Chapter 393 Don’t You Fucking Dare Ask Our Mate

None of the people who were supposed to be listening to Captain Thane had a goddamn clue what that man was saying.

Dex’s Luna-outrage was temporarily derailed by the massive wave of fury slamming through their matebond. His wolf rumbled in his chest, amused.

Aegon: Mate is cute when she is angry. Let’s tackle her right now.

Dex:Absolutely not.

Fifteen feet away, Fin stood with his arms crossed. His eyes were flickering between hazel and molten, arguing with his wolf who was ready to eliminate Captain Thane.

Xeon: Ten seconds. That’s all I need.

Fin: No.

Xeon: Five.

Fin: No.

Externally, Serena was calm. If you ignored the fact that her eyes were flickering between gold and green, she was normal. Internally, her wolf had been monologuing at full blast for five minutes and refused to lower the volume.

Aurelia:He pulled it from a POUCH, Serena. The chicken represents a fundamental misunderstanding of who we are as a wolf. I have dignity. I will run from this Arena the second I shift if it is not put away.

Thane stopped talking, clearly having asked a question.

“My wolf is very intelligent. She just hasn’t built the muscle memory yet,” Serena said.

“Everyone says their wolf is smart,” Captain Thane said, smiling the way trainers smile when a new student defends their wolf’s intelligence, the warm, patronizing smile of a man who had heard the sentence four hundred times and found it endearing every time.

Captain Calder nodded in agreement. “The intelligence is rarely the issue. It is the handler-wolf coordination that needs development.”

Aurelia: HANDLER.

Aurelia’s eruption intensified to a level that Serena hadn’t known was available.

Aurelia: HOW DARE HE! I am going to eat his chicken pouch, and then his belt, and then his boot, and the order is IMPORTANT because it represents an ESCALATING statement of DISAPPROVAL.

Serena dragged a hand down her face. The gesture was slow, comprehensive, covering her entire expression and buying her two seconds to wrestle her wolf back from the edge of a tantrum that was going to manifest physically if she let it continue.

Serena:Aurelia. We are going to train and keep calm. We are going to shift when they ask us to shift, and we are going to do it without biting anyone or lighting them on fire.

Serena closed her eyes for a second. When she opened them, they were pure molten gold. When she spoke her voice did not come out singular.

“Remove the chicken or my wolf will attack you because she does not like chicken,” Aurelia ordered through Serena. Serena blinked again, then added “Please” in her own voice.

Silence.

Everyone looked at Serena, surprised, including Fin and Dex. Wonderful.

Thane’s brows knit for a moment. The fact he had asked if she could talk to her wolf suggested he was aware certain people could talk to wolves. But it was clear he had never heard a wolf do THAT. Ironic, considering everyone on the Drakenfell side had absolutely heard Fin’s wolf talk through him.

“Was your wolf speaking through you?” Captain Thane asked, breaking the silence.

“No,” Aurelia snapped through Serena. “I am the Dragon Queen Incarnate and am not a singular being.”

Jaws dropped unanimously because Serena hadn’t publicly claimed that even in Drakenfell.

Dex and Fin looked at each other over her head. The look lasted one full second.

It was the first moment of genuine, shared understanding the two men had experienced since the schedule conversation. The look carried no competition. No territory. No jealousy. It carried the specific, mutual recognition of two Alpha wolves who were confused with what was wrong with their mate’s wolf.

The ceasefire lasted exactly as long as the look, then Dex’s eyes went back to molten and Fin’s jaw set and the armistice dissolved.

“Beginner,” Captain Thane announced. “Remedial level one. Nonlethal simulation.”

Aurelia was far from finished. “I have bonded a dragon and won two battles and a siege. The chicken man called me a beginner and I want an apology.”

Every person in the arena looked at Captain Thane, then back at Serena. Thane himself looked stunned.

“Furthermore,” Aurelia continued through Serena’s mouth. “Saying I fight like a rogue was offensive and you are ignorant. My wolf has better instincts than every captain in this arena. Before my first shift I survived a genocide, forty lashes, one year in silver, and six years without a pack, which includes fighting and running from rogues with a bounty on my head. And you have the audacity to comment that my human,” Aurelia paused, “I mean I, fight like a rogue. I am the incarnate of the First Queen of Wolves. Lovely, you didn’t know that and your face gives you away. Now you do. Tell me I fight like a rogue again and Drakenfell will consider it an act of war against Shadowclaw. I’ll show you EXACTLY—”

Serena shook her head once, swallowing down whatever the hell was happening.

“My apologies, Luna, I meant no disrespect,” Captain Thane said immediately, all color had drained from his face.

“Your apology is noted,” Aurelia said through Serena with the regal authority of a queen holding court. “And your face is very honest, which I respect. You are terrified. Good.”

Serena closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Serena: I am begging you to stop.

Aurelia: If you don’t stand up for us, then I will. Our mates clearly won’t. They both need to pick their jaws up off the ground and understand who is in charge.

The chicken left the arena in the hands of a junior guard who had been given no context, only the pouch and a look from Captain Thane that said ’take this and do not bring it back and do not ask why.’ The guard complied. Smart guard.

Captain Thane broke the silence. “We start with the shift. Serena, try once on your own.”

Serena walked to the center of the arena with every eye on her. No pressure. Just soldiers in the stands, two captains, two Alpha Kings, three Master Mages, two Betas (Shadowclaw and Drakenfell’s), and a Beta Luna.

Serena: Aurelia. Are we able to shift?

Aurelia: Knock your socks off.

Serena: Let me rephrase. Can you initiate the shift?

Aurelia’s voice was clipped, carrying residual chicken fury.

Aurelia: What do you think? I would have shifted on their asses by now if I did.

Serena: Does the human initiate the shift, actually? Or is it the wolf?

Aurelia: How the hell am I supposed to know? Nobody gave me a manual, Serena. There was no orientation. I don’t have my past life memories. I woke up inside a silver-poisoned body that had never shifted before.

Serena: I actually don’t know the mechanics behind it. I’ll ask Fin.

Aurelia: DON’T YOU DARE!