The Mirror Womb trembled violently.
Elara stood at the center of it all, her fingers curled around the pulsing flame—her soulwolf, the essence of everything she was and everything she could become.
Aiden stood to her left. His eyes, wide with desperation and fierce loyalty, begged her to return to the life they had dreamed of—one with peace, love, and redemption.
Kaelen stood to her right. Scorched and broken, his body barely held together by will alone, but his presence was undeniable. There was longing in his gaze, but also acceptance—a readiness to pay for what he had destroyed, even if it meant his end.
Between them hovered Dark Elara, her expression calm as the grave.
> "You've seen the shards," she whispered. "Now choose your path."
Elara's mind spun. The silver flame pulsed in her hands, warm with possibility, heavy with burden.
Aiden stepped closer. "We can still walk away from this. We can start over."
His voice cracked. "Let me be your Alpha."
Kaelen said nothing, but his silence roared with guilt, with pain, with the knowledge that he had been the cause of this storm—but also the only one who truly knew her shadows.
Her soul trembled.
"I don't know what's real anymore," she whispered.
Dark Elara stepped forward, now behind her, pressing cold fingers to Elara's neck.
"You don't have to choose love," she murmured. "Choose power. Choose destiny. The Moon has failed you. Make a new prophecy."
The realm cracked. A bolt of black lightning split the sky overhead.
And then...
The ground beneath Aiden gave way.
"ELARA!" he roared, as tendrils of void wrapped around his ankles, dragging him into the chasm below.
Kaelen lunged forward instinctively, grabbing Aiden's wrist, trying to hold him.
But the Veil did not accept more than one soul bonded to hers at once.
Elara had taken too long.
The realm was collapsing.
"Save one, Elara," said Dark Elara. "Or save none."
Her heart ripped in two.
She reached out—
And grabbed Kaelen.
The void swallowed Aiden.
His scream echoed through the realm as his golden eyes locked onto hers one last time—eyes filled with heartbreak, betrayal, and a single silent word:
Why?
Elara collapsed to her knees.
Kaelen held her, his arms trembling, his heart thundering.
"You chose me," he whispered.
"No," she rasped. "I chose truth."
The Veil exploded in a shockwave of light.
When Elara awoke, she was lying in a field of white ash. The world smelled of burned flowers and starlight.
Kaelen was beside her, unconscious.
And around them, the sky was cracked. The moon—once full—now bore a deep gash across its surface, as though it had bled.
A silver wolf sat beside her, its eyes hers. Her soulwolf.
It spoke, not with words, but emotion:
"The Oath is broken."
Elara sat up, the memories crashing down like a tidal wave.
Aiden was gone.
Her choice had reshaped the prophecy.
And yet... the bond still throbbed inside her.
He was not dead.
But somewhere deeper.
Somewhere beneath the Veil.
Back in the waking world, chaos reigned.
The sky no longer obeyed the Moon. The tides had begun to rise in unnatural rhythms. Wolves everywhere howled in confusion and panic.
Selene stood in her sacred chamber, weeping.
"They broke it," she said. "The Oath has never been broken."
Suri stood beside her, pale and terrified. "What does it mean?"
Selene turned her face to the shattered moon.
"It means the Great War will begin."
Elara stirred as Kaelen regained consciousness.
"Where are we?" he asked groggily.
"The Womb of Origins," she whispered. "Where all wolves were first dreamed."
He looked up at the sky. "It's wrong. Everything feels... off."
"It is," she said. "Because I didn't finish the choice."
Kaelen turned to her sharply. "What do you mean?"
"I didn't choose you," she said quietly. "I chose not to let Aiden die. I chose to save the one who would fall first."
Kaelen's heart sank. "Then where is he?"
Elara stood.
"Where only the lost go."
She turned to him with silver eyes. "I have to bring him back."