<h4>Chapter 174: Elder Iris’s Passing</h4>


    <strong>ELDER IRIS POV</strong>


    I dropped my teacup when the image hit me.


    The hot liquid sshed across my kitchen table, soaking into the old papers I’d been reading. But I barely noticed. My mind was somewhere else entirely, seeing things that hadn’t happened yet.


    Luna standing at an intersection, tears streaming down her face. Lily trapped in a cage made of silver and stars. Caleb yelling my name as darkness swallowed our pack whole.


    "No," I whispered, holding the edge of my table. "Not like this. Not when we’re so close."


    The vision faded, leaving me gasping in my small cell. My old heart hammered against my ribs like a caught bird. I’d been having these views of the future for seventy years, but never one this clear. Never one this bad.


    I looked at the mess I’d made. Tea had ruined weeks of careful study, the ink running on pages I’d spent months tranting from the oldnguage. But maybe that didn’t matter anymore.


    Maybe I was running out of time.


    I stood up too quickly and my knees buckled. Pain shot through my old bones as I caught myself against the wall. When had I gotten so frail? When had walking across my own house be such a struggle?


    But I had work to finish. Important work.


    I grabbed my walking stick and made my way to the wooden chest in the corner of my house. Inside were all my most precious things - books written by omega wolves from centuries ago, detailed maps of spiritual energy lines that ran under Silver Peak, and most importantly, my study notes about the Triple Moon prophecy.


    The prophecy that was still ying, even now.


    My hands shook as I pulled out a leather notebook filled with my own handwriting. Fifty years of careful observations about the energy trends in our pack. Fifty years of waiting for the right omega to be born. Fifty years of nning for what wasing.


    I’d thought Lily’s transformation was the end of the prophesy. The moment when bnce returned to our pack and my life’s work wasplete. But the vision I’d just seen told a different story.


    The real test was stilling.


    I opened the book and began to write, my old fingers cramping around the pen. There were things Lily needed to know. Things I should have told her months ago but hadn’t because I thought we had more time.


    The Triple Moon carrier is not just a healer, I wrote. She is a bridge between ces. When the big darknesses, she will have to choose between saving her pack and saving herself. But there is a third choice, hidden in the oldest texts.


    I paused, remembering something my own master had told me decades ago. Elder Sarah had been the omega keeper of secrets before me, and her grandma before her. A line of omega women going back to the very beginning of our pack, all of us guarding the same terrible knowledge.


    The void creatures are not our enemies, I kept writing. They are our lost family. Wolves who chose emptiness over pain so long ago that they forgot how to feel. The Triple Moon bearer can bring them home, but only if she knows the cost.


    My hand was getting tired, but I forced myself to keep writing. There was so much to exin and so little time.


    Outside my cabin, I could hear the pack moving around in fear. Shouted directions, running feet, the sound of weapons being prepared. They knew trouble wasing but not what kind. They were preparing to fight, not knowing that fighting might be exactly the wrong thing to do.


    I wrote faster, my handwriting getting messy as I rushed to get everything down.


    The people who havee are not the true threat. They are being controlled by something older and hungry. Something that feeds on fear and gets stronger with every act of violence. Lily must not let the pack fight. She must choose another way.


    A sharp pain stabbed through my chest, making me gasp. I dropped my pen and pressed my hand against my heart. It felt like someone was squeezing it with icy fingers.


    Not yet, I thought desperately. Just a little more time.


    But my body had other ns. The pain spread through my chest and down my left arm. My vision started to blur around the edges, and I could taste copper in my mouth.


    With myst bit of power, I reached for a small silver bell on my table. It was attached to a rope that ran to Lily’s cabin - an old omega emergency system that hadn’t been used in years.


    I rang the bell three times, the signal for "urgent help needed." Then I copsed back in my chair, the book falling from myp onto the floor.


    I could hear footsteps running toward my house. Voices calling my name. But they sounded far away, like they wereing from the bottom of a deep well.


    The world was getting darker around the edges, but I wasn’t scared. I’d done what I could. The information was written down. The signs were clear.


    Now it was up to Lily and the others to save our pack.


    My cell door burst open and Lily rushed in, her face full of worry. Behind her came Caleb, Aiden, and even Luna, all of them crowded around my chair.


    "Elder Iris!" Lily knelt beside me, taking my cold hands in her warm ones. "What happened? Are you hurt?"


    I tried to speak but could barely whisper. "Journal," I managed to say, pointing at the falling book. "Read it. All of it. The real forecast... not finished yet."


    "Don’t talk," Lily said, tears starting in her eyes. "Save your strength. We’ll get you help."


    I shook my head slightly. There was no help for this. My time hade, just like I’d always known it would. But I had one more thing to tell her.


    "The void entity," I whispered, using thest of my strength. "It’s not her brother."


    Lily leaned closer. "What do you mean?"


    With my final breath, I looked into her puzzled eyes and spoke the truth that would change everything.


    "It’s her son."