48. Dimitri

CHAPTER 48

Dimitri

Great Goddess Callisto, help me. First, I spend years fighting my feelings for Aurora. Then, her wolf kills a female because she believes I'm hers. Then all of a sudden, I don't rank, and my feelings for her are squashed. Bloody hell, Nicodeamus is right! We were drugged so our bond wouldn't grow—a thousand curses upon the Lupi family and their heirs. By my Romani blood, I will have vengeance for what they have stolen from me.

Mate after mate, I watch Aurora gain in power. The theory that Nicodeamus presented seems valid, but the real question is, what can I do to break the spell? I watch Aurora assemble the troops in preparation for departure. The way she rallies everyone reminds me of her mother on the battlefield.

Nicodeamus's dragon roars and begins walking toward the Bering Land Bridge. My bear lumbers along toward the back of the pack. What I lack in speed, I more than make up for in strength. We know we're walking into an ambush, so it's just a question of when. We walk for miles, following the path that Nicodeamus's dragon blazes for us. We walk in this endless sea of white, not able to see more than a couple of feet in front of our faces. If it wasn't for the strong scent of Nicodeamus's dragon, our sense of direction would be thrown off by the lack of landmarks. However, I can faintly make out the glow of Aurora's eyes as she sits on her father's back. I pick up my pace to get closer to his dragon so I can see exactly what's going on.

Aurora sits statue-still on her father's back, watching the pack behind him. Her eyes slowly scan the horizon, watching for any signs of the impending attack. The Dire Wolves and I are having no trouble whatsoever moving through this heavy snowfall. Our only disadvantage is that, unlike Aurora and her father, we cannot see much further ahead of ourselves than maybe a couple of feet.

Howls erupt in the distance, coming from multiple directions ahead of and alongside us. Here it is the moment of truth. This is precisely what we've all been preparing and training for. Now we get to see how good Nicodeamus and my training is as the Dire Wolves aid us in battle. Aurora issues several short barks, and the pack splits into three equal units. These units end up splitting off: one going left, one going right, and the third still lagging behind Nicodeamus.

Aurora leaps off her father's back and comes up alongside me. Her eyes focus on the Lycans walking with us, and she issues several more barks at them, sending them off in their own direction. The wind shifts, and several different scents hit our noses. I pick up the first scent from the Polar Bears, the second scent—that bastard Sebastian. Aurora begins to growl deep in her throat. With that tone, you know someone is going to die. She separates from her father and starts walking about seventy yards to my left. Nicodeamus then goes another sixty yards to my right. Divide and conquer is the order for today, apparently. To keep everyone safe, I just hope we switched up the training enough after Sebastian left.

Nicodeamus roars loudly as the crunching of the snow becomes louder. I see Aurora's glowing eyes look back at me briefly before she takes off toward the masses. The spray of blood is a stark contrast against the bright, white snow. The scent of copper and blood fills the air as bellows of pain and anguish echo all around us.

A pair of Polar Bears charge at me. Finally, I get a chance to prove myself. I don't think they were expecting to see a bear of my size in existence. When they get close enough, I swipe at them with my long, hooked claws. His white fur is painted crimson, and the snow is littered with droplets of blood.

The second Polar Bear pisses himself when my next swipe rips the head right off his companion. Another skull for Aurora's collection. Too bad we're on the ice; it won't be here in the spring. Without a second thought, I charge the second bear and roll him onto his back. Quickly, my massive maw snaps down around his throat, and I shake my head violently until every tendon and blood vessel is severed.

It's a great time to be alive; I live for moments like this. With each Polar Bear that I dispatch, I feel more like my old self. Briefly, I look up and see Aurora running toward me. She sails through the air over me to take out a Lycan who had snuck up behind me. His head goes flying past me and hits a Polar Bear's face, knocking him out cold. I casually walk up and use my claws to rip his throat open. By the time I look back to where Aurora was, she's long gone.

How many fucking Polar Bears live out here? Damn. I mean, seriously, it seems like a never-ending supply. On a more positive note, they can't fight for shit.

I see the blue glow of Nicodeamus's fire raining down on the mass of bodies in front of him in the distance. I watch in horror as Aurora launches herself off her father's head, through his flames, and into the fray below. I did not teach that girl to fight like that!

I make a newbie mistake and stop paying attention to what is going on around me. I feel the pressing of a sharp blade against my left rib cage, too close to my heart for comfort. Slowly, I turn my head to find Sebastian holding the knife.

