CHAPTER 50: THE SHADOW FALLS

Multiple POVs

Aiden POV

The howl that woke me wasn’t from our pack.

I bolted upright in bed, my alpha instincts screaming danger. Through the window, I could see wolves running across our area in the pre-dawn darkness. But something was wrong with the way they moved – too stiff, too coordinated, like dolls on strings.

"Shadow-controlled," I breathed, grabbing my clothes.

Before I could even get ready, my bedroom door exploded inward. A wolf I recognized as Jake from the Mountain Pack lunged at me, his eyes completely black. I shifted instantly, my alpha wolf barely dodging his snapping jaws.

Jake had taught me how to fish when I was eight years old. Now he was trying to kill me.

I wrestled him to the ground, careful not to hurt him too badly. "Jake, it’s me! It’s Aiden! Fight the dark magic!"

But there was nothing behind those black eyes. No recognition, no feeling, just endless hunger.

More howls echoed outside. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds.

Through our pack tie, I felt Brock’s alarm from across the house. "Aiden! They’re everywhere!"

I pinned Jake down and rushed to the window. What I saw made my heart stop.

The entire clearing was full of shadow-controlled dogs from at least six different packs. They moved in perfect formation, surrounding our area like an army.

This wasn’t a random act. This was an attack.

Lily POV

I was already awake when the attack started, sitting by my window thinking about the terrible choice I’d have to make tonight. The vision of the earlier Triple Moon bearers still haunted me.

Then I felt it – a sudden tearing feeling in my chest as dozens of pack bonds went dark all at once.

"No," I whispered, putting my hand to my heart.

The Shadow Wolves had taken more people. I could feel their ties to their families being severed, replaced by something cold and hungry.

I ran downstairs to find chaos. Caleb was helping Alpha Marcus plan defenses while pack members grabbed weapons and prepared to fight.

"How many?" I asked breathlessly.

"At least two hundred controlled wolves," Alpha Marcus said sadly. "Maybe more. They have our area completely surrounded."

Through the window, I could see familiar faces among the invaders. Sarah from the River Pack, who used to bring cookies to the nursery. Tom from the Forest Pack, who’d helped us during the winter storms. Little Amy from the Valley Pack, who couldn’t be more than sixteen.

All of them with empty black eyes, moving on our home like zombies.

"We can’t fight them," I said desperately. "These are innocent people!"

"We don’t have a choice," Alpha Marcus responded. "If we don’t defend ourselves, everyone dies."

But I knew there was another way. I could use my healing skills to break the shadow control, just like I’d done in the caves. The only problem was that I’d barely recovered from yesterday’s magical tiredness. Trying to free two hundred wolves at once might kill me.

Of course, I was probably going to die tonight anyway when I faced the old evil.

Before anyone could stop me, I ran outside into the middle of the fight.

Brock POV

"Lily, get back!" I roared, hitting a shadow-controlled beta who was lunging at her.

The tamed wolf twisted in my grip, trying to bite my throat. I recognized him – Marcus from the Eastern Pack, a good guy who’d helped us hunt wild bears last summer. Now his claws were trying to tear my face off.

"I’m sorry," I mumbled, hitting him hard enough to knock him unconscious. "I’m so sorry."

All around us, the same awful scene was playing out. Pack members fighting their friends, their neighbors, sometimes even their own family members. The shadow magic had turned loved ones into foes.

Luna was crying as she avoided attacks from her own cousin. Elder Iris was trying to protect a group of young pups while shadow-controlled adults circled them like sharks.

This wasn’t a fight. This was a nightmare.

I grabbed Lily’s arm, trying to pull her back to safety. "What are you doing? You’ll get killed out here!"

"I have to try to save them!" she yelled back, silver light beginning to glow around her hands. "I can break the shadow control!"

"Not on this many wolves!" I said. "It’ll drain all your power! You need to save your strength for tonight!"

She looked at me with tears in her eyes. "I can’t just watch them die, Brock. I can’t."

That’s when I realized something that made my blood run cold. Lily wasn’t planning to survive tonight’s fight with the ancient evil. She was going to sacrifice herself, and she wanted to save as many people as possible before she died.

Caleb POV

Through the pack bond, I felt Lily’s resolve to use her healing powers on the controlled wolves. I also felt her acceptance that this might be her last day alive.

"No," I breathed, dumping the strategy papers I’d been studying. "Lily, no."

