“Go, Dominic!”Bart gives me a heads-up when he distracts an enemy wolf with offensive attacks. While the othersare fighting off the simulated wolves, I race to the center of the field, aiming for my sister.
She meets my eyes, and probably senses what I'm about to do when she shuffles and turns her back toward me. I clamp my teeth on the cable tie that binds her hands to her back, and she turns to me and nods with a smirk.
“Come on!” she tells the pack members, using her human voice to give them instructions to help each other get free.
“You all need to fight!”I tell my sister through the mind link, not wanting to waste any more time by shifting back and forth. She nods and tells the others what to do as each of them is freed.
With at least twenty prisoners freed, there are more than enough wolves to take on the enemy pack, and Donna leads the way when she shifts into wolf form. The others do the same, and the battle continues on the field with the freed pack members joining forces with the contenders.
I glance at the timer, lifting my head and howling urgently when there are only ten minutes left to find Cecelia. Without waiting for any of my teammates to join me, I race down the tunnel, coming out on the other side of the campsite where traces of Cecelia's scent faintly linger in the air. Like breadcrumbs that lead me to her whereabouts, I follow her scent into the woods and out to the back entrance of the main hall.
The council didn't hide the she-wolves far away, but they knew that being outnumbered would make this challenging. I race to the back doors and burst in with a flying kick using my front paws, shifting into human form when I see the she-wolves lined up on chairs, hooked to machines that each have timers ticking on the screens. Cecelia is at the far end of the line, and I bolt toward her.
“Cecelia!” I call out hastily, my voice echoing with urgency as I notice the time left on her screen. She has ten minutes left.
“Dominic! You made it!” she exclaims with relief. Apart from being hooked to an empty IV line, her wrists are strapped down to the armrests of a chair with leather belts. As I reach for the pipe that's hooked into a vein in her wrist to ensure she doesn't get pumped with the paralyzing serum, she suddenly swats my hand away.
“Don't!” she warns. “Help the others first! Our timers are different, according to the scoreboard. Nigel's partner only has a few seconds left.”
Nodding briskly, I don't waste any more time before rushing to Nigel's partner, pulling the pipe out of her arm, and untying her from the chair.
“Help her!” I point to Bart's partner and rush to Alex's partner to undo her binds. With two women freed up already, I rush back to Cecelia and free her, shocked when she rushes to Amber's side to help her get free.
No matter what Amber did to hurt her, Cecelia showed a level of compassion that I never expected from her. But with only six minutes left to make it through the test, I round up the she-wolves and give them my firm instructions.
“We have to fight!” I tell them, to which Cecelia nods and follows me out of the hall. Backed by another six werewolves, we enter the field again and battle the remaining enemies alongside the other pack members and contenders until none are standing. Santo serves the final blow to a whimpering simulated wolf just as the siren rings out to call time.
“Lunaris is victorious!” Alpha Sirius announces proudly on the mic, calmly walking onto the field and clapping one hand against his wrist. “Well done!”
One by one, we begin shifting into our human forms on the field, and my immediate response is to pull Cecelia into my arms, relief washing over me that she wasn't hurt. Even though the threat wasn't real, I couldn't have lived with myself if she had been hurt or affected for those twenty-four hours.
“We did it!” I breathe out a sigh of relief at the top of her head. Cecelia snuggles into my chest, her pounding heart matching the rhythm of mine as we turn toward Alpha Sirius.
“Dominic Rivera…what made you decide to free up the pack members and have them fight?”
“Desperation,” I gulp, stepping back and straightening up. “It was not mentioned that it was against the rules, and I do believe that in a situation like that, all wolves should have the ability to fight.”
Alpha Sirius nods thoughtfully. “You went after the she-wolves who were kidnapped…”
I nod in response. “An alpha is no good without a luna,” I repeat the statement that the Lunaris Pack lives by, suddenly believing those words as I glance at Cecelia, becoming aware that I can’t imagine my life without her in it. She is my strength, not my weakness. She gives me purpose beyond just leading the Lunaris Pack. She makes mefeelthings I’d never dared to feel before.
I was always torn between an aching desire for Cecelia and my quest to become alpha of the Lunaris Pack. I could never have both lest I lose everything. The council would never allow me to be mated with the omega because the pack would never take me seriously.
But that reality changes the moment Alpha Sirius declares, “Well done, Dominic Rivera. You are the victor of the trials! You are the new alpha of the Lunaris Pack!”
The field of werewolves bursts into applause and shouts of congratulations, but I turn back to Cecelia and fold my arms around her with immense gratitude in my heart. I only got through these trials thanks to her giving me the strength and purpose that I wouldn't have found on my own.
I can't wait to go back to Bar, and implement some necessary changes, especially the ones in my own life.
Chapter 19 - Cecelia
Watching Dominic amongst his peers brings a sense of pride now that he's been named the victor of the trials and the new alpha of the Lunaris Pack.
After the gruesome trials were completed, we'd been hanging around the campground for a few days just to let loose and celebrate with the other pack members who'd been around since the ball. An official ceremony will be conducted in which Dominic will be sworn in as the alpha, along with Santo as beta, and Simon as the delta.
Simon Barker doesn't seem to be taking the final decision well and is snappy with everyone who dares to go near him. While we spend our last night in Mount Desert Campground around a barbecue fire to celebrate, the ex-alpha's son has been acting strange and keeping to himself, not even wanting his trial partner and partner in crime near him.
Shivering into myself, I tear my eyes away from Lunaris's newest delta, not wanting to mull over why I feel so unsettled by his behavior. Luckily, Donna comes by and slips her arm through mine, offering me a cup filled with fruit punch.
