Attack (The Aurora Marelup Saga Book 4)
Attack: Chapter 18

The last seventy-two hours have been the most intense days of my life. I almost lost the mate I just found. We get her back, and she’s still not whole. Then the world’s biggest mind fuck happens; an ancient dragon calls for her, and she leaves.

We stand here watching all the dragons shift and leave, following right behind Aurora. Even Alaric wasn’t able to ignore the dragon’s call. We waited for what seemed like forever for any word.

The mates left behind are a wreck; we felt the surge of power that went through Aurora and then the bond. Jayce and I remain together, hugging each other afraid of what may become of our beloved mate.

Aurora was reborn in a sense, from the gift that Gallus had given her. He not only gave her back her wolf, but he upgraded her dual nature. Alaric was kind enough to share with us the sight of our newly shifted mate. She’s a Titan in a sense now, and there are several stories of what would bring about the end of days. Each religion and species has a different Titan.

The wolves believe it would be Fenrir. The dragons, Tiamat—the seven-headed dragon. The bears really don’t believe their people would be involved at the end of days. My people believe we would be heralds of the end, warning others of what’s to come.

Slowly, I move through all the shifters and make my way to Aurora’s side. I run my right hand through Aurora’s hair to get her to turn and look at me. Her angelic visage and soft grey eyes turn to face me. A gentle smile creeps across her full, ruby-red plump lips. I watch her move with a fluid grace I haven’t seen her use before. Her lithe hands rise and caress my cheeks. Her thumbs move over my cheekbones as she looks deep into my eyes.

‘Arnulf, you came for me. Is there something on your mind, sweet one?’ Aurora rises up on her tiptoes and presses her full lips against mine.

I feel the raw crackle of power moving between us. The Titan within her is making itself known to me. My bird is pleased that our mate has the peace she so craved. The kiss breaks hesitantly, and I move to kiss her forehead. ‘My beautiful mate, I’ve missed you greatly. Will you join me? Will you have dinner with me?’ I remove my hands from her face and offer her my upturned hand.

Aurora looks to my offered hand, takes it, and pulls it to her chest. The eyes of Aurora’s dragon look at me, and its purple power crackles in the mercury of her eyes. ‘A meal would be divine, my love.’ Aurora’s voice sounds like the sweetest love song ever sung.

I take her hand and lead her to the edge of the fire and have her take a seat. I move away briefly and return with fresh meat and a bottle of red wine. Aurora’s eyes light up at the sight before her. I prepare the meat and wine for Aurora and offer it to her. A soft blush moves over her cheeks. “You don’t have to serve me, Arnulf. We are equals in my eyes.” I bend down and kiss her forehead.

“You know you scared me this last time. I know it wasn’t your fault what happened. Hell, we were all drugged. We could have been slaughtered, and there was nothing any of us could do.” I shrug my shoulders and see Jayce approach, so I motion for him to join us.

Jayce looks down and sighs. “I’m sorry for barging in. I just really need to be near Aurora for a little bit. I hope you don’t mind, Arnulf?” The stress radiates off of Jayce, and his body is tense.

“Not at all, brother. If you wish to call the others over, we’ll gather more food and eat together here by the fire.” Jayce’s face lights up, and he gets up quickly to tell the others. “Thanks, Arnulf.”

Aurora is giggling as she sips at her wine, looking at me. “You’re a good man, Arnulf. I’ve been blessed with six of the kindest, most thoughtful mates a female could ever ask for. Thank you for being you.” Aurora punctuates her statement by leaning over and kissing my lips.

Aurora’s look turns serious. “I’m sorry I scared you and everyone else.” Aurora looks up and makes eye contact with all of us. “Everyone could have died because of me, and my heart hurts thinking about it.” We watch scales ripple over her arms and down the bridge of her nose.

Aurora stands and begins pacing around the fire in deep thought. Oddly, her frost isn’t coating everything right now. Apparently, I’m not the only one who notices—Dominik and Klaus are studying Aurora’s every move. Alaric and Dimitri are also watching her very closely; Aurora is acting like her typical self but with no frost.

