Luna's POV
"What do you mean he already tried this once?" I screamed at Aria, my heart breaking into pieces.
My future daughter looked at me with eyes that held too much pain for someone so small. "You've been stuck in a time loop for three years, Mommy. Every time you reach this moment, Daddy tries to sacrifice himself. And every time, it fails because love can't work when it's built on someone giving up everything."
The Soul Realm shook harder around us, cracks spreading across the sky like spider webs.
"That's impossible," Damon said desperately. "I would remember living this before."
"No, you wouldn't," Aria said sadly. "The loop restores your memories each time. You've had this exact talk forty-seven times. You've offered to sacrifice yourself forty-seven times. And forty-seven times, the realm has collapsed anyway because sacrifice without freedom isn't love - it's just another kind of prison."
My legs gave out. Marcus caught me before I hit the ground, his healing touch running through me automatically.
"Then how do we break the loop?" Marcus asked, his words rough with emotion.
Aria looked at all of us with ancient knowledge. "Someone has to make a different choice. Someone has to do something they've never done in any of the past loops."
"What?" Gabriel demanded. "Tell us what to do!"
"I can't," Aria said, starting to fade like smoke. "If I tell you straight, the loop will just reset again. You have to figure it out yourselves, or the choice won't be real."
"Don't go!" I reached for my baby, but she was disappearing.
"I love you, Mommy," Aria whispered. "All of you. Remember that when everything seems lost. Love doesn't take sacrifice. It needs trust."
She vanished totally, leaving us alone with the attacking angels and a realm that was falling apart around us.
The lead angel raised his fiery sword one more time. "Enough games. The Nexus dies now."
That's when something inside me snapped.
Not my power. Not my thoughts. Something deeper.
The part of me that had been afraid my whole life. The part that thought I wasn't strong enough or important enough to make my own choices. The part that thought love meant someone had to lose everything.
"No," I said, standing up slowly.
Power flowed from me, but this time it wasn't chaotic or urgent. It was calm and sure and absolutely invincible.
"I said no," I repeated, and my voice echoed with the power of someone who had finally remembered who she really was.
The angels actually stepped backward.
"You want to know what choice breaks the loop?" I asked, looking at each of my guards. "I choose all of you. Not as a sacrifice. Not as a burden. Not as something I have to protect by giving up my power."
Golden light exploded from my chest, connecting me to Damon, Marcus, Gabriel, and Raphael. But this time, the link didn't drain any of us. Instead, it made us all stronger.
"I choose pack," I continued, power building with each word. "I choose family. I choose love that expands instead of divides. And I choose to keep my skills because the world needs what we can become together."
"Impossible," the main angel snarled. "The prophecy says the Nexus must choose between power and love!"
"Then maybe the prophecy is wrong," I shot back. "Maybe the whole reason this loop exists is because everyone assumed I had to lose something to gain something else."
The Guardian Bond between us flared brighter, and suddenly I could feel my family's thoughts as clearly as my own.
Damon's fierce protectiveness. Marcus's steady healing presence. Gabriel's loyalty that covered lifetimes. Raphael's wisdom gained through sacrifice.
And underneath it all, something new. Something that had never existed in any of the earlier forty-seven loops.
Hope.
"Luna," Damon said wonderingly, "you're not just connecting us. You're making us into something new."
He was right. Through our bond, I could feel our individual powers combining and getting stronger. Damon's Alpha strength increased by four. Marcus's healing abilities expanded to touch souls instead of just bodies. Gabriel's protective instincts became a real shield of light around all of us. Raphael's wisdom became practical knowledge that could outthink heaven's strategies.
"A true pack bond," Elder Moonwhisper breathed from somewhere behind the angels. "I've never seen anything like it."
The lead angel's face filled with terror. "If they complete the transformation, they'll be powerful enough to challenge heaven itself."
"Good," I said firmly. "Maybe it's time heaven learned to share the universe instead of controlling it."
The angels charged at us all at once, but this time we were ready.
We moved like one person with five bodies. Every move they made, we countered perfectly. Every strategy they tried, we predicted. The Guardian Bond made us unbeatable because we fought with love instead of duty.
Within minutes, the heavenly army was withdrawing.
"This isn't over," the lead angel growled as he flew away. "The Nexus may have broken the time loop, but there are other ways to destroy what threatens the natural order."
When they were gone, the Soul Realm began to settle. The cracks in the sky healed themselves, and the shaking ground went still.
"We did it," Marcus said with surprise. "We actually won."
"We broke the loop," Gabriel added, grinning madly.
"We became a real family," Raphael said softly, and his eyes were full of tears.
I looked at Damon, expecting to see relief and happiness on his face. Instead, he looked frightened.
"Luna," he said quickly, "something's wrong. I can feel it through the link."
Before I could ask what he meant, the world around us began to shimmer and change.
The Soul Realm faded away, and suddenly we were back in my small kitchen. But it looked different. Older. Dust covered everything, and spider webs hung in the corners.
"How long were we gone?" I whispered.
Elder Moonwhisper appeared beside us, but she looked decades older. Her hair was totally white now, and her face was lined with worry.
"Three years," she said sadly. "While you were trapped in the time loop, three years passed in the real world."
My heart stopped. "Three years?"
"Your bodies were here, but your thoughts were caught in the loop. Your pack thought you were all in magical comas. They've been waiting for you to wake up."
"Then we can go back to normal," I said hopefully.
The Elder's face got even more worried. "That's the problem, child. While you were gone, things changed. Seraphina took over as pack leader when Damon left. And she didn't just take his place."
"What do you mean?" Damon asked dangerously.
"She declared you all dead," Elder Moonwhisper said quietly. "She married another Alpha to strengthen her claim. And she's been hunting down anyone who might challenge her power."
My blood turned to ice. "Who has she been hunting?"
"Anyone who showed signs of unusual skills. Anyone who asked questions about where you went. Anyone who might remember that Luna Ashford ever existed."
The room spun around me. "She's been killing people?"
"Worse," the Elder whispered. "She's been taking their memories and adding them to her own power. She's not just a pack boss anymore, Luna. She's become something dark and hungry that feeds on other people's magic."
"And now that you're all awake," she added, "Seraphina knows. She's on her way here with an army of mind-controlled dogs who used to be your friends."
Through our Guardian Bond, I felt my family's shared fear. We'd broken the time loop and defeated heaven's army, only to find that our real enemy had spent three years becoming unstoppable.
"How long do we have?" Damon asked sadly.
Elder Moonwhisper checked the window, and her face went pale.
"About thirty seconds. She's already at your front door."
That's when I heard Seraphina's voice, cold and confident, calling from outside.
"Hello, Luna. Did you really think you could hide from me forever? It's time for you to learn what happens to little omegas who steal what goes to their betters."
Her laugh made my skin crawl.
"Don't worry. I'll make sure your death is much more creative than the forty-seven times you died in the loop."