"For a moment, it wasn't him fighting. It was us."
The arena pulsed with unnatural silence after my scream tore through the night, the raw force of my wolf's aura rolling like an invisible storm through the assembled crowd. Students stumbled backward as if physically struck, some clutching their chests as they struggled to breathe under the crushing weight of my unleashed power. Even the Academy instructors, hardened by decades of managing supernatural conflicts, looked genuinely shaken by what they were witnessing.
I stood trembling in the sudden quiet, my breath coming in ragged gasps, my entire body buzzing with a strength that didn't feel entirely like my own. The energy coursing through my veins was foreign yet familiar, ancient yet newly awakened—power that had been dormant in my bloodline for generations, waiting for the right moment to surface.
The mate bond between Darius and me thrummed violently, no longer just an ache in my chest but something alive and electric, crackling with visible energy that made the air itself shimmer.
And then I felt it happen—the moment everything changed.
My wolf surged outward, but not just around me in the protective aura I'd somehow managed to manifest. The energy poured directly into him, flowing across the blood-stained sand like liquid silver to where Darius knelt battered and bleeding.
Into Darius.
His head snapped up with sudden alertness, crimson still streaking down his face from Gideon's brutal assault, but his golden eyes now burned brighter than I'd ever seen them—molten fire that seemed to illuminate the entire arena. The weakness that had been dragging down his powerful limbs evaporated instantly under the rush of supernatural energy that wasn't entirely his own.
Through our bond, I could feel the exact moment when my strength merged with his, when two separate wolves became something greater than the sum of their parts. We weren't fighting as two halves at war anymore—we were one unified force channeled through his body but powered by both our souls.
Gasps erupted throughout the crowd as they witnessed something that belonged in legends rather than Academy combat circles.
"She—she actually gave him strength—"
"The bond... it's manifesting physically—"
"This shouldn't be possible for untrained wolves—"
"Look at his eyes—that's not just Alpha fire—"
The whispers sharpened from cruel entertainment into genuine awe, disbelief, and in some cases outright fear. What they were seeing challenged everything they thought they understood about mate bonds and supernatural power distribution.
Gideon froze mid-step, his predatory confidence flickering like a candle in wind as his amber gaze darted frantically between Darius and me. The smug satisfaction that had been painting his features began to crack, confusion and something that might have been actual concern flashing across his bruised face.
"What did you do?" he demanded, though I could hear the edge of genuine unease bleeding into his usually controlled voice.
I couldn't have answered even if I'd wanted to. I didn't have words for what was happening, didn't understand the mechanics of power I'd never known I possessed. All I knew was the overwhelming heat of the mate bond, the way my wolf poured its very essence into him like water feeding drought-stricken earth, and how my heart stuttered at the sight of him rising from defeat like a phoenix from ashes.
Darius's chest heaved as he pushed himself to his feet with fluid grace, the sand that had been clinging to his bloodied skin falling away as if it no longer had the right to touch him. Supernatural dominance radiated from his powerful frame now—not just his wolf's natural authority, but something enhanced and amplified by our shared connection.
His burning golden eyes locked onto Gideon with laser focus, and when he spoke, his voice rumbled with harmonics that seemed to vibrate through the arena's stone foundations.
"This fight isn't over."
The crowd erupted into fresh roars, the air crackling with renewed tension as they sensed the dramatic shift in momentum. What had seemed like certain victory for Gideon now balanced on a knife's edge of supernatural forces none of them fully comprehended.
Gideon's jaw tightened as he struggled to process this unexpected development, but he forced his trademark smirk back into place with visible effort. The expression looked strained now, a mask barely containing the uncertainty spreading across his sharp features.
"So the little rogue has a trick after all," he spat, his calculating gaze flicking to me with something approaching grudging respect. "You think lending him your scraps of power makes him more Alpha? How pathetic."
But his words rang hollow even to his own ears. His supreme confidence had slipped badly, and the shift in the crowd's energy made his position even more precarious. Students who had been chanting his name with bloodthirsty enthusiasm now stood breathless and wide-eyed, waiting to see what impossible thing would happen next.
The scent of his fear began to leak into the air, sharp and acrid beneath the metallic tang of spilled blood.
Darius didn't give his rival the chance to regain psychological ground. With a roar that shook the ritual torches in their holders, he launched himself forward. His strike carried exponentially more force than anything he'd managed earlier, his partially extended claws flashing like curved daggers as supernatural speed made him nearly impossible to track.
Gideon managed to block the initial assault, but the impact rattled him to his bones, sending him staggering backward across the sand with a grunt of shock and pain.
The crowd gasped again, excited awe replacing their earlier doubts about the fight's outcome.
I clutched my chest as my wolf howled inside me with fierce triumph, her voice echoing through my consciousness with primal satisfaction. Through our enhanced connection, I could feel everything Darius experienced—every surge of strength flowing through his muscles, every predatory instinct sharpening his focus, every strike he landed reverberating through my own body.
It didn't feel like watching him fight alone anymore. Every devastating blow, every supernatural roar, every display of enhanced Alpha dominance—it was me too, channeled through his form but powered by our combined will.
Gideon's carefully maintained composure cracked entirely as he struggled to deflect the relentless assault, his arms straining against forces that shouldn't have been possible. "This is impossible," he muttered, voice sharp with growing panic as he realized his carefully orchestrated victory was slipping away.
Darius pressed his advantage with ruthless efficiency, golden eyes blazing with fury and supernatural fire that belonged to both of us now. His movements were utterly relentless, fueled by more than wounded pride or territorial instincts—fueled by the absolute certainty that came from fighting with his mate's strength flowing through his veins.
The crowd shouted with increasing excitement at every successful strike, the arena's atmosphere shifting decisively back toward Darius as they witnessed something that transcended normal combat. This wasn't just physical dominance anymore—it was the manifestation of a bond so powerful it could literally share supernatural abilities between mates.
The tide had turned through forces no one could deny or explain away.
And then it happened—the moment that would end this nightmare once and for all.
With one devastating blow that carried the combined weight of both our wolves behind it, Darius caught Gideon square across the center of his chest. The impact sounded like thunder cracking across clear sky, the force lifting Gideon completely off his feet before slamming him backward into the sand with enough violence to send up clouds of dust.
Darius followed through immediately, pinning his defeated rival to the ground with unyielding strength. His partially shifted claws pressed against Gideon's exposed throat—not quite breaking skin, but making the threat unmistakably clear.
The arena fell into absolute silence as hundreds of wolves processed what they'd just witnessed.
Victory. Complete and undeniable.