CHAPTER 57: THE GROVE’S SECRET

Elder Iris POV

The branch cracked under my weight, and I nearly fell twenty feet to the ground below. My old bones weren’t meant for tree climbing, but sometimes desperate times called for desperate means.

"Hold on, Elder Iris!" whispered little Tommy from the branch above me. At seven years old, he was much better at this than I was.

Below us, shadow-controlled wolves prowled through the forest, looking for the children I’d been hiding. Their black eyes gleamed in the darkness, and their moves were wrong – too stiff, too coordinated. These weren’t the gentle pack members I’d known for seventy years. They were Morrigan’s puppets now.

"Where are those brats hiding?" snarled Beta Marcus, though his voice sounded hollow and strange. "The sorceress wants them found."

I pressed my finger to my lips, signaling the twelve children scattered in trees around me to stay quiet. We’d been playing this dangerous game of hide-and-seek for hours, ever since I’d gathered the youngest pack members and fled into the woods when Morrigan’s shadow magic first struck.

My heart ached watching Marcus hunt for children he’d once bounced on his knee. The shadow magic wasn’t just controlling our pack – it was turning their love into something cruel and possessive.

"They can’t have gone far," said another tamed wolf. "Spread out. Check every tree, every cave."

As their footsteps faded, I carefully climbed down to where the other hiding elders waited. Old Henrik supported shaking Mrs. Patterson while George held baby Emma, who’d been crying when her parents suddenly turned strange and scary.

"They’re getting closer," Henrik whispered. "We can’t keep running."

He was right. My aged joints screamed with every step, and the children were exhausted. Little Sarah still trembled from her experience with Luna, and the others looked at me with frightened eyes, trusting me to keep them safe.

But I had something the shadow-controlled dogs didn’t know about. Something I’d kept secret for fifty years, waiting for the right time.

"Follow me," I said quietly. "It’s time to visit the real Sacred Grove."

The children traded confused glances. "But Elder Iris," Tommy said, "the Sacred Grove is where the bad magic is coming from."

I smiled sadly. "That’s what everyone thinks. But there are two trees, child. The one everyone knows about, and the one that’s been hidden since before your grandparents were born."

Leading them deeper into the forest, I followed tracks I hadn’t walked in decades. The secret grove had been sealed away after the last big battle with dark magic, its location erased from pack memory to protect it. Only a few adults had known the truth, and now I was the last one alive who remembered.

"I don’t understand," said Maria, holding her little brother’s hand. "Why are there two groves?"

"Because light needs a place to hide when darkness grows too strong," I explained, pushing aside a seemingly ordinary cluster of bushes to show a narrow path. "Just like how you children have been hiding from the shadow magic."

The road led to a small clearing surrounded by trees so old their trunks were wider than houses. But these trees felt different from the twisted ones at the false grove. These hummed with clean, pure energy that made my mark tingle nicely.

"Whoa," breathed Tommy, his eyes wide. "It feels... happy here."

"That’s because this grove remembers what love really looks like," I said. "Not the twisted control Morrigan is spreading, but real love – the kind that protects without possessing, that guides without forcing."

At the middle of the clearing stood a crystal pool, its water so clear it seemed to glow from within. Ancient symbols were carved into stones around its edge – symbols I’d studied in banned books decades ago.

"The True Heart of the pack," I whispered, kneeling beside the pool. "This is where our ancestors first learned to balance alpha, beta, and omega power. Before anyone decided one rank was better than the others."

"But how does it help us stop the shadow magic?" asked Sarah, her voice still shaky from her earlier scare.

I looked at the scared children around me – offspring of alphas, betas, and omegas alike, all equally precious and pure-hearted. They didn’t care about rank or standing. They just wanted their families back to normal.

"Because children like you still remember what adults have forgotten," I said. "You love without conditions. You trust without fear. And that kind of harmless energy is the only thing strong enough to cleanse the corruption."

I dipped my hands in the crystal pool, and the water began to glow brighter. "But I need your help. All of you. Place your hands in the water and think about the people you love – not controlling them or changing them, just loving them exactly as they are."

The children grouped around the pool, their small hands creating ripples in the glowing water. As they concentrated, thinking of their parents and brothers and friends, the light grew stronger.

"It’s working," whispered Mrs. Patterson. "I can feel something changing."

The pure energy spread outward from the pool like unseen waves. In the distance, I heard confused shouts as shadow-controlled dogs suddenly stopped their rigid marching. The children’s innocent love was starting to crack Morrigan’s hold on our pack.

But then the ground shook strongly, and the trees around us creaked ominously.

A voice boomed through the trees – Morrigan’s voice, but magnified and furious: "WHO DARES INTERFERE WITH MY MAGIC?"

The children looked at me with fear as the very air around us began to darken. Through the pack bond, I felt Morrigan’s rage turning toward our hidden position.

"She knows where we are," I said, pulling the children closer to the glowing pool. "She’s coming."

Heavy footsteps crashed through the trees, getting closer. But these weren’t normal footsteps – they sounded like something much bigger and more dangerous than a wolf.

"Elder Iris," Tommy whimpered, "what’s that sound?" Before I could answer, the bushes at the edge of our space exploded inward. What emerged wasn’t Morrigan in her human form, or even her wolf shape.

It was something else entirely – a creature of pure darkness and rage, with burning red eyes and claws longer than my arms. This was Morrigan’s real form, the monster she’d been hiding beneath her beautiful disguise.

"So," the shadow thing hissed, her voice like breaking glass, "the old woman thinks she can use children to stop me. How touching."

The creature raised one massive claw, pointing it straight at little Sarah.

"Let’s see how pure their hearts remain when I start tearing them apart."