26. Remy

Chapter twenty-six

Remy

It had been three days since Kodi was brought to the pack house. Each day, as much as Remy thought she broke the hold of the Dark Dimension on him, he grew worse. Sometimes he wouldn’t move from the corner and didn’t dare to speak. Lykos issued a command that no one was allowed to go down to the cell outside of him, Tala, or Remy due to his Lycan losing control and trying to rip open the bars. With them being lined with silver, he should not have been able to touch the bars, but his rage overrides his ability to think, and he would still try to pry them open to get to whoever brought him food or a change of clothes. With the three of them having more dominant Lycans over Kodi, they were the safest at controlling the animal while down there.

Remy walked down there yesterday, and she could see the black swimming in his eyes. Her heart broke at the idea of him losing the battle to the dimension and her or her parents having to kill Kodi to keep the pack safe. If there was another option, she would be doing it. Kaida had not replied yet with her solution to the Dark Dimension, so they were running out of time and options.

The rest of Kodi’s pack settled in long enough for Lykos to consider building another house for them all. Many of them had to bunk up in the same room to accommodate them, and a few were even with other pack members who had the room to take them in. Remy was to check on them all occasionally to ensure they were happy. When she did, the pack members seemed restless without an Alpha to guide them. Many were asking when they would return home, and some asked about their Alpha returning to them. Remy’s day brightened when she heard her brother was a good enough Alpha, and his pack felt lost without him. It also angered her, and that anger was pointed at her father. At first, Remy thought it would be best to leave it alone and let Lykos handle it, but it ate away at her to the point that she couldn’t sleep, so now it was her problem to fix.

Rapping her fist on her father’s office door made her heart skip a beat, and her palms grew a little sweaty. She heard him say come in, so she took a deep breath. As she opened the door, Remy saw her mother sitting on the edge of his desk and Lykos staring at some papers sprawled out. Tala was glancing down at them until Remy opened the door. Tala gave Remy a smile, and her eyes dropped back down to the papers.

"Dad, we need to talk."

Lykos peered up at her from the top of his eyes and gave her a look that said, "Well, out with it."

"Kodi’s pack is not settling in as you hoped. They need their Alpha back or for someone to step up for that role. They are lost right now while here. It’s our job as Alphas to protect and serve our packs, but we aren’t doing a good enough job at it right now." Remy’s voice grew angrier with each syllable.

Lykos stared at her for a few seconds and then looked at Tala. "When did I allow for my children to disrespect me like this?"

Tala shook her head, "This is not disrespect, my love. This is the product of being an Alpha. You are like this too, so it’s nice to see you getting a taste of your own medicine."

Lykos growled at her, but it only caused Tala to smile. Remy cleared her throat, "Yo! I’m still here. Get your wagging tongues back in your mouths, and listen to me!"

Remy knew she shouldn’t have lost her temper, but she was over this. If she were to be an Alpha, she needed to command the people she was talking to, or they would assume she was weak. Especially males. Because the men seem to think that women are lesser than them, and that shit needs to stop.

Lykos finally looked at her with a smirk. "You should know how hard it is to be in the presence of your mate. You have one of those now."

Remy tapped her foot and crossed her arms over her chest. "I don’t give a shit about my mate right now. He isn’t here to distract me. Now if you would please answer my damn question. What are we going to do about this? We have thirty people in our territory who do not want to be here. They want their Alpha back or to be accepted into this pack so they can stop feeling so lost! If you aren’t doing anything about it, then I will!"

Lykos lifted his brow at her. "And what do you plan on doing about it?"

Remy wasn’t prepared for that question. She hadn’t thought about a plan just yet. She just knew that something needed to be done. There was an option of letting Kodi loose and possibly allowing the pack to be taken over by the Dark Dimension, but that wasn’t an option she wanted to offer. The other was to kill Kodi and allow his second to take over the pack, and she didn’t like that idea either. The third was to figure out anything to help Kodi beat this so he could return to his pack instead.

Or...

"I will take over the pack and return them to their territory. While Kodi is recovering, I can lead that pack so they can resume their lives. Once we have a plan to rid Kodi of the Dark Dimension, we can execute it, and he can reassume the role."

The words left Remy’s mouth before she thought them through, but after hearing them, she thought it was a good plan. It would allow the pack to return to their home with a powerful Alpha over them. It would also mean she would have thirty people under her, adding to her power and making them a powerful ally to the Great Plains pack during this trying time. At first, she didn’t know if it was a promising idea, but now she thought it was the best plan she could have produced.

Lykos straightened his back, and his eyes didn’t leave hers. Tala whined as they locked their gazes, almost like Lykos’s wolf was in charge. She wanted to let Remy know that she was to abide by whatever Lykos planned on saying. Remy didn’t give up. She kept her gaze on her father and made sure not to blink. This was going to take a while unless one of them relented.

