CHAPTER 32: THE ALPHA’S DILEMMA

Aiden Silver POV

I ducked just as my own father’s claws swiped through the air where my head had been a second before. The man who’d taught me everything about leadership was now trying to kill me with glowing eyes and no recognition on his face.

"Dad, it’s me!" I rolled away as he lunged again. "It’s Aiden!"

"Must... eliminate... Alpha... threat..." he growled in that awful robotic voice.

This was a nightmare. Twenty minutes ago, I’d been planning rescue missions to find Lily and Caleb. Now I was fighting for my life against my own father in our family home.

Brock burst through the door, striking Dad from behind. "The whole pack house is compromised!" he yelled. "Everyone’s been taken except us!"

Dad twisted in Brock’s grip, stronger than he should be. The Shadow Wolf control was making him fight like a wild animal instead of the cunning leader I knew.

"We can’t hurt him," I said desperately, grabbing a chair to block Dad’s next attack. "There has to be another way!"

"Tell that to him!" Brock grunted, trying to hold Dad back. "He’s trying to rip my throat out!"

The front door slammed open. Three more pack members stumbled in, all with those terrible glowing eyes. I recognized them - Beta Morrison, Elder Williams, and Sarah from the kitchen staff. People I’d grown up with, now looking at me like I was their enemy.

"We’re outnumbered," Brock said sadly.

I thought fast. As future Alpha, I’d been trained for crisis situations, but nothing had prepared me for fighting my own family. Everything I’d learned about leadership seemed useless when the people I was meant to protect wanted to destroy me.

"The basement," I said. "There’s only one door. We can defend it better."

We fought our way toward the basement steps, using furniture as shields. It broke my heart to see Dad stumbling after us, his face blank and lifeless. This wasn’t the father who’d taught me to be strong but fair, who’d shown me that true leadership meant protecting everyone in the pack.

"Aiden!" Brock called out. "Behind you!"

I spun around to see little Tommy Chen running toward me with a kitchen knife raised. He couldn’t be more than ten years old, but his eyes glowed with the same control as everyone else.

"Tommy, stop!" I caught his hands, careful not to hurt him. "You don’t want to do this!"

"Must... stop... Alpha..." he said in a voice too old for his young face.

Seeing a child under this control made something snap inside me. These Shadow Wolves weren’t just taking our pack - they were stealing the innocence of our children.

"Get him to the basement," I told Brock. "Gently. We need to figure out how to break this power."

We shut ourselves in the basement storage room. Tommy sat in the corner, the glow in his eyes flashing on and off like a broken light. Sometimes he looked like himself, confused and scared. Other times, he tried to hit us with whatever he could find.

"This is insane," Brock said, slumping against the wall. "We’re hiding from our own pack."

"Not our pack," I corrected firmly. "These aren’t our people anymore. They’re prisoners in their own bodies."

Above us, I could hear footsteps moving back and forth. Dad and the others were waiting for us to come out. But they weren’t breaking down the door or trying to dig us out. They were just... waiting.

"Why aren’t they attacking?" Brock wondered.

Before I could answer, Tommy’s eyes cleared fully. He looked around in fear.

"Aiden? Brock? Where am I? What’s happening?"

I knelt down next to him. "Tommy, you’re safe now. But I need you to tell me what you remember."

"I... I was playing in the yard. Then everything went dark. When I woke up, I couldn’t control my body. It was like watching someone else move me around." He started crying. "I tried to hurt you! I’m sorry!"

"It’s not your fault," I said gently. "Can you remember anything else? Anything about the sounds in your head?"

Tommy wiped his nose. "They were always talking to each other. Like they were all linked. But when I thought about Grandma Chen, they got quieter."

That matched what Lily had found about strong emotions breaking the control. My mind raced, trying to figure out how to use this information.

"Tommy, I need you to think about your grandmother. Really focus on her. Can you do that?"

He nodded and closed his eyes. The glow in them stayed away longer this time.

"It’s working," Brock said. "But how do we do this for the whole pack?"

A terrible thought hit me. "Brock, what if we can’t save them? What if the only way to stop this is to..."

I couldn’t finish the sentence. The idea of having to fight - maybe even kill - our own pack members was too horrible to say out loud.

"No," Brock said firmly. "There’s always another way. We just have to find it."

Tommy’s eyes started glowing again. He looked at us with that blank face and reached for a screwdriver on a nearby shelf.

"Must... eliminate... Alpha... threat..." he said.

I gently took the screwdriver away from him. "Tommy, remember your grandmother’s cookies. Remember how she used to let you lick the spoon."

For a moment, he paused. Then his eyes cleared again.

"This is exhausting," I said. "And it only works temporarily. We can’t do this for everyone."

That’s when we heard it - a howl from outside that shook the entire house. But this wasn’t the united Shadow Wolf call we’d heard before. This was something else entirely.

"What was that?" Brock asked.

The footsteps above us stopped moving. Even the controlled pack members seemed confused by the sound.

Then I heard Dad’s voice, but it sounded different. Less fake, more like himself.

"Boys? Are you down there? Something’s wrong. I can’t remember the last few hours."

Hope flooded through me. "Dad?"

"Aiden? What are you doing in the basement? And why does my head feel like it’s full of cotton?"

I looked at Brock with excitement. "The howl broke the control somehow."

We rushed upstairs to find Dad looking around in confusion. The other controlled pack members were gone - they must have left when whatever made that howl appeared.

"Dad, are you really you?" I asked carefully.

"Of course I’m me. What kind of question is that?" He rubbed his head. "The last thing I remember is going to check on the border guards. Then everything’s blank until now."

I hugged him, relief washing over me. But my joy was short-lived when I understood what this meant.

"Dad, if that howl broke the power over you, it probably broke it for everyone. Including the rogues and Shadow Wolves."

His face went pale as the consequences hit him. "They’ll be confused, disorganized. This might be our only chance to fight back."

"Or," Brock said sadly, "they’ll be even more dangerous because now they’re angry."

Another howl rang through the night, closer this time. Whatever had made that sound was moving toward the pack house.

Dad grabbed his backup weapon from the closet. "Boys, I don’t know what’s coming, but we need to be ready."

I looked out the window and saw a huge shadow moving between the trees. It was bigger than any wolf I’d ever seen, with eyes that glowed silver instead of the evil gold of the Shadow Wolves.

"That’s not a Shadow Wolf," I breathed.

"Then what is it?" Brock asked.

The shadow stepped into the moonlight, and my heart stopped. It wasn’t a wolf at all.

It was something much older and more powerful than anything I’d ever imagined. Something that shouldn’t exist in our world anymore.

And it was looking straight at our house with old, intelligent eyes.

"Dad," I whispered, "what legends did you never tell us about our pack?"

Before he could answer, the thing opened its mouth and spoke in a voice that seemed to come from the earth itself: "Where is the Triple Moon bearer?"