The Silver Guardian Bk. 02 Ch. 03

Maria smiled like a shark at him while Lily cracked up, laughing at her jest.

Dante chuckled, "Sounds good to me. Lily are you coming with?"

Lily shook her head, "I'm going to sit out for a while and take a break. We've been on the bike for some time and I want to stretch my legs and get something to drink. I'll join you for a lap or two later, after everyone has ripped around the track for a time."

Maria and Dante suited back up and headed out onto one of the inner tracks, which used a portion of the main tri-oval track. After a couple sighting laps, Maria dropped back and nodded to Dante, who twisted the throttle and was off like a shot. The course was demanding, and Dante was laying the bike over from one corner to another, dropping low near the ground and sometimes even scraping the armor on his knees as he powered through the course. On one of the long straights, he glanced down and saw 190 mph on the clocks and couldn't believe the capabilities of this bike. The amount of grunt it had coming out of the corners was intense, and it kept spinning up into 13,500 rpm, pulling the entire way like a freight train locomotive. Dante had never been on a bike like this before, and knew his H2R would be even more nimble, brutal and cut like a scalpel. He played for nearly an hour before he pulled back into the pit area.

Lily walked up to him after he had gotten off the bike and removed most of his gear. Dante had a massive grin plastered on his face after being on the bike, doing such insane speeds and letting his gearhead side go wild for a while.

"Looks like you had some fun stud, did you enjoy our new bike?" Lily gave him a big hug and a deep sexual kiss.

"It was a ball, an absolute ball being able to do this! The bike is just incredible and I've never ridden anything like it before. Thanks for hanging out and giving me some time to rip around the track, I loved it."

Lily smiled lovingly at him while she stroked his cheek. "Of course my love, what kind of mate would I be if I didn't let you have some fun and be happy?"

"You're the best mate anyone could possibly have, and you do all of that and more, my love," said Dante earnestly.

Maria walked up to them at that point, smiling as well.

"Looked like you had a lot of fun out there! I love racing on a track and honing my skills, I come here as often as I can. My Monster 1200 is a helluva bike, but I simply couldn't keep up with you on that rocket you have."

Dante chuckled, "It is a lot of bike to handle, but man, can I make her scream."

Lily playfully whacked his chest, "Hey, I'm the only girl you should be making scream, mister!"

Maria laughed hard at Lily's statement. "Different kind of girl hun, hahaha!"

Dante and Lily took a break while Dante rested and got something to drink himself. Everyone had been spending time on the track and having a great time at the raceway, including Gio and Sophia. It was about forty-five minutes before they were going to leave, so Dante refueled the bike and he and Lily climbed onto the Ninja so he could take her out for a few high-speed laps. Dante was taking her on the big tri-oval track so they would be more stable and have turns to maneuver that weren't as sharp to deal with, with Lily on the back. They did a few warmup laps, before Dante nailed the throttle and went full speed. They were in a full tuck position and hitting speeds of over 200 mph on the long straight, and Lily was having a blast with the huge adrenaline rush of it all, and beginning to become a gearhead herself after being with Dante, exposed to his love for speed and power in vehicles, now including motorcycles.

A while later, they pulled back into the pit area and Dante put the bags back on the bike as everyone loaded up and pointed it back towards the Villa.

They arrived home a while later before putting the bikes away, removing their gear and heading back to their rooms for showers and to dress for dinner. Dinner was a treat of huge wood-fired pizzas their chef had put together, which was a delicious, relaxed meal while everyone chatted boisterously about the wonderful day they'd had and the fun of it all. They wrapped up dinner and eventually made it to bed, where Lily fell asleep with Dante, snuggling into her favorite position for the night.

