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The tension inside the McCall house was suffocating. The living room had become an unofficial war room, lit by scattered candles and flickering laptops, ancient tomes lying open across tables. Scott stood at the center, arms crossed, trying to process everything Alex and Eira had just told them.
"You mean to say there's an entire cult trying to resurrect the original Alpha of Shadows?" Scott's tone was skeptical but grave.
"They've already found one of the remaining totems," Eira said. Her arm was wrapped in bandages, bruises lining her jaw. "And they're going after the last one next."
Lydia frowned, her fingers ghosting over the edge of a runic map they'd spread across the floor. "If Silva's telling the truth, that means they're planning to unseal the final part of the curse. The Alpha of Shadows isn't just a myth. He's real. And if he returns—"
"Beacon Hills burns," Alex finished.
A heavy silence fell over the room.
"We have to stop them," Malia growled. "Where's the last totem?"
"That's the problem," Eira muttered. "We don't know. The records were incomplete. The location was never written—only passed down orally, through bloodlines that were supposedly wiped out centuries ago."
Lydia's eyes widened. "Unless… not all of them were."
Alex looked at her. "What are you thinking?"
"I had a vision during the last moonrise. A boy—eyes like obsidian fire—standing in a field of black roses. I thought it was symbolic, but black roses only bloom in one place: Raven's Hollow."
Scott blinked. "That's a ghost town. Nothing's lived there since the wildfire thirty years ago."
"Or so we were told," Lydia said.
Alex nodded slowly. "Then that's where we go."
Within hours, the pack was in motion. Allison handed out silver-forged blades and enchanted rounds. Stiles brought up a digital reconstruction of Raven's Hollow, tracing a path through the decayed town square. Kira adjusted her sword strap, eyes sharp.
The team divided into three units. Alex, Eira, and Lydia would go underground toward the presumed location of the hidden totem chamber. Scott, Malia, and Stiles would guard the surface and intercept any cultists. Allison, Kira, and Deaton stayed near the entry point to maintain a magical ward.
The moment they stepped into Raven's Hollow, the world changed.
Fog rolled thick across the ruined town, the streets lined with the corpses of trees, buildings half-swallowed by ash and moss. The stench of burnt soil and old blood clung to the air. But beneath it all, there was something else. A hum. A call.
Alex felt his bones resonate with it.
"The curse is strong here," Eira whispered. "This ground remembers pain."
They moved quickly through the cracked foundations of the old church. Beneath it, a spiraling staircase led into darkness. As they descended, the temperature dropped. Torches flared to life one by one—lit by the presence of bloodline magic.
At the bottom lay a vast cavern filled with ancient carvings and hundreds of obsidian roses, pulsing with faint, eerie light.
Lydia stepped forward and touched a stone dais in the center. A pulse of energy surged through her. She gasped and collapsed—visions flooding her mind.
She saw a man cloaked in shadows, claws longer than blades, his mouth a maw of fangs. The original Alpha—more beast than man. Around him knelt Silva and her cultists, chanting, their bodies cracking from the power they invoked.
Lydia jerked upright. "They're almost ready. They've found the vessel."
"Vessel?" Alex asked.
"The Alpha's spirit… it needs a host. A body to rebirth in. They've chosen Kaelen."
Eira paled. "If they complete the ritual, Kaelen won't just become stronger—he'll become the Alpha of Shadows reborn."
"We can't let that happen."
Suddenly, the cavern shook. From the far end, a rip in space tore open. Silva emerged, Kaelen at her side. His eyes burned with twin flames—gold and abyssal black.
"Too late, brother," Kaelen said, voice inhuman. "You chose their side. I chose power."
The cultists began chanting. Dark energy filled the chamber.
Alex didn't hesitate.
He lunged, claws out, slamming into Kaelen with a ferocity that sent them both sprawling. Eira unleashed a barrage of frostbolts at Silva, locking her in place. Lydia began counter-chanting, her banshee voice disrupting the ritual's harmony.
But Kaelen was stronger than before—inhumanly fast, impossibly durable. His fists struck with the force of thunder. Alex barely dodged, rolling aside as Kaelen's claw gouged a crater into the stone floor.
"You were never meant to protect them," Kaelen hissed. "You were born to rule!"
"I was born to end this!" Alex roared.
Their fight became a blur of movement—two monsters locked in primal fury.
Above, Scott and Malia held back waves of cultists pouring from the mist. Stiles improvised a runic trap, while Kira held the warding field as it began to crack. Arrows flew, steel clashed, blood soaked the earth.
Back underground, Silva's bindings shattered. She screamed, channeling the full force of the curse into Kaelen's chest. His body began to shift—growing taller, darker, spines erupting from his back.
"No!" Lydia shouted.
But Eira was faster. She stabbed her moonsteel blade into the dais, severing the ritual's anchor. A pulse of light exploded outward, knocking everyone off their feet.
Alex tackled Kaelen as the transformation stalled. He sank his claws into his brother's chest—not to kill, but to sever the tether.
"Goodbye, Kaelen."
Kaelen screamed as the Alpha of Shadows' spirit was ripped from his body, swirling into the void.
The cavern collapsed.
Hours later, in the ruins above, Alex sat beside Eira as Lydia tended to her wounds. The others gathered around, battered but alive.
"The seal is safe," Lydia whispered. "For now."
Alex looked at the rising sun. "One more to go."
But in the depths of the world, something stirred. The Alpha of Shadows had lost its vessel—but not its will.
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Ready for Chapter 24: The Heart of the Hollow?