I raced outside to find her circled by shadow-controlled wolves, silver light pouring from her hands as she tried to break their magical bonds. The effort was clearly draining her fast – she was already swaying on her feet.

"Lily, stop!" I shouted, fighting my way through the chaos to reach her. "You’re going to kill yourself!"

"Better than letting them stay enslaved!" she called back.

Her healing power washed over the nearest controlled wolves, and I watched the black fade from their eyes as they blinked in confusion. But there were so many more, and each freed wolf took more of her strength.

A shadow-controlled alpha twice her size was charging straight at her. Lily was too weak to dodge, too focused on helping others to defend herself.

I stopped the attack, my wolf form slamming into the controlled alpha just before he reached her. We rolled across the ground, snapping and scratching at each other.

It was my old friend David from the Northern Pack. We’d grown up together, shared secrets, fought in races. Now he was trying to rip my throat out.

"David, please," I gasped as his jaws snapped inches from my face. "Remember who you are. Remember your family."

For just a second, something flickered in his black eyes. Pain, maybe. Or praise. But then the shadow magic took hold again, and he renewed his attack with even more rage.

Lily POV

I could feel my healing power running out like water through a broken dam. I’d managed to free maybe twenty controlled dogs, but there were still hundreds more surrounding us.

Each time I broke someone’s shadow ties, two more appeared to take their place. The ancient evil was sending an endless stream of controlled packs to wear us down before the final fight tonight.

My knees buckled as tiredness hit me like a truck. Around me, the fighting was getting worse. Pack members were being forced to seriously hurt their friends and family just to live.

Elder Iris was right. We couldn’t win this fight through normal means.

I closed my eyes and reached deep inside myself, looking for the power I’d need to free everyone at once. It was there, burning like a star in my chest, but using it would certainly kill me.

At least if I died now, I’d save everyone from having to fight their loved ones. And maybe, somehow, the pack would find another way to stop the old evil without me.

I was about to release every bit of healing power I had when I felt a familiar presence behind me.

"Don’t even think about it," Luna said strongly, grabbing my shoulders. "You’re not dying today."

I turned to stare at her in shock. "Luna? What are you doing?"

"Saving your stubborn life," she responded. "Because someone needs to stop that monster tonight, and it sure isn’t going to be me."

Before I could ask what she meant, Luna’s own power flared to life around her hands. But instead of the silver light of healing magic, her energy was bright and warm.

"I have beta magic," she explained quickly. "I can improve your healing power without draining your life force. But I need you to trust me."

Trust Luna? The girl who’d tried to have me killed by rogues just a few months ago?

But as I looked into her eyes, I saw something I’d never seen before. Genuine sorrow. Real bond. And resolve to make up for her past mistakes.

"Okay," I said. "I trust you."

Luna’s golden power flowed into me, increasing my healing magic beyond anything I’d ever felt before. Together, we raised our hands toward the controlled dogs.

"Now!" Luna shouted.

Combined silver and gold light burst from our hands, washing over every controlled wolf in the clearing. One by one, the black faded from their eyes as they remembered who they really were.

The shadow power was broken. The controlled dogs were free.

For a moment, I thought we’d won.

Then the ground beneath our feet cracked open, and something huge and terrible climbed out of the earth.

The ancient evil had chosen to stop hiding underground. It was coming to finish this fight personally.

And it was so much bigger and more terrifying than I had ever thought.

"Well," Luna said weakly, both of us fell on the ground from magical exhaustion. "That’s not good."

The monster towered above us, its multiple eyes burning with green fire as it looked down at the freed wolves with clear hunger.

"FOOLISH CHILDREN," it growled in a voice like earthquakes. "YOU HAVE ONLY DELAYED THE INEVITABLE. NOW I WILL DEVOUR YOU ALL PERSONALLY."

Around us, freed wolves were scrambling to their feet, trying to figure out how to fight something the size of a building.

But I knew the truth. We were too weak from breaking the dark control. The old evil was too strong. And the full moon was still hours away.

We were going to lose.

Unless I made the offering right now, while I still had enough power left to cast the banishing spell.

I looked at Caleb, at Aiden, at Brock, at all the people I’d come to love. Soon, if I made the right choice, they wouldn’t even remember I existed.

But they’d be alive.

The ancient evil raised one massive claw, ready to crush us all.

Time to decide.