RISE OF THE LYCANS - Mates and Bonds

**This chapter got deleted, so I had to repost. Previous comments missing.

Selena

Something was happening because the demon guarding our cell rushed out nearly an hour ago and hadn’t returned.

“You think they found us?” Sol asked hopefully.

“I’m not waiting around any longer to find out,” Grandma Dori said. “We need to bust out of this joint.”

“The bars are silver,” Caspian reminded us.

Grandma Dori reached into her purse and pulled out her lock pick kit and leather gloves. “I’ve got long sleeves on, so I think I can reach my hands around to the lock.”

I wasn’t sure if the idea gave me hope or scared me. “What if he comes back in and catches you?”

“There’s holy water in my purse,” Grandma whispered. “Have it handy and use it if you need to.”

Grandma slipped her gloves on and went to work on the lock while I rummaged in her bag of tricks. I found a small bottle with a picture of a green olive on it.

“Is this it?”

She glanced back over her shoulder and shook her head. “No, that’s my extra virgin olive oil.”

“Who carries olive oil in their purse?” Zane questioned.

“You never know when you might need it,” she shrugged. “Look for the small clear bottles.”

I dug around some more and found two bottles that fit that description. “There’s a round bottle and a square bottle.”

“The round bottle might be fresher, it’s from Notre-Dame,” she explained. “The square bottle is from the Vatican.”

I tucked the square bottle in my pocket and handed the round one to Grandma. “Keep it close. If she comes near, we dowse her with it.”

“Do you think the holy water will work?” Cynder asked.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Grandma replied.

Jose moved behind Grandma to get a better look. “I wish I knew how to pick locks... The silver doesn’t affect me,” he sighed. “Is it really deadly for wolves?”

“It can be,” I nodded.

“So, that’s why you’re allergic to silver,” he stated in understanding because I had always refused to wear it or look at it while shopping.

Grandma reached for a different tool in her kit that looked like a small corkscrew and carefully reached her arms around the bars again. “Boy, this lock is tricky!”

Everything about Lilith bothered me. How could she possibly have captured a Goddess for twenty years? Didn’t anyone in the realm of the moon notice she was missing? I knew time moved differently in other realms, but twenty years was long.

I wondered if someone else was helping her because the amount of magic needed to trap the Moon Goddess would have been unimaginable. Unless she was tricked somehow? Erick was a mage, but I didn’t sense his magic was strong enough for something like this.

Mages had descended in the Darc family lines... was it possible that Jules could be a mage? No, he was an Alpha. I sensed his wolf.

“He could be a hybrid,” my wolf suggested.

“Jose, when was the last time you saw Jules Darc?”

“At La Tour when he was having dinner with his brother,” Jose said. “But he came into this room a few hours ago to try and figure out which Alpha Caspian was. He got frustrated when Caspian didn’t share his name and left swearing.”

“Swearing?” Grandma probed as she continued to work the lock.

“Something about all the LaRue mutts looking the same,” Jose shrugged. “I tell you, green is not his shade.”

“Apparently, we get the signature LaRue look from the mortal lover of the Moon Goddess,” Caspian stated.

“Is Storm the first to bear a strong resemblance to the Goddess?” Sol asked, and the room fell silent.

“I don’t remember seeing a portrait at Crescent Castle of anyone with the same hair color,” Zane said.

“It’s not just the hair,” Cynder pressed.

“Maybe it’s something that happens once every hundred years, like a golden wolf,” Sol suggested.

“Then he or she would still be alive,” Zane told my sister. “It could be once in a thousand years or something. I bet Ambrose would know.”

“My bet is on Balthazar knowing this Jeopardy question,” Grandma said. “I’ll take ancient lycan for two thousand years old.”

Jose laughed as if he had just heard the punch line of a joke. “Two thousand years... that’s hilarious.”

“Why would Jules Darc be working with the demon?”

Eloise took a deep breath before she spoke. “Erick told me Jules had been promised a lycan mate in exchange for bringing the silver-haired female to her.”

“Storm?” Caspian questioned.

“I don’t think she’s talking about Grandma,” Cynder replied.

“Rex and Storm are going to reach full lycan maturity in a month. Maybe she wanted to use their venom?”

“Venom?” Jose asked. “Are we talking about Vampire venom?”

“You know about Vampires?”

Caspian groaned. “We’ve had plenty of time sitting around here to catch Jose up to speed.”