I will not back down. Fuck this. He wanted a solution, and I gave him one.

A growl emitted from Lykos as he narrowed his eyes at her. She opened her mouth to tell him she wouldn’t back down when a sickening roar broke their gaze. Lykos and Remy looked out of the window behind him. He stood up, blocking Remy’s view of the front yard and driveway. Some of the pack members were walking around, but they suddenly stopped and stared at the house. Remy felt underneath the floorboards shaking, and soon it shook the room.

KODI!

Remy raced through the door, down the hall, and then down the stairs. Kodi was in his Lycan form, a platinum blonde even in his beast’s form, with glowing green eyes. His hands were around the bars, smoke gathering from the silver burning into his skin, and his arm muscles flexed as he pried the bars open. She practically skipped down the steps and called on her Lycan to wake. Kodi’s eyes were on her and stopped momentarily as she shifted into her Lycan. Standing on two feet with her lengthened arms and claws dangling in front of her was not the form she was used to. Remy preferred to be on four legs with her having that option. Kodi noticed how she was quickly shifting and snarled. He returned to prying the bars open, and Remy felt the wave of his power roll through the room. He looked at her again. The glowing green eyes were swimming in black, and Remy knew who was more in charge.

He can’t get out. He will kill anyone in his path.

A swell of power filled the room, and Remy borrowed power from the pack to add onto it. Lykos and Tala’s beasts were causing loud thuds with their heavier weights coming down the stairs. Seeing the two other Lycan’s in the room made Kodi roar again, and then Remy could see he was trying to open the cage with a more determined strength.

Lykos leaped in front of her and roared back at Kodi. He didn’t stop trying to open the bars; they were where he could almost fit through them now. Tala’s Lycan was bumping its paw into Remy and signaling her to return up the stairs. Remy lifted her lips, pulled away from her mother’s touch, and stepped closer to her brother’s cage. Lykos added his power with Remy’s, but Kodi didn’t flinch.

The dimension must be feeding power into his Lycan. Anyone else would be curled in a ball on the floor if they were in this room.

The metal squeaked as it bent further, and now Kodi’s Lycan form would be able to walk through the hole it created. He straightened himself and weaved through the bars. Once he was through, he lifted his lips at them before roaring to warn them to stand back.

No way in hell would I move right now.

I don’t know if we three will be able to get him to submit. I can feel the darkness residing in him.

Great.

Kodi moved with lightning-fast speed and swiped at Lykos. His claws raked across their father’s face, and blood sprayed from the wound. Remy could see one of his eyes was damaged, so he would have trouble seeing the rest of the fight. He was doing well at keeping Kodi at bay, but she could see his movements were slower than she had seen him during the many other fights they had gotten into during their tour. Remy pushed her power into Lykos to give him a boost and help his healing increase as he engaged in battle with Kodi. Lykos was doing his best to keep Kodi in front of him, grabbing him and throwing him back if he managed to get past him. Remy put herself in front of her mother and didn’t want to allow Kodi to get to her. It would kill Kodi, if he survived this, that he attacked their mom.

Lykos threw Kodi against the bars, and Remy heard his skin sizzle from the silver. He roared again and kicked Lykos back with enough force to put him against the wall. There was a loud crack from the stone splitting, and Remy growled at hearing her mother whine. Kodi tackled Remy to the ground and lifted his arm to swipe his paw at her face. Remy shifted into her four-legged form, and with the space between Kodi’s legs, she could twist around and buck Kodi off her. When Kodi got to his feet, Remy launched herself into him and landed in the center of his chest, sending him back into the cell. Her best plan was to fight him inside the cell, risking touching all of the solar bars and knocking him out while there so he would be contained again. When she looked at the opening he created, she realized that plan would not be something she could execute.

It was either knock him out or kill him.

The idea of killing her brother twisted her stomach and made her want to grab the backs of her parents next to her Lycan form and throw them upstairs to lock Kodi down there until they had another option. The door at the top was strengthened over the years by several feet of steel and more silver lining, so if this kind of situation ever happened they would at least be contained down there. Remembering how the dimension was able to fuel Kodi into not caring about the silver, it was going to be more of a struggle to find a solution.

Kodi didn’t give her enough time to think of something else. He jumped on top of her again, pushing her down to the ground. She could feel his claws penetrating her skin deep into her muscles. Remy let out a roar and bucked her back again to push him off. She felt something strange pour into her through the bond with Chase, bringing along his scent of amber and oak as well as the scent of his pack. With the added strength, she pushed herself to her feet, and Kodi was not able to hold on. She shifted back to her Lycan form and swiped across Kodi’s chest with both arms before he knew what hit him. He tried swinging at her, but she evaded the attack before grabbing and tossing him to his side. That’s when she noticed the other cell’s door was opened.

