Tyler laughed and shook his head at us playfully before his expression slowly turned serious and he voiced the question that everyone was probably already thinking.
"So....what are we going to do about Torah?" he asked anxiously as he looked around at all of us.
"We are going to train, both in wolf and human form. When he attacks we will be ready." I said determinedly as I got to my feet. "Once everyone else arrives, we will have to let them know what's going on and ask them to join us against him. We"ll have strength in numbers and we will defeat him"
"Hell yeah!" Seth yelled out as he got to his feet and high-fived me. "We've got this!" Lisa chimed in proudly as she came to stand beside him.
I laughed and nodded my head as I leaned on Lisa's shoulder and looked at the group. She shot me a look of annoyance before she dropped her shoulder and made me slip off. I scoffed and playfully shoved her knocking her into Seth who fell into Zayn's lap.
"If you wanted to sit on my lap, all you had to do was ask," Zayn said jokingly as he winked at him seductively. "Oh shut up" Seth groaned and slapped him playfully before he shoved himself off of the couch so he could stand back up.
Everyone broke out in laughter as Seth rolled his eyes and mocked us, making us laugh harder. After that, we all sat around the living room for the rest of the night talking about everything that happened and cracking jokes.
------
In the morning we were all up and outside at dawn, ready to start training. The grass was still wet but we were all on the ground stretching out our muscles so no one got hurt.
I got to my feet and walked to the front of the ground so I had them facing me as they all finished their warm-ups and got to their feet.
"Okay, so.....Since we normally train in our human forms, I figured we would start with our wolves today. Everyone shift and get ready to go on a run." I said grinning as I took a step back before shifting into my large black and gold wolf. I looked at my reflection in the water of the fountain and my eyes widened. My wings were now fully golden, the spirals had gotten thicker and brighter, and a bright golden aura was visible around me. I yipped happily and heard bones crunching as I turned towards the group.
When my eyes fell upon luke and Tyler I froze. They were both almost as tall as I was and their fur had shifted to completely golden with black swirls spiraling around their bodies. They both also had a light golden aura around them.
Everyone else froze in shock as well as they took in our wolves. They looked like dogs instead of wolves in comparison to our size. After a few moments, I grinned and took off towards the border.
As I got closer to the dome, I turned and ran parallel to it, focusing my power on it as I ran. Everyone was pounding behind me as we lapped around the border, losing myself in the feeling as I ran. We ran for a while as I expanded the border before it grew stronger and changed from a translucent light-gold to a more solid gold. That meant it was time to seal it so I slowly came to a stop.
Everyone else collapsed behind me as I focused on the energy I had just put into the shield. I could slowly feel the protective dome solidifying, making it impossible for someone without a royal crest to enter.
I pulled back and dropped to the ground, out of breath, as the dome shimmered around us. I took a breather before getting to my feet and taking off with the group around the border once again.
------
After running laps for a while, we all came back and partnered off to work on fighting in our wolf forms for an hour. As that hour came to a close, everyone shifted back to their human forms.
As we ran, mine, Tyler, and luke's auras grew, and once we shifted back though they didn't disappear. I looked over at Tyler inquisitively to see that both he and Luke now had spirals that matched mine down the necks, shoulders, and upper arms. Being in their wolf form must have triggered their shift and exposed their new marks.
I bit my lip looking at them, they looked fine as hell. Tyler noticed me gawking and winked at me before blowing a kiss mockingly. I blushed, rolling my eyes at him as I looked away.
We trained in our human forms for the rest of the morning, working on defense, different strike maneuvers, archery, swordsmanship, and our fighting skills. Luke took over for Tyler halfway through so we could learn multiple styles and throw them in, to mix up our approach.
We finished off as the sun rose high into the sky. We were all on the ground panting, covered in sweat with weapons littered around us, Lisa and Avery both looked like they might pass out. A few moments later, Emma came jogging out of the house carrying cold water bottles.
