Calix's POV
The Void Beast opens its mouth and releases Dacian.
He falls to the ground like a broken doll, barely breathing, covered in black slime that smokes when it touches the earth. But he's alive.
The beast's eyeless face turns fully toward Sloane, and I watch in horror as she stands there, naked and bleeding, waiting for it to take her.
"NO!" I roar, pushing my legs faster. Theron is beside me, both of us running at full speed, but we're too far away.
The Void Beast reaches down with one massive hand, its fingers closing around Sloane's small body.
Time slows down. I see every detail—her hair falling across her face, tears streaming down her cheeks, the determined set of her jaw.
This can't be how it ends. I just found her again after three thousand years. I can't lose her now.
My wolf does something I've never felt before. It reaches deep inside me, past the broken bond, past the pain, past everything.
And it finds her.
Not through the mate bond—that's shattered. This is something older. Something that exists before bonds, before words, before time itself.
The soul connection.
Every true mate has one, buried so deep most wolves never find it. But in moments of absolute desperation, when everything else is stripped away, the soul connection remains.
And mine just activated.
Power floods through me. Not the nexus power from before. This is different—wild, ancient, unstoppable. My wolf form changes. Lightning doesn't just crackle around me. I become lightning. Pure electrical energy wrapped in a wolf's shape.
"Calix, what's happening to you?" Theron's voice sounds far away.
I don't answer. I'm already moving.
I hit the Void Beast like a bolt from the sky.
The creature shrieks and drops Sloane. She falls, and I shift mid-air to catch her.
"Calix?" She stares at me with wide eyes. "How did you—"
"Soul connection," I gasp. The power is burning through me, more than my body can handle. "It activated when I thought I was going to lose you."
"But the bonds are broken. That shouldn't be possible."
"Soul connections don't need bonds." I set her on her feet carefully. "They just need love."
Her eyes fill with tears. "You love me?"
"For three thousand years," I tell her. "Even when I forgot who you were. My soul always knew."
The Void Beast roars and reaches for us again, but Theron intercepts it. His bronze-scaled wolf form collides with the creature's arm, and his scales glow brighter than before.
"His soul connection activated too," Sloane breathes.
She's right. Theron's power has changed, grown stronger. The desperate need to save Sloane unlocked something the broken bonds couldn't access.
"We need Kieran and Dacian," I say. "If all five soul connections activate, we might recreate the nexus without the bonds."
"Dacian can barely move," Sloane points out.
"Then we wake him up." I shift back to lightning form and send a pulse of electricity through the ground to where Dacian lies.
He jerks upright with a gasp. "What—"
"Your wife is about to be eaten!" I shout through our pack link. "Find your soul connection with her! NOW!"
"I don't know how!"
"Stop thinking! Just feel!"
Dacian looks at Sloane, and I see the moment it happens. His eyes widen. Silver light explodes around him.
His soul connection has activated.
Three down. Two to go.
"Where's Kieran?" Sloane asks urgently.
A white wolf comes crashing through the dark wolf ranks. Kieran is covered in blood and limping, but his red eyes burn bright.
"Sorry I'm late," he pants. "Had to deal with Vex and fifty of his friends."
"Soul connections," I explain quickly. "Three of us activated ours. We need you and Sloane to activate yours too. Then we can recreate the nexus."
"Sloane has to remember everything," Kieran says. "Every life she's lived. Every version of herself that's existed."
Sloane's face goes pale. "That'll destroy who I am now."
"It'll complete you," Kieran corrects gently.
The Void Beast catches Dacian and sends him flying into a tree. He hits hard and doesn't get up.
"Dacian!" Sloane screams.
"You have to choose," Kieran tells her. "Stay as you are and watch everyone die. Or become who you were meant to be and save them."
Sloane looks at each of us. Me. Theron. Kieran. Then at Dacian, unconscious.
"How do I remember?" she asks.
"You already know how," Kieran says. "It's in your blood. In your bones. In your soul."
Sloane closes her eyes. Takes a deep breath.
When she opens them again, they're glowing with silver light so bright I have to look away.
Power explodes from her in waves. I feel it wash over me, and suddenly I'm not just Calix. I'm every version of Calix that's ever existed. Every life. Every battle. Every time I've loved this woman across three thousand years.
I remember it all.
Theron staggers as it happens to him. Kieran gasps. Even unconscious Dacian starts glowing with silver light.
The soul connections between all five of us flare to life simultaneously.
The nexus reforms.
Not like before. Stronger. We're not five separate beings connected by bonds. We're five parts of one whole.
I feel Theron's fire in my veins. Kieran's ancient strength. Dacian's Alpha dominance. Sloane's—Seraphine's—radiant power flowing through everything.
We move as one.
All five of us shift into Primordial forms simultaneously. Five massive wolves, each glowing with combined power, moving with perfect synchronization.
The Void Beast tries to grab Sloane again, but this time all five of us attack at once.
Theron's fire burns the creature's shadowy flesh. Dacian's storm energy weakens its defenses. Kieran's power binds it. My lightning strikes its core.
And Seraphine shines like the sun, pure silver light pouring into the beast.
The Void Beast screams. Not in pain. In fear.
"Impossible! The nexus was broken!"
"We don't need the crystal anymore," Seraphine says, her voice echoing with power. "We found something stronger."
"What?"
"Love."
The silver light intensifies. The Void Beast thrashes, but our combined power holds it.
Then Seraphine does something incredible.
She doesn't destroy the beast. She heals it.
The silver light pours into the creature's mouth, down into the darkness where stolen souls are trapped. One by one, she pulls them out. Restores them.
Pack members appear on the ground, coughing but alive.
The Void Beast shrinks with each soul saved, getting smaller until it's no bigger than a normal wolf.
Finally, the light fades.
In the beast's place stands a small white wolf with gentle brown eyes.
"What happened?" it whimpers.
"You were corrupted," Seraphine says gently. "I've restored your true form."
The white wolf bows its head, then runs into the forest.
The dark wolves attacking the pack house have stopped fighting, staring at us in shock.
Seraphine's voice rings out: "The Void Beast is defeated! Run now and never come back!"
They scatter into the night.
Silence falls.
We won.
I shift back to human form, exhausted. The others do the same. Seraphine is last, and when she shifts, something's different in her eyes.
She's both Sloane and Seraphine now. Perfectly balanced.
"I remember everything," she says, smiling at us. "Every lifetime. Every love."
Dacian limps over. "So who are you?"
"Both," she says. "All of it."
She looks at each of us. "And I love all of you."
"Even though the bonds are still broken?" Kieran asks.
"We don't need bonds." She touches her chest, where a silver mark has appeared. We all have matching marks—five-pointed stars that glow softly. "We have soul connections. Those can never be broken."
"So the nexus is permanent?" Theron asks.
"Yes. As long as we're alive, we're connected."
She stops mid-sentence, eyes going wide.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"Morgath," she breathes. "I can feel her. The soul connection connects us to everything. I just sensed where she's hiding."
"Where?" Dacian demands.
Seraphine's face goes pale. "The Shadow Realm. And she's using the crystal to open a portal. She's bringing something through from the void. Something that makes the Void Beast look like a puppy."
"What is it?"
Seraphine looks at me with terror in her eyes.
"The First Corruption. The original source of all dark magic. The thing we barely survived three thousand years ago. When it arrives..." She swallows hard. "Our world ends."