“I would have thought my best friend would have mentioned it sooner,” Jose snarked. “But I understand the laws of your kind. If we make it out of here alive, I promise not to tell anyone... Well, I’ll probably talk shit about you to Erick, but I won’t say a thing to anyone else.”

“The shade!” My wolf snickered.

“I’m sorry. I really wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t.”

The door opened with a bang, and Fontenay entered the room with a sadistic smile on his face. Grandma stepped back and tucked the small tool at her side. Before I could register what happened, Fontenay turned into a poof of black mist and reappeared inside the cage with us.

“Erick needs a little motivation,” he smiled as he grabbed ahold of Jose and poofed right out of the cell with him.

“Get your bear claws off me!” Jose struggled against the monster’s brutal hold on him.

“Stop! What are you doing with him?” I screamed as I watched in horror.

Jose kicked at the demon, but every time his foot made contact, Fontenay’s legs turned to mist. The arm wrapped around Jose also turned into an octopus-like tentacle, and I noticed he had shapeshifted most of his body into mist to protect his true form.

“Jose, go for the eyes!” Caspian shouted.

The door closed behind Fontenay as he dragged Jose along. Air caught in my lungs and I felt the tears sting my eyes. Jose wasn’t from our world, and it was all my fault. He shouldn’t even be here, and I may have just gotten him killed for knowing me.

“We need to get out of here and help him.”

“I’m working on it,” Grandma said as she resumed lock picking.

“She’s going to use Jose to force Erick to do something he doesn’t want to,” Eloise sobbed.

“Selena, honey, can you get me the half diamond pick from the kit,” Grandma asked.

I moved to her purse and reached for the lock pick kit. There were so many different picks with different ends. “Which one is it?”

“The one on the right side that looks like a half of a diamond shape.”Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

I passed her the tool and heard the tumble of the lock.

“I got it!” She used her covered arm to push the door open and rushed out. I immediately followed her and heard a loud clank of bars from behind me.

“Oh, hell!” Grandma mumbled as she took in the new bars that had suddenly appeared in the room.

“Selena!” My sister cried out in shock.

They were still stuck in the cell with the open door, but a new set of silver bars split the room in half. We were separated on the other side of the room with the door, and I stood rooted in place. I didn’t want to leave the others, and I wasn’t sure what was waiting for us outside this room.

I nearly screamed when the door pushed open and Jules Darc sauntered in with a wide smile on his face.

“I knew you were going to be trouble ever since you knocked over the flambé trolley,” he laughed. “Though I’m a fan of your work with the macaron tree at the ball.”

“What a pity I don’t have one now,” Grandma huffed, and he chuckled again.

“I bet she’d shove it up your ass,” Caspian bit back.

“I would have enjoyed seeing her do that to Pierre,” he smiled, and the madness behind his piercing green eyes flashed red. His wolf had gone mad.

“You killed your brother,” I breathed.

“And now it’s all mine,” he smirked.

“You do realize the Darc pack and all of its assets have been seized by lycans,” Zane told him.

“The Queen will take care of it,” he smiled.

“You think the demon will help you win back your pack back?”

“I know she will,” he said. “Now, since you two are so anxious to leave the cell, which one of you would like to dance with me under the beautiful chandelier?”

“Boy, you’re a few bonbons short, aren’t you?” Grandma said with a scowl.

“It sounds like you volunteered first!” Jules reached for Grandma, and she pulled away from him faster than I expected she could.

“Jules!” Caspian snarled.

“Leave her alone!” Cynder screamed.

“The eyes, Dori,” Zane yelled, and Grandma jabbed the small lock-picking tool in his eye.

Screaming and thrashing, Jules reached for his bloody eye. I knew it wouldn’t be enough to kill an Alpha, but he was injured and vulnerable, so I did the only thing I could think of.

“The silver bars!” I said as I gave Jules a hard push towards the bars. He roared and tried to take an angry swing at me, but he missed.

“Again!” Caspian urged.

I pushed him again, and Grandma stuck her foot out to help him along. The angry Alpha went crashing face first into the burning silver bars. Jules howled in pain and dropped to his knees. If he touched the silver long enough, it might just be enough to kill him.

“I hear you killed your own mother!” Grandma scolded as she pressed the back of her Hush Puppy between his shoulders and sent him falling into the silver bars again.

“That fucking bitch!” He roared as spit shot from his mouth. Jules pulled back from the bars, panting and breathing hard while blood continued to drip from his face, soaking his shirt.

