"Everyone out!" Kael barked. "Now!"
They ran.
The corridor outside was chaos—guards shouting orders, staff fleeing, and through it all, those shadows spreading like a stain. Aria clutched her laptop with her mother's research, knowing it might be the only proof of what they were facing.
Daemon led them through servant passages Aria hadn't known existed, moving with the confidence of someone who'd mapped every escape route. Kael brought up the rear, protective instinct making him constantly check that Aria was still close.
"The eastern archive room," Daemon said as they ran. "It's warded. Old magic from before the Tether. We'll be safe there."
"How do you know this?" Kael demanded.
"Because the Unchained has been preparing for this moment for thirty years."
They burst into a room lined with ancient books, the air thick with the smell of old paper and protective spells. The moment they crossed the threshold, Aria felt the difference—a barrier humming just beneath perception, keeping the darkness at bay.
Daemon slammed the door shut and threw multiple deadbolts. Through the small window, they could see shadows testing the ward, recoiling when they touched it.
"We're safe," Lyric said, panting. "For now."
"Someone explain," Kael ordered, "what the hell is happening to my kingdom."
Aria set down her laptop, pulling up her mother's research for the third time that week. But now, with all of them there, she could show them everything.
"The bond isn't divine," she began. "It's an infection."
Over the next hour, she laid it all out—her mother's research, her own findings, the evidence that pointed to a parasitic entity manipulating werewolf neurology for its own purposes. The Tether Signature that appeared in every bonded wolf. The way it persisted after bond severance, fighting to maintain control.
"The Moon Goddess didn't create the fated mate bond," Aria concluded. "Something else did. Something that feeds on the emotional intensity the bonds create. Every jealous rage, every obsessive thought, every moment of possessive need—it's food for the Tether."
Kael had grown progressively more pale as she spoke. "My father. The bond-rage that made him kill my mother—"
"Probably the Tether using him," Daemon said quietly. "It's stronger in alphas. More direct control."
"And Elder Thaddeus?" Lyric asked. "You said he was possessed?"
"For decades, probably." Daemon moved to the window, watching the shadows pulse and writhe outside. "The Unchained has been tracking him. His behavior changed forty years ago—became more controlling, more obsessed with maintaining the bond system. We think the Tether needed a powerful position to protect itself."
"Protect itself from what?" Kael asked.
"From being discovered." Aria pulled up the molecular structure again. "This thing is vulnerable to specific frequencies—both neurological and spiritual. If we could disrupt its signal across enough werewolves simultaneously, we might be able to sever its connection entirely."
"You want to break every bond at once?" Lyric looked horrified. "That would kill thousands. The withdrawal alone—"
"Would be temporary," Aria interrupted. "Painful but survivable. And then wolves could choose. Actually choose who to bond with, if anyone."
"Or it would destroy our entire society," Kael said quietly. He wasn't arguing—just stating fact. "The bonds are how we organize packs, establish hierarchy, maintain peace. Without them—"
"We'd have to find better ways." Daemon met his old friend's gaze steadily. "Ways based on consent instead of cosmic manipulation."
Silence fell. Outside, the shadows continued their assault on the ward, but inside, four wolves grappled with implications that could reshape their entire world.
Finally, Kael spoke. "Show me the evidence. All of it. If we're going to accuse the sacred bond of being parasitic, if we're going to tear down three thousand years of tradition, I need to see proof that would convince the most skeptical Council member."
"Done," Aria said, already pulling up files. "But Kael—even with proof, the Council won't listen. Not if Thaddeus has been shaping policy for forty years. Not if the Tether can just jump to a new host."
"Then we don't convince the Council." Kael's expression hardened into something decisive. "We convince the people. Every wolf in the Northern Territories. We make the evidence so overwhelming, so publicly available, that the Council has no choice but to acknowledge it."
"That's treason," Lyric pointed out.
"That's leadership." Kael looked at Aria, and she saw something shift in his eyes. Acceptance. Trust. "Show me how to free our people, Dr. Thorne. Show me how to fight a god."
The ward flickered. The shadows pressed harder.
And Aria realized that in trying to destroy the bond system, she might have started a war with something far older and far more dangerous than any Council.
The Tether knew they knew.
And it was coming for them all.