Triple Moon Rising: An Omega's Destiny

Chapter 16: The Library Secret

Caleb Silver POV

"Move!" I shoved Lily behind a bookshelf just as the old tome exploded in a burst of silver light.

The book I’d been reading about Triple Moon bearers was now floating in mid-air, its pages flipping wildly on their own. Words glowed and shifted across the yellowed paper like they were alive.

"What’s happening?" Lily gasped, pressed against my back.

"I don’t know!" The book had been absolutely normal two seconds ago. Now it was acting like it contained some kind of magic.

The flying book suddenly slammed shut and dropped to the floor with a heavy thud. The library fell silent except for our heavy breaths.

"Is it over?" Lily whispered.

I stepped out carefully, keeping her behind me. The book lay idly on the reading table where I’d left it, looking completely ordinary again.

"That was definitely not normal," I said.

This was supposed to be a quiet research time. After yesterday’s disaster with the bone-faced wolves at the cave, I’d got Lily to help me look through the pack’s oldest records. We needed to understand what the Triple Moon mark really meant before the final mating ceremony tomorrow night.

But the old books weren’t cooperating.

"Maybe we should leave," Lily said, eyeing the book nervously.

"No." I picked up the tome carefully. "This happened for a reason. The book responded to something."

"To what?"

"To you being here. To your mark." I looked at her wrist where the Triple Moon sign glowed faintly through her sleeve. "I think it was trying to show us something."

Lily stepped closer, her fear giving way to interest. "What kind of something?"

I opened the book again, and instantly the pages began to flutter. But this time, instead of chaos, they agreed on a specific Chapter. Words appeared on the page in sparkling silver text that definitely hadn’t been there before.

"The Last Bearer of the Triple Moon," I read aloud. "Sarah Moonwhisper, year 1847."

"There was another one?" Lily leaned over my shoulder to see better.

"Listen to this." I began reading from the bright text. " ’Sarah appeared during the Great Pack War, when Alpha rule had gotten so harsh that omegas were forbidden to speak in council meetings. The Triple Moon mark chose her to restore balance.’"

"What happened to her?"

I kept reading, my excitement rising with each line. "She didn’t just become Luna. She changed everything. Made new laws that gave omegas equal rights. Created healing places run by omega wisdom. Turned Silver Peak into the most powerful pack in the area."

"And then?"

My smile faded as I reached the end of the article. "And then she disappeared. The night after her mating ceremony, she disappeared without a trace. No one ever saw her again."

Lily’s face went pale. "That’s not exactly encouraging."

"Wait, there’s more." The pages flipped on their own to another glowing area. "Look at this."

The new page showed a family tree with names and dates going back centuries. Every few generations, one name glowed brighter than the others.

"Triple Moon bearers," I breathed. "There’s been one every seventy-five to a hundred years."

"They all disappeared," Lily said, pointing to the dates. "Look - each one vanished within a year of receiving their mark."

My stomach dropped. She was right. Every single Triple Moon bearer in the family tree had a birth date but no death date. Just the word "Vanished" written in faded ink.

"Why?" Lily asked. "What happened to them?"

Before I could answer, the book flipped to a new page. This one showed a map of our territory with strange symbols marked at different places.

"Moon pools," I realized. "These are all the sacred places where mating ceremonies happen."

"What are those red X’s?"

I studied the marks more carefully. Each red X was written over a moon pool, and beside each one was a date and a name.

"Those are the dates the Triple Moon bearers vanished," I said slowly. "They all disappeared from moon pools."

"From their own mating ceremonies?"

"Not from their rituals. After them." I traced the design with my finger. "Look at the dates. Each bearer vanished exactly one month after becoming mated."

Lily sank into a chair, her face white as snow. "Caleb, what if the Triple Moon mark isn’t a blessing? What if it’s some kind of curse?"

"Don’t say that." noveldrama

"But what if it is? What if something terrible happens to every omega who gets chosen?"

I wanted to argue with her, but the proof was right there in black and white. Every Triple Moon bearer for the past three hundred years had vanished without reason.

"There has to be more," I said, looking through more pages. "Some explanation for why they disappeared."

The book seemed to hear me. Pages fluttered until they landed on a section named "The Shadow Covenant."

"What’s a Shadow Covenant?" Lily asked.

I read quickly, my heart sinking with every word. "’In the year 1823, Alpha Jeremiah Silver made a deal with the Shadow Wolves to protect Silver Peak from the Great Pack War. In exchange for their security, he promised them a tribute - the most powerful omega from each generation.’"

