<h4>Chapter 179: New Threats</h4>


    <strong>AIDEN POV</strong>


    The emergency howl cut through the night like a de through quiet.


    I bolted upright in my homemademand center, instantly alert. That wasn’t one of our pack’s screams. It was higher, more desperate, and it came from the direction of Moonview Pack territory - twenty miles south of Silver Peak.


    "Alpha!" One of our scouts burst through the door, his face white with fear. "River Valley Pack is gone!"


    My blood turned to ice. "What do you mean gone?" "Wiped out. Every single wolf. But not by people or rogues." The scout’s voice shook. "Something else. Something that left marks we’ve never seen before."


    I was already grabbing my coat and guns. River Valley Pack had over two hundred members. For something to destroy thempletely in one night meant we were facing a threat bigger than anything we’d faced.


    "Get Brock," I ordered. "And send word to the other nearby packs. Everyone needs to know."


    As I ran toward Moonview territory, my mind raced through options. The humans with their mind control technology were bad enough. The void entity pretending to be Lily’s son was another nightmare entirely. But this sounded like something new.


    Something worse.


    I reached the line between our territories just as howls erupted from Moonview Packnds. Not emergency howls this time - death howls. The kind wolves made when something terrible was happening.


    "Toote," I whispered, forcing myself to run faster.


    The scene I found at Moonview Pack’s main vige made my stomach turn. Bodies everywhere, but not torn apart like you’d expect from a normal attack. These wolves looked drained - their fur gray and dead, their eyes empty holes.


    Like something had sucked the very life out of them.


    "Alpha Aiden?" A weak voice called from behind a fallen cabin.


    I spun around to find Alpha Garrett of Moonview Pack crawling toward me. He was barely alive, his once-strong body withered to skin and bones.


    "Garrett! What happened here?"


    "Hunters," he gasped. "But not human hunts. Things that... that eat dimensional energy. They came through tears in the air, looking for something."


    My heart stopped. "Looking for what?"


    "Someone who moves between worlds. Someone who exists in various realities at once." His dying eyes met mine. "They’re hunting the Triple Moon bearer."


    The words hit me like a physical blow. Entities that hunted interdimensional beings were targeting Lily specifically. And she was somewhere in another reality right now, totally unaware of the danger.


    "How many of these hunters are there?" I asked quickly.


    "Started with three. But they increase every time they feed." Garrett coughed up blood. "By the time they left here, there were dozens."


    I knelt beside him, feeling helpless as the life drained from his eyes. "How do we stop them?"


    "You can’t," he whispered. "They live between dimensions. Physical strikes pass right through them. Only someone with dimensional powers can hurt them."


    He gripped my arm with thest of his strength. "But Aiden... they’re not just hunting Lily. They’re hunting anyone linked to her. Anyone who’s been touched by interdimensional energy."


    My blood turned to ice as I understood. "The mate bond."


    "You, Brock, Caleb - all of you are linked to her across dimensions through your pack ties. You’re all targets now."


    Garrett’s eyes went nk, and I was alone among the bodies of two entire packs.


    I ran back toward Silver Peak faster than I’d ever run in my life. These dimensional hunters had taken out four hundred wolves in two nights, and they wereing for my pack next. Coming for everyone Lily cared about.


    But as I reached our area, I found something that made my situation even worse.


    Brock was kneeling in our main clearing, clutching his head in pain. Around him, several other pack members were doing the same thing.


    "What’s wrong?" I demanded, dropping to my knees beside my brother.


    "Something’s happening to the mate bond," he gasped. "It feels like it’s being pulled apart."


    Caleb stumbled out of his cabin, his face twisted in pain. "I can barely feel Lily anymore. It’s like she’s being erased from reality."


    That’s when I understood the horrible truth. The dimensional hunters weren’t just tracking Lily through our bonds - they were using our ties to hurt her. Every connection she had to our world was being turned into a weapon against her.


    "We have to break the bonds," I realized.


    "What?" Brock stared at me in shock.


    "The mate bond, the pack ties, every connection that links us to Lily across dimensions. We have to cut them all, or these killers will use them to kill her."


    Caleb shook his head furiously. "If we break the mate tie, we might never be able to find her again. She could be lost between dimensions forever."


    "But if we don’t break it, she dies for sure," I pleaded. "Along with everyone else these hunters target."


    More pack members were dropping to their knees now, crying out as their bonds to Lily were attacked by forces they couldn’t see or fight.


    "How do we even break a mate bond?" Brock asked through gritted teeth.


    Before I could answer, Elder Henrik appeared beside us. The old wolf looked ancient and tired, but his eyes were sharp.


    "There is a way," he said softly. "A rite from the old times, before the Triple Moon prophecy. But it takes a sacrifice."


    "What kind of sacrifice?" I asked, though I was afraid of the answer.


    "The Alpha’s life force," Henrik stated. "To break ties that strong, someone has to give up their connection to the pack entirely. Be fully human, with no dog spirit left."


    I felt the world spin around me. To save Lily, I would have to give up everything that made me who I was. My wolf form, my enhanced strength, my connection to the pack I’d been born to lead. "And there’s no guarantee it would work," Henrik continued. "You might sacrifice everything and still lose her."


    Around us, more pack members copsed as the dimensional hunters’ attack increased. Whatever was happening to Lily in that other world, it was tearing apart everyone who loved her.


    I looked at Brock and Caleb, seeing my own desperate decision reflected in their eyes.


    "There’s something else," Henrik said, his voice heavy with fear. "The ritual has to be performed at the exact moment the dimensional hunters reach our world. Too early, and the bonds will reform. Toote, and everyone dies."


    "When will they get here?" I asked.


    Henrik pointed toward the horizon, where strange tears in the air were starting to appear.


    "Now," he whispered.


    As the first dimensional hunter stepped through a crack in reality - a creature made of shadow and hunger that seemed to exist in several dimensions at once - I realized I had seconds to make the most important choice of my life.


    Save Lily by destroying myself, or watch everyone I loved die trying to protect ties that were killing her.


    The hunter turned its empty eyes toward me, and I could feel it beginning to drain the life from every wolf in Silver Peak.


    Time was up.