The Entity's POV
The air within the chasm pulsed with shadows, they were alive, seething and restless. The Entity stood atop a jagged obsidian spire in his twisted realm of eternal night, where the stars themselves seemed to scream. His hood was down, revealing a face made of writhing black tendrils and burning crimson eyes that scorched whatever they looked at.
He paced.
Fuming.
A hand rose, and a soldier, some unfortunate demon general who failed to contain the goddess's pentacle, was lifted screaming into the air. With a casual flick of his clawed finger, the body exploded into black mist and fell like ash.
"Failures. All of them," he hissed to the darkness. "I gave them power. Purpose. And they waste it on lust and games."
His voice was thunder. Echoing. Spitting fire.
He turned to the massive black cauldron in the center of the chamber. Within, he conjured a vision of Kaleb. Laughing with his pack. Training. Peaceful.
The Entity growled, and the image shattered like glass.
"They will learn what it means to suffer," he whispered. "If I cannot break the goddess, I will burn everything she loves. Every. Single. Thing."
He turned to the legions waiting in the dark. Shadow beasts. Winged horrors. Snake bodied reapers with skeletal faces and rows of teeth that never stopped smiling.
"March," he commanded, voice ice and death. "Wipe them out. Kill the wolves. Burn the forests. Leave nothing behind."
The beasts roared as one, a sound that split the sky. Then they surged forward, shadows leaping through dimensions on a path straight to Kaleb's home.
Moon Goddess Nythera POV
The veil between worlds trembled.
The goddess, battered and barely clinging to form, stood among starlight and cloud. Her form flickered. Her wounds bled golden ichor. The divine realm pulsed around her, weak, but watching.
She felt it.
The army. The fire. The intention to destroy.
And her fury ignited.
"No," she whispered. "Not them."
She closed her eyes and summoned the last of her strength. A pulse of light traveled through time, space, and shadow... right to her wolf prince.
Kaleb POV
Kaleb dropped the training spear.
A vision slammed into him like a freight train.
Blood. Screams.
Shadow beasts ripping through fur and bone.
His pack. His mother. His friends.
Burning. Dying.
And at the center of it all was his home, engulfed in black flames.
He hit his knees, snarling, gasping for air.
Rhiannan and the others rushed to him, but his eyes glowed with silver fury.
"They're coming," he growled. "They're going to kill my pack."
He stood, shaking.
"I have to go. Now."
The vision still gripped him like claws in his chest. He couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. His wolf was howling, snapping at his skin, begging him to run, to save them.
"I have to go," he said again, voice low, panicked, cracking.
But Rhiannan stepped in front of him. Eyes blazing.
"No," she said, voice like thunder cloaked in honey. "We have to go."
Kaleb looked up at her, startled.
Her auburn hair shimmered with divine power, her eyes glowing, her skin radiating energy as if the prophecy itself were whispering through her veins. "You're not doing this alone," she snapped. "This is our fight. All of us."
The others were already moving.
Liam tossed aside his training cloak and cracked his knuckles. "Great. Just when my ass was starting to heal from the last fight."
Sable stepped forward, golden eyes narrowed, shirtless and twitching with restrained fury. "Let's spill some blood."
Elisha growled, smoke curling from his nose. "I will burn their bones to dust."
Arwen grinned, flipping a dagger between his fingers. "Time to go full pirate on these motherfuckers."
Weapons were strapped. Armor was pulled tight. Magic surged and pulsed like thunder in the air.
The castle was chaos.
Servants rushed. Soldiers scrambled to alert the dragon guard. An entire wing was locked down as the pentacle prepared for war.
And in the center of the throne hall, Rhiannan raised her hand.
The air cracked.
A tear split reality with a sound like ripping silk and screaming thunder, and a swirling obsidian edged portal shimmered into existence. Its edges sparked with stardust and lightning, swirling like smoke in water.
Through it, the forest of Kaleb's homeland glowed...calm and doomed.
Kaleb reached for his sword.
But Rhiannan reached for his hand.
Then, one by one, the mates formed a circle. Hands linked. Magic swirling between them like a living force.
"You ready?" she asked, smirking at them all.
Elisha snarled. "Born ready."
Sable cracked his neck. "Someone dies today."
Liam winked. "Probably not me, but you never know."
Arwen huffed. "Let's wreck some shit."
Rhiannan turned back to the portal.
The energy whipped around them, their marks glowing, their rings pulsing in unison like a war drum.
"Let's go save a pack." She grinned wildly.
And they stepped through.