Bound to the Triplet Alphas

ARIA POV

We ran toward the village as fast as we could. What I saw there made me sick. Shadow creatures were everywhere, chasing frightened pack members. But these weren’t the same shadow creatures we’d fought before. These were bigger. Stronger. And they moved like they knew exactly what they were doing.

"Help!" A little girl’s voice called out from behind a burning house.

I raced toward her, but a massive shadow creature stepped in my way. It was twice as tall as me, with claws like knives and teeth that glowed red.

I raised my hand to use my Moon Alpha power, but nothing happened. The silver light that always came when I called for it was gone.

"What?" I tried again, fear rising in my chest. Still nothing.

The shadow thing smiled, showing those horrible red teeth. "No moon magic today, little Alpha," it said in a voice like broken glass. "Haven’t you looked up at the sky?"

I glanced up and gasped. The sun was there, but something was wrong with it. A dark shadow was slowly moving across its face. A solar eclipse.

"The eclipse blocks moon power," the creature laughed. "Your precious Moon Goddess can’t help you now."

Without my powers, I was just a normal werewolf. I shifted into my wolf form and lunged at the thing, but it swatted me away like I was a fly. I hit the ground hard, pain shooting through my ribs.

"Aria!" Zara ran toward me, but three more shadow things surrounded her.