“Babe, are you okay?” Alaric asks and steps in Aurora’s path.

Aurora looks up at Alaric. Waves of purple energy crackle through her hair, and then she smiles. “Yeah, I feel bad that everyone almost died because of me. I feel bad that my wolf almost died; I feel bad that Dom and Klaus had to step up because I was not wolf enough to control the packs for a while.’ A pang of sadness washes over her face then vanishes just as quickly. ‘I just hope I am enough to end all of this. End the reign of terror Vladimir and the Strigoi have brought to what used to be my mother’s lands and people. She must be so disappointed in me that I’m not the pup she brought into this world.’ A single tear rolls down Aurora’s cheek then evaporates. The evaporating tears is a new development; I’ll have to ask Alaric about it later.

There you have it, the root of what’s really troubling Aurora. Dimitri opens his arms to her when she looks at him. To my surprise, she comes to me and presses the bridge of her nose against my throat under my jaw. Cautiously, I wrap my arms around my mate and pull her flush to my chest. She chose me, the one least capable of protecting her, for comforting her.

I raise my eyes and look at my bond mates. Each of us trying to process what just happened. Lightly, I run my fingers through Aurora’s hair, trying to soothe her. Her beast rumbles to me. I feel it through my very being and through the bond. My bond mates all turn sharply to look at Aurora. Apparently, they can feel her beast too. It’s trying to soothe all of us, sensing how stressed we all are.

One by one, the guys step forward and wrap their arms around us. I can feel Aurora smiling against my skin. Eventually, Aurora lifts her head, and the hug-fest ends. The guys slowly let go and step back. Aurora takes her time going to each mate and kisses them, then presses the bridge of her nose to their throat. It’s a trust thing she does with us. When she’s done the first round, she stands before each of us, baring her throat to us. We each return the gesture and smile at her.

I look behind me, and all of our dragon warriors have gathered. ‘They’re looking for their Queen, my love.’

Aurora’s eyes shift to her dragons as she looks at her swarm. Their eyes all shift and stare at her. A faint glow seems to envelop their eyes as they look at her. Alaric steps forward and rests a hand on Aurora’s shoulder, looking at the other dragons. He then turns to us and extends a hand to us. We each make contact with his skin and now hear Aurora’s voice boom through the bond with the dragons.

I close my eyes and suddenly, I’m on the astral plane with Aurora and all of the dragons. Aurora’s upgraded Lycan beast stands before all of the powerful and ancient dragons, and she looks each in the eye, showing no fear at all. There’re more dragons here than at the camp, and Aurora is imploring them to join her battle to rid the earth of the blight that is the Strigoi.

A great Wyrm Black Dragon steps forward and lowers his head to her, swearing to join the fight. Others in his swarm come forward and join him, offering support. Apparently, there are multiple nests of Strigoi throughout Europe and Asia. Aurora wishes to strike them all at once. The meeting ends soon after the directions for the strike to occur, and we’re pulled out of the astral plane with her.

Aurora turns to look at us and smiles before walking off towards our tent to go rest. I turn and look to Alaric, who seems to be in deep thought. “What just happened?”

“Her connection to the dragons is impressive. I’m not sure why she didn’t pull all of us in with her when she met with them. I’ll have to ask her later what that was all about… I have full confidence that we will be victorious ” Alaric says, contemplating the meeting.

“Alaric, I have a question. Aurora’s tears used to freeze, and now they disappear. What changed?” My bird is on edge, nervous about the answer we may receive.

“Ah, you saw that. Well, it’s part of her being changed. I’m guessing it’s part of the destructive nature of the Force dragon,” Alaric says, then gives me a quick hug before hugging our other bond mates. He turns and walks off with Dante and Edgar in deep discussion.

I look at each of the bond mates remaining. Dimitri is the most relaxed I’ve ever seen him; the twins are rather calm as well. “Relax, Arnulf, our mate will be fine. For once, I’ll be able to sleep tonight, not afraid of what may come. With any luck, Vladimir believes she’s dead and won’t expect our arrival in a few days.”

