SELENE'S POV
The forest burned around us.
Smoke curled through the trees like ghosts trying to whisper warnings too late to save us. Blood stained the roots of the Silver Grove, mingling with ash and shattered blossoms. The sacred trees we once worshipped stood blackened and broken, their silver leaves curling with heat. And yet, in that moment, all I could see was him.
Lucian.
Silver hair soaked in blood and rain, his dark eyes burning with the kind of pain that doesn't heal in lifetimes. His claws dripped crimson, his breath coming in broken gasps. He was a creature of war, of shadows and scars, and still... he was mine.
"You shouldn't have come," he rasped, voice raw from howling and battle.
"And leave you to die?" I whispered, stepping closer despite the agony in every part of me. My bare feet left prints in the mud. "You are my mate, Lucian. My heart chose you—curse or no curse."
His jaw clenched. "If they find us here, they'll tear you apart."
"They already did once," I said softly. My hand found his chest, above the heart that had ached for me across too many moons. "I came back for you."
He flinched like I'd struck him.
We both knew what tonight meant. The peace pact was broken. Silas, the rival Alpha, had murdered the council of elders during the Blood Eclipse. The Moonwell had been desecrated—its waters poisoned, its stone altar cracked. The bond that kept our kind whole, the one that tethered soulmates across lifetimes, was unraveling.
Lucian had been the last hope of the Blackmoor bloodline. And I—Selene of the Ashenwood—had been the key to that peace. But love had never been enough for wolves drunk on power.
"Run," he said again, harsher this time. He grabbed my arms, claws still half-formed. "I can hold them off. Get to the East Vale. Elara will hide you."
"No," I said, and I smiled through the tears I hadn't realized were falling. "I didn't come to run. I came to end this. With you."
His hands trembled. The Lucian I knew was never afraid. But tonight, he shook like the boy I once met under a moonless sky, whispering oaths no god ever heard.
A growl split the silence.
We both turned. The stench hit before the sound did—sulfur and rot. The enemy.
Silas.
He stepped from the trees like a phantom in wolfskin. Tall, elegant, and twisted by ambition. His silver blade glinted in his hand, forged from the same stone that once blessed the Moonwell. The irony stung.
"What a pretty ending," he sneered. "Lovers reunited in ash and blood."
Lucian snarled, stepping in front of me. "Touch her, and I'll rip your heart from your chest."
"You already lost her once. Are you ready to lose her again?"
I stepped forward. "She was never yours to take."
Silas tilted his head. "No? Then why did you come when I called for peace? Why did you leave your pack behind, Selene? For love? For this cursed bond?"
"For a chance," I said. "A chance at something more than war."
He smiled. "Then die for it."
Steel flashed.
Lucian moved faster than any creature should have. He shoved me back, his roar echoing through the trees.
Too late.
Pain bloomed in my chest like ice—cold, sharp, and final. I stumbled.
I looked down.
The blade was buried deep. My gown darkened with blood. I felt nothing and everything all at once. And behind the hilt stood Silas, his eyes wide with triumph.
"I warned you," he hissed. "She was never yours to love."
Lucian's scream was no longer human. He launched at Silas, teeth and claws ripping flesh from bone. But I was already falling.
The trees above blurred. The stars vanished behind smoke. The sacred grove became a memory.
Lucian caught me before I hit the ground.
His hands cradled me, desperate and shaking. "Stay with me. Please. Please, Selene."
I touched his cheek. "Don't forget me."
His tears fell freely now, streaking his bloodied face. "I could never."
"No matter how long it takes... find me."
Darkness swallowed the world.
---
LUCIAN'S POV
When she died, the world cracked.
I didn't hear the groans of the earth or the cry of the sacred wolves. I didn't hear the wails from the dying trees or the forest mourning her. I only heard her last breath—a sound too soft, too final.
Selene lay motionless in my arms, blood pooling beneath her, staining the roots of the Silver Grove. Her warmth faded by the second. Her heartbeat slowed. And then—gone.
I howled.
Not as a wolf, not as a man, but as something broken between the two. A creature who had tasted love only to watch it bleed out on cursed soil.
Silas was already dead. I had made sure of it—limb by limb, scream by scream. But it wasn't enough. Nothing would ever be enough.
I pulled her closer, brushing the blood-matted hair from her forehead. Her eyes were still parted, her lips curved in the barest whisper of peace. I pressed my forehead to hers.
"You were everything. You still are."
The Moonwell pulsed.
The ground beneath me shuddered, ancient magic awakening with her final breath. Light burst through the cracks in the altar, humming with rage and sorrow.
A voice rose, deeper than thunder, colder than death.
**"Lucian Blackmoor, heir of the bloodbound line, you have failed your mate."
I lifted my head. "No. No! I tried to save her."
**"You brought war to love. You brought death to peace. The bond is broken."
"Punish me," I whispered. "Take me instead."
**"You will not die. You will remember. You will wait."
The grove glowed with blinding light. The trees screamed. Time unraveled.
**"Until she returns to you in flesh, you shall live. Ageless. Alone. Unspoken. If you tell her of what was—she dies again."
I clutched Selene's body tighter.
"What kind of cruelty is this?"
**"The kind that matches what you brought into this grove."
And just like that, everything stilled.
The light faded. The grov
e went cold. Her body dissolved into silver dust in my arms, carried away on the wind.
I was alone.
Forever.
Until she returned.