"Shift back and live, remain as a bear and die," Sebastian says in an ice-cold tone. I shift back to my human form. He still has the tip of the blade pressed to my chest.

"Coward," is all I say to him. He doesn't fight with honor. For all I know, that female, Ravenna, was his real mate and he had forsaken her for power. If I remember correctly, he only gained Aurora's speed and talons and nothing else. I look down at the blade again; it's tinted green, which means Dire Wolf venom. I can't survive that, so I decide to play along and see where this rat bastard takes it. He starts pushing me toward Nicodeamus and Aurora.

I walk with my hands up in the air to show there's an issue. One minute I see Aurora's eyes; the next, I don't. She just went all ghost on us. This is about to get seriously interesting. Suddenly, Sebastian's left arm is severed at the elbow. He screams in pain as he backs up, trying to escape. Aurora manifests out of what seems like thin air, and she stands there in her human form. Her hands and forearms are shifted, her heavily armored gauntlets covered in blood.

"Betrayer! False mate! Coward!" Aurora continues to call him names as she stalks closer to him, herding him back toward the edge of the ice.

The beating of wings can be heard, but Aurora is too focused on moving in for the kill. Flames rain down from the sky between Aurora and Sebastian. I leap into the air and tackle Aurora to the ground before she is burned to a crisp. The ice chunk Sebastian is on starts to float off to sea. A large, Red Dragon swoops down to grab Sebastian off the ice and flies off with him. My body tenses, prepared for another attack, but nothing comes. It's almost eerily silent except for the giggling I hear under me.

"D? I think you can get up now." Wait, shit… I look down, and I still have Aurora pinned under me. She's laughing almost hysterically, and tears are rolling down her cheeks from how hard she's laughing. I remove myself carefully from her then realize I have the boner to end all boners. How embarrassing! I try to cover myself with both hands. I feel my cheeks flush as Aurora just keeps staring at my cock. FUCK! Nicodeamus—thank the gods—comes up behind Aurora and slaps his hand over her eyes.

"Dimitri, get yourself under control. You can kill someone with that thing!" Nicodeamus is half-joking, I think. Jayce is in a state of shock, staring at me in all my aroused glory. Fucking cock has a damn mind of its freaking own. Death and destruction litters the field around me, and here I am with a rock-hard, throbbing boner. Just fucking wonderful. Now is the perfect time to go for a swim. I jump into the arctic water and instantly regret my decision; it's much colder than I was anticipating. I crawl back out of the water, and thankfully, my cock calmed down. I shift to my bear and decide to remain in this form until after catching up with Ellis.

Everyone returns to their animal form and begins to walk toward the first of the islands, which we can now see. Ellis comes out onto the ice to greet us and lead us back to headquarters. There's a single cavern visible on the island, so we follow Ellis underground. He starts passing out blankets and clothing as everyone shifts back to their human form.

Aurora waits until Dom secures her something to wear before she allows him to lead her into an alcove to shift and get dressed. Once she's done, she emerges from the alcove wearing a full-length gown. It's a pale, powder-blue and fits her like a glove. It must have been left there for her by Alaric. I wrap a blanket around me like a toga before approaching the group. They are already in an in-depth discussion about what happened and what's yet to come.

Nothing new has been discussed since our last meeting before the mission. However, we gain further information from Ellis when he tells us that fire dragons, otherwise known as Red Dragons, have joined the fight. When we go for the second half of this journey, the Gold and Ice Dragons will await our signal to join in on the attack.

Now, Aurora sits next to her father as he looks over the maps with Ellis and Klaus. The battle strategy is being amended since we now know Sebastian is on the field. He knows way too much and can make this battle way too dangerous for us, so the original formation has been changed. Ellis is dividing his bears up into four groups to match our four groups of troops.

Everyone's mulling around the cavern, eating, drinking, and generally getting to know each other so in the heat of battle, we can recognize who is friend and who is foe. Ellis is about to make a phone call to Alaric when Nicodeamus stops him. He is concerned about Alaric's phone going off and giving away his position. We ponder his suggestion for a moment and then agree that he's probably correct. It's not safe with how close we are to the enemy.

I can tell Aurora is quite stressed. Even with her sitting on Dom's lap, scales still ripple up and down her forearms. I understand her distress level; a male she once considered her mate is now trying to attack and kill us. Jayce reappears, bringing Aurora a tray of meat and some sort of spicy drink with it. Usually food and drink is an excellent way to cheer Aurora up, but she doesn't appear to be hungry at the moment. Nicodeamus has the look of a concerned father as he watches his poor child deal with all the revelations that have happened in such a short time.