CHAPTER 51: INTO THE STORM

Lily POV

It wasn’t the smell of dark magic or the sight of the changed wood that hit me first. Like a knife through my heart, Caleb’s scream of pain echoed through our mate bond.

"CALEB!" I yelled and ran faster than I ever had before.

As I ran through the twisted trees, my feet barely hit the ground. Whenever he moved, it hurt both of us; his pain was my pain and his fear was my fear. The mate tie that usually brought us comfort now felt like it was tearing me apart from the inside.

I walked right into the Sacred Grove and stopped. This wasn’t the peaceful spot where Elder Iris taught me about plants. The old trees were dying and turning black. Their branches stuck out like ghost fingers. The ground was cracked and leaking some kind of dark liquid that made my stomach turn.

A huge female wolf with silver-streaked fur and eyes that burned like green fire stood in the middle of it all. She was beautiful and frightening at the same time, radiating power that made my Triple Moon Mark burn against my wrist.

At her feet lay Caleb, barely conscious and covered in weird shadow marks that pulsed like living things.

"You must be the famous Triple Moon bearer," the wolf said, changing into human form. She looked like she could be someone’s grandmother, except for those terrible glowing eyes. "I am Morrigan, and I’ve been waiting centuries to meet one of your kind."

"Let him go," I ordered, my healing power already flowing toward Caleb. But when my silver light touched the shadow marks on his body, it sizzled and burned away like water on a hot stove.

Morrigan laughed. "Oh, child. Your little healing tricks won’t work on shadow poison. Only I can remove it, and I will... if you give me what I want."

My heart pounded as I knelt beside Caleb. His breathing was shallow and his skin was going gray where the shadow marks spread. Through our link, I could feel his life slipping away.

"What do you want?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.

"Your power, of course. The Triple Moon Mark holds magic older than this pack, older than most of the world. Give it to me freely, and your mate lives. Refuse, and watch him die slowly while I take it anyway."

I looked down at Caleb’s face. He was trying to say something, his mouth moving without sound. Through our weakening bond, I caught one word: "Don’t."

"How do I know you’ll keep your word?" I asked, stalling for time while I tried to think of another way.

"You don’t," Morrigan said happily. "But what choice do you have? Your precious pack is losing the fight above. Your friends are overwhelmed. And your mate has maybe ten minutes before the shadow poison hits his heart."

She was right. I could feel the desperate fighting happening back at the pack grounds through the connections I’d made with everyone. Aiden was trying to arrange defenses while Brock fought three shadow wolves at once. Luna was guarding the children but getting overwhelmed. Elder Iris was using the last of her strength to keep protective spells.

We were losing everything.

"There’s another option," Morrigan continued, walking closer. "Join me freely. Let me teach you to use your power the right way. Together, we could rule all the packs, bring order to this wild world."

"By enslaving everyone?" I shot back.

"By bringing peace," she corrected. "No more fights between packs. No more hunger or cold. Everyone working together toward shared goals."

For a moment, I almost considered it. The idea of no more fighting, no more pain, was tempting. But then I remembered what that "peace" looked like – wolves with empty black eyes, families torn apart, children who couldn’t recognize their own parents.

"That’s not peace," I said strongly. "That’s control."

Morrigan’s friendly mask slipped, showing the monster underneath. "Then you choose the hard way."

She raised her hand and Caleb screamed as the shadow marks spread faster across his chest. I felt his pain like fire in my own body and nearly collapsed from the severity.

"Stop!" I gasped. "Please, just... give me a second to think!"

But even as I said it, I was already planning. Morrigan wanted my power, and she wanted it freely given because that would make it stronger. What she didn’t know was that I’d learned something important during my time as Triple Moon carrier.

The power wasn’t just mine. It belonged to everyone – alpha, beta, and omega together.

I closed my eyes and reached out through every link I’d ever made. To Aiden fighting desperately above ground. To Brock protecting the pack nursery. To Luna protecting children with her own body. To Elder Iris pouring her life force into protective magic. To every single pack member who had accepted the new balance we’d made.

"I’ll give you my power," I said, opening my eyes and standing up.

Morrigan smiled proudly. "Wise choice."

"But first, you have to understand what you’re really asking for."

I let my Triple Moon Mark burst to life, but this time it wasn’t just silver light. Golden threads of link flowed from the mark to every person I cared about. The power wasn’t contained in my small body – it was spread across our entire pack, bringing us all together.

Morrigan’s eyes widened as she realized what she was seeing. "Impossible. The Triple Moon power belongs to one person."

"The old way, maybe," I said, feeling strength flow into me from every connected soul. "But we’ve learned to share it."

I grabbed Caleb’s hand and felt his awareness strengthen as pack power flowed through our bond. His eyes opened, clear and focused for the first time since I’d arrived.

"The whole pack," he whispered, understanding instantly. "She’ll have to take power from all of us."

Morrigan snarled, her beautiful mask totally gone now. "Fine. If I can’t have one ready bearer, I’ll drain you all."

Dark energy exploded from her body, reaching out like hungry tentacles toward our golden links. But instead of being absorbed, the pack’s united power began pushing back against her shadow magic.

"This isn’t possible!" she shrieked.

"It is when you’re not fighting alone," I said.

But our win was short-lived. Morrigan threw back her head and howled – a sound that made the twisted trees shudder and crack. In answer, howls echoed from all around the grove. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds.

"If I can’t have your power easily," Morrigan said, her voice now fully inhuman, "I’ll take it from your corpses. Every shadow wolf I’ve ever made is coming here. Every pack I’ve killed. Every soul I’ve enslaved."

The ground began to shake as an army of shadow-controlled wolves surrounded the Sacred Grove. Their glowing eyes appeared between the twisted trees like stars in a horror sky.

Caleb struggled to sit up beside me. "Lily, there are too many. Even with the pack’s power, we can’t fight them all."

Through our golden links, I felt everyone’s fear spike. The pack above ground was already tired from fighting. They couldn’t handle another wave of strikes.

Morrigan laughed as her troops closed in around us. "Last chance, little Triple Moon bearer. Give me what I want, or watch everything you love burn."

I looked at Caleb, at the approaching shadow wolves, at the corrupted grove that had once been holy. The weight of everyone’s lives pressed down on my shoulders.

And then I felt something else through the pack ties. Something that made my blood run cold.

The shadow dogs weren’t just surrounding the grove. They were surrounding the entire pack area. Every escape route was stopped. Every safe hiding place was exposed.

This wasn’t just a fight anymore.

It was a trap.

And we’d walked right into it.