Remy looked around and saw her mother trying to wake up her father. He was out cold on the floor, and Kodi was getting to his feet. They were now in front of the second cell and away from the staircase, giving Remy her chance at getting him locked up where he couldn’t hurt anyone. There was the sound of running upstairs, and she could tell it was Bryan by the gait. She was sure she felt the command through the bonds to keep everyone from coming down here, but she wasn’t sure if Bryan was told he couldn’t come down here, too. There were already enough people down here trying to keep Kodi contained. If Bryan came down, it was just one more person she had to protect. Tala poured her power into Remy, twisting the pack bonds to give her everything they could spare. Kodi ran for the stairs after hearing Bryan’s movement above, which made the dimension contort his thoughts to attack them. Remy jumped on his back as he passed her, his arm trying to backhand her before she could. Kodi missed, and she was on his back. A quick shift to her wolf form and pushed her claws into his back as she slid down, blood pouring from the wound as she split open his skin. Kodi howled in pain and tried to move back and forth to make her lose her grip. Her paws hit the floor, and she crouched down to relaunch herself. This time, she brought Kodi down onto his stomach.

He squirmed underneath her, trying to get back to his feet. As he tried, his eyes were on the stairs. Remy knew if he could get to his feet, that’s where he would go. He was a danger to their pack and all the lives on this territory. The Dark Dimension seemed to be telling him to go after every person he saw. On the island, it seemed just to make people lose control of themselves and fight whoever was pissing them off. Here? It seemed to have an agenda. If that was true, the driving instinct inside of Kodi was now to kill anyone he came into contact with. If this were a crazed Lycan, they would put that Lycan down for the betterment of the kingdom.

But how can I do that? This is my brother! My best friend and the one person I have always been able to count on.

Memories of them together flashed through her mind. Times when Kodi pushed down bullies to get their attention but allowed Remy to fight her battles, times when he taught her how to throw a punch or even maneuvers to bring anyone to their knees or backs, and even times when he would make them sandwiches, always adding extra meat onto hers regardless if he was more hungry than she was. She remembered him for the man he was, not the one he was now. If there was anything she would do today, it would be winning her brother back.

No. I won’t kill him. I don’t care if I have to sit down here all day and night to monitor him. He will not die! I can’t kill him, and I won’t let anyone else kill him either!

Remy pulled on every bond in their pack and felt her power grow. She closed her eyes, put pressure on Kodi’s back to keep him still, and reached out to every Lycan on their property. The room filled with her power, causing her to hear Kodi choke underneath her. Her mind was clear as a whistle, and she could see the bonds between her and Kodi light up. Remy touched the chord, laced with a greasy black goo, but she ignored it and wrapped her hands around it. Through his bond, the bonds of his pack were slowly revealed to her. They all started with some black goo, but other than that, they were clear of anything and glowed with power. Remy pulled on them, taking in the power of Kodi’s pack through his bond with her. She quickly imagined that power swirling around Kodi’s bond and pushed the power of his pack through it. Kodi’s bond glowed white and became so hot that it burned Remy’s skin as she held onto it. In the distance, Remy could hear her mother gasp, but Remy kept her eyes shut and focused on Kodi. She saw her black wolf’s form walk up to the bond with her Lycan form in tow. Both of them, their eyes glowing white instead of blue, howled upward. Inside Remy’s mind, she could see the bonds in a blanket of white turn into the forest floor. Her two forms howled up to the sky, and Remy glanced up to see the moon at its fullest and closer than it had ever been. From how large it was, it looked like the moon was the sky, and she could see every crater on its ground. A woman’s face that held more beauty and wisdom than anyone she had ever met came into view. Her eyes were the moon’s color, her lips held a dark silver tint, and flowing white hair fell down her chest. The woman smiled at Remy, and a power washed over her. It was pure and warm, filling Remy’s soul with power until she felt drunk. Slowly, the moon’s beams of light came down onto Remy, and standing before her was Kodi in his human form. The black bond between them and the rest of the pack simmered at the touch of the moon beams’ white glow and changed to the silver color of the moon. Kodi’s green eyes were vibrant, with no trace of the black inside of him.

Then Remy blinked and was back in the basement with Kodi underneath her. He was in his human form, naked and asleep. He had no visible marks from their fight, as if it never happened. Remy looked around the room, and her eyes found her parents. They were sitting on the ground, where her father was unconscious before but now awake, and staring at her. They both had their jaws open and looked as if they had seen a ghost from how pale their faces were. Tear stains were on her mother’s cheeks, and she was shaking against her mate. Remy stood up from her crouched position over Kodi and took several steps back.

"Wh-wh-what just happened?" Remy wrung her hands together and felt her body shake from the adrenaline leaving her body. Goosebumps covered her skin, and her knees wobbled until she collapsed onto the floor.

Lykos swallowed hard and got to his feet. He looked terrified of Remy and kept himself as far away from her as possible. "I don’t... I’m not quite sure. Remy... did you just perform magic?"