<h4>Chapter 72: Chapter 72: Preparing for War</h4>


    The ck light spread through their bond like poison, but before it could destroy them entirely, howls echoed across the night sky. Not just one or two—hundreds of them,ing from every direction. "What now?" Kane groaned, helping Celeste to her feet. Tobias ran to the shattered window, his face turning pale. "Enemy packs.


    At least five different ones, all going straight for us." Shadow-Marcusughed as his ck infection continued eating away at their link. "Did you think I only had one n? While you were ying with predictions, I was making deals. Every Alpha who ever wanted ckwoodnd, every pack that ever held a grudge—they’re alling tonight." ra felt sick.


    The ck poison was making her weak, but she could still sense theing danger. Hundreds of wolves, all filled with rage and greed, running toward their broken town. "How long do we have?" Kael asked, holding his silver knife. "Twenty minutes, maybe less," Tobias answered grimly. Evelyn struggled to her feet, her face set with purpose. "Then we fight." "With what army?" Celeste demanded. "Half our pack is dead or lost. The other half is too scared to leave their hiding ces." "We fight with what we have," Kael said strongly. "We protect our people." But shadow-Marcus shook his head. "You can’t protect anyone. Look at yourselves—you can barely stand. My poison is eating you alive from the inside, and my army will finish what’s left." He was right.


    The ck infection spreading through their bond was draining their power faster than they could fight it. ra could feel her healing power flickering like a dying light. "There has to be something we can do," she whispered. "There is," Tobias said quietly. "But you won’t like it." Everyone turned to look at him. "The only way to stop the poison is to cut the infected bond totally. Break every link between us before it spreads any further." Horror washed over ra. "That would leave us powerless." "But alive," Tobias pointed out. "Dead heroes can’t protect anyone." Kael stepped forward. "No. I won’t abandon the mate link.


    Not when we just found our way to each other." "Neither will I," Ronan’s spirit said strongly. "The bond stays," Darian agreed. ra felt her heart swell with love, even as the poison continued eating away at her power. They were choosing to die together rather than live apart. But then Kane cleared his throat. "Actually, there might be another way." All eyes turned to him. "What if we don’t try to stop the poison? What if we use it?" "Exin," Evelyn urged. Kane pointed at shadow-Marcus. "He said the ck infection feeds on our ties, right? Makes him stronger? But what if we gave him so much power that he couldn’t control it?" Understanding dawned on Tobias’s face. "Overload him. Feed him more energy than he can handle." "That’s insane," Celeste argued.


    "It could kill us all." "We’re already dying," ra pointed out. The poison had spread so far that her vision was starting to blur. Shadow-Marcus seemed less sure now. "You wouldn’t dare. The risk—" "Is worth it," Kael interrupted. "ra, can you reach out to the whole pack? Every survivor?" Despite her weakness, ra nodded. Her healing power had always linked her to others. If she pushed hard enough, she could touch every ckwood wolf in the area. "Do it," Tobias pushed. "Connect them all to our link. Every single one." ra closed her eyes and reached out with everything she had left. One by one, she found them—pack members hiding in basements, hurt wolves crawling through rubble, children huddled in fear. She wrapped them all in the same link that bound her to the triplets. The effect was instant and overwhelming.


    Power flooded through their bond like a massive wave, but so did the ck poison. Shadow-Marcus grewrger and more solid, his dark energy crackling with stolen power. "Yes!" he roared. "More! Give me more!" But then something unexpected happened. The poison that had been slowly killing them suddenly changed direction. Instead of flowing into shadow-Marcus, it started flowing back toward the pack members ra had connected. "What’s happening?" she gasped. Evelyn smiled through her pain. "Pack loyalty. The strongest power of all. Your people would rather die than let their Alpha be destroyed."


    Every linked wolf was choosing to take some of the poison into themselves, spreading the load so thin that no one person had to carry it all. Shadow-Marcus’s confidence broke. "This is impossible. Pack bonds don’t work that way." "They do when the Luna is a Moon child," Tobias said with increasing excitement. "Our family magic doesn’t just heal individuals—it healsmunities." The ck poison was fading, dispersed among so many willing hearts that it couldn’t keep its deadly strength. But shadow-Marcus wasn’t finished yet. "Fine," he snarled. "If I can’t harm you, I’ll simply crush you. My army will tear this region apart stone by stone." As if called by his words, the first enemy wolves appeared on the horizon. Five different packs, their howls filling the night with threats of violence. "Positions," Kael ordered, taking charge like the Alpha he was born to be. "ra, can you heal our wounded?" "Already on it," she replied, her power flowing easily now that the poison was gone. "Tobias, arrange with the pack survivors. Celeste, Kane—you’re with me on the front lines." "What about us?" Ronan’s spirit asked. Kael looked at his dead brothers with strong love. "You do what you’ve always done. Fight beside me."


    The enemy packs were close enough now that individual dogs could be seen. Hundreds of them, all armed and ready for war. But as ra reached out to heal their own forces, she found something that made her blood run cold. "Kael," she whispered quickly. "The enemy packs—they’re not just here for territory." "What do you mean?" "I can feel their intentions through my healing magic. They’re not going to take prisoners or negotiate surrender." Her voice shook with fear. "They’re here to remove every ckwood wolfpletely. Men, women, children—everyone." The approaching army wasn’t justing to capture.


    They wereing tomit murder. And leading them, riding on the back of the biggest wolf ra had ever seen, was a figure in ck armor that made shadow-Marcus look like a harmless pet. The real enemy had finally arrived.