Triple Moon Rising: An Omega's Destiny

Chapter 34: Ancient Enemies

Lily POV

The ground shook beneath my feet as another blast echoed through the forest. I grabbed Caleb’s hand and ran faster, my heart beating so hard I could hear it in my ears.

"This way!" Caleb pulled me toward a cluster of rocks. "I see a cave!"

Behind us, angry voices yelled orders. The Shadow Wolves were getting closer. My Triple Moon mark burned against my skin, warning me of risk everywhere.

We squeezed through a tight opening between two huge stones. The cave beyond was pitch black, but at least it was quiet. I pressed my back against the cold rock wall and tried to catch my breath.

"Do you think they saw us?" I whispered.

Caleb shook his head. "I don’t know. But we can’t stay here long. They’ll search every cave until they find us."

My stomach twisted with fear. Three days ago, everything had been great. Caleb and I were planning our mating ceremony. The pack was finally balanced and happy. Then the Shadow Wolves attacked without notice, taking control of half our pack members with their glowing eyes and empty stares.

Now we were hiding like scared rabbits while our friends and family marched around like robots, looking for us.

"I should have seen this coming," I said, holding back tears. "The Triple Moon mark is supposed to protect the pack. But I failed everyone."

"Hey." Caleb turned to face me in the darkness. "This isn’t your fault. No one could have expected this."

But I knew better. As the Triple Moon carrier, I was supposed to sense threats to the pack. Instead, I’d been so focused on wedding plans that I missed all the warning signs.

Caleb dug in his pocket and pulled out a small flashlight. When he turned it on, I gasped.

We weren’t in an everyday cave. The walls were covered with paintings - hundreds of them going back into the darkness. Wolves running, fighting, growling at the moon. But these weren’t normal dog pictures.

"Caleb, look at their eyes," I breathed.

In painting after painting, some dogs had normal eyes while others had bright, glowing circles where their eyes should be. The glowing-eyed wolves always stood over the normal ones, who lay on the ground or knelt in submission.

"It’s them," Caleb said, his voices tight with joy and fear. "The Shadow Wolves. But these drawings are ancient."

We walked deeper into the cave, following the trail of pictures on the walls. The pictures seemed to tell a story. In the early images, all the wolves looked normal and happy. They hunted together, played together, raised their pups together.

Then something changed.

"Look at this one," I said, pointing to a big painting near the back of the cave.

It showed a group of wolves gathering around something that looked like a dark pool. Above the pool, strange symbols floated in the air - symbols that made my Triple Moon mark tingle with recognition.

"Magic," Caleb whispered. "They’re doing magic."

The next picture was horrible. The dogs who had been around the dark pool now had glowing eyes. They stood over other wolves who were clearly afraid, clearly fighting against some unseen force.

"They’re controlling them," I realized. "Just like they’re controlling our pack now."

My hands shook as I touched the ancient picture. The wolf being controlled looked so scared, so powerless. Just like Brock had looked when the Shadow Wolves took him. Just like my friends in the nursery.

"Keep going," Caleb urged. "There has to be more."

The story continued along the cave walls. The normal dogs fought back against the controlled ones. There were fights, chases, terrible scenes of wolves turning against their own families.

Then came the ending.

The finished paintings showed the glowing-eyed wolves being driven away by the normal ones. But not killed - removed. Cast out into the desert beyond the mountains. noveldrama

"They were exiled," I said, understanding rushing through me. "The Shadow Wolves aren’t just another pack. They’re the descendants of wolves who were thrown out of all the areas generations ago."

"Because they enslaved other wolves’ minds," Caleb finished. "They’ve been practicing this forbidden magic for centuries, waiting for their chance to come back."

I felt sick. No wonder the Shadow Wolves were so good at controlling thoughts. They’d had hundreds of years to perfect their dark magic.

"Lily, look at this last painting," Caleb called from the very back of the cave.

I joined him in front of a huge picture that covered the entire back wall. It showed three wolves standing together - one much smaller than the others, but sparkling with silver light. Around her neck was a crescent moon charm.

My hand flew to my own Triple Moon mark.

"That’s not just any omega," I whispered. "That’s a Triple Moon baby. Like me."

In the picture, the Triple Moon wolf stood between the normal wolves and the shadow ones. Silver light poured from her mark, pushing back the darkness that tried to rule the other wolves.

"She saved them," Caleb said. "The Triple Moon bearer broke the shadow magic and drove the dark wolves away."

But there was more. In the corner of the picture, barely visible, were symbols that looked like writing. Caleb shined his light on them and tried to sound out the old words.

"When... shadow... returns..." he read slowly. "The moon... will... rise... again. But watch... the... first... shadow... hunts... the... light."

A chill ran through my body. "The First Shadow. Elder Iris mentioned that name."

"What if it’s not just a title?" Caleb asked, his voice barely a whisper. "What if it’s a real wolf? The first one to ever use shadow magic?"

Before I could answer, footsteps echoed from the cave opening. Heavy boots on stone. Getting closer.

"They found us," I breathed.

We were stuck. The cave only had one entry, and the Shadow Wolves were blocking it. There was nowhere to run.

But as the footsteps got louder, something strange happened. My Triple Moon mark started to glow, just like in the ancient painting. Silver light filled the cave, making the old pictures seem to move and dance on the walls.

"Lily," Caleb grabbed my arm. "Your mark - it’s responding to something."

The silver light grew brighter, and suddenly I could hear voices - not from the coming Shadow Wolves, but from the paintings themselves. Ancient wolves speaking across ages of time.

"The circle closes," they whispered. "The First Shadow returns. The battle starts again."

The footsteps were almost at the back of the cave now. In seconds, we’d be caught. But the sounds from the paintings continued.

"Beware, Moon Bearer. He comes for you. The one who started it all. The one who can never die."

My blood turned to ice. Never die? What did that mean?

Light flickered at the cave entrance - flashlight beams looking for us. We pressed ourselves against the back wall, trying to hide in the dark.

Then I heard a voice that made my heart stop.

"I know you’re in here, little omega."

It was a man’s voice, but wrong somehow. Too smooth, too cold. Like ice talking.

"You cannot hide from me forever. I’ve been waiting ages for another Triple Moon bearer to appear. And now that you have..."

A figure stepped into view at the mouth of the cave. Tall, wearing a long dark coat. His face was hidden in darkness, but his eyes - his eyes glowed with an ancient, hungry light.

"Now that you have," he continued, his voice echoing off the cave walls, "I can finally complete what I started so long ago."

He raised his hand, and dark power swirled around his fingers like smoke.

"Come to me, child. Let me show you what real power looks like."

My Triple Moon mark burned like fire against my skin. Every instinct yelled at me to run, but there was nowhere to go. The old paintings seemed to whisper warnings, but I couldn’t understand them over the roar of terror in my ears.

This wasn’t just any Shadow Wolf.

This was the First Shadow himself.

And he’d come for me.