Dark power exploded toward the three brothers. Aria screamed as phantom chains held her back from helping them.
Then Caden moved. Despite the pain tearing through his body, he grabbed a loose stone from the cracked wall and threw it at the ancient creature.
The rock struck the silver-eyed monster in the face, breaking its focus for just a moment.
"Now!" Caden yelled through gritted teeth.
The magical chains around Aria snapped. She burst forward, silver light bursting from her eyes. Her power crashed into the dark magic, causing an explosion that shook the entire castle.
"Impossible," the creature growled, silver blood dripping from where the stone had cut its cheek.
"Nothing's impossible when you mess with my family," Aria growled.
But her win lasted only seconds. The other old creatures raised their hands, preparing to strike again.
The red-eyed one laughed as more rogues poured through the broken walls. "You can't fight us all, little Moon Wolf."
"Maybe not," Caden said, getting to his feet. "But we don't have to."
"What do you mean?" Aria demanded.
Instead of answering, Caden grabbed her hand and pulled her toward what looked like a solid stone wall. But when he pressed his palm against a specific spot, the stones moved and slid apart.
"A secret passage?" Cyrus gasped, still recovering from the magical attack.
"Father showed me when I was ten," Caden explained quickly. "Emergency exit route. Leads to sewers under the entire castle."
"We can't abandon everyone," Aria protested.
"We're not leaving anyone. We're finding another way to fight."
Caleb shifted back to wolf form, his golden eyes blazing with purpose. "Go. I'll hold them off."
"Brother, no—"
"Someone has to buy you time. Besides," Caleb's wolf managed a grim smile, "I'm tired of running from fights."
The Primal Alpha's huge claws scraped against the castle's outer walls as it began climbing toward their window. Its star-bright eyes locked onto Aria through the broken stone.
"Go!" Caleb roared, throwing himself at the nearest ancient creature.
Caden shoved Aria through the secret opening just as chaos exploded behind them. The passage sealed itself automatically, muffling the sounds of fighting.
"Caleb," Aria whispered, pressing her hand against the stone. Her enhanced hearing picked up the clash of claws, the snarl of dogs, the crackle of dark magic.
"He'll be fine," Caden said, though worry filled his ice-blue eyes. "Caleb's the strongest fighter in our generation."
"What about Cyrus?"
"He's with our parents. They'll protect him."
Caden led her down a narrow stairs carved from living rock. Ancient torch brackets lined the walls, but they'd been dark for decades.
Aria's silver light supplied the only illumination. "How far do these tunnels go?" she asked.
"Under the entire mountain. They're older than the house itself. Maybe older than the pack."
The passage leveled out into a wider hallway. Strange symbols covered the walls, carved so deep they looked like scars in the stone.
"What is this place?" Aria breathed.
"I'm not sure. Father said the first Alphas built it, but..." Caden trailed off, looking at something ahead.
The tunnel opened into a vast underground room. Aria's silver light showed walls covered in paintings that made her heart stop beating. Wolves. Dozens of them, painted in colors that still gleamed after ages. But these weren't regular wolves. They glowed with inner light, their eyes sparkling like stars.
"Moon Wolves," she whispered.
"Look at this one," Caden said, referring to a painting near the center of the wall.
Aria stepped closer and gasped. The painted wolf looked exactly like her. Same silver hair, same violet eyes, same aura of power radiating from its form.
"That's impossible. This place is old."
"Maybe it's not you," Caden offered. "Maybe it's a prediction. A message painted in stone."
More drawings covered the walls around them. Aria saw Moon Wolves fighting alongside human-shaped figures. She saw them healing injured pack members. She saw them standing against creatures that looked suspiciously like the old monsters upstairs.
"They were protectors," she realized. "The Moon Wolves weren't just strong. They were guardians."
"Look at this," Caden called from across the room. He stood before the biggest painting of all.
It showed a huge black wolf with star-bright eyes facing off against a pack of smaller wolves. The smaller wolves glowed with silver light, and at their center stood a figure that made Aria's blood run cold. Her. The painting figure looked exactly like her, but older. Stronger. And in her hands, she held something that hummed with dark power.
