Fortune realized he had lost the Alpha. He raised the Aiyé Shaker shard, aiming it at the Foundation Stone. "If I cannot corrupt the pact, I will erase the timeline!"
"Stop him!" Esther cried.
Samuel launched himself at Fortune, but the vampire was faster, activating the shard. A high-pitched, tearing sound filled the air as the timeline began to unravel the Foundation Stone shimmered, ready to vanish.
Esther rushed to the ancient Alpha. "We need the Àṣẹ! The command to seal the timeline!"
The Alpha, now trusting the future Keeper, took a deep breath. He held out his hands to the shimmering Foundation Stone.
"I command, by the power granted to me by Ọrúnmìlà, that the destiny of my bloodline shall always be one of CHOSEN BALANCE!" the Alpha roared, invoking the divine command.
The Alpha's Àṣẹ hit the Foundation Stone. The Stone flared, the divine command solidifying the pact with a new clause: Balance shall be achieved not by bondage, but by choice.
The power surge knocked Samuel and Fortune back. Fortune lost his grip on the Aiyé Shaker shard.
Esther, acting on instinct, grabbed the shimmering shard. She channeled the power of the Golden Leaf through the silver bloom on Samuel's wrist, focusing the stable energy into the fragment of the temporal artifact.
The stable gold light met the chaotic temporal energy. The shard did not explode; it dissolved, the tear in time snapping shut with a profound finality.
Fortune, realizing he was trapped in the past and stripped of his means to escape, snarled in frustration.
"I will conquer this time, too!" Fortune vowed, turning to flee into the past-era forest.
"No, you won't," Samuel said, now standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the ancient Alpha, their unified wolf power radiating strength. "The Balance is sealed in all timelines."
The brilliant gold light of the Golden Leaf Casket flared in the future. In the present, Ọrúnmìlà accepted the sealed timeline.
Samuel and Esther were instantly enveloped in the stable gold light, pulled rapidly back to the future, leaving the ancient Alpha and his Pack to face their destiny a destiny now subtly changed by a future choice.