Page 78 of Rising Luna
“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 lookin 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.
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 comingback, 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 allget 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.
