Chapter 170: The Prophecy Awakens

Chapter 170: The Prophecy Awakens
Moonbound: The Unfinished Prophecy

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“Don’t move!”

Mason’s roar cut through the clearing as the second claw scraped free from the fissure. His sword glinted in the fractured moonlight, but his hands shook. He was ready to strike at the thing, or at Lyla.

Eli bared his teeth, shielding her with his body. “Touch her, and I’ll kill you.”

“She’s not Lyla anymore!” Mason snapped, pointing at the shadows writhing around her feet. “Look at her! Look at her eyes!”

Lyla lifted her head. Her silver irises pulsed, threaded with black fire. The wolves staggered back like she was radioactive.

“I’m still me,” she whispered, voice hoarse. “But I don’t know for how long.”

Jonas stepped forward, calm but grim, his gaze fixed on his sister. “You shouldn’t have killed her, Lyla.”

Eli snapped his head around. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Jonas knelt, resting one hand on the fissure as shadows recoiled from his touch. “The shadow-self was more than her reflection. It was a lock. A prison. And now…” He glanced up, eyes full of quiet horror. “Now the prison’s gone.”

The fissures trembled as if agreeing. Whispers bled into the air again, faint but unmistakable. Chains broken. Hunger free.

The wolves bristled, ears flat, hackles raised.

Dani muttered, “Well, that’s just perfect.”

Lyla staggered to her feet, swaying, Eli catching her by the arm. “If this is on me, then I’ll fix it.”

“You can’t,” Jonas said softly. “Not without this.”

From his cloak, he pulled the scroll the same one teased at the end of the epilogue. The parchment was frayed, symbols etched in blood-red ink, pulsing faintly in rhythm with the fissures.

Lyla’s stomach dropped. “That mark it’s the same sigil from Aleron’s armor.”

Jonas nodded grimly. “It’s older than him. Older than any Alpha. A prophecy written for you.”

The wolves leaned in, tension coiling tighter than a bowstring.

Mason spat. “You’ve been hiding this? While she’s falling apart in front of us?”

Jonas ignored him, his voice low and steady as he unrolled the scroll. “The prophecy says the High Alpha will shatter the reflection and break the seal. But in doing so, she’ll call forth what the forest buried.”

Eli’s voice dropped. “What did the forest bury?”

Jonas’ eyes lifted from the scroll, cold and heavy.

“The true Shadow. The one even Aleron feared.”

The fissures cracked again. Black smoke bled upward, forming shapes hundreds of them, each more twisted than the last.

Lyla’s legs buckled. Eli caught her, but she could barely speak. “If I’m the one who called it… then I’m the one it wants.”

The ground rumbled, the trees bent like they were bowing, and a deep, ancient voice slithered out of the smoke:

We’ve waited, Guardian. We’ve waited for you.

The wolves froze.

Eli’s grip tightened on Lyla, his heart hammering like it would break. “Over my dead body.”

The voice laughed. That, too, is written.

The fissures split wide open.

And Silverwood screamed.

“Close the fissure!” Mason shouted, panic edging into his voice as another plume of shadow smoke twisted upward.

Jonas shook his head, rolling the scroll tighter. “You can’t close it. Not once the Guardian has broken the lock.”

“Stop calling her that!” Mason’s voice cracked. “She’s Lyla. She’s ”

“Both,” Jonas cut in. His voice was sharp, final. “And that’s the problem.”

The wolves’ eyes darted between the siblings. The tension was suffocating. No one dared to move.

Eli pulled Lyla closer against him, brushing damp hair from her face. “You’re not a prison. You’re not their puppet. We’ll ”

Her hand gripped his wrist suddenly, tighter than iron. Her pupils flared silver-black, a strange resonance humming in her throat. When she spoke, her voice wasn’t just hers anymore.

“They don’t want a puppet. They want a door.”

The fissure responded with a violent crack, shadows writhing upward like a storm tide.

Dani staggered back, baring her teeth. “Hell no. I didn’t sign up for this.”

“None of us did,” Eli growled.

But Jonas didn’t move. He only unrolled the scroll again, his voice steady as he read:

“When the Moon marks the High Alpha’s rise,
She will shatter the mirror,
Break the chains,
And loose the silence beneath the earth.
She will lead them,
Or she will end them.”

Silence fell like a blade.

