Lily's POV - Pack Warrior
I threw myself between two rogue wolves, my claws slicing through fur and skin. Blood splattered across my face as I fought to protect the nursery where scared pups huddled together.
"Where's Alpha Derek?" I shouted to Marcus, who was fighting three rogues at once. "We need him!"
"He went after Maya!" Marcus roared back, ducking under a huge rogue's swipe. "Something about a Moon Temple!"
My heart sank. Our Alpha had abandoned us in the middle of a fight to run after an omega. This was exactly what everyone had been talking about for days – Derek was losing his mind over Maya Rivers.
"The Alpha's gone soft," Jake mumbled as he limped past, blood dripping from his arm. "Ever since that omega showed up, he's been acting crazy."
I wanted to fight, but I couldn't. Three days ago, Derek had nearly choked Jake for threatening Maya. Yesterday, he'd skipped an important border meeting to sit by her burned treatment center. And now, with our pack under attack, he'd run off to save one girl instead of guarding everyone.
"Focus on the fight!" I snapped, striking at a rogue who got too close to the nursery door. But even as I fought, doubts ate at my mind.
Had Derek really found his true mate? Or was he just obsessed with something he couldn't have?
"Lily!" A familiar voice made me spin around. Emma, my best friend since childhood, was dragging an injured pack member to safety. "The rogues aren't just random attacks! I heard them talking!"
"About what?"
"They've been planning this for months! Someone's been giving them information about our patrols, our weak points, everything!"
My blood turned cold. A liar. Someone in our pack had betrayed us.
"Who?"
"I don't know, but—" Emma's words cut off as a rogue struck her from behind.
I leaped forward, my wolf instincts taking over. The rogue was bigger than me, stronger, but I fought with the fury of someone guarding family. When I finally drove him off, Emma was bleeding badly.
"Hold on," I whispered, pressing my hands to her cuts. "Maya would know how to fix this. She's the best doctor we've ever had."
"Maya's not here," Emma gasped. "She's off being more important than the rest of us."
The harsh words hurt because part of me agreed. Maya was just an omega, barely nineteen years old. What made her so special that our Alpha would risk everything for her?
But then I remembered something. Last week, my little brother had fallen from a tree and broken his arm badly. The head doctor said it might never work right again. But Maya had spent three hours with him, using skills none of us had ever seen. By morning, his arm was fully healed.
"She's not just any omega," I said quietly. "There's something different about her."
"Different how?"
Before I could answer, a new sound filled the air – not the snarls and growls of fighting, but something else. Something that made every wolf in the courtyard stop and listen.
It was singing. A voice so beautiful and pure that it seemed to come from the moon itself.
"What is that?" Emma whispered.
The song grew louder, and with it came power. I could feel it in my bones, in my blood, calling to something deep inside me. Around the courtyard, other pack members were straightening up, their wounds healing, their tiredness fading.
"It's Maya," Marcus breathed in wonder. "Somehow, it's Maya."
But the song was changing, becoming sadder, more desperate. And underneath it, something else was rising – a sound like breaking glass mixed with screaming wind.
"That's not right," I mumbled, fear crawling up my spine. "Something's wrong."
The beautiful singing suddenly cut off with a scream of pure fear. Maya's scream.
Every wolf in the courtyard felt it through the pack bond – our Alpha's mate was in mortal danger.
"We have to help her!" I started toward the trees.
"No!" Marcus grabbed my arm. "The rogues are fleeing. Look!"
He was right. All around us, the enemy dogs were pulling back, but not like they were giving up. Like they were afraid of something. Like they were running from something worse than us.
"What could scare rogues that badly?" Emma asked.
An older pack member, Grey Tom, limped over to us. His face was white with an old fear I'd never seen before.
"Shadow Wolf," he whispered. "I haven't felt that presence in fifty years, but I'd know it anywhere."
"What's a Shadow Wolf?"
"Death," Grey Tom said simply. "Death for everything good in this world. My grandmother used to tell stories about it – a creature that feeds on broken ties and destroyed love. If it's here, if it's after Maya..."
"After Maya why?"
"Because she's Moon Blessed. And Shadow Wolves hunt Moon Blessed omegas like cats hunt mice."
My heart stopped. "You mean Maya really is...?"
"More powerful than any of us imagined. And in more danger than we can possibly help with."
Through the pack bond, we all felt Derek's anguish as he found whatever was happening to Maya. His pain hit us like a physical blow, bringing several dogs to their knees.
"The Alpha's going to get himself killed trying to save her," Marcus said sadly.
"Then we go help him."
"Lily, we can't fight a Shadow Wolf. Regular wolves are like ants compared to something like that."
"So we let Maya die? We let Derek die trying to save her?"
The pack members looked at each other uncertainly. Most of them still thought Maya was just some omega who'd gotten lucky. They didn't understand what I was starting to see – that Maya wasn't the problem.
She was the answer.
"You're all idiots," I said finally. "You've been so worried about Derek choosing an omega over a Luna that you missed what was really happening."
"What do you mean?"
"Maya's been taking care of this pack for years. Healing our injured, tending our children, making sure everyone was safe and healthy. She never asked for anything, never expected respect or recognition. She just served."
"So?"
"So maybe that's exactly what a real Luna should be. Not some cold politician like Sarah, but someone who actually cares about every pack member."
Emma struggled to sit up. "You think Maya could actually be Luna?"
"I think Derek saw something in her that we were too blind to see. And now we might lose them both because we were more worried about politics than about what was right."
A new sound reached us from the forest – Derek's howl of rage and grief. Through the pack bond, we felt his resolve to die fighting rather than live without Maya.
"That's it," I said, changing into wolf form. "I'm not letting my Alpha die for love while I stand here arguing about pack politics."
"The Shadow Wolf will kill you," Marcus warned.
"Maybe. But I'd rather die trying to save my pack masters than live knowing I was a coward."
Several other wolves started shifting, their faces grim but determined. Not all of them – maybe half believed Maya was worth dying for. But it was enough.
"Wait," Grey Tom called out. "If you're really going to do this, there's something you need to know."
"What?"
"Shadow Wolves have one weakness. They feed on despair, on broken ties, on lost hope. But if they meet perfect love, true sacrifice, absolute unity..."
"What happens?"
"They can be killed. But it takes someone willing to give up everything for others. Someone ready to die not for glory or duty, but out of pure love."
I thought about Maya, who'd spent her life helping others without asking for anything in return. Who'd loved Derek even knowing it would bring her nothing but pain. Who'd probably die trying to save all of us even though most of us had never shown her kindness.
"Then we'd better hope Maya is everything Derek believes she is," I said.
We raced into the forest, following the sounds of supernatural fight. Behind us, the other half of the pack secured our area and tended the wounded. Ahead of us, something that shouldn't exist was trying to destroy the best thing that had ever happened to our Alpha.
But as we ran, I discovered something that made my blood turn to ice.
Grey Tom was wrong about one thing. Shadow Wolves didn't just have one weakness.
They had one purpose: to corrupt perfect love, to turn sacrifice into selfishness, to make union impossible.
Which meant everything we were about to do – running to help Derek and Maya, risking our lives for love – was exactly what the Shadow Wolf wanted.
We weren't running to the rescue.
We were rushing into a trap that would give the Shadow Wolf enough broken hearts and shattered ties to become unstoppable.