CHAPTER 120: CHAPTER 120: HOME FRONT

ARIA POV

"Get down!" Mira screamed at me.

I dove to the ground just as a blast of dark energy shot over my head. Where I’d been standing, a tree burst into splinters.

"Mira!" I rolled toward my best friend, relief rushing through me. She was alive, covered in dirt and blood, but living.

"Aria, thank the Goddess!" She pulled me behind a fallen log. "I thought you were dead when we lost contact through the network."

"I’m here now," I said, checking her for major injuries. "What’s the situation?"

"Bad," she panted. "Really bad. These aren’t just dark creatures, Aria. They’re something else. Something that knows all our flaws."

As if called by her words, one of the unknown creatures stepped into view. My breath caught in my throat. It looked almost human, but wrong in every way. Too tall, too thin, with joints that bent in places they shouldn’t. Its face was blank except for two holes where eyes should be.

"What is that thing?" Zara whispered beside me.

"I don’t know," I admitted. "But I can feel wisdom from it. These aren’t dumb monsters."

The creature turned its head toward us, even though it had no eyes. When it spoke, its voice was like grinding stone.

"Moon Alpha," it said. "We have been waiting for your return."

"You can talk," I said, standing up slowly. "What are you?"

"We are the Forgotten Ones," it answered. "The first creatures your kind destroyed when werewolves were made."

My heart sank. Another enemy with a grudge against werewolves. "We didn’t destroy anyone," I said.

"Your existence destroyed us," the creature said. "When the first werewolves were made, the magic had to come from somewhere. It came from us."

"That’s impossible," Mira said. "Werewolves got their magic from the Moon Goddess."

The thing laughed, a sound like breaking glass. "The Moon Goddess stole our life force to make your kind. We have been trapped in the shadow world ever since, slowly dying."

"But now you’re back," I realized.

"The Shadow Lords promised to return our stolen magic if we helped them destroy werewolves," it said. "A fair trade, don’t you think?"

More Forgotten Ones appeared from the trees around us. Dozens of them, all with that same blank, terrible face. But what scared me most was how ordered they were. They moved like soldiers, not monsters.

"Where are the triplets?" I asked.

"Still fighting each other," the creature said with pleasure. "Our shadow magic works very well on bonded dogs. They see each other as enemies now."

Through my link with them, I could feel their confusion and pain. The shadow magic was making them relive every fight, every moment of jealousy between them. It was changing their love into hate.

"Let them go," I said. "Fight me instead."

"Oh, we will fight you," the thing promised. "But first, you need to see what we’ve done to your precious pack."

It pointed toward the main camp, and my heart broke. Bodies lay everywhere. Some were dark creatures, but too many were werewolves from my pack. People I’d grown up with. People I’d sworn to protect.

"You monsters," I snarled.

"We are only taking back what was stolen from us," the creature said calmly. "Your life force belongs to us."

I reached for my Moon Alpha power, but something was wrong. The power was there, but it felt... different. Darker. Like the voice that had claimed to be my real father had changed something inside me.

"Aria," Mira grabbed my arm. "Your mark is changing."

I looked down at the silver mark on my arm. She was right. The beautiful moon symbol was changing, becoming something else. Something that looked almost like a star, but not quite.

"What’s happening to me?" I whispered.

"You’re becoming what you were always meant to be," the strange voice said in my head. "Stop fighting it, daughter."

"I don’t understand," I said out loud.

The Forgotten One turned its head. "You speak to someone we cannot hear. Interesting."

Before I could reply, a familiar howl echoed through the forest. But it wasn’t the howl of a wolf in danger. It was the howl of a wolf calling for help.

"That’s Elder Malin!" Mira said excitedly.

Sure enough, the old wolf appeared at the edge of the opening, but he wasn’t alone. Behind him came pack members I thought were dead. Wounded, but living and ready to fight.

"Reinforcements," I breathed.

"It won’t matter," the Forgotten One said. "We know all your fighting tactics. We know your flaws. We are made from the same magic that made you."

