The real world returned violently.
Nancy slammed back into her body with a choking gasp.
Cold air.
Rain.
Mud beneath her knees.
The forest was collapsing around them.
Trees twisted unnaturally as silver fractures spread through the sky like lightning trapped inside glass. The Veil's massive form still hung halfway through reality above them, shrieking loud enough to shake the earth.
But now—
it was unstable.
Pieces of its body were tearing apart into black ash.
Leo was the first to reach them.
He grabbed Kai before he hit the ground completely.
"Kai!"
Kai barely responded.
The silver cracks had reached dangerously close to his heart now, glowing beneath his skin like molten veins.
Evan stared upward in horror.
"Oh good, the nightmare god is molting."
The Veil screamed again.
This time the sound carried rage.
Pure rage.
Nancy forced herself upright shakily.
Then froze.
Because the forest around them had gone silent.
Too silent.
The wolves were watching.
Hundreds of glowing eyes appeared between the trees.
Members of the scattered packs.
Drawn by the fracture.
Drawn by the Alpha bond.
And they were terrified.
Nancy felt it instantly through the instincts buried deep inside her wolf side—the panic spreading through them like wildfire.
The Veil noticed too.
And suddenly the creature changed targets.
Not Kai.
Not Nancy.
The packs.
Its whispers rolled through the forest like poison.
SUBMIT.
Several wolves whimpered instantly.
Others dropped to the ground involuntarily.
Nancy's stomach twisted.
The Veil was learning how Alpha authority worked.
"No," she whispered.
A massive black tendril shot downward toward the wolves.
Kai moved instantly despite barely being conscious.
His eyes flashed silver-gold.
And then—
his Alpha voice exploded across the forest.
"STAND YOUR GROUND!"
The command hit like thunder.
Every wolf snapped upright immediately.
Even injured ones.
Even terrified ones.
Because an Alpha command wasn't just heard.
It was obeyed.
The Veil recoiled sharply.
Confused.
Nancy understood why immediately.
The packs weren't connected through fear.
They trusted him.
That difference mattered.
Kai dropped hard to one knee afterward, coughing blood into the mud.
The command had cost him badly.
"Kai—"
"I'm fine," he lied instantly.
Leo looked offended.
"You are literally dying."
"Temporarily."
Evan pointed toward the sky with panic.
"Can we revisit the comedy routine AFTER the cosmic horror situation?!"
The fracture above them widened again.
The Veil adapted fast.
Too fast.
Its whispers changed pitch suddenly.
Smarter now.
IF THE ALPHAS DEFY US...
BREAK THE PACK.
The wolves around the forest suddenly began snarling at each other.
Nancy felt it immediately.
Aggression.
Paranoia.
Fear turning violent.
The Veil was corrupting the bond between them.
A fight broke out at the edge of the trees instantly.
Then another.
Panic spread.
Kai swore under his breath.
"If the packs turn on each other, we're finished."
Nancy's wolf instincts surged hard inside her chest.
She understood now what the Veil didn't.
An Alpha's strength wasn't dominance.
It was unity.
She stepped forward before fear could stop her.
Silver light and golden wolf energy burst outward around her simultaneously.
The wolves froze.
Even the fighting stopped.
Nancy's eyes glowed fiercely now.
And when she spoke—
her Alpha voice shook the entire forest.
"LOOK AT ME."
Every wolf obeyed instantly.
The Veil shrieked overhead.
Nancy felt hundreds of frightened minds connected to hers now through the pack bond.
Not servants.
Family.
And she roared the next command with everything inside her.
"NO ONE STANDS ALONE."