The howls got closer, but Mara Quinn didn't run.
She stood frozen in the holy clearing, watching her entire world crumble. The golden links between Aria and the triplets pulsed like a heartbeat, each flash destroying another piece of Mara's carefully planned future. "No," she whispered, then yelled it.
"NO!" Her voice cracked like a whip through the chaos. Pack members tripped in their rush to escape, turning to stare at the Beta's daughter who had lost all control.
"This is wrong!" Mara's neatly styled hair whipped around her face as she spun toward Elder Thalia. "Fix this! Break whatever spell she's using!" "There is no spell," the Elder said definitely, her ancient eyes sad but certain.
"The Moon Goddess has chosen."
"The Moon Goddess chose ME!" Mara's hands shook with rage. "I trained for this my whole life! I studied pack law, learned diplomacy, polished everything a Luna needs to know!"
Aria flinched as if hit. The tri-bonds flickered, reacting to her pain. "And what did she do?" Mara pointed a shaky finger at Aria. "Nothing! She's weak, sad, invisible! She can't even speak up for herself!"
"Enough," Kael growled, stepping protectively in front of Aria. But Mara was beyond reason. Eighteen years of expectations, training, and goals were dissolving before her eyes, and something dark was breaking free inside her chest. "You think you can steal my destiny?" she snarled at Aria.
"You think you can waltz in here with your impossible bonds and take everything I've worked for?" "I didn't steal anything," Aria whispered. "I didn't ask for this."
"Liar!" Mara's eyes blazed. "You must have done something. Dark magic, forbidden practices, sold your soul to make this happen!"
Darius appeared beside his cousin like a ghost. His smile was cold and calculating as he watched the scene unfold.
"Calm yourself, Mara," he said quietly, but his words only fanned her anger. "Calm?" she laughed bitterly.
"My future just got handed to some nobody omega, and you want me to be calm?" The strange howls echoed again, closer now. Most of the pack had fled toward the village, but the core group stayed frozen by the drama playing out before them.
"We need to leave," Alpha Calder ordered. "Whatever's out there" "Let them come!" Mara shouted. "Maybe they'll finish what should have been done years ago!" Kieran's eyes narrowed. "What does that mean?"
Darius put a seemingly comforting hand on Mara's shoulder, but his grip was tight, controlling. "She's upset. She doesn't mean" "I mean every word," Mara shrugged him off. "Aria Vale has been nothing but trouble since the day she was born. Her parents died in that 'accident,' and maybe that was the Moon Goddess trying to tell us something." The clearing went deadly silent. Even the oncoming howls seemed to pause. Aria's face went white.
"My parents... that wasn't an accident?"
"Of course it was," Elder Thalia said quickly, but her voice held a note of doubt. Darius's smile widened.
"Was it, though? Such a strange coincidence, don't you think? Two strong wolves dying in a simple hunting mishap, leaving behind a daughter who shows no wolf traits until suddenly, strangely, she bonds with three Alphas?"
"You're suggesting she killed her own parents?" Kael's voice was dangerous.
"I'm saying," Darius said smoothly, "that there are forces at play here that none of us understand. Forces that might have been planning this for a very long time." Mara grabbed on his words like a lifeline.
"Yes! Don't you see? This whole thing is planned! She's been influencing everything from the beginning!"
"That's insane," Kade said simply. "She's eighteen. She was a child when her parents died." "Children can be used," Darius muttered. "Especially children with... special bloodlines." Aria stumbled backward as if physically hit. "What bloodline? I'm nobody special!" "Are you?"
Darius tilted his head. "Then why do the bonds call to you? Why do old enemies stir at your awakening? Why do you smell like power and secrets?"
"I don't understand," Aria's voice broke.
"Neither do I," Alpha Calder said sadly. "But I plan to find out. After we survive whatever's hunting us." The howls came again, and this time they were answered by others. The sound circled the clearing like a deadly chorus. Mara laughed wildly. "Let them come! Let them take the little fake and leave the real Luna to fix this mess!" "Mara, stop,"
Elder Thalia warned. "You're calling down darkness with words like that." "Good!" Mara's composure shattered totally. "If I can't have my destiny, then nobody can!" She raised her hands, and dark energy crackled between her fingers. The air turned thick and deadly.
"Mara, no!" Darius grabbed her hands. "Not here, not now!" But she'd already begun. Forbidden words spilled from her lips in a language that predated the pack, predated society itself. The magic was raw, angry, and totally illegal. "She's blood-cursing,"
Elder Thalia gasped. "Stop her!" Kael lunged forward, but the dark magic formed a barrier around Mara. Her eyes rolled back, showing only white, and her voice became something inhuman. "Let the bonds break," she chanted. "Let the phony fall. Let the darkness take what should never have been given." The tri-bonds flickered and faded.
Aria cried out in pain as something vital started tearing inside her chest. "She's killing her!" Kieran shouted. "The curse feeds on hatred,"
Elder Thalia said urgently. "It's using Mara's jealousy to destroy the bonds!"
Kade grabbed Aria as she collapsed, her connection to the boys fading fast.
"Fight it!" "I can't," Aria gasped. "It's too strong." Darius watched his cousin with calculating eyes, making no move to help or harm.
His expression was unreadable, as if he was waiting to see which side would win before picking his own allegiance.
The howls were almost at the clearing now. Red eyes glinted between the trees as shapes moved in the darkness.
"They're here," Alpha Calder said sadly.
"Whatever Mara's curse awakened, it's here." Mara's shouting reached a crescendo. The dark magic swirled around her like a tornado, and at its center, her face was twisted with victory and madness. "If I cannot be Luna," she screamed,
"Then let there be no Luna at all!" The curse hit Aria like lightning.
She convulsed in Kade's arms as the tri-bonds began to snap one by one. But as the first link broke, something else broke free. Deep in the forest, an ancient voice whispered acceptance.
Old magic stirred, magic that had been sleeping for ages, waiting for exactly this moment. Waiting for the bonds to break. Waiting for the walls to fall. Waiting for payback. The red eyes in the darkness grew brighter, and the animals they belonged to began to laugh.