Chapter 76: Ancient Warnings

Words : 1023 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

Chapter 76: Ancient Warnings Elder Iris POV I touched the old book, and it caught fire right away. Silver fire danced across the leather cover, making words appear and disappear like ghostly warnings. I jerked my wrinkled hands back. The book had been tucked away behind other books for seventy years, but tonight it was called to me. "What are you trying to tell me?" I whispered to the pages that were on fire. Three words were made out of flames: "THE BOND BREAKS." My heart stopped. I knew what that meant without a doubt. Lily and Caleb’s mate link, the Triple Moon bond, was in great danger. But how? And why was this old book showing me now? I grabbed my reading glasses with shaking fingers and leaned closer. The magical fire didn’t hurt the book. Instead, it was showing hidden text that had been invisible for ages. Words written in the old language, the one only the biggest wolves remembered. "When Triple Moon breaks, shadow wakes," I read aloud, my voice shaking. "Seven generations shall pay the price. The first sacrifice opens the way. The last sacrifice closes it forever." My blood turned to ice. Lily had already made the first sacrifice three weeks ago when she broke their mate bond to save the pack. According to this forecast, that wasn’t the end - it was just the beginning. I flipped through more burned pages, desperate to understand. Each page showed terrible visions: wolves with glowing red eyes, pack areas covered in unnatural darkness, children disappearing in the night. All because a Triple Moon bond had been broken. "This can’t be right," I muttered, but deep down I knew it was. The ancient wolves who wrote these predictions had seen it happen before. They’d watched as broken Triple Moon bonds released something evil into the world. A loud crash from outside made me jump. Through my window, I saw pack members running in fear. Something was wrong at the healing center where Lily had been mending. I stuffed the burning book into my coat and hobbled outside as fast as my old legs could carry me. Wolves were screaming and pointing at the healing center, where dark smoke poured from the windows. "What happened?" I called to Marcus, who was organizing relief teams. "The building just exploded," he said, his face pale with fear. "Lily was inside, but now she’s gone. Someone took her." My worst fears were coming true. I pulled out the burning book, and new words appeared on its pages: "The shadow comes for the broken carrier. Death will make the break complete." "We have to find her now," I said quickly. "Before it’s too late." "Before what’s too late?" Marcus demanded. I showed him the book, watching his eyes widen as he saw the forecast. "When Lily broke her mate bond with Caleb to save us, she didn’t just sacrifice their love. She opened a doorway for something old and evil. Something that’s been waiting for a Triple Moon tie to break so it can enter our world." "That’s impossible," Marcus said, but his voice shook with doubt. "Is it?" I asked. "Haven’t you noticed the strange things happening since the ritual? Wolves falling for no reason? Nightmares spreading through the pack? The forest animals leaving our territory?" Marcus’s face went white. He had noticed these things, just like I had. We’d all tried to ignore them, hoping they were just side affects of the powerful magic Lily had used. But they weren’t side affects - they were warnings. The burning book flipped its own pages, showing me a new image. I saw Lily tied up in a dark cave, circled by wolves with red glowing eyes. But these weren’t normal dogs. Their shadows moved independently of their bodies, reaching toward Lily with hooked fingers. "Shadow wolves," I breathed. "They’re not from our world. They come from the dark realm that lies between life and death. The broken Triple Moon bond is like a crack in a dam - it lets them seep through." "How do we stop them?" Marcus asked desperately. I kept reading, my heart sinking with each word. "The oracle says only two things can close the doorway. Either Lily and Caleb restore their mate bond completely..." "Or?" Marcus prompted when I paused. "Or Lily dies, and her death seals the crack forever." We stared at each other in horror. The shadow wolves had taken Lily because they needed her death to make their entry into our world permanent. If she died while the link was broken, the doorway would slam shut with them on our side of it. "There’s more," I said, reading furiously. "If the shadow wolves succeed, they won’t just attack our pack. They’ll spread to every wolf area, turning other wolves into shadow creatures like themselves. Within seven generations, there won’t be any average wolves left in the world." The book’s pages suddenly went blank except for one final message that made my blood freeze: "The shadow wolves have learned to steal memories. The broken bearer will forget her mate totally before she dies. Love cannot save what love cannot remember." That’s when I understood the true horror of what was happening. The shadow wolves weren’t just going to kill Lily - they were going to make her forget Caleb first. Without her memories of their love, she couldn’t possibly repair their mate bond. She would die thinking she’d never been loved at all. "We have to tell Caleb," I said, grabbing Marcus’s arm. "He’s the only one who might be able to reach her before it’s too late." But as we turned to run toward the pack house, a new sound froze us in place. It was Lily’s voice, but it was wrong somehow - hollow and empty, like it was coming from very far away. "Caleb?" her voice echoed through the night. "Who is Caleb? I don’t know anyone by that name." The shadow wolves had already started stealing her memories. And somewhere in the darkness, Lily was forgetting that she had ever been loved at all.

Chapter 76: Ancient Warnings

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