Grandma tutted. “That’s no way to speak about the woman who birthed you.”

“She sent my pregnant mate to the apartment when it should have been her!”

It all started to make sense. Jules had set the bomb in his apartment to kill his mother, and the unfortunate Omega who died must have been his chosen mate. He had either killed his mother and brother or forced Erick to do it.

“Why did you set the bomb at my apartment?” I asked, and he laughed.

“To keep us here longer,” Zane growled.

Rage filled me, and his laugh was starting to annoy my wolf. Jules had been promised a lycan, and Alpha Darc thought he could take one or force one into heat and claim her. I grabbed a fistful of his hair and pressed his face against the bars again. He lifted his hands to grab ahold of something to push back with, but he only found the burning bars against his palms.

“Never send a wolf to do demon work,” thundered a voice behind us.

Letting go of Jules, I turned to find Fontenay behind us. “You didn’t lock the cell,” he snarled at Jules, whose face was too bloody and swollen to speak.

“I’ve seen his handy work with bombs,” Grandma said, shaking her head. “He’s always so sloppy.”

“Are you two going to come along nicely?” He asked.

“What do you consider nice?” She asked, and I had a feeling she was stalling.

“The entire wing is enchanted, and you can’t escape. You may as well make it easier on yourself,” he replied.

In one swift move, Grandma started flinging her arm back and forth in the direction of Fontenay. Water splashed out from the small round bottle in her hand and sprayed him. “BE GONE DEMON!” She cried out.

Slowly, he lifted one of his big bear-clawed hands and wiped the water from his face. He looked at Grandma and narrowed his gaze on the bottle in her hand before he chuckled. “Is that the holy water from Notre-Dame?”

“In the name of Jesus,” Grandma flicked her hand again, and he roared with laughter.

“I suppose if I was a real priest, I might have blessed that, but I filled the font and tank with toilet water,” he grinned.

“Well, the jokes on you because you’re the one covered in toilet juice,” Grandma scowled.

“It sure beats Jesus juice,” he laughed. “It’s been a while since I’ve had such a good laugh. I think I’m going to save you for last.”

“Last for what?” Grandma asked.

Fontenay didn’t answer. Instead, he shoved me out the door, and I heard the lock tumble as if by magic. Panic filled me, thinking about Grandma being separated from the others. The demon turned into mist, and a tentacle arm snaked around me. I couldn’t see him anymore. The black cloud surrounded me and then pulled away to reveal we had traveled into another room.

“Where’s Grandma?” I demanded, but Fontenay remained half demon, half mist.

I looked around the massive room and realized that it was the first parlor we had entered when we arrived. A large chandelier hung in the center of the room and the furniture that was beneath it had been cleared out.

“Have a seat,” Fontenay ordered.

“No thanks,” I snapped. “I’ll stand.” My eyes searched the room for the nearest exit, and I wondered if I could outrun him. The only problem was I wasn’t sure how to get out of the museum.

“I insist,” he declared before he shoved me down onto a chair that had suddenly appeared.

“Run,” Stella urged me, and I tried to scramble off the chair, but Fontenay was fast.

I was pulled back in the chair with enough force to knock the wind out of my lungs. Ropes slithered around me like magic snakes, securing me to the chair. I quickly lifted my right arm away from the chair and reached for the small square bottle of holy water from the Vatican. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I needed to try.

I pressed the bottle to my mouth and uncorked it with my teeth. “BE GONE DEMON!” I shouted as Grandma did and sprayed the bottle at Fontenay.

A savage roar of pain shook the room before the bottle was knocked out of my hand. I had just managed to burn his arm and watched in fear as the rest of the small bottle spilled on the rug. Fontenay was still alive, and regret filled me. I should have given Grandma the bottle from the Vatican. When she had splashed him, she had managed to get his entire face wet.

Fontenay’s left arm disintegrated into ash, and he roared again. “You little bitch!” He snarled and delivered a closed-fisted punch to my face.

My head snapped back, and I felt the entire room spin. The massive light fixture above blurred and spun, but I noticed the silver spikes that had been added to the ornamentation of the chandelier’s underside. Blood ran from my nose and down to my chin. Taking deep breaths, I tried not to panic.

“Selena!” I heard the sweet sound of his voice through the mind link.

I groaned, feeling my eyes grow heavy. “Lukas?”

“I’m coming!” He promised, but I wasn’t sure if he would make it on time or if I would survive.

“I love you.”