"No," Lily whispered.

"’The Shadow Wolves marked these omegas with the Triple Moon symbol, making them attractive to Alpha sons. Once mated and their power fully awakened, the Shadow Wolves would claim them for their own world.’"

The book slammed shut so hard it made us both jump.

"That can’t be true," Lily said, but her voice shook. "Your father wouldn’t know about something like that."

"Wouldn’t he?" I thought about all the times my father had seemed worried about Lily’s mark. How he’d insisted on the test yesterday. How he’d been meeting secretly with Elder Iris. "What if he does know? What if that’s why he wanted you to fail?"

"To protect me?"

"Or to protect the deal his great-great-grandfather made."

Lily stood up suddenly, pacing across the small library. "This is crazy. Shadow Wolves aren’t real. They’re just stories to scare pups."

"Are they?" I grabbed another book from the shelf, one I’d seen my father reading in secret. "What if everything we think we know about our pack history is wrong?"

This book opened easily, but what I found inside made my blood turn cold.

"Lily," I said quietly. "Come look at this."

She came over reluctantly. The page showed a detailed picture of wolves wearing bone masks - the same masks we’d seen yesterday at the cave.

"Those are the things that took Emma and Timmy," she breathed.

"They’re not just random rogues," I said, reading the words below the picture. "’Shadow Wolves serve as collectors for their realm, appearing in the mortal world to take what was promised. They are recognizable by their bone masks and their ability to move between worlds.’"

"Move between worlds?"

"That’s why they disappeared so easily yesterday. They’re not entirely from our world."

Lily grabbed my arm. "Caleb, if this is true, then tomorrow night..."

"Tomorrow night they’ll come for you."

We stared at each other in horror. Everything made sense now. The bone-faced wolves weren’t trying to stop the mating ceremony - they were waiting for it. They needed Lily to be fully mated before they could claim her.

"We have to tell someone," Lily said.

"Who? If my father knows about the covenant, he might try to stop us from meddling. And if he doesn’t know..."

"Then telling him could make things worse."

I nodded grimly. "Either way, we’re on our own."

"What do we do?"

Before I could answer, footsteps sounded in the hallway outside the library. Heavy boots, going fast.

"Someone’s coming," I whispered.

The door burst open and my father strode in with two pack guards behind him. His face was thunderous.

"Step away from her, Caleb," he ordered.

"Father, we need to talk. We found something—"

"I know what you found." He pointed at the ancient books spread across our table. "And I know what you think it means."

"So you do know about the Shadow Covenant," I said.

His face went even darker. "Guards, lead Miss Carter to her room. She’s not to leave until tomorrow night’s service."

"You can’t do this!" Lily complained as the guards moved toward her.

"I can and I will. For the good of the pack."

"Father, please," I stepped between him and Lily. "If you know what happens to Triple Moon bearers, how can you let this continue?"

Alpha Marcus looked older than I’d ever seen him. "Because, son, some sacrifices are necessary to protect the many."

The guards grabbed Lily’s arms despite her struggles. As they dragged her toward the door, she looked back at me with desperate eyes.

"Caleb! Don’t let them—"

The door slammed shut, cutting off her words. I started after her, but my father’s hand clamped down on my shoulder.

"You will not interfere with tomorrow night’s ceremony," he said coldly. "That’s an order."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then you’ll join Miss Carter in confinement until it’s over."

I looked at the ancient books spread across the table, all their terrible secrets now revealed. Lily was going to be sacrificed to beings from another world, and my own father was helping it happen.

"Why?" I asked. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because seventy-five years ago, my grandfather failed to provide the tribute the Shadow Wolves requested. Do you know what happened then?"

I shook my head.

"They took twelve pack members instead of one. Twelve of our best wolves, including my own father." His voice broke slightly. "I won’t let that happen again. One life to save hundreds - it’s the only choice."

As the truth hit me, I realized something horrible. My father wasn’t the evil in this story. He was trapped just like the rest of us, bound by a vow made generations ago.

But that didn’t mean I had to let Lily die.

"I understand, Father," I said quietly.

He squeezed my shoulder. "I knew you would, son. You always were the reasonable one."

He left me alone in the library with the old books and their terrible secrets. As soon as his footsteps faded, I grabbed the most important tome and headed for the window.

If my father thought I was the reasonable son, he was about to be very unhappy.

I had less than twenty-four hours to break a centuries-old covenant and save the girl I loved from creatures that lived between worlds.

And I had no idea how to do either one.