"Maybe," I said, power growing inside me. "But you don’t know everything about me."

I reached out through the Moon Alpha network to the other remaining Moon Alphas. "Everyone, listen carefully. These creatures are made from stolen werewolf magic. That means..."

"They’re vulnerable to the same things that hurt us," Raven finished, understanding immediately.

"Exactly. Silver, pure moonlight, and..." I paused, remembering something from the old memories. "And they can’t handle multiple types of magic at once."

"What do you mean?" Zara asked.

"I mean we’re not just going to use Moon Alpha power," I said. "We’re going to combine it with whatever this new power inside me is."

The mark on my arm flared with light that wasn’t silver anymore. It was white-hot, like stars.

"Aria, don’t," Mira warned. "We don’t know what that power will do to you."

"I have to try," I said. "Everyone I care about is in danger."

I let the strange new power flow through me, mixing with my Moon Alpha skills. The combination was amazing. I felt stronger than ever before, but also like I was standing on the edge of a cliff. One bad step and I might fall into something I couldn’t come back from.

The Forgotten Ones hissed as the mixed power hit them. Unlike shadow creatures, they didn’t run away. They screamed.

"It burns!" one of them shrieked. "That power burns us!"

"Good," I said sadly.

But as I prepared to attack, something horrible happened. Through the network, I felt one of the Moon Alphas die. Not killed by enemies, but eaten by the same dark power I was using.

"Marcus!" Elena’s voice screamed through our link. "Something’s wrong with the star power! It’s killing him!"

Terror shot through me. The new power wasn’t just dangerous to enemies. It was dangerous to me too.

And through my bond with the triplets, I suddenly felt their thoughts clearing as the shadow magic weakened. But instead of satisfaction, I felt their horror as they realized what they’d been doing to each other.

"Aria," Lucien’s voice came weakly through our bond. "We hurt each other. We almost killed each other."

"It wasn’t your fault," I said desperately. "It was the shadow magic."

"But we let it in," Kael said, his thought voice full of shame. "We were weak."

"And now we’re broken," Jaxon added. "The bond between us... it’s damaged."

My heart shattered. The triplets’ tie with each other was cracked, maybe beyond repair. And it was my fault for not getting home in time to protect them.

The Forgotten One boss smiled its terrible, eyeless smile. "Do you see now, Moon Alpha? Everything you touch becomes corrupted. Everyone you try to save ends up hurt."

"That’s not true," I said, but doubt crept into my voice.

"Isn’t it?" the thing asked. "You used power you didn’t understand and killed one of your fellow Moon Alphas. You couldn’t protect your linked mates from shadow magic. You led your pack into a war they weren’t ready for."

Each word hit me like a physical blow because part of me feared they were true.

"Maybe you’re right," I whispered.

"Aria, no!" Mira grabbed my shoulders. "Don’t listen to it!"

But the damage was done. The dark power inside me reacted to my doubt and despair, getting stronger and more dangerous.

Through the network, I felt another Moon Alpha scream as the star power began consuming her too.

And that’s when the voice in my head spoke again, clearer than ever before.

"It’s time to stop pretending, daughter," it said. "You’re not just a Moon Alpha. You’re not even fully werewolf. You’re something much more dangerous."

"What am I?" I asked in terror.

"You’re the child of a Celestial Guardian," the voice answered. "And if you don’t learn to control your true power soon, you’re going to destroy every werewolf on Earth."

The star mark on my arm burst with light, and I screamed as power I couldn’t control tore through me like fire.

The Forgotten One’s scream cut through the air like a knife.

I stumbled backward as the creature writhed in pain from my star power, but something was wrong. Instead of dying, it was getting bigger. The white-hot energy I’d hit it with wasn’t killing it—it was feeding it.

"No, no, no," I whispered, watching in fear as the creature’s blank face twisted into something even more terrible. Where empty eye sockets had been, twin fires now burned