Chapter 5

Before leaving the pack, I decided to visit Moon Spirit Falls to say goodbye to my parents.

The Moon Spirit Pool was the pack's sacred heart, where they honored the Moon Goddess and housed the ancestral soul energy.

Under the pack's strict laws, the Gammas were elite warriors assigned exclusively to guard the sacred grounds.

On any normal day, Gamma Cole Mercer and Gamma Evan Brooks stood guard at the entrance around the clock. They took orders only from the Alpha in person or from a pass bearing his complete soul seal.

No one could reassign them on a whim.

But when I arrived, the entrance was unguarded.

A crumpled note lay in the grass.

The handwriting was a hurried scrawl.

"Emergency order from the healing tent. Lilia's wolf has lost control. The Alpha commands the Gammas to report immediately for assistance."

A smudged Alpha seal remained in the lower right corner.

My heart plummeted.

A sense of dread crept up my spine.

I rushed into the sacred grounds.

Large patches of moongrass around the pool had withered, and the milky water had been churned murky with a black crystal.

Lilia was standing in the center of the Moon Spirit Pool.

"Stop!"

I rushed toward her.

Two Warriors who had come with Lilia appeared at once, seizing me from both sides.

They carried Rex's pass.

Lilia had forged the Alpha's soul seal flawlessly, claimed the Healer had ordered her to the sacred grounds for a calming ritual, and used the fake pass to send Gamma Cole and Gamma Evan away to the healing tent.

Lilia had ordered the two Warriors to keep anyone from upsetting her.

"Let go of me!"

My silver wolf barely raised her head and tried to help me shift, but all she could manage was a weak, mournful cry.

Rex came striding through the trees.

He clearly hadn't expected Lilia to desecrate the Moon Spirit Pool.

"Lilia, what are you doing?"

Lilia immediately clutched her head as her body began shifting into half-wolf form.

"Rex, I can't stop it."

Rex's black wolf crashed against his mindscape in a frenzy.

Black fur spread across his arms, and his fangs emerged.

The black wolf was trying to force Rex to issue an Alpha command.

If Rex said a single word of command, Lilia would have no choice but to obey.

"Command her!

"She's desecrating the ancestral grounds!"

The black wolf tore at Rex's mental barrier.

The violent mental clash drained the color from his face, and a thin trickle of blood ran from his nose.

Blood seeped from the corner of his lips.

But as he watched Lilia clutching her head and trembling, the image of her falling down the slope all those years ago surfaced in his mind.

That accident was a chain wound tight around his throat.

He had the power to stop everything, yet he never issued the Alpha command.

He turned to me.

"Wendy, don't provoke her.

"Let her get it out of her system. I'll take care of the repairs."

"Repairs?"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"My parents' soul energy is here, along with that of countless ancestors!"

At Rex's indulgent words, a smug smile flickered across Lilia's face.

She gripped the black crystal and muttered, "Once this soul energy is mine...

"Once Wendy has no ancestors to protect her...

"Then there'll be no one left at Rex's side to compete with me."

She raised the black crystal and brought it down hard on the Moon Spirit Stone at the center of the pool.

"No!"

The first crack appeared.

Inside Rex, the black wolf let out a piercing howl.

Rex's body shook violently, his eyes turning completely black.

Blood continued to seep from his nose and mouth.

His hand was already raised.

One command would have stopped everything.

But Lilia clutched her head again and screamed in pain.

His hand froze in midair.

Then came the second strike. The third.

"Stop!"

The black wolf screamed in despair inside his mindscape.

"Rex, command her to stop!

"You're going to lose Wendy forever!"

But Rex still said nothing.

Until the Moon Spirit Stone shattered completely.

Milky-white soul energy drifted out like fireflies scattered by the wind.

Lilia lifted her foot and ground the points of light into the mud.

"Mother!"

My silver wolf let out one last wail of grief.

Watching my parents' soul energy dissipate was more than she could bear. She sank into deep hibernation.

The moment my wolf went dormant, the strength drained from my limbs.

My healing ability weakened with it.

I dropped to my knees among the broken stones. The cut across my palm refused to heal, and blood dripped into the dirt one drop at a time.

Rex walked to Lilia's side.

His lips were still bleeding, his face so pale it was nearly translucent.

"Feel better now?"

Lilia smiled and nodded.

"Much better."

"Then let's go."

Rex shielded her as they left.

After a few steps, he looked back at me kneeling among the broken stones.

The black wolf keened in his mindscape, the sound raw with anguish.

But in the end, he did nothing.

Before long, Beta Ormond relayed his message.

"Alpha Rex promises this is the last time.

"He's secured an appointment with the most renowned Healer in the Southern Territory. He'll take Lilia for a full evaluation tomorrow.

"Once she recovers, Alpha Rex will restore the Moon Spirit Pool and make up for everything you've been through."

I didn't respond.

Some things can be repaired.

Some things never can.

I took off my coat and carefully wrapped the dirt soaked with my parents' soul energy, along with fragments of the Moon Spirit Stone.

My fingers wouldn't stop trembling.

One of the fragments slipped from my palm.

It took me three tries to pick it up and close my fingers around it again.

That night, I shifted into wolf form and left the territory without looking back.