***

The next few days flew by as they prepared for Friday night's raid. Since the King of Prussia Pack had never fought with Dante or Lily or the Hellhounds together, and also since Dante and Lily hadn't had a chance to start training to integrate martially with Astrid and her team, a lot of time was spent on sparring and training in different team combinations and configurations. All the members of the Valentini family were gifted fighters, with Gio being a tank that could absorb damage and tear through whatever was in front of him, while Sophia supported him in ways similar to Lily's support of Dante, by being extremely fast and agile, able to land decisive and often lethal blows quickly, getting in and back out instantly with her hit and run tactics. Sophia was also a gifted tactician who could plan and run an operation, while Gio was adept at leading his warriors on the ground in the thick of things. Maria was somewhere between her siblings, having the size and strength to soak up hits while dealing devastating blows, but was also very quick and agile and was almost as good as her sister-in-law with hit and run tactics when required.

Dante would be commanding the mission on the ground, being the spear point, while having Sophia run the other theaters of the operation while also providing support and intelligence to Lily via her bond with members of her own Pack, while Lily and her team would back up Dante and the entry team, plus the breaching teams, by not only sniping, but probably more importantly, by commanding the various sniper teams that would be placed at other key locations. Uncharacteristically, Gio was content to place himself under Dante's command as part of the insertion team. Which was anything but a minimal role however, since that crack team was made up of the best of the best, and would be in the center of the battle from start to finish.

Time was spent training in their individual teams for the operation, as well as heavy training with just Dante and Lily teamed with the Hellhounds while they had a chance. They finally got to see just how incredible Astrid and her team were. There was no doubt they had been training and fighting together most of their lives, and they acted and reacted as one organic unit, which was impenetrable as well as devastatingly lethal from any distance. Freydis was their tank, who would wade in and focus the enemy in one spot. Brynhild was their ranged support, who was scarily adept at hand to hand, but primarily engaged with her chakrams from any distance, carrying many of them on her of many different sizes. From spinning them on a finger, she could flick the small ones rapidly one after another for close distances, while the larger, more massive discs could soar across a battlefield like Frisbees, arriving unexpectedly with devastating, often even decapitating effect. Hilde with her claymore was like the Calvary, able to cut through disorganized enemies, once Freydis had shattered their ranks. Astrid was by far the most skilled with a blade among them, but also acted as their leader, coordinating everything and able to get to whomever she needed to support, and often directing Brynhild in taking out the enemy's leadership from a distance. In short, Astrid was a master of all roles. There was no doubt why these women had been chosen as the most elite bodyguards of their Pack and the Lycan race. Nobody could hope to be a match for them, and few could even come close: they were the absolute best.

When they trained as a team of six however, things changed. There was nobody anywhere that could hope to stand on equal footing with Dante or Lily, so Dante would always be the spearpoint of the team, just as he had always preferred to be throughout his military career, with Lily right beside him, watching his back and supporting him and reigning him in when necessary. The two of them would engage head on and focus on holding the enemy's attention. Their ability to flow invisibly through a group of enemies was unparalleled, as they dealt waves of devastation and death to groups of enemies quickly and precisely. Dante had the ability to use his lightning with frightening consequences, occasionally targeting individuals, but more often taking out entire platoons at once. The Hellhounds would contain the situation around them, performing as their shield and blade, keeping some enemies away from them while allowing others to proceed to their doom, controlling the flow of the battle around them so Dante and Lily wouldn't become overwhelmed with sheer numbers. Between Dante's battle experience and ability to read people, Lily's and his complete trust in each other and their bond together, added to the expertise and experience of the Hellhounds, they quickly became unstoppable as a group, working seamlessly together with incredible results.

By Friday morning, everyone felt they were as prepared as they could possibly be and were ready to execute the mission, hopefully flawlessly.

That evening, everyone went into the briefing room, getting ready to launch the mission and were gearing up. Dante and Lily were in black tactical gear with ballistic armor and wearing their bi-species weapon harnesses. Dante had Twin Moons and his twin Spartans strapped on him, as well as his tanto, plus rounds and rounds of ammunition. He would also be carrying one of his HK416 assault rifles with him, as would everyone in his insertion team. Lily was set up with her Kimber and dual daggers, but primarily her MRAD with its thermal scope, and an entire duffel of filled magazines that Freydis would be passing to her and replacing so long as there was no threat nearby.

