Maya's POV - Omega
"Jamie, no!" I screamed as my three-year-old son stepped toward the massive Shadow Wolf like he was meeting a neighbor's dog.
The silver light flowing from Jamie's eyes was the same power that flowed through me, but stronger. So much better. The air around him shimmered with energy that made even the Shadow Wolf take a step back.
"You're hurting Mama," Jamie said to the creature, his little voice strangely calm. "That makes me angry."
Derek lunged forward to grab our son, but an unseen force pushed him back. The same force was holding me in place, keeping all the adult wolves frozen while Jamie faced down a monster from dreams.
"Impossible," the Shadow Wolf growled. "Moon Children can't awaken their power until they're sixteen!"
Jamie tilted his head, looking confused. "What's a Moon Child? I'm just Jamie."
The Shadow Wolf's eyes narrowed with hunger. "You're much more than that, little one. You're exactly what we've been looking for."
That's when I understood with terrible clarity. The Shadow Wolves hadn't come for me at all. They'd used me as bait to find Jamie. My son wasn't just Derek's heir - he was something ancient and powerful that these creatures wanted to kill.
"Stay away from him!" I fought against the unseen force holding me, my own power flaring to life.
But Jamie raised his tiny hand, and my power stopped cold. "It's okay, Mama. The moon is telling me what to do."
Around us, more Shadow Wolves came from the darkness. A whole pack of them, all focused on my little boy. Their boss smiled with too many teeth.
"Come with us willingly, Moon Child, and we'll let your parents live."
Jamie looked at Derek, then at me, his blue eyes so serious for such a small face. "Daddy, are you really my daddy? Or are you just acting like Uncle Ethan was?"
Derek's face crumpled with pain. "I'm really your daddy, Jamie. I should have been here from the beginning. I'm sorry I wasn't."
"It's okay," Jamie said simply. "Sometimes grown-ups make mistakes."
The Shadow Wolf leader grew restless. "Enough! Come with us now, or we start killing everyone you love!"
But Jamie shook his head. "No. You're the ones who made a mistake."
The air around us started to change. The darkness that had been pressing down on the space started to pull back, like Jamie was pushing it away just by existing.
"What's happening?" Lily whispered from the edge of the clearing.
I felt it through our mother-son tie - Jamie was calling to something. Not just the moon, but something much bigger and more powerful. The very first magic that had made werewolves thousands of years ago.
"Jamie, baby, you need to be careful," I begged. "That much power could hurt you."
But my son looked at me with ancient knowledge that shouldn't exist in a three-year-old's eyes. "Mama, I have to protect our pack. It's what Moon Children do."
The Shadow Wolves began to circle us, growling with frustration as their darkness was pushed back by Jamie's light. Their leader bared his teeth.
"If we can't take him, we'll kill him! Better dead than free!"
That's when everything went wrong.
Sarah, who I'd forgotten was even there, picked that moment to make her move. Derek's angry wife had been watching everything from the trees, and I saw the calculation in her cold eyes.
If Jamie died, Derek would be broken forever. If Derek was broken, Sarah would finally have full control over him and the pack.
Sarah changed into her wolf form and lunged - not at the Shadow Wolves, but at Jamie.
"No!" Derek yelled, throwing himself between Sarah and our son.
But he wasn't fast enough.
Sarah's claws raked across Jamie's small back as Derek attacked her. My baby cried out in pain and surprise, his silver light flashing like a candle in the wind.
The moment Jamie's power wavered, the Shadow Wolves charged.
Everything happened at once. Derek was beating Sarah, rolling on the ground in a vicious battle. Lily and the other pack members were trying to hold off three Shadow Wolves at once. And the leader was sprinting straight for Jamie, who was now bleeding and scared and looking like the little boy he really was.
I broke free of whatever had been holding me and ran toward my son. "Jamie!"
But I wasn't going to make it in time. The Shadow Wolf was too fast, too close.
That's when something impossible happened.
A new voice cut through the chaos - powerful, commanding, and totally unexpected.
"Stop."
Everyone froze. The Shadow Wolves, Derek, Sarah, even Lily stopped fighting and looked around in confusion.
Standing at the edge of the area was Ethan. But something was wrong with him. His eyes were sparkling with the same silver light as Jamie's, and power radiated from him like heat from a fire.
"Ethan?" I breathed in shock.
He looked at me with a face I'd never seen before - ancient, sad, and full of secrets.
"I'm sorry, Maya," he said quietly. "I never wanted you to find out this way."
"Find out what?"
Ethan stepped into the open, and the Shadow Wolves backed away from him like he was poison. Their boss snarled in recognition and fear.
"Impossible. We killed all the Moon Guardians fifty years ago!"
"You killed most of us," Ethan corrected quietly. "But not all."
My world tilted sideways as understanding hit me. "You're not just Derek's cousin. You're..."
"I'm a Moon Guardian," Ethan confirmed. "The last one. And I've been protecting Moon Children like Jamie my entire life."
Derek stared at his cousin in shock. "You knew. You knew what Jamie was when you took Maya in."
"Of course I knew," Ethan said. "I felt his power the moment Maya crossed into my land. That's why I had to keep them safe."
The Shadow Wolf boss let out a howl of rage. "A Guardian and a Moon Child together! This changes everything!"
That's when Ethan did something that made my blood run cold. He looked at Jamie with a face full of love and terrible determination.
"Jamie," he said softly. "You're going to have to trust me, okay? What I'm about to do might seem scary, but it's the only way to keep everyone safe."
"Uncle Ethan, what are you doing?" Jamie asked, still bleeding from Sarah's attack.
Ethan's power flared brighter, and I felt something growing in the air around us - magic older and more dangerous than anything I'd ever experienced.
"I'm sorry," Ethan whispered, looking at me one last time. "But to save Jamie, I have to take him away from here. Far away. And Maya... you can't come with us."
Before anyone could move, before Derek could complain, before I could scream, Ethan grabbed Jamie and they both disappeared in a flash of silver light.
My kid was gone.
And the only person who could find him was the man who'd just kidnapped him - the man I'd trusted with my life for three years, who'd obviously been lying about everything from the very beginning.
The Shadow Wolf boss began to laugh, a sound like breaking glass.
"How delicious," the creature purred. "The Guardian thinks he can hide a Moon Child from us. He has no idea what he's just started."
As the Shadow Wolves melted back into the darkness, I fell to my knees where my son had been standing just moments before.
Jamie was gone. And I had no idea if I'd ever see him again.