Page 68 of Rising Luna
That wasn't a good idea at all.
Silas lunged, this time trying to do a sweep with his leg, but I went astral before he could land the blow. I could see his face turning red before he just charged into me. With the astral form, it was all too easy not to get hit. It made this fight much more fun when I kept myself corporal long enough to make him think I was out of juice just to go astral until I could get him on his back.
The problem was that Silas had just as much training as, if not more than, I did. He was a skilled fighter, and a much better one than me. If it wasn't for my astral form, Silas would have had me ages ago. If he had that dagger, he would have gotten too many chances to use it on me, too.
As I evaded some swinging, my mind went to Hunter briefly. I still didn't know if he was alive or dead. The bond wasn't telling me anything, especially with me having it shut down so Jackson couldn't figure out where I was or what I was doing. He needed to keep Hunter alive, if he was, and I needed to bring Silas to heel.
That's when the ripple of magic happened. Silas shifted back into his wolf form, and I could see the rage in his eyes even in this form. I could see some logic there, though. Maybe the wolf thought he could break through the magic Silas couldn't. He could try, but it wasn’t likely. He couldn't tap into the magic from my bond yet, either. We needed to have the bond completed for that to happen, and he didn't seem like he was ready for that kind of commitment.
The bond!
I yanked on the bond, and the wolf went rigid. The wolf whined and batted his head like he was trying to shake it off.When he looked at me again, he bore his teeth and growled at me.
"No! I will not stop trying to break through this bullshit she has you under. You areMINESilas!" The wolf lunged again, and I kept the astral form. It was weird to feel my mate jump through it, but I had grown used to it from this fight. Yanking on it again, it was a good chance to bring him to heel long enough for me to talk to him. "You aremine, and I amyours." It seemed stupid, but it couldn't hurt to try to over enunciate these points. "Do you feel this?" I tugged on it again, and I tried to push the way I felt into him.
The wolf whined again and shook his head. Maybe whatever was going on inside of him, I was messing with it. I could get through to him just by using this to my advantage.
Another tug. "This will not go away. Even if you reject me, I will keep fighting for this, Silas. I'm not giving up on you. I'll never give up on someone I love, damn it!"
I pulled up the memory of the night of my heat and pushed the images through the bond and into him. I could see the moment it must have gone through his head because his wolf yelped and lowered himself on the ground. There were so many whines and his paws were scraping against his head. It looked like he was trying to fight what I was pushing into him, but it also could have been him pushing through the magic that was keeping him from me.
"Fight this, Silas! You belong to me, and I belong to you. Jackson and Hunter, too! We are your pack, your family!"
I had to shift the focus from just images to the feelings I felt during the night of the heat. How I loved feeling his touch, how he learned every inch of my body and committed it to memory. I replayed the moment he told me how I didn't have to like him in the morning, but he would take care of me. That moment he said "fuck it" and devoured me with his kiss. There wereso many moments of that night I relived and I felt the tears streaming down my face when the next memory came to mind.
Of him telling me he wasn't sure if he wanted the bond with me anymore.
I let the heartbreak of that moment roll through the bond. The wolf whined again and crawled toward me. I wanted to drop the astral form, but I couldn't tell if this was my Silas or not.
But I knew this was working.
If I couldn't complete the bond with him and know he was mine again, then I needed to be completely sure this was the Silas I fell in love with, the one who could break through the control Lupe had on him and be the mate that I needed, before I shifted back.
"Do you feel that, Silas? That's how I felt this entire time. I tried for so long to hate you, but as soon as you walked back into my life, I knew it was game over for me. No one ever told me it was a mistake to walk away from me before. You did." I went to my knees to be closer to him, keeping the astral form in place. "So much has happened in these past few months. With the other two, they let the bond do the work, and we fell so fast. Not me and you, though. You made me work for it just as much as I made you."
Another whine from the wolf, but there was still something in his eyes I didn't like. He was almost there but not quite. Maybe Lupe's control was loosening because of me accepting the bond. She wouldn't have accounted for that. If I learned anything while at this school, it was this: love conquers all.
And I fucking loved Silas. Me fighting to keep him like this showed me that. Before I came to this place, before I found these bonds, I wouldn't have done any of this. No one ever made me care like this and no one else would. Silas changed everything for me.
"I wanted to hate you so damn bad, Silas. It drove me insane how the bond still wanted to be completed after you showed up. I kept thinking it couldn't be that easy, but it was. It was always that simple. We could have accepted this bond and worked through our issues before completing it. I see that now. I wanted to hurt you as much as you hurt me, and that was the dumbest mistake I have made since coming here." Even though I was reaching him, I still wouldn't drop my astral form. I still brushed against his fur. He whimpered at me, but I had to break through to him. "We can get through this. Together."
Through the bond, I pushed everything I felt. The anger from the rejected bond, the feeling that this couldn't work at first when he came back, the battle I went through when we were trying to sort out this bond over the last few weeks, and even the struggle of having to fight him like this. Throughout the bond, I could feel Silas trying to come back to me. My heart skipped a beat, feeling him inside my soul, accepting what I felt and then trying to sort through it. He was coming back to me. I felt it.
This was going to be over.
I went corporal at the same time. I pushed my power into him, using a command that would only work if he accepted the bond between us.Shift,I said through the bond and out loud at the same time. The magic rippled and Silas was in his human form, stomach down on the mats. He scurried to his feet and looked at me. I couldn't decipher what he was feeling in his face, and through the bond, it was even more of a mess.
So I smiled at him. "You with me?"
He growled, and a wall slammed into place before he lunged at me.
It caught me off guard, and my back hit the mat before I knew it. I felt his weight on me and then his fist against my face. The scream that ripped out of me made some birds fly out of thenearest tree. My jaw cracked, and I bucked at the right time to make him lose his balance, and I rolled off him.
It didn't work. Silas wasn't back to me yet.
There was something to what I had done. I needed Silas to choose this bond to break through everything Lupe was doing. It was difficult trying to figure out exactly how I could get him to do that, though. That speech didn't work, and pouring into the bond didn't work either. What else could I do to make him break through this and accept us?
When I got to my feet and tried to prepare myself, Silas swept his leg into mine, and I went back down on the mat. I used a lot of energy and power to pull him back into human form. I wasn't sure if I could use my astral form anymore, and I could feel my muscles getting heavy.
