ARIA POV
I dove to the ground as blue fire burst over my head. The heat singed my hair as I rolled behind a rock, heart pounding in my chest.
"Aria!" Lucien’s voice crackled through the mind-link. "Are you hurt?"
"I’m fine," I answered, though my lungs burned from running. "Status report!"
Around , the world was changing. Humans miles away were screaming as the tablet’s power reached them, causing painful half-shifts on those with even a drop of werewolf blood. I could feel their pain through the strange connection the ritual had made.
"The northern team is in position," Kael reported. "Jaxon has the children safely away from the battle zone."
I peeked around the rock. Elira stood at the mouth of the holy cave, her monstrous form glowing against the dawn sky. The tablet humd in her hands, sending waves of power across the land.
"It’s now or never," I told my friends. "Rember the plan."
I closed my eyes, reaching deep inside for the silver light the Moon Goddess had blessed with. It reacted instantly, flowing through my veins like liquid moonlight. When I opened my eyes, I could see the world differently – threads of energy linking every living thing.
With a deep breath, I stepped out from behind the rock.
"Elira!" I shouted. "This ends now!"
She turned, her mutated face twisted into what might have been a smile. "Too late, Luna. The change has begun."
"Look around you," I said, pointing to her animals. Many were writhing on the ground, confused as the silver do from my rite interfered with her control. "Your army is failing."
"I don’t need them anymore," she growled. "The tablet is enough."
As if to prove her point, she raised it higher. The blood moon, still visible despite the rising sun, pulsed in reaction.
That was the signal. From three directions, my mates attacked.
Kael struck first from the east, his massive black wolf form bigger than ever before. The ritual had enhanced his natural strength, making him nearly twice his average size. He tore through five creatures without slowing down.
From the west ca Jaxon, moving so fast he was almost invisible. The ritual had given him incredible speed, allowing him to dart between enemies before they could respond.
And from behind Elira, erging quietly from the shadows of the cave, ca Lucien. His gray fur now shimred with silver, and with each step he took, the ground beneath him turned solid, making paths where there had been none. The ritual had given him power over earth itself.
While my mates distracted her forces, I charged straight toward Elira.
She laughed, sending a blast of blue fire my way. "Foolish oga!"
I didn’t dodge this ti. Instead, I let the silver light form a wall around . The fire split around my body, scorching the ground but leaving unhard.
Elira’s laughter died in her throat. "Impossible."
"You forgot who I am," I said, still walking forward. "Not just Luna. Not just an oga who rose above her station. I’m the last child of the First Alpha."
Her eyes widened. "No." "Elder Malin confird it. Why do you think the Moon Goddess picked ? Why do you think I was mated to all three Alpha triplets?" I was only feet away from her now. "My blood knows the tablet. And the tablet recognizes my blood."
With speed born of desperation, Elira clutched the tablet to her chest and started chanting words in an ancient language I sohow understood.
"Forces of moon and night, bind this power to my right!"
The tablet glowed brighter, and pain shot through as I felt it trying to break my link to the Moon Goddess.
"Now!" I shouted to my mates.
All three rged at once, exactly as we had planned. Kael slamd into Elira from the left, his huge form knocking her off balance. Jaxon moved in from the right, claws slashing at her arms. And Lucien, my true mate, ca from behind, jaws aid for her neck.
But Elira was ready. With a roar that shook the mountain, she released a pulse of energy that sent all three flying backward.
"You think I didn’t expect this?" she scread, her form growing even bigger. "I’ve prepared for years!"
She began to change again, her body contorting into sothing less human and more beast. The blue fire engulfed her fully, and when it cleared, she stood twelve feet tall, with multiple wolf heads growing from her shoulders.
My heart sank. We weren’t strong enough.
Then I heard a small voice in my head – not Lucien’s or Kael’s or Jaxon’s, but younger, innocent, yet sohow old.
"Mother," my daughter’s voice spoke in my mind. "Rember the vision."
The idea! In that flash my daughter had shown , I’d seen Elira standing over empty cribs. But there had been sothing else, sothing I hadn’t fully understood – a silver chain around Elira’s neck, binding the tablet to her.
"The chain," I whispered. "That’s the key."
I looked closer at Elira’s changed body. There it was – a thin silver chain linking the tablet to her chest, pulsing with the sa rhythm as her heartbeat.
"Kael! Jaxon! Lucien!" I called through our link. "The chain around her neck – we need to break it!"
They understood instantly. Despite their injuries, they circled Elira again, but this ti with purpose.
Kael charged first, shooting not for Elira but for the tablet itself. She swatted him away easily, but he’d never ant to reach it. His attack was a ruse.
While her attention was on Kael, Jaxon zipped in from behind, his teeth closing around the chain for just a mont before one of her extra heads snapped at him. He dodged, but not before loosening the tal links.
"It’s working!" I shouted, gathering my silver light into a spear. "Once more!"
Lucien moved last, creating a stone platform beneath his feet that rose quickly, lifting him to Elira’s height. She howled in rage, all her heads focusing on him as he jumped for the chain.
This was my ti. With all my strength, I hurled the spear of light straight at the weakened chain.
Ti seed to slow. I watched the spear fly true, connecting with the chain just as Lucien’s claws scraped across it from the other side.
The chain snapped.
The tablet fell from Elira’s hands, tumbling through the air. I dived forward, slipping across the rocky ground as my hands closed around the ancient stone.
The mont I touched it, power surged through – wild, ancient power that threatened to tear apart. I scread as the tablet tried to bind itself to just as it had to Elira.
"No!" I gasped, fighting the pull. "I reject this power!"
The tablet glowed brighter, confused by my refuse. Around , the fight paused as everyone – werewolves and creatures alike – watched in awe.
With shaking hands, I pressed the tablet against the ground. The silver light within flowed into it, purifying the evil Elira had tainted it with.
"Return to the earth," I ordered. "Return to the Moon Goddess where you belong."
The stone began to crack, thin lines spreading across its surface. Elira shrieked, lunging toward .
"Stop! You don’t know what you’re doing!"
But I did know. Elder Malin had told that so powers were never ant for mortals to possess. The tablet had been hidden for a reason.
As the first piece broke off, the blood moon overhead began to fade, returning to its native silver. Humans who had been caught in mid-transformation cried out in satisfaction as their bodies returned to normal.
Elira collapsed to her knees, her extra heads dissolving as her body started returning to human form. "You’ve dood us all," she whispered. "Without the tablet, we have no protection against what’s coming."
"What are you talking about?" I demanded, still holding the falling stone.
Her eyes, now normal again, locked with mine. "The hunters. They’re already here, Aria. Why do you think I needed an army?"
The final piece of the tablet broke away in my hands, turning to dust that blew away on the wind. As it did, I felt sothing change in the air – a shift in the world’s energy.
In the distance, a new sound rose above the chaos of war – helicopter rotors, dozens of them, coming from every direction.
"What is that?" Kael asked, limping to my side.
Elira laughed softly. "The real enemy. The ones I was trying to protect us from."
As if to prove her words, bright spotlights cut through the dawn sky, focusing on our territory. Military vehicles erged on the horizon, too many to count.
"The humans?" I whispered in horror.
"Not just any humans," Elira said, blood trickling from her mouth. "The Shadow Division never split. They just went underground. And now..." she coughed, "thanks to you, they can see us all."
The protective silver do that had covered our area flickered and disappeared as the last of the tablet’s dust scattered on the wind.
We had won the fight against Elira. But as I watched the human forces closing in from all sides, I realized the war had only just started.
And this ti, we had no old power to save us.
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