Chapter 5

Dylan

T he bond severed between them, breaking through the few stitches created after they touched for the first time. Dylan threw back her head and howled a mournful cry as pain radiated through her crest. When the pain subsided, Dylan was on all fours, her head lowered and snarling at Silas. Without the bond, there was no chance of being able to push through to get to the telepathic thread so she could talk to him. Anger went through her in waves as she stared him down. The one good thing about the bond no longer in place was that she could stare into his eyes and find out who was more dominant and powerful as she locked him into her stare. Silas met her eyes and accepted the challenge.

Let's see whose bitch the other is now.

Dylan held her gaze and felt her power surge to the surface. She could feel it flowing from her in waves as she poured all her might into winning this dominance challenge. She could feel Silas's power brushing against her own. Once their powers met, they clashed against one another throughout her whole body. It was difficult to stand on her feet, but Dylan pushed her willpower into them to stand their ground. She was not going to break first. In her soul, she felt she could win this fight. Even if they were at a stalemate in their power, it could be settled with a physical fight now that they were locked in this. Their wolves now needed to know who was more dominant, so neither would back down until this was figured out.

Silas's legs wobbled, and she could see his body shaking as he tried to keep himself upward. Dylan pushed on her power more to hit him again. Silas fell to his knees but still kept her gaze. Dylan snarled and snapped her teeth. Silas bowed his head and whined. Dylan circled him before stopping in front of him again. Silas bared his neck at her, and her wolf settled. She pulled onto the magic to allow her to shift back into her human form. A minute later, she was on her two feet and pulling on her dress. She commanded her power to keep him in his place. She didn't need to be caught with her pants down, literally, and let him get the upper hand.

"It's a cruel prank to be given a Shadowborn as a mate. How is your family still alive? It is now clear why I have never heard of your pack."

Dylan shimmied her body to pull the tight dress in place. "Oh yeah? Why's that? Because we bitch slapped your ancestors, and they were too afraid to mention it in their history books?"

Silas snarled but didn't look her in her eye. He knew better now that they had established that she was more dominant than him. It would be issued as a challenge to her wolf if he did.

"Because Shadowborns were supposed to be wiped off this planet. You and your family are abominations. We should rid ourselves of you before you take over the rest of the packs."

Dylan scoffed. "We aren't evil. If we wanted to do something like that, don't you think we would have by now?"

"Your numbers have dwindled. You don't have the power your family has amassed in a long time. You say you aren't evil, but you are keeping me in place now that you have established that you are more dominant than me."

"Considering you just severed our fucking bond, yeah, I am keeping you in place. You and your wolf no longer recognize me as your mate. That means you can hurt me if you wish. No thanks."

"Unbind me from your command already. I want to get away from here and pretend it never happened. Then I'm going to pray to the Great Moon to give me a second chance at this since this did not go as planned," Silas spat.

Dylan growled at him. She held back from slapping him because a mark on his skin would cause alarm if he ran to the Alphas back inside. There were rules in place for this kind of thing. She knew how the rules worked, too. Just because they were afraid of the males fighting one another over the females made them put in a rule about no fighting, but that didn't mean the females weren't lumped in there. Dylan and Cassie were the two more dominant ones in the room and knew how to care for themselves. The Alphas didn't want to mention that everyone else added them to that rule. They would defend themselves just as quickly as the rest of the males because of their dominant side. So, slapping some sense into Silas would just cause more trouble for her than she wanted to deal with right now.

"I'm not exactly thrilled with the fact that the Great Moon gave me someone who couldn't love me for me and everything that I am. You hate me for being Shadowborn, yet I didn't care that you weren't. The Great Moon created Shadowborn to use its ability to help protect wolves from extinction. Just like there is a side of the moon that no one can see, the Great Moon made us so we could hide in the shadows and ambush the enemies who were killing us. Have you forgotten about the Hunters? How will they stop at nothing to kill us all? Not to mention the damn Executioner of the Monarch's pack! If we were so damn evil, don't you think the Monarch would have sent that terror of a man to wipe us off the board?"