Klaus comes up alongside Dimitri and nods along with what he’s saying. “We thought we had a tactical nuke before; we literally have a nuke now.” Klaus, Dimitri, and the twins have known Aurora far longer than I have, and I already understand what they are getting at.

My thoughts wander then I look up to Dimitri. “What was Aurora like before her having mates?”

Dimitri almost chokes on the drink that Jayce has handed him. He motions to the logs near the fire for us to sit. He takes a seat, looking at the four of us. “She defined the word hellion. But from what we’ve recently learned from Oberon, it really wasn’t her fault. Aurora has always been a loving and curious creature.” He starts to laugh then shakes his head before starting again. “I remember this one time this female decided to track me back to where we lived. Aurora was a little over a hundred and fifty years old at the time. The woman, another bear shifter, was trying to get me to accept her as her mate. Aurora happened to be the one to open the door. She yelled in the woman’s face in a blend of her wolf and human voice that I was hers and to fuck off.” Dimitri starts laughing then goes pale, seeing Aurora approaching.

“That was a fun night indeed, D. I thought my wolf was insane ’cause D showed zero interest in me. I launched that bitch and we proceeded to brawl across the whole front lawn and into the woods.” Aurora smiles and laughs a little.

“Poor Andre was beside himself, and Dimitri didn’t know what to do to stop two possessive females from fighting.” Aurora starts to laugh softly. “D took the hose and started spraying our animals with water as we came rolling out of the woods. My beast hated to get wet unless she wanted to swim.” Alaric comes and sits next to me, listening to the story.

“So there I was, hose in hand and two drenched females. I knew I was a dead man the way Aurora was looking at me. Soon as the other female got the hint and left, Aurora shifted and walked up to me.” He tilts his head to the side and smirks. “You know how impossible it is to not look at her naked? She stood there, looking deep into my eyes, then broke down crying. I didn’t know she felt I was hers, at least not till that point. My bear kept telling me she was ours, but I guess that tea that Elena had kept sending us kept me from connecting the dots.”

Dimitri draws in a deep breath and shakes his head slowly. “I’ve got a chubby at this point, and she’s in hysterics. I did the only thing I could think of. I scooped her up and carried her into the house and let Andre try to calm her down. Me? I went and took the coldest shower in the history of cold showers so that I could be there for her. You think a mad Aurora is scary, try one that’s sad; that switch can flip in seconds flat.” Dimitri smirks as he looks over to Aurora and snaps his fingers to help visualize the switch flip.

Aurora rolls her eyes, then stands up and walks over to hug Dimitri. “Do you have a clue how many times I woke up standing in the doorway of your bedroom in the middle of the night because my wolf wanted you? She wanted me to bite you and make you ours since I was about a hundred.” A single tear rolls down Aurora’s cheeks and evaporates before it hits her jaw. “So much time was stolen from us.” She gently cups Dimitri’s cheek looking up into his eyes. “Vladimir is going to suffer as no one has ever suffered before. I swear this to you, my love.” Aurora raises up onto her tippy toes to kiss him before leading him off.

Dom and Jayce share a look then turn to the rest of us. “They have been royally fucked over by Vladimir’s bloodline. Over two hundred years together. Almost a hundred and thirty, they could have been mates.“ Dom shakes his head, then looks at each of us. “If any of us replace Vladimir or any of his relatives, we take them prisoner till Aurora and Dimitri can handle them. They deserve payback.” Everyone nods in agreement with Dominik; he’s right, after all, they’ve suffered enough.

“We should get some rest. We don’t know what we’re going to run into over the next few days,” I suggest gently. After all, I am the new guy in the group.

“Arnulf is correct; we should rest. The next two days’ journey could be the most dangerous just before reaching the castle,” Klaus says, his eyes becoming that of his beast. I look over to see Dominik’s and Alaric’s eyes are also shifted. I can feel through the bond they are setting up sentries and telling everyone it’s time to sleep. I follow suit and reach out to my clan, relaying the same message to them as well.

We decide to sleep outside the tent tonight, giving Aurora and Dimitri the time alone they so desperately craved earlier. The next few days will definitely be a challenge, but I know that we will be up to it as a team.