Brock POV
My wolf form hit the ground running before I even finished changing. Sothing was wrong in the northern woods - every sense I had was screaming danger.
The patrol should have been normal. Check the borders, mark the area, report back. Simple. But as I ran through the trees, the forest felt dead around . No birds singing, no small animals moving, nothing. Even the wind had stopped.
That’s when I saw Jake.
He was standing absolutely still next to a massive oak tree, his back to . My packmate hadn’t moved a muscle in the five minutes I’d been watching him.
"Jake!" I called out, shifting back to human form. "You okay, man?"
He didn’t answer. Didn’t even turn around.
I jogged over, my heart starting to pound. "Jake, we need to finish the watch and get back. Aiden’s worried about those tear things."
When I reached him, I put my hand on his shoulder. He was ice cold.
Jake slowly turned around, and I stumbled backward in shock. His eyes were totally black - not just the pupils, but everything. Like soone had filled them with empty space.
"Brock," he said in a voice that sounded like an echo in a deep cave. "I’ve been waiting for you."
That wasn’t Jake talking. Jake’s voice was higher, warr. This thing sounded like it was speaking from the bottom of a well.
"What happened to you?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
"Nothing happened," the thing wearing Jake’s face said. "I simply... changed. And now I’m going to help you change too."
It reached out with Jake’s hand, but I could see right through it. The fingers looked like they were made of shadow and empty air.
My wolf form took over before I could think. I shifted instantly and leaped away from the thing, every fiber of my being screaming to run. But as I fell, sothing grabbed my back leg.
I spun around to see another monster that looked like it was cut out of reality itself. Where it touched , I felt the strangest feeling - like sothing was being pulled out of my soul.
The link to my pack. I could feel it getting weaker.
I bit at the thing, but my teeth passed right through it. How do you fight sothing that isn’t really there?
"Your pack bonds taste delicious," the Jake-thing said, walking closer. "So much stronger than the others we’ve fed on. You Silver Peak wolves are linked more deeply than most."
More animals began appearing from behind trees. They all looked like holes in the world shaped like people. So were small, others huge, but they all had that sa empty feeling about them.
"What are you?" I growled, still in wolf form.
"We are the Void Walkers," several of them said at once, their words echoing strangely. "We live in the spaces between worlds. We feed on the links that bind living things together."
One of them stepped forward, and I recognized the shape. It was my cousin Marcus, who had died in a car accident three years ago.
"Hello, Brock," it said with Marcus’s voice. "Don’t you want to see again?"
My heart broke and scared at the sa ti. I knew it wasn’t really Marcus, but seeing his face again made want to believe.
"Marcus died," I said definitely. "You’re not him."
"No," it agreed. "But we can wear the faces of those you’ve lost. We can talk with their voices. We know what will make you want to co closer."
The fake Marcus smiled with my cousin’s face. "Rember when we used to play in these woods as kids? You always said you’d protect from the monsters."
"Stop it," I said, but my voice cracked.
"You failed to protect then," it continued. "But you can join now. Let us feed on your pack ties. Let us make you like us. Then we can be together forever."
I felt the pull to believe it, to give in. But then I thought about my real family - Aiden, Caleb, Lily. The pack counting on to keep them safe.
"No," I said, backing away. "I won’t let you use Marcus’s face."
The creature’s face changed from Marcus’s gentle smile to sothing cold and hungry. "Then we’ll take your connections by force."
All the Void Walkers moved at once, reaching for with hands that looked like empty space. I ran, but I could feel them behind , pulling at sothing inside every ti they got close.
My pack link was getting weaker with each step. The warm feeling that always connected to my brothers and Lily was going away.
I burst out of the woods and saw our area ahead. But as I got closer, I realized sothing was terribly wrong. Pack mbers were standing around the grounds, but they weren’t moving. They were just... there.
"Sarah!" I called to one of our younger wolves. She turned toward , and I saw her eyes were the sa empty black as Jake’s had been.
"Hello, Brock," she said in that booming voice. "We’ve been waiting for you to co ho."
I looked around in horror. Everyone I could see had those sa dead black eyes. The Void Walkers hadn’t just been hunting in the woods - they’d been taking over our pack.
"Where is everyone?" I asked.
"They’re all here," Sarah’s body said. "But they’re not your pack anymore. They’re ours now."
"Brock!" ca a voice from the Alpha house. Aiden appeared in the doorway, and I felt a rush of relief until I saw his eyes. Black. Empty. Just like the others.
"Co inside, brother," Aiden said. "We have so much to discuss."
Caleb appeared next to him, and then Lily. All with those horrible empty eyes.
"No," I whispered. "This isn’t possible."
"It’s very possible," the thing wearing Aiden’s face said. "We simply fed on their pack ties until there was nothing left of who they used to be. Now they’re great hosts for us."
I backed away from the house, my heart breaking. My family, my pack, everyone I’d sworn to protect - gone.
"Don’t worry," Lily’s voice said, but it wasn’t really her. "Soon you’ll join us. Soon you won’t feel the pain of being linked to others anymore."
"The pain is what makes us strong," I said, even though I was frightened.
"No," Aiden’s body said. "Connections make you weak. We’ll show you how much better it is to be empty."
All the possessed pack mbers started walking toward . I turned to run, but stopped when I heard sothing that made my blood freeze.
Real cries, calling for help. Faint, but definitely real.
"Brock! Help us!"
"We’re trapped!"
"Don’t let them feed anymore!"
I looked closer at the coming figures and realized the truth. The real pack mbers were still inside their bodies, stuck while the Void Walkers controlled them. They were prisoners in their own clothes.
"Aiden?" I called out desperately. "Are you in there?"
For just a second, his eyes flashed from black to their normal color. "Run," he whispered in his real voice. "Find help. They’re using us to get to you."
Then the black void returned, and the fake Aiden smiled coldly.
"Too late," it said. "Now you know they’re still alive in here. You won’t be able to hurt these people to stop us, will you?"
I was stuck. I couldn’t fight them without hurting my real family. But if I didn’t fight, the Void Walkers would take too.
And then I heard the worst sound of all - Lily’s real voice, screaming from inside her possessed body.
"Brock, there are more coming! Hundreds of them! They’re going to use our bodies to take over every pack!"
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