The dumbass didn't think about that.

Silas looked at her as if she had said something important. She hoped she got through to him on the understanding that she wasn't the evil one here. He still wouldn't look at her. His hatred of her rolled off him without him speaking a word. The growl that crept up her throat got caught there when he finally turned to look at her.

"I don't care why the Great Moon created your race. You are proving the rumors correct by keeping me here with your command. I don't want to be here with you, and I sure as hell don't want to be mated to you. Now let me go so I can heal from this and move on."

"That's all you want to do?' Dylan challenged.

Silas was the son of an Alpha. If he hated Shadowborns, it could mean his whole pack hated them. She didn't need him running to his father and causing more issues than needed. However, it would be worse if she kept him in this command and someone caught them out here. There is nothing like holding a prince to a pack in command, being unable to move, and then his father finding him.

Maybe he will think it's kinky and leave us be. I could play that off, right?

Dylan rolled her eyes when her conscience won. It would not be a good idea to leave him like this, no matter how fun it sounded, so she released him. Silas slowly came to his feet and looked past her so he could look at her without challenging her. An emotion went across his face that she couldn't figure out. He bowed his head and whined.

"I didn't think I would reject the mate that was made for me. I just can't accept that you are a Shadowborn. I noticed how you shifted, and you were in your astral form. Did you mean to do that? Did you want to show off how you were a Shadowborn right off the bat so I could make a decision to want you or not?"

His words made her heart clench. That wasn't her intention at all. For a while, she thought he would accept her no matter what she was because that's what mates do. Fated Mates were the ones chosen for someone, and they would be everything they ever needed. They were specifically designed to be the other half of their soul and would love them for every perfection and flaw.

Tell him the truth.

Her wolf was right. She needed to tell him the truth. "No. I honestly thought you wouldn't care because you were made for me. I have trouble sometimes keeping myself corporal. It's not dangerous to others before you start on that shit. It is more dangerous for me than anyone else. It could cost me a fight if I don't control that aspect of my power. So far, it hasn't happened during a fight that matters. I've proven myself worthy to my pack by climbing the ranks. I wasn't given my position because I am the Alpha's daughter. My siblings had to do the same thing. Positions aren't handed to anyone in the Silver Moon pack."

He nodded. "Good to know. I've met Shadowborns before. They were arrogant and tended to lose their shit on anyone who looked at them funny. I thought you were the same way. You didn't help matters by putting that damn command on me. They shifted in front of me and were in that astral mode immediately. The fight was unfair, and they never went corporal until they were attacked."

"That's the point of our power. That is what the Great Moon did for us. We just weren't created to attack each other. Other creatures out there hate us. Look at the other species. None of us like each other; I know we have wars with them. Shadowborns won more fights and helped our species from going extinct. Between protection and mating with non-Shadowborns, we are the reason why."

Silas said nothing. He walked past her, briefly touching her shoulder as he passed. There was a faint sizzle where their bond used to be, but it went out as quickly as it came. Dylan whined softly as he continued to walk into the building. She hated how this went down and wished she could get a do-over. Even if it weren't with Silas, she would settle for her first interaction with a Fated Mate to be a mutual agreement rather than being rejected and left behind.

Dylan gave him a few minutes before she trailed in after him. The snarls and roars that came from the party room were worrisome. Dylan ran to see what was happening, and when she opened the double doors, she wished that she hadn't. Silas was inside, screaming at her father, and a man who looked exactly like him was standing right next to him. It had to be his father, and he wasn't doing anything but watching his son berate an Alpha.

"You accepted the invitation when you knew Shadowborns were not welcome to mate within regular packs. You could have held your own instead of welcoming yourself into our packs. Did you think we wouldn't notice?"

