The Silver Guardian Bk. 02 Ch. 01

"When the Champion told me that my life had ended but I was to be reborn, I think he meant it literally, but also figuratively. I'm still very much Dante Silvrash, but I returned as more. I am fully The Silver Guardian now, and when he placed his hand over my seal simultaneous with your bringing me back, I returned with knowledge I didn't have before."

Dante paused to let Lily absorb that before he continued. "For lack of a better description right now, we'll go with what you called it earlier. At need I can enter my "War God" state, which amplifies and magnifies everything about me. I become even faster, stronger and vicious than I am normally. I also have far more accelerated healing than before, but most of all I have power over lightning. It's a gift that the First Champion also had, but nobody other than his own Great Love knew about it. The downside is that I enter a mental state somewhat akin to tunnel vision. Unless I know them, anyone I lay eyes on becomes my enemy and I will destroy them. I must be extremely careful when I go into that state that I do not kill our allies, because I will not be able to tell friend from foe in that state. Anyone in the O'Connor Pack or our three allied packs is safe because I've already met everyone, but as our alliance grows, this may become a dangerous issue. Only you can bring me back to myself, but as you saw, the strain my War God puts on me is immense. That's why I passed out: it was a terrible burden and once it lifted I was out for the count for a while. Your role is extremely important, because you're the only person in the world that I trust absolutely, which means you'll be the only one able to tell me what to do, or to redirect me if I'm about to destroy the wrong people. I'll need your help and guidance on when and where to use this power, and I'll need you to help me train in that state so that as a team we'll be more effective. If you aren't directing my actions and I'm not familiar with our allies, I will behave as an insane berserker, deadly to everyone save yourself."

Lily nodded her agreement, "Of course my love, anything you need will be done. And of course, I will help guide and lead you, I can help be the strategist for us when you're yourself, and you can be the hammer under my guidance when we need it, and I must be with you each time so I can bring you back to our people. They need you and they need me, so we can't have you becoming lost to us for too long."

Lily and Dante continued to discuss the ambush for a while longer and how close her vision had been to the actual events. It was eerie how close it had been with only a few minor differences that hadn't amounted to anything important, except of course for his death not being final, and everything that happened afterwards. Finally they wrapped up, which led Dante to his next topic.

"So I assume we're in a room in the Crater Moon Pack House, right? How long was I out, and what's the plan for now?"

Lily quickly filled in her mate, "You were only out for a few hours and it's only 7pm the same day. Yes, we're still in the Pack House, and the rest of our council has been cleaning up and doing damage control, waiting for you to awaken. We need to head to the dining room for dinner, and then we'll go to a different conference room to wrap things up. There is much to discuss, especially following today's events."

Dante got up and dressed from his bag, that had been brought to the room that he and Lily were staying in. Lily had already changed after the carnage and her arm was already mostly healed. It turned out that her ability to heal wasn't just limited to Dante, but also enhanced her own already impressive healing to an unheard-of level. Dante was relieved when he found this out, and he made sure to show Lily how grateful he was that she was ok with a heavy make out session. Once they calmed down, Lily led him through the large building to the dining room.

It was a subdued and somber meal with all of the Alpha pairs and Lily and Dante discussing the attack. Dante learned that five of Alpha Thomas' border patrol had been killed, as well as the four Enforcers who'd been guarding the two doors to the conference room. Luckily no one in the room had been killed, but most of them had suffered some nasty wounds that would require some recovery time. Lily wished she could heal them all, but when she attempted it, there was no green light and no visible healing took place. Odin thanked his son for saving his and Victoria's lives, while Victoria hugged and kissed him lovingly for saving her mate and herself, as well as for miraculously coming back to them all.

After dinner, the council convened in another conference room to wrap up their discussions before calling it a night. Tomorrow morning everyone would return to their own territories and continue to make progress on each of their assignments.

Dante led off, "Well, we found out what the $500,000 wire transfer was for, but this is about the worst way we could have uncovered that answer. Alpha Thomas, I am deeply sorry for your loss. Whatever support and assistance you need, you will be given. Just let Lily or me know and we will coordinate it with the other allies we have here."

Thomas and Rebecca nodded their heads before he spoke, "Thank you Dante, I will do that. I don't know how they found out about our gathering, but we will all be sweeping our offices and quarters for bugs of any type and I will be looking into my Pack to see what I can find as well. Rebecca is a talented interrogator; should we find a leak I can promise you some solid intelligence from her endeavors. At our next meeting we'll let everyone here know what we find."

Rebecca looked at her mate with a shark's smile, anticipating finding out who betrayed them if it was someone from her Pack. "I can promise you, if this leak came from within our Pack, I will find it and that person's pain will be paid in full by the time I am done. As Thomas said, if we find anything, we will cauterize this leak and let everyone know what intelligence we gather."

Lily spoke next, addressing everyone, but specifically focusing on her Mother and Father. "Dante and I will be doing a lot of traveling between now and our next meeting. We need to meet with several Packs and try to get them on our side. Battle lines have been drawn, and we know Viktor is already amassing his own version of an army, and we must do the same. I think this may be ambitious, but I'm confident we can meet with four Packs before the next meeting. But where do you all think we should start?"

Odin spoke in response, "With our Pack and Lisette's, we already have Montana covered. We need to get with the other Packs in Idaho and Wyoming next, to try and tie up those states. Two others I think we should focus on would be the Great Lakes Pack in Michigan and the Prussia Pack near Philadelphia. We need allies and intelligence in Viktor's backyard, and both of those Packs spoke to us supportively at the Conclave. Starting there would be smart, and will give us a real leg up in that area."

Dante and Lily looked at each other before nodding their agreement. Dante wrapped up the meeting, "So we're agreed. Lily and I will visit the Great Lakes Pack, the Prussia Pack, the Kootenai Pack in Idaho, and the Thunder Basin Pack in Wyoming. Our next meeting will be in March, and as normal I will alert you of the meeting location, date and time shortly before it is to happen. Everyone is to keep strengthening their Packs, training, investigating, preparing and looking for other allies in the meantime. Are we all agreed?"

Dante looked around the room at all those assembled and made eye contact, getting confirmation from each Alpha.

"Alpha Thomas and Madame Alpha Rebecca, thank you for hosting us this time, and for everyone's prompt and concentrated response to the attack. It's time for us all to retire and rest before returning tomorrow to our respective territories. Dismissed."

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