"What is she holding?" Caden asked.
Aria stepped closer, her silver light showing details that made her stomach turn. "It's a heart. She's holding someone's heart."
"Whose?"
The picture showed the massive black wolf—clearly the Primal Alpha—lying dead at the figure's feet. Its chest was torn open, and its star-bright eyes had gone dark.
"She killed it," Aria whispered. "The Moon Wolf in this painting killed the Primal Alpha."
"But how? You said yourself it's too strong to fight."
"Not fight. Sacrifice." Aria's enhanced vision picked out smaller features in the painting. "Look at her eyes."
Caden squinted at the old artwork. "They're empty."
"Exactly. She gave up her own life force to destroy it. Ripped out its heart and died in the process."
"That's your future?" Caden's voice cracked with fear.
"Maybe. If I can't find another way."
A rumble shook the underground room. Dust rained from the roof as something massive moved overhead.
"The Primal Alpha's inside the castle," Caden said grimly.
Through the stone above them, Aria heard the old creature's triumphant laughter.
"Found you, little Moon Wolf! Your scent leads right to these caves!"
"How did it find us so fast?" Aria demanded.
"Because you're connected to it," Caden realized. "The link goes both ways. It can sense you just like you can sense it."
More shaking shook the chamber. Cracks appeared in the painted walls as the Primal Alpha started tearing apart the castle above them.
"We need to move," Caden said quickly.
But before they could leave, Aria noticed something else. Hidden in the corner of the great picture, almost too small to see, was another figure. A young guy with ice-blue eyes and black hair. Standing beside the Moon Wolf. His hand rested on her shoulder, and silver light flowed between them.
"Caden," she whispered.
"What?"
"Look at this figure. In the corner."
He moved closer and went very still. The painted young man looked exactly like him.
"That's not possible," he breathed.
"Unless..." Aria's mind raced. "What if this isn't a prophesy about the future? What if it's a memory of the past?"
"You think we've been here before? Lived this exact same situation?"
"Maybe. Or maybe history just repeats itself until someone gets it right."
The rumble overhead grew stronger. They could hear the Primal Alpha's claws scratching against stone as it dug toward them.
"Either way," Caden said, "we need to find the other exit before—"
His words were cut off by a new sound. Children crying. The sound echoed through the tube system, coming from somewhere deeper underground.
"That's impossible," Caden said.
"No one lives down here."
But Aria's improved hearing picked up more than just crying. She heard small heartbeats. Rapid breathing. The whispered words of very young children.
"They're real," she said. "And they're terrified."
"The pack children are all in the safe rooms upstairs."
"Then whose children are these?"
Before Caden could answer, a small figure stumbled into their room. A little girl, maybe five years old, with silver hair and violet eyes. Eyes exactly like Aria's.
"Mama?" the child whispered, reaching toward Aria with tiny hands.
Aria's world twisted. "That's impossible. I don't have children."
"But you will," said a voice from the dark.
They turned to see an elderly woman step into the room. She wore ancient robes and moved with the careful ease of someone very, very old.
"Who are you?" Caden ordered, moving protectively in front of Aria.
"I am the Guardian of the Deep," the woman answered. "And I have been waiting a very long time for you to find this place."
"Waiting for what?"
The old woman's eyes, silver like Aria's but faded with age, fixed on the picture of the dying Moon Wolf.
"To tell you the truth about what really happened here. And to show you why that prophecy was wrong."
Above them, the Primal Alpha roared with rage as it failed to break through the old stone protecting the chamber.
"The truth about what?" Aria asked.
"About the last Moon Wolf who tried to save everyone," the Guardian said softly. "And about the child she died trying to protect."
The little girl with violet eyes looked up at Aria with sad hope. "Mama, are you going to leave us again?"
Aria's silver light flickered as the impossible truth hit her.
She wasn't just looking at predictions of the future. She was looking at echoes of a past she couldn't remember.
And the child calling her mom might be the key to everything.