Chapter 30: The Marked Tree

Words : 1406 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

Chapter 30: The Marked Tree Lily Carter POV I stumbled backward as the knife cut through the air where my head had been a second before. The controlled pack member - Mrs. Chen from the bakery - swung again with jerky, puppet-like motions. "Mrs. Chen, it’s me! Lily!" I dodged behind a tree, my heart pounding. "You taught me to make bread when I was little!" Her eyes stayed blank and sparkling as she advanced. "Must... eliminate... Triple Moon... bearer..." I’d been trying to reach the nursery to help the trapped pups when she’d struck me out of nowhere. Now I was running deeper into the bush, leading her away from the children but getting dangerously close to pack borders. The knife whizzed past my ear as I ducked around another tree. This one was huge and old, with deep lines in its bark that caught my attention even while running for my life. Strange symbols were cut into the wood - circles and lines that looked fresh. Mrs. Chen lunged forward, but I rolled away and her knife stuck deep in the marked tree. While she fought to pull it free, I got my first good look at the carved symbols. My blood turned cold. These weren’t random scratches. They were too neat, too purposeful. Someone had spent time carefully cutting these marks. "Help... me..." Mrs. Chen’s voice cracked through the Shadow Wolf control for just a second. Her real self was fighting to break free. "Can’t... stop... myself..." "I’m trying!" I grabbed her arms, trying to keep the knife away from both of us. "Fight it, Mrs. Chen! Remember who you are!" Her face twisted in pain as she fought against the mind control. For a moment, her eyes cleared and she looked at me with recognition and fear. "Lily? What’s happening to me? I can’t control my own body!" "Shadow Wolves are controlling pack members," I said quickly. "You have to fight it!" But then the glow returned to her eyes and she broke free from my grip, raising the knife again. I had no choice but to run deeper into the forest. As I fled, I spotted more trees with similar markings. Not just one or two - dozens of them, forming a trail along the pack border. Someone had been tagging trees for weeks, maybe months. I finally lost Mrs. Chen by climbing high into a pine tree and waiting until she walked away, still muttering about eliminating the Triple Moon bearer. When I was sure she was gone, I climbed down and started examining the marked trees more closely. Each tree had different marks, but they all looked like some kind of code. Circles with lines through them, X marks with dots, triangles going in different directions. They formed a pattern that led deeper into the jungle toward the mountain. My hands shook as I traced one of the marks with my finger. Someone had been planning something big, and these marks were part of it. But what did they mean? "Lily!" Caleb’s words echoed through the trees. "Over here!" I called back, relief rushing through me. He crashed through the underbrush, looking terrified. "Thank the moon you’re safe. I lost track of you during the chaos." "Caleb, look at this." I pointed to the closest marked tree. "Have you ever seen symbols like these?" He moved closer, studying the carved marks. His face went pale. "Where did you find these?" "They’re everywhere along the line. What are they?" Caleb ran his fingers over the symbols, his expression getting more worried. "These are rogue transmission marks. Different rogue packs use them to leave signs for each other." "What kind of messages?" "Territory claims, warnings, meeting locations." He pointed to a circle with three lines. "This one means ’safe meeting place.’ And this triangle means ’enemies nearby.’" I felt sick. "So rogues have been using our border as a message board?" "It’s worse than that." Caleb moved to another tree, reading the marks like a book. "These marks are new, but they follow a pattern. Someone’s been coordinating rogue movements around our area for months." "The Shadow Wolves," I breathed. "Has to be. They’ve been using rogues to scout our defenses and plan strikes." He stopped at a tree covered in fresh marks. "Lily, these newest symbols... they’re meeting coordinates." "Meeting for what?" "Look at the pattern." Caleb’s voice got tense. "All these marks point toward the old Sacred Grove. There’s going to be a huge gathering tonight." The Sacred Grove - the same place Elder Thomas had threatened to take me for "cleansing." My stomach dropped. "How massive?" I asked. Caleb counted symbols on several trees, his face turning paler. "At least fifty rogues, maybe more. Plus Shadow Wolves leading them." He looked at me with fear in his eyes. "This isn’t just an attack on our pack, Lily. They’re planning something huge." A branch snapped behind us. We spun around to see three pack members emerging from the trees - all with those terrible glowing eyes of Shadow Wolf control. "Found... the... targets..." one of them said in a robotic voice. "We have to go," Caleb whispered. "Now." We ran, but more controlled pack members emerged from different directions. They moved in perfect harmony, like they were all controlled by the same mind. Which, I realized with horror, they probably were. "This way!" I grabbed Caleb’s hand and led him toward the mountain path. But as we ran, I noticed something that made my heart stop. Every tree we passed now had fresh marks cut into them. Not the old rogue symbols - new ones, carved so recently that wood chips still dotted the ground. "Caleb," I gasped as we ran. "Someone’s been following us. Marking our path." He looked around and saw what I meant. "They’re herding us somewhere specific." We were being driven toward the mountain, away from the pack and toward whatever was waiting at the Sacred Grove. The controlled pack members weren’t trying to catch us - they were pushing us exactly where someone wanted us to go. "It’s a trap," I said. "The whole thing’s been a trap," Caleb answered grimly. "The attack on the pack, the mind control, even us finding these symbols. They wanted us to discover the rogue meeting." "But why?" We reached a clearing where the mountain path split in three ways. In the center stood a giant oak tree, its trunk carved with so many symbols it looked like a book written in wood. Caleb read the marks quickly, his face going white with fear. "What does it say?" I asked. "It’s... it’s a contract," he whispered. "Written in the old rogue language. The Shadow Wolves have made a deal with every rogue pack in three areas." "What kind of deal?" "They’re offering the rogues permanent territory and hunting rights if they help destroy all the established packs." Caleb’s voice shook. "Not just our pack, Lily. Every pack for hundreds of miles." The pieces clicked together in my mind. "That’s why they needed to control our pack members. To make us too weak to help our friends when the rogues attack them." "And they needed us to find this tree," Caleb said slowly. "Because this is where they’re going to make their final offer to the rogues tonight." "What final offer?" Caleb pointed to the newest symbols, still leaking sap. "You, Lily. They’re offering your Triple Moon power to any rogue pack that can catch you alive." Horror washed over me. "They’re turning me into a prize for rogues to fight over." "Fifty rogue packs, all competing to capture the Triple Moon bearer." Caleb grabbed my shoulders. "They’re going to tear each other apart trying to get to you first." That’s when we heard the howls starting from the Sacred Grove - dozens of different wolf voices, all howling at once. The rogue meeting had started. And somewhere in that chaos of enemy wolves, they were deciding which pack would get the honor of hunting me down. "We have to warn the other territories," I said desperately. "With what?" Caleb’s voice cracked. "Our pack is controlled, our allies don’t know what’s coming, and we’re trapped between rogues and Shadow Wolves." The screaming grew louder, and I realized we could hear individual voices now. The rogues were spreading out from their meeting, starting their hunt. For me.

Chapter 30: The Marked Tree

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