CHAPTER 53: THE RITUAL BEGINS

Caleb POV

The shadow marks on my chest suddenly flared to life like burning brands, and I screamed as pain shot through every nerve in my body.

"Caleb!" Lily’s words seemed to come from far away, even though she was right beside me.

I tried to reach for her, but my arms wouldn’t obey me. The spirit poison that had been slowly killing me was changing, transforming into something else entirely. Instead of draining my life, it was now linking me to Morrigan in ways that made my skin crawl.

"Perfect," Morrigan said, and I could hear the satisfaction in her voice even through the pain. "The ritual anchor is complete."

"What ritual?" Lily demanded, but I already knew the answer. I could feel it happening inside me.

"He’s the bridge," I gasped, understanding rushing through me. "She’s using our mate bond to steal your power through me."

The shadow marks spread across my chest in intricate patterns, making symbols I recognized from the oldest pack histories. Ancient magic that should have been forgotten forever. Each symbol burned as it appeared, but the pain was nothing compared to what I felt through my link to Lily.

Her Triple Moon power was being pulled from her body through our mate bond, flowing into me, then being channeled to Morrigan. I was like a tube, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

"Fight it!" Lily yelled, trying to break the magical chains that had suddenly appeared around her arms. "You have to fight it!"

I wanted to fight. Every instinct I had yelled at me to protect my mate, to break whatever spell was draining her life force. But the dark magic was stronger than my will. It wrapped around my thoughts like thick rope, making it hard to think clearly.

Through the ritual connection, I could feel Morrigan’s feelings as clearly as my own. Her desperate hunger for power mixed with real pain from centuries of loneliness. She really thought she was saving the world by controlling everyone in it.

"Don’t fight it, young scholar," Morrigan said gently. "The more you resist, the more it will hurt her."

She was right. Every time I tried to break free, the magical drain on Lily increased. I could see her getting weaker, her silver light dimming as her strength flowed through me to our enemy.

"It’s okay," Lily said, though her voice was getting weaker. "We’ll find another way."

But I knew there wasn’t another way. The ritual was too strong, too perfectly planned. Morrigan had been planning this for ages, waiting for the right Triple Moon bearer to appear. She’d used my love for Lily against us both.

As more of Lily’s power ran through me, I began to understand things I’d never known before. The Triple Moon magic wasn’t just healing energy – it was pure life force, the power that linked all living things. No wonder Morrigan wanted it so badly.

But I also felt something else. The power wasn’t just going one way. Some of Lily’s information and memories were coming through the connection too. I saw flashes of her childhood, her fears, her dreams for the future. And mixed in with all of that, I saw something that gave me an idea.

The ritual needed a willing bridge. Someone who would accept the shadow marks and allow the power shift. But what if the bridge wasn’t as willing as Morrigan thought?

"You can’t stop this," Morrigan said, reading my thoughts through our link. "The shadow marks have already connected with your soul. You belong to me now."

"Maybe," I allowed, feeling another wave of Lily’s power rush through me. "But you forgot something important."

"What’s that?"

I smiled, even though it hurt my face to move. "I’m not just Lily’s mate. I’m part of a pack."

Through the mate link, I reached out to every connection Lily and I shared. To Aiden leading the defense above. To Brock protecting the children. To Luna fighting alongside past enemies. To Elder Iris keeping the protective spells.

But most importantly, I reached out to every wolf who had accepted the new balance we’d made in our pack. Every alpha, beta, and omega who had learned to work together as partners.

"What are you doing?" Morrigan ordered, and for the first time since the ritual began, she sounded worried.

"Sharing the load," I said.

Instead of fighting the ritual, I opened myself fully to it. But instead of letting Lily’s power flow straight to Morrigan, I redirected it through every pack bond we had. The shadow marks on my chest began to change, silver threads mixed with the dark symbols.

Now the procedure wasn’t draining just Lily – it was trying to drain our entire pack at once. And that was a much harder thing to do.

"Impossible," Morrigan breathed. "The shadow marks can’t connect to that many people."

"Watch me," I said through gritted teeth.

The pain was unbelievable. Having Lily’s power flow through me had been bad enough, but now I was connected to dozens of pack members. Their feelings, their fears, their hopes – all of it crashed into my mind at once.

But I held on. For Lily. For our pack. For the future we’d built together.

Through the increased connection, I felt something amazing happening. Instead of being weakened by the practice, the pack was getting stronger. The shared load made everyone more powerful, not less.

"This isn’t possible," Morrigan said again, but now she sounded desperate. "The ritual should be complete by now."

I looked at her through eyes that were starting to glow with silver light. "Maybe you don’t understand pack bonds as well as you thought."

That’s when I felt it – the moment I’d been waiting for. The ritual had formed a two-way connection between Morrigan and our pack. She’d been so focused on taking our power that she hadn’t noticed we were also taking something from her.

Her thoughts. Her knowledge. Her ages of magical experience.

And most importantly, her power over the shadow wolves.

"You feel it too, don’t you?" I asked as her eyes opened in shock. "The connection works both ways."

Through our growing pack bond, I shared Morrigan’s memories with everyone. They saw her sad past, understood her pain, but they also saw something she’d forgotten.

She’d been wrong about people picking destruction. Our pack was proof that wolves could choose to work together, to give for each other, to be better than their worst instincts.

"No," Morrigan whispered as more of her controlled dogs began to break free. "You don’t understand. Without direction, they’ll destroy everything."

"Then let them choose," I said. "Trust them to make the right decision."

The shadow marks on my chest began to crack, silver light spilling through the breaks. The rite was breaking down, but not in the way Morrigan had planned.

Instead of taking our power, she was becoming part of our pack bond. Her centuries of loneliness and pain were being shared among all of us, making the load lighter for everyone.

But just as I thought we’d won, Morrigan did something I didn’t expect.

She smiled.

"Thank you," she said, and her voice was different now. Sadder but also more at peace. "You’ve shown me something I’d forgotten. But you’ve also given me exactly what I need."

"What do you mean?" I asked, though I was starting to get a bad feeling.

"I’ve been connected to your pack bond," she explained. "Which means I now have access to everyone you care about. Every person whose life matters to you."

Through the ritual connection, I felt her power change direction. Instead of trying to control our pack, she was reaching out to every other pack in the area. Every wolf family within a hundred miles.

"If I can’t save the world by controlling a few," she said, "then I’ll save it by controlling everyone at once."

The silver light around me began to dim as Morrigan redirected the ritual’s power toward a much bigger target. I tried to stop her, but it was too late.

Through our pack bonds, I felt the moment her impact reached the other territories. Thousands of wolves suddenly stopped what they were doing, their eyes going black as shadow magic took hold.

"No," I whispered, understanding the full scope of what she was trying.

Morrigan wasn’t just trying to control our pack anymore. She was using our connection to every other pack in the region to spread her power like a disease.

And I was the bridge making it all possible.