Silas's face was contorted in rage and poking his finger at Valko. Her father stood there with his arms crossed over his chest and a blank expression on his face. She knew the answer to that question. They had no reason to believe that this would happen. They were invited here. Her father spoke with the other Alphas, and they invited him and his unmated males and females to attend. Someone who was coordinating this had to have known they were Shadowborns.

Look around the room. Are you noticing something?

Dylan looked around, as her wolf suggested, and noticed the other wolves staring at Silas as if he had two heads. Were his pack the only ones unaware that the Silver Moon pack was Shadowborns? She could see other wolves exchanging glances, all looking confused by what Silas said.

Yeah, this is odd.

"We were invited here, same as you. I wasn't aware there were packs out there that did not know ours existed. Our pack is filled with the descendants of the first Shadowborns the Great Moon created. I am unsure if you know the history, but Shadowborns were created by the Great Moon, just like you. The only difference between us is we have the power to make ourselves like the shadows we can control."

"You can believe that all you want. I know nothing of the history of which you speak. The history I know is that Shadowborns are not normal Werewolves. You shroud yourself in the darkness that you carry," Silas's father said.

Dylan rolled her eyes and marched herself over to where her father stood. Anger burned in his eyes at her, but she kept her face expressionless like her father. She wasn't going to give him that satisfaction. She thought for a moment he wasn't going to be a dick about this. It almost seemed like he understood Shadowborns weren't a threat to him or his pack before he came here. How he deceived her made her want to command him to shut up and watch him struggle to speak in front of his father and the rest of the pack members in the room.

"I think your pack removed the correct history so you could spread your hatred in every generation you create. That is some next-level hate there," Dylan snapped. She felt her father's eyes on her, but she didn't care. She wasn't going to take this shit. "I'd suggest you look up the actual history of our people and correct your mistakes. Your son was given a Fated Mate. He could have been more powerful once our bond was completed, and with me being an Alpha, too, he probably could have been more powerful than you. Yet he decided to reject what the Great Moon had given him."

There were a few gasps and some snarls throughout the room. Rejecting a Fated Mate was uncommon, but it did happen. An Alpha rejecting their mate was practically unheard of. They always wanted to become stronger to keep their pack in line. An Alpha needed the power to keep the males in check as they fought the darkness that slowly ate at them from trying to protect those around them without someone to balance them.

"My son has his own free will and can reject a mate that is not suitable for him."

Valko snarled. "My daughter was more than suitable for him. An Alpha pairing is something to celebrate, not throw away!"

"If you believe that, then why not send her to the RISE Academy?"

Dylan gasped at the mention of that school. She knew what it was and hoped she would never be sent there. RISE Academy was a reform school for the rejected. Every species could attend, so it could potentially be dangerous if those who hate each other were sent there and bumped into each other. Outside of that, the rejected person could attend classes to "reform" themselves into exactly what their mate wanted. Dylan and her wolf were enraged at the idea of being sent there. They shouldn't have to do anything to make their mate love them. That's exactly what a fated mate should do. Love them for who they are. Not send them to a school to learn how to be the person their mate wanted.

"No, I'm not going. This asshole doesn't deserve me to better myself so he can accept me when he should have already done that the moment he learned I was his fated mate!"

Valko put his hand on her shoulder and let his Alpha power wrap around her. Her wolf settled down, but Dylan still fought to keep her anger in. She wasn't going to let this blow over without a fight.

"Are you saying that if my daughter attends this school, you will not cause any further issues with us or our pack?"

Dylan looked at her father. If the implications of what he was saying were true, that meant there was more said here before she walked in.

Silas let out a low growl and looked at his father. The man's expression never changed. He gave Silas a hard stare, and she noticed Silas broke the gaze, showing he wasn't more dominant than his father either. He let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes. If Dylan goes to RISE, the issues can be resolved."

Dylan opened her mouth to protest, but a command from her father slid through the pack bonds and into her. He told her not to speak and accept this for what it was. A second chance.

Fuck this. I'm not going to that school.