Golden light blazed around Caleb like fire. Aria's violet power flared in reaction, the two energies crashing together in the tiny room.
"Stop!" Seraphina stepped between them. "Both of you, control yourselves!"
"There's nothing to control, Mother," Caleb said, his voice eerily calm. "This is destiny."
"Your destiny is madness!" Caden shouted. "Caleb, what's happened to you?"
"I've awakened to the truth." Caleb's golden eyes burned with inhuman light. "The ancient sounds have been calling me for months. They showed me what's really coming."
"What did they show you?" Aria demanded, her own power sparking.
"War. Blood. The old packs crumbling into dust." Caleb smiled coldly. "Only one Moon Wolf can survive to rebuild everything."
"That's not what they told me," Aria argued. "They said I was a bridge between worlds."
"They tell us what we need to hear." Caleb took a step closer. "But the promise is clear. Two Moon Wolves. One winner. One dead body."
Suddenly, heavy footsteps thundered in the hallway.
Magnus's voice boomed through the walls. "Find them! They can't have gone far!"
"We have to move," Seraphina whispered quickly. "Now."
Caleb's golden glow faded quickly. "I'll lead Father away from here."
He looked at Aria with strange sadness. "This isn't over, sister. But it doesn't have to happen today."
He disappeared through a different passage, leaving them in shocked silence.
"Is he telling the truth?" Aria asked. "About the prophecy?"
"I don't know," Seraphina revealed. "But we can't stay here to find out."
She led them through twisting secret tunnels Aria never knew existed. They climbed dusty stairs and crawled through narrow tunnels until finally appearing in an abandoned tower room.
"Where are we?" Caden asked, moving cobwebs from his hair.
"The old Luna's chambers," Seraphina answered. "No one comes here anymore."
The circular room held ancient furniture wrapped in white sheets. Moonlight streamed through tall windows, illuminating pictures of past Luna wolves on the walls.
"Sit," Seraphina ordered gently. "Your real education begins now."
Aria sank onto a moth-eaten chair. "What education?"
"Pack history. Luna tasks. Things you'll need to know if you survive what's coming." Seraphina pulled the sheet off a huge bookshelf. "Being Luna isn't just about looking pretty beside an Alpha."
"I never wanted to be Luna."
"Neither did I. But sometimes the moon picks us anyway." Seraphina chose a leather-bound book. "Tell me, what do you know about the first Moon Wolf?"
"Nothing."
"Her name was Lyra. She lived over a thousand years ago when werewolf packs were at war with each other." Seraphina opened the ancient book, showing hand-drawn pictures. "Humans hunted us, and we hunted each other. Chaos ruled the magical world."
Aria studied the drawings. They showed wolves fighting under blood-red moons, their eyes filled with rage. "What changed?"
"Lyra bonded with three Alpha brothers from rival packs." Seraphina's finger traced the pictures. "Sound familiar?"
"Three brothers?" Aria's heart skipped. "Like the triplets?"
"The process repeats every few generations. A Moon Wolf appears. Three Alphas fight for her. The choice she makes determines whether packs join or destroy each other."
"What did Lyra choose?"
Seraphina turned the page. The next picture showed a beautiful woman with silver hair standing between three kneeling dogs.
"She refused to choose. Instead, she formed the first pack council—a group where all three brothers shared power equally." Seraphina's voice grew sad. "It worked for fifty years. Then jealousy poisoned everything."
"What happened?"
"The brothers started fighting again. But this time, they had Moon Wolf children to use as weapons." The next image showed young wolves with glowing eyes locked in fight. "The war that followed nearly destroyed our species."
Caden leaned forward. "How did it end?"
"Lyra made the greatest sacrifice. She used her power to bind all Moon Wolf genes, making sure no more than one could exist at a time." Seraphina closed the book. "For a thousand years, the bond held. Until now."
"Caleb and I both have power," Aria realized. "The binding is breaking."
"Which means the old war is about to begin again." Seraphina moved to the window, looking out at the moonlit forest. "Unless you find a different path."
"How?"
Before Seraphina could answer, Caden grabbed Aria's arm. "Do you hear that?"
Howls echoed from the trees below. Not the normal pack sounds, but something wilder. Angrier.
"Rogues," Seraphina breathed. "They're surrounding the castle."
Aria ran to the window. Dozens of wolves with red eyes moved through the trees like ghosts. At their head walked a familiar person in human form.
"Liana," Aria growled.
