Triple Moon Rising: An Omega's Destiny

Chapter 151: The Echo Grows

CALEB POV

The memory hit me like lightning while I was reading.

One second I was studying ancient Guardian writings in the pack library. The next, I was somewhere else entirely—standing in a flower field with Lily, her hand warm in mine as she laughed at something I’d just said.

But it wasn’t really a memory. I’d never been in a flower field with Lily. We’d never held hands like that, never shared that moment of pure happiness. Yet the feeling was so real I could smell the blooms and hear her laugh echoing in my ears.

I jerked back to the present, panting. The book fell from my hands, pages flapping as it hit the floor. My heart pounded against my ribs.

What was happening to me?

This was the third time today. Earlier, I’d "remembered" teaching Lily to dance in the moonlight. Before that, I’d seen us walking through Silver Peak’s forest, talking about our future children. Beautiful times that had never actually happened.

But they felt more real than my true memories.

I pressed my hands against my temples, trying to stop the dizzy feeling. Ever since Lily became a Guardian and lost her memories of our life together, something strange had been growing between us. A link that shouldn’t exist.

The echo bond, Elder Iris had called it. A leftover piece of our mate connection that refused to die fully.

At first, I’d been grateful for it. When Lily looked at me with no recognition in her eyes, the echo bond was the only sign that our love had been real. But now it was getting stronger, creating memories that confused me.

Were these glimpses of what we’d lost? Or images of what could have been?

My phone buzzed with a text from Aiden: "Emergency meeting. Elder Iris is lost. Conference room now."

I stumbled to my feet, still shaky from the fake memory. Elder Iris missing? She never left her basement library unless something was seriously wrong.

I rushed through the pack house halls, past wolves who looked worried and scared. Through the windows, I could see more dimensional tears opening in the sky, purple cracks spreading like broken glass.

The meeting room was packed when I arrived. Aiden stood at the head of the table, his face grim. Brock paced near the windows. Other pack leaders filled the remaining seats, all talking at once.

"Where’s Lily?" I asked, searching the room.

"Still in the basement, trying to hold the tears closed," Aiden responded. "She can’t leave her position or everything will collapse."

A sharp pain stabbed through my chest. Through the echo bond, I felt a flash of Lily’s tiredness, her life force burning away with each second she maintained her Guardian powers.

"When did anyone last see Elder Iris?" Brock asked.

"This morning," said Marcus, our previous Alpha. "She was studying something in her private library. Said she might have found a way to help Lily."

My blood cooled. Elder Iris had been acting strange lately, asking odd questions about omega magic and ancient rites. What if she’d tried something dangerous? "I’ll check her library," I offered, already moving toward the door.

"Take backup," Aiden ordered. "If something happened to her, it might still be down there."

I nodded, but I was already running. The echo bond pulled me toward the basement like a compass needle pointing north. Lily was down there, and if Elder Iris had found something important about Guardian magic, I needed to find it.

The basement felt wrong the moment I stepped inside. The air crackled with leftover magic, and broken glass covered the floor beneath a smashed window.

"Elder Iris?" I called out, but no answer came.

Her secret library was in chaos. Books spread everywhere, some still smoldering from magical fire. Her study table was overturned, papers flying around the room like snow.

I picked up one of the papers, recognizing Elder Iris’s handwriting: "The Reclaiming ritual - possible salvation for Lily?" noveldrama

My heart jumped. She’d found something that might save Lily?

I gathered more papers, piecing together Elder Iris’s study. Ancient omega magic. Guardian genes. A ritual that could possibly anchor Lily’s soul to our reality.

But then I found another note, this one written hastily: "TRAP! The rite is corrupted. Don’t let Lily try it!"

Before I could read more, another memory-vision crashed into my mind. This one was different - darker.

I saw myself and Lily, but we were older, sadder. She was fading away like a ghost, and I was holding her hand as she disappeared totally.

"I’m sorry," her voice whispered in the image. "I can’t fight it anymore."

The memory felt like a warning. Was this what would happen if we couldn’t find a way to save her?

I shook my head, pushing myself back to the present. I had to focus on finding Elder Iris.

That’s when I discovered the ritual circle drawn on the basement floor. Moonstone dust and silver thread arranged in complicated patterns. In the center lay a book I’d never seen before, its pages open to a part about Guardian magic.

I approached carefully, remembering how Elder Iris’s other books had burst into flames. But this one seemed safe, humming quietly with old power.

The text was written in the old omega language, but I’d studied enough to understand the basics. It described a way to share Guardian power, to split the load between multiple people so one person wouldn’t have to bear it alone.

My heart raced. This could be the answer we’d been looking for.

But as I read deeper, cold fear filled my stomach. The ritual needed a blood sacrifice from someone with omega heritage. And according to the book, that person would be bound to the Guardian forever, sharing their fate across dimensions.

Elder Iris had been planning to give herself to save Lily.

A sound made me look up. Footsteps on the basement stairs, but they moved wrong - too light, too quiet. Human feet, but with predator ease.

"Hello, Caleb," said a voice I didn’t recognize. A woman stepped into the library, her face hidden by shadows. "Looking for the old omega? I’m afraid she’s indisposed at the moment."

Something about her made my wolf senses scream danger. She smelled like omega, but wrong somehow. Like omega magic twisted into something dark.

"Who are you?" I demanded, moving to put the sacred book behind me.

She smiled, and I saw fangs. Not vampire teeth - something else. Something worse.

"I’m Elena," she said. "Iris’s dear sister. The one who’s been dead for forty years."

My blood turned to ice. Elder Iris had mentioned her sister once, the omega who disappeared during the last dimensional crisis. But she was meant to be dead.

"Impossible," I whispered.

"Oh, death is very possible," Elena answered, her eyes glowing with unnatural light. "But sometimes, we find ways to postpone it. The Void Walkers taught me so many interesting things about living between dimensions."

The Void Walkers. The creatures trying to destroy our world. And Elder Iris’s own sister was working with them.

"Where is she?" I growled, my wolf pushing forward. "What did you do to Elder Iris?"

"She’s safe," Elena said lightly. "For now. But her safety depends on your help, young wolf."

She pointed to the ritual book I was protecting. "That book holds instructions for a very special ritual. One that will bind Lily’s power permanently to our world, making her unable to interfere with our plans."

"Never," I snarled.

Elena’s smile widened. "Oh, but you will. Because if you don’t perform that rite, I’ll kill every omega in Silver Peak, starting with your precious Elder Iris."

Through the echo bond, I suddenly felt Lily’s panic. She’d sensed my distress, felt my fear through our link. But she couldn’t leave her place holding the dimensional tears closed.

I was alone against a thing that had survived for forty years in the space between worlds.

"Tick tock, Caleb," Elena whispered. "The dimensional walls are failing faster now. You have maybe an hour before everything falls anyway. Use that time wisely."

She disappeared into shadows, leaving me alone with the ritual book and an impossible choice.

Save Elder Iris by locking Lily forever, or let Elena kill every omega in the pack while reality fell apart around us.

And somewhere in the distance, I heard Lily’s voice through our echo bond, weak and fading: "Caleb... something’s wrong... I can’t hold on much longer..."

The book felt heavy in my hands as I realized I might have to choose between saving the woman I loved and saving everyone else I cared about.

But first, I had to find Elder Iris before Elena decided she was no longer useful living.