Everyone cheered weakly as she threw one to each of us before she plopped down on the grass beside me and held hers to her head. "I'm worn...the fuck...out!" she huffed as she groaned and laid back on the grass. "Me too... but hopefully we will get used to the new workout soon and it won't be so hard" I mumbled tiredly before taking a long drink from my bottle.
It got quiet as we all laid there feeling the cool breeze against our skin as we listened to the bird's chirp and the animals run in the forest around us. Suddenly I heard the sound of footsteps running towards the dome on the east side.
I jolted up and took off in that direction without waiting for anyone to follow. As I got close, I readied myself to attack and dove through the shield. I threw my wings out as I landed in a defensive pose, slamming my fist to the ground before slowly bringing my gaze up.
As I did I saw a huge group of people all crowding around me with stunned looks on their faces. As I slowly started to recognize faces in the crowd, it dawned on me that these were the people we had all called to relocate here for safety.
I quickly stood up, retracting my wings as I smiled and waved at them all awkwardly. "Um.... sorry about that" I mumbled embarrassed and rubbed the back of my neck. "I'm glad to see everyone made it here okay, though some things have changed since I last spoke to you. Once we get everyone inside and settled, I'll explain everything." I said reassuringly as Luke, Tyler, and the rest of the group walked through the shield.
I smiled at them and nodded towards them before I looked back over to the crowd of people in front of me. "If you already bear a crest on your chest you can pass through the shield unhindered and can go find a room in the packhouse. Those of you that don't, I'm going to need you to line up over here and one of us will go through the process with you" I said clearly, letting some of my power seep into it as I pointed at a spot for them to line up and gestured between Luke, Tyler, and I.
As everyone started to move, my mates looked at me confused and Tyler had his eyes furrowed as he thought. (Since we're mates and you guys have powers now, you should be able to do the bond just like I can) I mind-linked them as I stood there chuckling. It fook as second before realization dawned on them, making them grin ear to ear as they came over to stand beside me.
"Avery, come here for a sec. I wanna try something," I said eagerly as everyone else turned to go back inside and help the newcomers. She looked at me inquisitively before shrugging and making her way towards me.
"What's up Iz?" She asked confused as she got closer. "Do you trust me?" I asked honestly as I looked at her excitedly and grinned ear to ear.
"Of course... but..why?" She replied, her eyebrows furrowing as she came to stand in front of me. I gently grabbed her hand in mine and smiled at her enthusiastically.
"This is why," I muttered determinedly as I closed my eyes and focused my power to her hands. After a few seconds, I opened my eyes and could see golden mist spiraling from my hand to hers as they started to glow.
I pushed more energy her way before slowly cutting off the connection and releasing her hands. Avery stared at me in awe as I took a small step back. "I figured since I had more power... I could give you more power, and hopefully you could help me out by using your magic to build some other pack houses for our new residents?" I said hopefully as I gave her a big grin.
She smiled from ear to ear before nodding her head enthusiastically "Oh, of course! Thank you so much! I've got everything inside, you just worrying out everyone out here" she said happily before she hugged me tightly and quickly headed off back inside the dome.
I turned around and explained what we were going to do to Derek and Luke as well as how to form the bond. After that, we spread out and had the group of about 100 people move into three smaller linesI from of each of us so we could get them in as soon as possible.
With that, we started the process of applying bonds to all the new pack members. They would come up, we would ask their name and where they were from or who they were with. After that, we mind-linked their link to our ground (I.E.: Lisa, Zayn, Emma, Seth, or Avery) to confirm it before our hands were placed on their chest and the bond formed.
After everyone had been marked and allowed through, we came back inside and helped Avery build the other pack houses. They were smaller than the main one and lined up with three on either side of it, with smaller, family homes scattered about.
Once everyone was settled in, I had them gather in the large meeting room in the main house before we explained everything we had learned recently about Torah.
In the end, I was surprised to see that almost everyone that was able to, step forward and pledge that they would fight by our side in the coming war. I smiled proudly as I stood on the stage and looked out at everyone.
We might actually have a chance at winning this thing.