"She's brought an army," Caden noted grimly.
"Not just any army." Seraphina's face had gone pale. "Those aren't regular rogues. Look at their eyes."
Aria focused on the red glow. Something about it seemed familiar...
"They're Moon Wolf touched," Seraphina whispered. "Someone has been sharing power with them."
"That's impossible. You said only one Moon Wolf could live at a time."
"I said the binding stopped it. But if someone found a way to break that bond..." Seraphina trailed off, fear growing in her eyes.
"What is it?" Caden demanded.
"The rite Magnus planned. What if it wasn't meant to steal your power?" Seraphina gripped the edge. "What if it was meant to shatter Lyra's binding completely?"
Aria felt ice in her veins. "Creating more Moon Wolves?"
"Dozens of them. All answering to whoever runs the ritual." Seraphina turned from the window. "Child, we've been thinking about this all wrong. Magnus doesn't want to steal your power. He wants to multiply it."
"For what purpose?"
"To create an army of Moon Wolf soldiers loyal only to him."
The screams grew louder. Closer.
"They're attacking," Caden said quickly. "We need to warn the pack."
"No." Aria's violet eyes blazed with determination. "We need to stop this before it starts."
"How? There are dozens of them, and only three of us."
Aria looked at the old book still lying open to Lyra's picture. "Seraphina, you said you gave your power to Magnus freely. Is there a way to take it back?"
"Theoretically, yes. But the process would likely kill me."
"What if it didn't kill you? What if it made you stronger?"
"I don't understand."
Aria's mind raced as pieces clicked together. "The bond Lyra created—it didn't destroy Moon Wolf power. It just focused it into one bloodline at a time."
"Yes."
"But what if we broke the bond properly? Not to cause chaos, but to restore balance?" Aria grabbed Seraphina's hands. "What if we gave power back to everyone who should have had it?"
"That's incredibly dangerous. The magic involved—"
"Could unite the packs instead of dividing them." Aria's voice grew excited. "Just like Lyra originally intended."
Caden shook his head. "It's too risky. We don't even know if it would work."
"We know Magnus's plan will definitely fail. And we know Liana's army will destroy harmless people." Aria stood up, power starting to glow around her. "I'd rather try something hopeful than wait for something horrible."
A new sound joined the roaring outside—the thunderous crash of the castle's main gates being smashed open.
"They're inside," Caden whispered.
Screams echoed from below as pack members met the rogue army.
"We're out of time," Seraphina said sadly. "Whatever we're going to do, it has to be now."
Aria moved to the center of the room. "Teach me the unbinding ritual."
"I don't know if I remember all the steps."
"You'll remember. You have to." Aria's eyes burned brighter. "Because if we don't try this, everyone we love is going to die."
The door burst open. But instead of rogues, Caleb stumbled in, his golden glow flickering weakly.
"They're everywhere," he gasped. "Father's locked himself in the great hall with the ritual supplies. Cyrus is—"
He stopped, looking at Aria's blazing power. "What are you doing?"
"Saving everyone," she answered simply.
"By destroying yourself?" Caleb's eyes filled with something that might have been fear. "Aria, if you attempt an unbinding without proper preparation, the magical backlash could tear you apart."
"Then help me do it right."
"I can't. The old voices won't let me." His face twisted with pain. "They're screaming in my head, demanding I stop you."
"Why?"
"Because they want the war. They want the chaos." Caleb fell to his knees, clutching his head. "They've been feeding on supernatural conflict for ages. Peace would kill them."
The truth hit Aria like lightning. "The ancient dogs in our dreams—they're not guides. They're pests."
"And they've been manipulating both of us from the beginning."
Outside, the sounds of fighting grew closer. Soon, the rogues would find their hidden place.
Aria looked at Caleb, then at Seraphina and Caden. Three people who loved her. Three people she might have to sacrifice to save everyone else.
"Seraphina," she said quietly, "start the ritual."
"Child, if this goes wrong—"
"If we don't try, it goes wrong anyway." Aria's violet light pulsed stronger. "I'd rather die fighting for hope than live knowing I chose fear."
As Seraphina started chanting in the ancient language, Aria felt the Moon Wolf power inside her responding.
But she also felt something else awakening—something vast and hungry that had been sleeping in her DNA for a thousand years. Something that definitely wasn't nice.
The unbinding had begun. But as the magic swirled around them, Aria realized they might have just unleashed something far worse than anything Magnus or Liana could have dreamed.