Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy Chapter 453

ARIA

Through the link: the wolves had felt the change in the link's quality when I'd processed what had happened to Terrence. They'd felt it and they'd understood it and they'd pressed harder, because that was how wolves processed loss in a combat context — the grief came later, the fight was now, and the fight now was the thing that honored the loss.

I put the full lunar blast out.

Not at a specific target. Not minimum necessary. The full version — the thing I'd been keeping in reserve because using it fully in a coordinated engagement was like swinging a hammer at a chess board. But the engagement had reached the stage where precision was less important than force, where the attacking force needed to understand in a language that had no ambiguity that they had miscalculated everything about tonight.

The blast went outward in a wave.

The specific quality of it was the thing I didn't have words for — not an explosion, not fire, the moon's light expressed as force, as the translation of the bloodline's most fundamental property into something the physical world could feel. The wave caught the main force's remaining formation and the reserve wave's remnants and the gap between them simultaneously.

People ran.

A significant number of them, in the same direction, which was away from Shadowmere's northern border with considerable urgency.

The ones who didn't run were on the ground.

The ones on the ground were breathing. I'd calibrated for that. The calibration had cost me most of the remaining reserves I had, but it had worked, and breathing people were people who would answer questions later.

Through the link: thirty wolves standing in the north of the pack grounds in the aftermath of the blast wave, all of them still connected to the anchor, all of them still themselves.

"Is that all of them," Priya said.

"I think that's all of them," Sam said.

"Are we sure," Louis said.

"Jason," I said, into the walkie-talkie.

"Checking," Jason said. A pause. "Northern approach is clear. Eastern perimeter is clear. Western — hold on." Another pause. "Clear. I have eyes on all positions. Retreat appears to be comprehensive." His voice had the quality of someone who'd expected to be reporting something worse and was very glad to be reporting this. "Luna Aria. I think we're done."

Through the link: thirty wolves processing the word done.

"We're done," Andrew said.

The anchor was still warm.

The link held.

I let it hold for another thirty seconds, feeling all of them through it — thirty wolves in the north of the pack grounds, tired and injured in varying degrees and alive, all of them connected to me through something that hadn't existed before tonight and was going to exist in my memory for as long as I had one.

Then I let the link settle back into the anchor and breathed.

Santos was already organizing the post-engagement assessment. Jason was bringing his archers down from the elevated positions. Margo was out of the east alcove and moving toward the injured.

I looked at the northern tree line. At the scattered evidence of the trap engagement. At the pack grounds around me, which were Shadowmere's pack grounds and were still standing and were ours.

Damon had run when the full blast went out. I'd registered him running and had let him run because catching him tonight wasn't the goal and because catching him without Kael there would have produced a situation I wasn't ready to manage alone.

He would be a problem for another time.

Tonight had its own accounting, and the accounting came out clearly.

They'd come to prove we fell apart without our leadership.

We hadn't fallen apart. The anchor was warm. Thirty wolves were standing in the dark.

Terrence was gone, and that mattered, and would always matter.

We'd won.

Through the link, a feeling I didn't have words for — thirty wolves processing the specific quality of what had just happened and sending something back through the connection that was warm and solid and real. Andrew's voice, quiet: *Good.*

Priya: *Yeah.*

Louis: *We were with you.*

Then the field report, because thirty wolves were still thirty wolves and they were thorough:

*Eastern boundary clear.*

*Western boundary clear.*

*Three witches incapacitated in the northern section. One fled. Two retreating on foot.*

*Twenty-six hostile wolves in retreat past the boundary markers. Four incapacitated on field.*

*One hundred nine retreated before final push.*

*Casualties?*

*Six injured, one critical. Margo has been notified.*

I exhaled.

Santos was at my right shoulder. He'd been there through most of the fight and had not once suggested I get back and let him handle it, which I was going to appreciate properly when I had a moment.

"That was something," Santos said.

"Yes," I said.

"The reversal," he said. "The telekinesis. Ivory will want to know about that."

"Ivory's going to have opinions about it," I said.

"She's going to want to document it," Santos said.

"She's going to want to document it before she's even out of whatever they've done to her," I said. "She's going to ask me to describe it in technical detail while Kael is in the same room telling her she needs to rest."

"And then," Santos said, with the faintest edge of a smile, "the rope."

"And then the rope," I agreed.

"Luna," Jason said, through the walkie-talkie.

"Still here," I said.

"Kael's signal," Jason said. "Just came through the pack communication. They have Ivory. They're coming home."

The link.

I pushed the information through and felt thirty wolves receive it and felt what that produced in all of them simultaneously — something that the link transmitted better than speech could have, the specific quality of relief that is made entirely of the people you love still being somewhere in the world.

"She's coming home," I said, out loud, for Santos and Reza and Park and everyone who wasn't in the link.

The thirty wolves on the field of the northern approach raised their heads.

And howled.

Not the battle howl. Not the territorial declaration. The one that was just: we're here, she's coming back, we're all still here.

It went up through the trees and over the pack grounds and out into the night in all directions, thirty voices becoming one sound, and somewhere in the shelter underground, I hoped the children heard it and understood what it meant.

I stood in the northern approach of Shadowmere's territory with the anchor warm in my chest and the pearl warm in my pocket and thirty wolves around me who'd decided that I was theirs to look after, and I tipped my head back and breathed the cold air of the night.

Kael was bringing her home.

Everything else could wait for that.

A/N: OMG guys, I am so so sorry, I was supposed to deliver since tuesday but I had workshop since Tuesday and the tiredness I experienced wasn't here. A whole 9-6 on the clock, in a factory, working with machines and tools, and once I got back I slept off.

I am so happy with the comments that I have received, I tried not to do this author notes much but I can't just ignore it. To everyone who asked about my exams, it was a torn feeling. You wont believe it but on the thursday, I had exams and had written 6 hours before exams, I actually did well and totally didn't do that well on Friday and I didn't update that Friday morning, coincidence? Less about me and more about you guys, I am so happy you are still engaged.

Who would have thought Aria would be such a badass? Certainly not me, but definitely you guys. I am impressed, okay Aria is good, better than I expected. Cant wait to see what she offers us as time goes on.

I do not know if there is any mixed genre lovers here, like billionaire romance lovers but this is also open to werewolf lovers; my books in my catalogues are not getting views or comments, if you guys are free, please check them out, hopefully one would be able to catch your fancy and keep you busy until next update drops, but fret not, updates are daily till like 22nd cause I have exams, yeah I am not done with them This is me making up for my terrible updating period. I have less than a month ending to improve ratings on my other books. New updates drops later today, enjoy this for now, please any errors or mistakes, let me know, I do not have a beta reader, I normally upload immediately after typing and doing a quick scan, thank you guys.