The two Hellhounds not assigned with Lily were dressed in their armor and carrying their normal specialized weapons as well as an HK416 each, with plenty of magazines on their harnesses. Dante had directed Astrid to speak with Gio's weapons expert and begin to share the ins and outs on how to construct the harnesses, including the various secrets on how to make them so versatile. Dante had made mention that he was going to share this technology with all their allies, to help better arm and protect them going forward.

Dante addressed the assembly of warriors.

"The meeting is scheduled to be between Viktor's representative and one of the key leaders of the Cosa Nostra, the crime syndicate Viktor is working with in Philadelphia, and should begin at 2200 hours. We will be in preliminary positions at 2100 hours, with myself and the insertion team gaining roof access at that time. We will then get into attack position at 2145 hours. Lily, you and your teams will clear the rooftop for us right before we go up, and then the entrance points for the breaching and containment teams. When I confirm that the key players are all in position at 2159 hours, I will execute the mission a minute later and we'll all begin. There are two men we want to capture alive."

With that, two men came up on a large screen with their known information.

"Viktor's rep and one of his high ranking Betas is Ivan Kokorov. The high value target for the Cosa Nostra is Carlos Garza, one of the senior ranking members of the local organization. We want both of these cock-suckers alive, not necessarily unharmed, but alive. We will be able to extract information from them which, in addition to the disruption of their operations because of our raid tonight, will also help us to shut down the drug trade throughout this entire region. Ivan should also be able to give us invaluable information and insights into the makeup and organization of Viktor's overall forces, as well as his capabilities and reach. I know that many of the enemy tonight will be humans, and we normally don't get involved with humans let alone kill them, but these ones are monsters and predators, so don't hesitate to remove them. Remember, if anyone sees you shift, they must be eliminated and silenced without exception, except for the two ass wipes we'll be capturing alive. Nobody will be allowed to expose us, and we will not tolerate any mistakes, understood?"

Everyone assembled nodded their acceptance and said so. After going over all the last-minute details, they loaded up into their SUV's and left for the staging area.

***

Dante and his insertion team, made up of Gio, Maria, Brynhild and Hilde, were on the roof. Lily had already taken out three heavily armed guards that had been in position on the roof with perfectly placed shots right through the heart of each of them, her hours of training paying off. They had then cut and removed the glass in the skylights silently, and Dante was now using his perfect vision to monitor down below, where Ivan and twenty heavily armed wolves were waiting for Carlos and his men so they could conduct their transaction. According to intel, the mob was supposed to arrive any moment for a transaction of $50 million in exchange for heroin and cocaine to be distributed, primarily locally.

Lily and her team were stationed at a skylight off to a corner of the warehouse below, giving then a wide field of view of both the warehouse and the main entrance from the street.

Everyone in Dante's team had their ropes attached to their fixed anchor points and were strapped in, waiting to drop down like a ton of bricks. Dante heard Lily through the bond.

A dozen dark SUV's are approaching the warehouse entrance. They must be Carlos, and he's bringing plenty of company with him. No law enforcement or federal presence anywhere around, so we are clear and ready for the operation. I love you baby, be safe and kick some ass!

Dante smiled before passing along the information to his team. Dante and Lily and the Hellhounds would be utilizing Pack bonds to communicate together, and only because of their proximity, Dante and Lily could communicate with Gio, Sophia and Maria, and Gio's Pack would be using their own Pack bonds between each other as well. Madame Alpha Sophia would maintain bond communication with one of her Pack Betas stationed with Lily, to keep her informed of developments. As backups to keep everyone on the same page, communication devices were also distributed to everyone to be used whenever needed.

Dante responded to Lily, I love you too baby, watch my team of six, keep our children safe and me alive. See you on the other side.

Dante identified Carlos and what had to be forty men walking into the warehouse and their leader began talking with Ivan. It was go time.

Dante's quietly counted down to the operation's launch as his team prepared to plummet into the warehouse.

"5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Execute!"

