The first Shadow wolf reached me just as Luna's power exploded outward.
Every emotion in a mile radius slammed into the attackers at once—pack fear, parental rage, protective fury—all channeled through a three-year-old who didn't understand restraint. Shadow wolves dropped howling, clawing at their own heads.
"Luna, no!" I sprinted toward her, but more Shadows blocked my path. These weren't normal wolves. Their forms shifted and writhed, like smoke given substance. When I tried to read their emotions, I found only hunger. Ancient, endless hunger.
Marcus tore through three of them to reach my side. "What are they?"
"Emotion eaters," I gasped, dodging claws that dripped something black and caustic. "They feed on what we feel. That's why they want empaths."
"Then how do we—"
I demonstrated by going completely cold. Shutting down every emotion, becoming empty as winter. The Shadow lunging for me passed right through, confused. In that moment of vulnerability, Marcus's claws found its throat.
"Together?" he asked, and for a heartbeat, we moved as one. The mate bond was gone, but muscle memory remained. We'd fought together before, trained together. Our bodies remembered even if our souls were severed.
But across the clearing, Luna was learning something terrible.
"Mama, they taste weird!" she called out, and I watched in horror as she didn't just repel the Shadows' hunger—she absorbed it. Fed it back. Made them hunger for their own destruction.
Shadow wolves began tearing into each other, maddened by their own reflected nature.
"She's too young for this kind of power," Selene appeared beside us, white fur stained with black ichor. "If she takes in too much—"
A scream cut her off. Garrett, still bound, writhing as a Shadow wolf approached him slowly. But this one was different. Larger. Its form more stable.
"The Beta's fear," it spoke with a voice like grinding stone. "Delicious. So many secrets. So much guilt. Feed us, little betrayer."
Garrett's emotions erupted outward—every dark deed, every conspiracy, every life he'd destroyed for power. The Shadow grew larger with each confession pulled from his mind.
"Stop it!" Marcus commanded, but his Alpha power meant nothing to these creatures.
That's when I understood. "They're showing us," I breathed. "This is what they do to empaths. Feed on our gift until we're empty. Then feed on us."
The massive Shadow turned to Luna. "The True Empath. The feast we've waited for. So young. So powerful. So... untrained."
"You want untrained?" I stepped between them and my daughter. "Let me show you what three years with an Ancient taught me."
I dropped every shield, every barrier, every protection I'd built. My gift exploded outward like a supernova. But instead of taking in emotions, I pushed out one single feeling:
Peace.
Not gentle peace. Not soft peace. Peace like the grave. Peace like endings. The absolute certainty that all things die, all hunger ends, all shadows fade to light.
The Shadow wolves froze, confused. How could they feed on the absence of feeding? How could they hunger for the end of hunger?
"Now!" I shouted.
The pack, understanding instinctively, attacked as one. Without their emotional feeding, the Shadows were just smoke and malice. Claws and fangs found purchase. One by one, they dissipated.
But the largest Shadow laughed. "Clever, Broken Luna. But we are legion. We are patient. The child will grow. Her power will ripen. And when it does..."
It dissolved willingly, message delivered.
In the aftermath, the clearing was silent except for Garrett's whimpering. The truth he'd been forced to reveal hung in the air—every detail of his betrayal, every wolf he'd sacrificed for ambition.
"Kill me," he begged Marcus. "Please. Before they come back. Before they make me tell more."
Marcus looked at him with dead eyes. "No. You'll live with what you've done. What you cost me." His gaze found mine. "What you cost us all."
Luna ran to me, and I scooped her up, feeling her emotions settle at my touch. She was shaken but not broken. My brave, terrible, wonderful girl.
"The Order of Shadows," Elder Thorne spoke into the silence. "I thought they were legend."
"They're real," Selene confirmed. "And now they know exactly where to find what they're looking for."
"Then we fight," a young wolf called out. Others took up the cry. The pack that had rejected me for being different now faced something that hunted that very difference.
"This changes nothing," I said clearly. "The challenge still stands. Justice is still required."
But looking at Marcus—bloodied, exhausted, haunted by Garrett's forced confessions—I wondered if he'd already paid enough.
Then I felt Luna's emotions spike with recognition. She was staring at something only she could see. Something that made her afraid for the first time since birth.
"Mama," she whispered. "The shadow wolf. It left something. In the bad wolf who hurt you."
I looked at Garrett, saw the black mark spreading under his skin like poison.
The Order hadn't retreated.
They'd planted a seed.