Lyla’s breath came sharp, ragged, but she forced herself to stand, fire rippling faintly across her skin. “I don’t care what it says. I’m not leading them. I’ll end them.”

Jonas’ gaze hardened. “And if ending them ends you?”

Her jaw clenched. “Then I’ll burn with them.”

Eli’s head snapped toward her. “Don’t you dare ”

But before he could finish, the fissure erupted. A shadow form huge, jagged, more beast than wolf dragged itself out of the crack, its grin stretching impossibly wide.

The wolves scattered instinctively, forming a defensive circle.

Dani muttered, “Oh, shit.”

Mason lifted his blade, eyes flicking to Lyla. “Tell me you’ve got control over this thing.”

The beast turned not toward the pack, not toward Eli, but toward Lyla.

And it bowed.

Whispers filled the clearing, a thousand voices chanting one word.

Alpha.

The pack froze.

Eli shoved Lyla behind him, fury burning in his voice. “She’s not your Alpha.”

The shadows laughed.

And Lyla whispered back, voice trembling but steady.

“I’m theirs… or their destroyer.”

The beast lunged.

The beast’s weight shook the earth as it landed, fissures spiderwebbing outward. The wolves braced themselves, claws scraping against rock and soil.

“Hold the line!” Dani shouted, forcing back the tremor in her voice.

But the creature didn’t strike. It crouched before Lyla, head bowed, its massive shadowed frame quivering like it awaited a command.

Eli’s hand tightened on Lyla’s arm. “Don’t look at it. Don’t speak to it. Whatever it is, it thinks you’re in charge.”

Lyla’s pulse thundered in her ears. “What if… I am?”

The words chilled the air.

Jonas didn’t flinch. He stepped closer, eyes locked on his sister. “That’s what the prophecy meant. Shattering the mirror. You broke your shadow, but instead of killing it, you fused it. And now everything beneath Silverwood knows you as theirs.”

“No,” Eli snapped. “She’s ours. She belongs to this pack ”

The beast stirred at his words, shadows flicking upward, jaws parting in a low hiss.

Dani swore. “It doesn’t like you saying that.”

Eli bared his teeth at it. “Good. Let it try me.”

“Don’t!” Lyla shoved herself in front of him. Her voice was raw, desperate. “If you fight it, they’ll all fight. And I don’t know if I can stop them.”

The clearing pulsed with whispers soft, insidious, echoing from the fissure. The word Alpha wove into their bones, each repetition tightening like a chain.

Jonas unfurled the scroll again. “The silence beneath the earth. That’s them. They’ve been waiting for her.”

Mason ground his teeth. “So what? She either commands them or kills us all trying?”

The beast lifted its head. Its hollow eyes locked onto Lyla, waiting.

And for the first time, Lyla didn’t feel fear. She felt power raw, ancient, terrifying.

She stepped forward.

“Lyla,” Eli hissed, grabbing her hand.

She didn’t pull away. “If I’m the door, Eli, then maybe I can decide what comes through it.”

Her voice carried into the fissure. “Kneel.”

The shadows rippled. The beast dropped lower, forehead pressed to the ground. A chorus of whispers echoed the movement, dozens of voices surrendering at once.

Dani’s jaw dropped. “Holy ”

But then the ground split wider, cracks spidering out from the fissure. More claws. More hands. Shapes dragging themselves free.

Jonas’s face went pale. “You’ve opened it too far.”

“No,” Lyla growled, eyes blazing silver-black. “They opened it for me.”

The second beast erupted into the clearing, towering, snarling yet it too froze when Lyla’s gaze hit it. Its body trembled, then lowered, bowing beside the first.

The pack stood frozen in a mix of horror and awe.

Mason’s voice broke the silence. “Tell me again how the hell we’re supposed to follow that?”

Eli’s arm circled Lyla’s waist protectively, even as his voice shook. “Because she’s still ours. She’s still Lyla.”

But in the pit of her stomach, Lyla wasn’t sure.

Not anymore.

The fissure roared, dozens more forms clawing to the surface. The shadows chanted louder, shaking the trees, filling the night with one word that would change everything:

Alpha.

And Lyla whispered back, under her breath, so only Eli could hear:

“I don’t know if I can control this.”

The fissure split wider
And the world answered.

Author’s Note: Thanks for staying with me from the beginning of the journey till now, so here starts the sequel please i will like you to engage more, i appreciate your engagement