Dante leapt into the air and quickly descended into the building. He was about two thirds of the way down before Ivan and his wolves noticed the breach and responded, prompting Carlos' men to respond as well. Dante could see dozens of enemies draw their guns and start to take aim at him and the other members of his team, but even as he continued rappelling down, he was far faster, and started firing into Ivan's ranks with surgical precision, wanting to take out as many wolves as possible first, since they were by far the more dangerous combatants. Dante touched down and raced behind cover as bullets flew everywhere while his team joined him in firing from different vantage points. The two breaching teams were now flooding in from two directions as well, taking care of many of the enemies that were all around them. Dante could see man after man dropping as the teams whittled them down, as well as Lily and her sniper team's bullets ripping through anywhere and everywhere, and even taking out wolves or men who were behind hard cover.

Dante drew Twin Moons and took a deep breath, letting it out, as his power flowed into him and he went into his War God state. Electricity leapt off his body all around him, making the warehouse glow with an eerie blue-white as he sprinted toward a large grouping of wolves. He pointed the tip of Twin Moons and charged high voltage electricity into them, making them glow, before firing massive lightning bolts through them, leaving gaping holes through the centers of three of the wolves. He flowed through them and around, cleaving entire limbs and heads away from the enemy combatants as he sent them to the afterlife. He sliced Twin Moons through someone who was just about to fire on him, before grabbing someone who was going for him with a blade, picking him up and with a thundering roar, ripping the wolf clean in half. His sheer savagery and brutality, like a monster from a sci-fi movie, was causing many of the opposing forces, especially Carlos' men, to lose their minds and their will to fight. Gio, Maria, Bryn and Freydis were shooting constantly, cutting down the remaining forces while Maria shot Carlos through both knees before using a dagger to pin his hand to a crate of the drugs he had come here to buy.

Dante engaged with Ivan, a burly, formidable wolf who had drawn a war hammer and was charging pell-mell towards Dante. As the war hammer came down to cleave him, Dante put all his power into a slash, and with Twin Moons glowing white hot, cut right through the hammer, taking Ivan's right hand with it. In a fluid glide, he appeared behind Ivan and pushed his other blade through Ivan's shoulder and with a vicious side kick, blew out his right knee, incapacitating the wolf completely. Dante knew this wasn't enough to kill such a tough wolf, but would allow them to capture him and transport him to a holding cell where they could interrogate him, the same as they were doing for Carlos.

When Dante looked around to assess the situation, he realized that between Lily and her team's support, the breaching teams and his own insertion team, that the operation was over and was a success. They had Carlos and Ivan in custody, and everyone else had been slain.

Having come to the same conclusion as her mate, Lily was on her way. Remain still my love, and attack no more. I will be with you shortly.

Moments later she strode into the warehouse unaccompanied, for she was the only one on earth capable of approaching her mate at this time without dire consequence. She rushed directly up to him and began stroking his face and his body, crooning to him, soothing him and talking him down as he gradually emerged from his War God state.

Once he was himself again, anchored to reality by a long, final, close embrace and soul-filled kiss with his Sheath, Dante initiated the next stage.

"Stage one is completed. Lily, please resume control of your team, Sophia please join her, and everyone begin egress. Extraction and cleanup teams, begin now."

With that, the initial egress of their support began as three large semis rolled up to the warehouse's loading docks, into which the bodies of all the wolves and men, plus all the drugs intended for tonight's sale, in addition to all the other drugs and contraband being stored here for later sale or shipment elsewhere could be quickly loaded. The drugs would be destroyed, and the bodies cut up and dropped into drums of acid for shipment to a chemical disposal facility in Mexico. There would be nothing left here to find, and not only would this operation and evidence of Viktor's former trafficking, but most importantly evidence of their greatest secret would be safely blown away. There would be massive evidence of arson left behind for law enforcement to find of course, but who could possibly have a motive for destroying a warehouse? Certainly not a group of people living near King of Prussia. (If Viktor had insured the building, fingers might be pointed at him, but that was his problem.)