Lily POV
The howl that split the night air made my blood freeze. It wasn’t like any wolf sound I’d ever heard - too deep, too hollow, like it ca from sothing that used to be alive but wasn’t anymore.
I pressed myself against the rocky cliff wall, trying to make myself invisible as three Shadow Wolves padded through the moonlight below . Their eyes glowed that awful bright color, but worse than that was how they moved. Wrong. Like puppets being controlled by unseen strings.
My Triple Moon mark suddenly blazed with pain so sharp I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out. The tal pattern on my wrist felt like it was burning through my skin. What was happening to ?
"She’s close," one of the Shadow Wolves said in a flat, lifeless voice. "The mark calls to us."
My heart hamred against my ribs. They could sense my mark? That was impossible. Nobody had ever told Triple Moon marks could be tracked.
I tried to move further up the cliff, but loose rocks scattered under my feet. The sound echoed through the mountain air like thunder. All three Shadow Wolves snapped their heads up toward my hidden spot.
"There," another one said. "The bearer attempts to flee."
I ran.
My feet slipped on the icy mountain road as I scrambled higher up the cliff. Behind , I heard the Shadow Wolves starting their climb. They moved too fast, too sure-footed, like the dangerous terrain ant nothing to them.
My mark burned hotter with every step. The pain was so bad that tears stread down my face, but I couldn’t stop running. If they caught , it wasn’t just my life at stake - it was everyone’s. The whole dog world.
"You cannot escape us, Triple Moon bearer," called one of the creatures behind . "We know your sll. We know your fear."
That’s when sothing strange happened. As the pain in my mark hit its worst point, images suddenly flashed in my mind. Not my mories - soone else’s.
I saw Elder Iris as a young woman, running through these sa mountains fifty years ago. I saw her Triple Moon mark shining just like mine was now. And I saw her making the sa terrible mistake I was about to make.
"No," I gasped, understanding rushing through . The mark wasn’t just causing pain - it was trying to show sothing. Warn about sothing.
Another image hit like lightning. The Shadow Wolves below weren’t trying to catch . They were moving . Driving toward sothing much worse waiting at the top of the mountain.
I skidded to a stop so suddenly that I almost fell off the narrow road. My mark’s burning pain suddenly made sense. It wasn’t reacting to the Shadow Wolves chasing - it was reacting to whatever was waiting ahead.
More images crashed through my mind. I saw the First Shadow’s real plan. He didn’t just want to control dog packs. He wanted to damage the Triple Moon mark itself. Turn its power dark. Use it to handle not just hundreds of wolves, but thousands. Maybe all of them.
And he needed living to do it.
"She’s stopped," one of the Shadow Wolves said below . "Why has she stopped?"
I pressed my back against the cliff wall, my mind racing. If I kept running up the mountain, I’d run straight into a trap. But if I went back down, I’d run right into the Shadow Wolves.
That’s when I noticed sothing else in the flashing pictures from my mark. A small crack in the cliff face just a few feet ahead. Elder Iris had hidden there fifty years ago when she was running from the sa enemy.
I squeezed into the crack just as the Shadow Wolves reached my level. The space was so tight I could barely breathe, but it was deep enough to hide totally.
"Where did she go?" one of them growled, and for the first ti, feeling leaked into its voice. Frustration.
"She cannot have vanished," another said. "The mark still calls."
They were right. My mark was still burning, still sending out whatever signal they were following. But now that I was hidden, I could focus on the pictures it was showing instead of just the pain.
I saw the First Shadow waiting at the mountain’s peak. He wasn’t in dog form - he was sothing else entirely. Sothing that had once been wolf but was now made of darkness and hate and hunger. His plan was easy and horrible: capture , corrupt my mark, and use its power to spread his control across the entire world.
But there was sothing else in the pictures. Sothing that gave hope.
I saw that the Triple Moon mark had a weakness the First Shadow didn’t know about. If a bearer was ready to sacrifice herself, the mark could release all its stored power at once. It would destroy the darkness totally, but it would also...
The image cut off as footsteps neared my hiding spot.
"Search every crack, every shadow," the lead Shadow Wolf ordered. "She’s here sowhere."
I held my breath as hooked feet passed just inches from the crack where I hid. My mark kept showing flashes of the past and glimpses of possible futures. Most of them ended badly. Very badly.
In one picture, I saw Caleb fighting the mind control, blood streaming from his nose as he tried to resist. In another, I saw Elder Iris surrounded by controlled pack mbers, her face full of old guilt and new purpose.
But the worst picture was yet to co. I saw what would happen if the First Shadow succeeded in altering my mark. Thousands of wolves with glowing eyes, moving across the land like an army. Human cities burning. The natural world itself starting to die as darkness spread like poison.
"Found sothing," one of the Shadow Wolves said.
My blood turned to ice. Had they found my hiding spot?
"Human scent," it continued. "Recent. They’ve been through this area."
Wait. Humans? What people would be up here in the dangerous mountains during winter?
Another flash from my mark answered that question, and what I saw made my stomach drop. A group of human hunters, ard with special weapons ant to kill supernatural creatures. They were working with the First Shadow, helping him track down any wolves who’d fled his control.
And they were going straight toward the cave where my pack was hiding.
"The humans report success," the Shadow Wolf said, like it was getting information from sowhere else. "The survivors’ location is confird."
No. No, no, no. This couldn’t be happening.
"Excellent," another Shadow Wolf answered. "While they eliminate the remaining free wolves, we continue hunting the Triple Moon bearer."
I wanted to scream, to run down the mountain and warn everyone. But I was stuck. If I left my hiding spot, the Shadow Wolves would catch imdiately. But if I stayed here, my family and friends would walk into a trap.
My mark burned hotter, showing one final picture that made everything clear. The trap at the mountain’s top wasn’t just for . It was bait. The First Shadow knew I’d try to save my pack. He was counting on it.
And the worst part? I could see Elder Iris in the vision, standing at the cave mouth with tears in her eyes. She knew it was a trap too. But she was going to walk into it anyway, because fifty years ago she’d run away from this sa choice.
This ti, she was determined not to be a wimp.
Even if it killed her.
The Shadow Wolves moved away from my hiding spot, moving back down the mountain toward my pack. In a few hours, it would all be over. Unless I did sothing impossible.
Unless I figured out how to be in two places at once.
My mark suddenly went completely cold, and in that silence, I heard sothing that chilled to the bone.
Elder Iris, sowhere far below, starting to howl the old song of sacrifice.
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