<h4>Chapter 88: Chapter 88: The Last Stand</h4>


    ra was standing in a ce that shouldn’t have been there when the white light went out.


    However, she was still linked to the Shadow Goddess, even though they were not on the blood moon.


    Thoughts and starlight made up the space between worlds where they were.


    "That girl is smart," the Shadow Goddess growled. "But you cannot escape what you’ve started." Images shed around them like TV screens that were broken.


    ra saw the ckwood Pack fighting for their lives. She heard her friends calling her name. She saw the portal gettingrger, swallowing everything. "Let me show you the truth," the goddess whispered.


    Things looked different. ra saw other packs all over the world now. When wolves go crazy, they kill their own families.


    Vampires burning in sunlight they couldn’t avoid. Witches whose power had turned against them. "This is what your Quad Bond has done," the Shadow Goddess said.


    "Every supernatural being on Earth is slowly losing their mind because of the resonance you’ve created." ra’s heart broke as she watched a mother wolf attack her own cubs, her eyes wild with rage.


    "Stop it," she begged. "I cannot. Only you can, by giving me your link." "There has to be another way!"


    That’s when Celeste’s words echoed through the space between worlds: "The prophecy was wrong! There’s another way!" The Shadow Goddess spun around, her form quivering with anger. "Impossible.


    That mortal cannot speak here." But Celeste’s voice came again, stronger this time. And with it came something else – the words of others.


    "The Council of Alphas has assembled," came a deep, authoritative voice. "We invoke the Ancient Right of Intervention."


    "Council?" the Shadow Goddessughed. "What can a handful of Alphas do against a goddess?" The space around them began to shift. Suddenly, ra could see Earth below them.


    But not just ckwoodnd. The entire continent was visible, and on it, she saw something incredible. Hundreds of packs were moving.


    Not running away from the chaos, but running toward it. Alphas, Betas, Omegas – all of them converge on a single point. "The Grand Assembly," ra breathed.


    "It hasn’t been called in over a thousand years." "And it won’t save you," the Shadow Goddess growled. But her faith was cracking. Below them, the blood moon was flickering, its red light getting weaker. "Luna ra," came another voice.


    This one she recognized – Alpha Magnus Ironhold, the most powerful Alpha in North America. "Can you hear us?" "Yes!" she called out.


    "The Council has made its choice. The Quad Bond is not a curse – it’s progress. The supernatural world isn’t going crazy because of your bond. It’s going insane because it’s trying to fight change." The Shadow Goddess’s eyes widened. "No. That cannot be."


    "We have proof," came another voice – Alpha Vera Nightshade, the oldest living werewolf. "The craziness only affects those who reject the new order. Those who ept it grow stronger." Through the space between worlds, ra saw the truth.


    The packs that had epted change, that had weed new ways of doing things, were fighting alongside the ckwoods. They weren’t going crazy – they were changing. "The Quad Bond isn’t breaking reality," Magnus added. "It’s showing us what we could be.


    Four brains working as one. Four hearts beating together. Four souls sharing one purpose." "Lies!" the Shadow Goddess screamed.


    But her form was already bing transparent. The blood moon above them was turning silver again.


    "The Council recognizes the ckwood Quad Bond as legitimate," Vera stated. "We name ra Moon as Luna Prime, first of her kind. We name Kael, Ronan, and Darian ckwood as her Alpha Consorts, equal in power."


    "Furthermore," Magnus added, "we make neww. Any pack that wants to form unconventional bonds may do so, with Council approval. The age of rigid custom is ending."


    The Shadow Goddess let out a shriek that broke stars. "You dummies! You have no idea what you’re releasing!" "We’re unleashing the future," came a new voice. Young, but filled with power.


    "And we’re not afraid of it." ra gasped. The voice belonged to her younger brother, Adrian, who she’d thought was dead. "Adrian?" she whispered. "Hello, sister. Sorry I’mte."


    Through the vast space, she saw him. But he wasn’t alone. Behind him stood dozens of young wolves, all of them shining with the same silver light that surrounded her.


    "The next generation," Adrian said with a grin. "We’ve been waiting for someone to show us the way."


    "How are you alive?" ra asked, tears running down her face. "The same way you’re alive right now," he said.


    "Love. The bond you share with your mates didn’t just save you – it saved everyone linked to you. Including me." The Shadow Goddess was fading fast now, her link to the blood moon severed by the Council’s deration. "This isn’t over," she hissed.


    "There are older forces than me. Ancient things that will not ept this change." "Let theme," ra said, her silver light burning brighter.


    "We’ll be ready." The goddess dissolved into mist and memory, her final scream echoing across realms. ra felt herself falling, but it wasn’t scary.


    She was falling toward home, toward her mates, toward her pack. Shended in Kael’s arms just as the blood moon finished its transformation back to silver.


    The portal to the Void Realm snapped shut, cutting off Alpha Prime’s escape path. "Did we win?" she asked softly. "We won," Kael said, his voice thick with excitement.


    "The Council’s ruling is binding. Our bond is known. You’re safe." Around them, the ckwood Pack was cheering.


    But ra noticed something else – wolves from other packs were emerging from the bush. Not as enemies, but as partners. "Luna Prime," said a voice behind her.


    She turned to see Alpha Magnus Ironhold himself, a huge man with silver hair and eyes like steel. Behind him stood the other Council members, their faces polite.


    "The formal ceremony will be held at the next full moon," Magnus said.


    "But your authority starts now. What are your orders?" ra looked around at the destroyed territory, at the hurt pack members, at the fear still lingering in everyone’s eyes.


    "We rebuild," she said simply. "But not the way things were. We build something new. Something better."


    "And if the old powers the Shadow Goddess mentionede for us?" asked Alpha Vera. ra smiled, feeling her mates’ strength flowing through their bond. "Then they’ll discover what happens when love refuses to bow to fear." The assembled Alphas nodded their agreement. One by one, they knelt, showing their eptance of the new order.


    But as the ceremony continued, Celeste neared ra quietly. "There’s something you need to know," she said. "Something I learned from the Crimson Peak Pack’s prophet." "What?" Celeste’s face was grave.


    "The Shadow Goddess was right about one thing. There are older skills. And they’re already moving against us." "What kind of powers?" "The kind that existed before the Moon Goddess. Before monsters.


    Before any of this." Celeste looked up at the newly silver moon. "They call themselves the Primordials. And they view our development as a threat to their rule." ra felt ice in her veins. "How long do we have?"


    "ording to the prophecy? Three days. Maybe less." Through the Quad Bond, she felt her mates’ fear. But also their drive. "Then we’d better get started," ra said.


    "Because if the Primordials want a war, they’re going to get one they’ll never forget." As if called by her words, the ground beneath their feet began to tremble.


    Not with earthquake, but with something far more threatening. In the distance, where the opening had been, reality was bending again. But this time, what emerged wasn’t shadow or darkness.


    It was pure, old power. Power that had existed since the beginning of time. And it was very, very angry. "ra," Kael said quietly, "I think our three days just became three minutes."


    The silver moon above them suddenly shed, as if something was trying to block its light.


    Something vast and terrible and older than memory. "Everyone fall back to the sanctuary," ra ordered.


    "Now!" But as they ran, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was nowhere on Earth they could hide from


    what wasing. The real war was just starting.