CHAPTER 131: CHAPTER 131: MIRA’S DISCOVERY

MIRA POV

The scream from the pack nursery made me drop my coffee cup.

I ran toward the sound, my heart racing. As Aria’s best friend, I’d stayed behind to help protect the pack while she and the twins went to fight the Shadow Lords. But I never expected trouble to find us here.

The nursery door was hanging off its hinges. Inside, three pack mothers were backing away from something in the corner. Their faces were white with fear.

"What’s wrong?" I asked, pushing past them.

That’s when I saw little Tommy, the Alpha’s nephew. He was only five years old, but his eyes were sparkling green. The same sick green color I’d seen in Shadow Lord power.

"Tommy?" I said slowly. "Are you okay?"

He turned toward me and smiled. But it wasn’t Tommy’s smile. It was cold and mean and way too old for a five-year-old face.

"Hello, Mira," he said in a voice that made my skin crawl. "We’ve been waiting for you."

"We?" I asked, though I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know the answer.

"Oh yes," Tommy said, tilting his head in a way that looked totally wrong. "There are many of us now. So many more than you know."

One of the pack moms, Sarah, stepped forward. "Tommy, stop playing games. You’re scaring everyone."

But when she reached for him, Tommy grabbed her wrist. Where his little fingers touched her skin, green lines started spreading up her arm.

"Don’t," I said quickly. "Don’t touch him."

Sarah jerked her hand back, looking at the green marks on her arm. "What’s happening to me?"

"You’re joining us," Tommy said happily. "Just like the others did."

My blood turned to ice. "What others?"

Instead of answering, Tommy pointed out the window. "Look and see."

I looked where he was pointing and felt sick. Pack members were walking across the yard in perfect straight lines. Their actions were too stiff, too coordinated. And every single one of them had those same bright green eyes.

"How many?" I asked.

"Half the pack," Tommy said proudly. "We started three days ago. While everyone was worried about the big fight, we began the real work here."

Three days ago. That was when the adults had started acting strange. When talks would stop suddenly when I walked into a room. When people I’d known my whole life started looking at me like I was a stranger.

I’d thought they were just scared about the war. But they weren’t scared.

They were already lost.

"Sarah," I said without turning around. "Sarah, are you still you?"

No answer.

I spun around and saw that Sarah’s eyes were now glowing green too. The possession had worked that fast.

"Run," I told the other two women. "Run now!"

But they were already backing toward the door, and I could see green veins beginning to crawl up their necks. Tommy hadn’t just touched Sarah. He’d somehow infected all of them at once.

"There’s nowhere to run," Tommy said in that terrible adult voice. "We’re everywhere now. In the kitchens, in the guard posts, in the older council. Even in the nursery, taking care of your beautiful children."

I thought about all the kids in the pack. All the kids who couldn’t protect themselves. All the families who had no idea their loved ones were gone.

"Why?" I asked, trying to buy time while I figured out how to get out of here. "Why take over the pack?"

"Because when your friend Aria comes home, we want to give her a proper welcome," Tommy said with that creepy smile. "Imagine how she’ll feel when everyone she ever loved tries to kill her."

The worst part was, I could imagine it. Aria had always been too trusting, too ready to see the good in people. If she came back to find the pack turned against her, it would break her heart before it killed her.

"She’ll figure it out," I said. "Aria’s smarter than you think."

"Is she?" Tommy asked. "Smart enough to kill a five-year-old child to save herself? Smart enough to hurt the pack mothers who raised her? Smart enough to fight her own parents?"

My stomach dropped. "Her parents are dead."

"Are they?" Tommy laughed, and the sound was like nails on a chalkboard. "Check the graves tonight, Mira. See if their graves are still full."

Before I could ask what he meant, Tommy and the affected mothers started walking toward me. Their movements were perfectly synchronized, like they were all being directed by the same puppet master.

I backed toward the window, my mind racing. I had to tell someone. But who could I trust? How could I tell who was still normal and who was possessed?

That’s when I remembered something. Aria had once told me that Shadow Lord power couldn’t cross running water. It was old pack knowledge, the kind of thing most people forgot.

But our area had a stream running right through the middle of it.

I grabbed a chair and smashed it through the window. Glass cut my arms as I climbed through, but I didn’t care. I had to get to that stream.

Behind me, I heard Tommy’s voice yelling out: "She’s running! Stop her!"

Footsteps beat after me. Not just Tommy and the mothers, but other pack members too. I could hear them coming from all directions, their movements too fast and too coordinated to be normal.

I ran harder than I’d ever run in my life, dodging between buildings and jumping over fences. The stream was only a hundred yards away. If I could just reach it...

A hand grabbed my shoulder.

I spun around and came face to face with my own mother. Her eyes were glowing green, and her face was twisted with a look I’d never seen before.

"Hello, sweetheart," she said in a voice that wasn’t hers. "Time to come home."

"Mom," I whispered, my heart breaking. "Please, fight it. I know you’re still in there somewhere."

For just a second, her eyes flickered back to their normal brown color. "Mira," she gasped. "Run. Get to the—"

But then the green glow returned, and she lunged at me with inhuman speed.

I dodged sideways and kept running. The stream was so close now I could hear the water gurgling. Just a few more steps...

I dove forward, my hands reaching for the water.

But instead of splashing into the stream, I hit something solid. An unseen wall that felt like ice-cold glass.

"Did you really think we didn’t know about the old superstitions?" Tommy’s voice came from behind me. "We’ve been here for three days, Mira. We learned all your flaws."

I turned around to find myself surrounded by dozens of possessed pack members. All of them people I’d grown up with. All of them wearing the faces of family and friends.

All of them lost.

"Join us," my mother said, holding out her hand. "It doesn’t hurt. And you’ll never have to worry about anything ever again."

I looked at the stream just inches away from me, stopped by Shadow Lord magic. I looked at the faces of everyone I’d ever loved, twisted by an evil I couldn’t fight.

And then I looked up at the sky and realized something that made my blood freeze.

The sun was setting.

Which meant Aria and the kids would be coming home soon.

Coming home to a pack that was ready to destroy them.

I had to warn them somehow. But how do you send a word when everyone around you is the enemy?

That’s when I remembered the one thing Tommy had said that might be the key to everything.

The graveyard.

If Aria’s parents weren’t really dead, if they were somehow still alive, maybe they could help. Maybe they were the only ones who could save us all.

But first, I had to live long enough to find out.

As the possessed pack members closed in around me, I made a desperation choice.

I bit down hard on my own tongue, using the pain to start my wolf transformation. It was dangerous to shift so close to the magical barrier, but it was my only chance.

My wolf form was smaller and faster than my human body. I might be able to slip through their circle and get to the graveyard before they caught me.

But as I finished the shift, I realized something horrible.

My wolf eyes could see things my human eyes couldn’t.

And what I saw made me want to scream.

The possessed pack members weren’t just ruled by Shadow Lords.

They were dead.

All of them.

The Shadow Lords had killed everyone in the pack and were wearing their bodies like outfits.

Which meant I wasn’t just surrounded by enemies.

I was surrounded by the walking bodies of everyone I’d ever loved.

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