercut of all things, and it left her open for me to drive my knee into her stomach. I switched to an upswing kick, and it sent her flying.
This felt too easy. She was just using defense, and that wasn’t what I came here to do. Was she stalling? That would be terrible if she escalated the conflict further. In the pack bonds, I could feel everyone getting tired. This fight had been going for too long, and many of them were bleeding or worse. Another wave of wolves had come in while I taunted Lupe, and only my mates seemed to have enough steam to keep going.
We were going to lose if this didn’t end soon.
Lupe had too many wolves for her to call upon, and my pack didn’t have enough to fight. She was on her feet and looked smug, and it drove my anger into overdrive. This would end here tonight, even if I had to be the one to fight through the entire army myself.
“Just give up, Dylan. That kick of yours did some damage, but not enough to stop me.”
She charged me. This time she was on the offense. She was fast, impossibly fast. Every time I blocked a blow, another landed. Some on my body, some on my face. I was having a harder time keeping up than I thought I would, and I tried to call on my astral form to stop her from doing damage to me. The power came too late. Lupe kicked me in the chest and sent me flying backwards. I heard the crack of my rib when her foot connected, and the air left my lungs when my back hit the ground. While I gasped for hair, Lupe cackled.
“You thought this would be easy? I’ve had harder fights than this from newcomers in a pack.”
Doubtful. This was just a taunt. I needed to ignore it and focus on getting the air back into my lungs. Just like others I have fought, Lupe jumped to sit on top of me, and I rolled out of the way. Her boots kept coming down close to where I was previously, and I almost rolled right into Hunter fighting his foe, which made me stop. This gave Lupe an opening, and her boot landed on the cracked rip. It broke, and I screamed. My wolf immediately jumped into action and sent healing energy to the injury. I couldn’t move and tried to breathe through the pain, and the possible puncture from the rib.
“Join me, and this will all end.”
That wasn’t happening. I would rather die than give over to an evil fucking bitch like Lupe. My wolf healed the wound, and I growled. My astral form took over, and I moved out of Lupe’s space to take her on again. She rolled her eyes as if she expected me to give up so easily.
“Never.”
I charged again and bounced between my astral and corporeal form. It became a new dance of landing a blow and evading. Every time there was a block, there was a punch orkick to the body. It was hard to keep switching so the worst of the hits didn’t do too much damage, and I could feel my limbs growing tired. This was taking too long.
What was worse, we had fallen into a predictable pattern despite our best efforts; Lupe and her minions had started blocking or evading every move we made.
Then she turned into a tornado of hands and feet. Using her enhanced speed, Lupe was throwing so many moves and even using flips and spins to evade me. I wasn’t sure where she would be, making it hard to land anything on her. My shadow wolf became my friend, and I stayed in its form just to ensure I didn’t go down again. This was not something I had faced before. Luca was a small part of my time growing up, and even then it was difficult to ever get him on a mat long enough for me to knock him out.
Lupe was worse.
How the hell am I supposed to win?
Even in my astral form, I had to use my energy to keep moving. Lupe still threw all her moves at me, and it was making me feel twinges of pain as her body passed through mine. This shouldn’t be possible. In the astral form; no one could hurt us. Yet I was feeling pain everywhere she touched me.
I dropped the astral form and went on the complete offensive. If she landed a hit on me, that opened her up to be hit, too, but then she jumped in the air. Her body spun and her foot cracked against my cheek. I went down to the ground, and I felt the blood drip down my face.
My confidence broke, and I tried to pull my astral form back so Lupe couldn’t hit me again, but she was on top of me in an instant, punches landing on my face and breaking my skin. Blood splattered everywhere, and I thought for sure I saw the moon glisten and a new glow illuminated the sky.
Maybe this was her calling me home. The pain exploded in my head, and darkness swirled in my vision. Lupe was going to win after all. I didn’t have the energy to keep going. In the bonds, I could feel my pack and mates slipping into exhaustion. We would not win this, and I needed to accept it now instead of costing the lives of my pack.
“You thought I only brought those wolves?” She lifted my head by my hair to make me look her in the eye. “How cute.”
More howls rang through the air.
Another wave had arrived.
