When the Moon Slept

Rain began to fall again-soft at first, then relentless.

Luna didn't stop running until her legs gave out. She collapsed beside an old stone ruin at the forest's edge, chest heaving, clothes soaked through.

She pressed her back against the wall and closed her eyes. Breathe. Just breathe.

But her pulse wouldn't slow. The mark on her wrist glowed faintly through the rain, pulsing like a heartbeat that wasn't hers.

Then-like glass breaking inside her mind-the memories began to return.

Flashes.

A full moon over the same forest.

Kael, bare-chested, kneeling before her. "If we complete the bond, our packs will never fight again."

Riven standing behind him, jaw tight. "This isn't what she wants."

"I can choose for myself," she'd said.

Kael had looked at her then, eyes full of fire. "Choose me."

But when she looked at Riven, she saw something different. Not power-peace. "We could stop this war," he'd whispered. "If we stand together, not as mates, but as equals."

And that's when the Moon had appeared-its light so bright it burned.

Two Alphas. One Luna.

A bond forged in unity, then broken by jealousy.

The pain returned with it-the moment everything went wrong. Kael, blinded by rage, had attacked his brother. Luna had tried to stop him. The Moon had punished them all.

Her body had failed first.

Her last memory was Kael holding her lifeless form and Riven's voice breaking as he begged the Moon to bring her back.

Then-nothing.

Luna gasped, gripping her chest as tears mixed with rain.

That's what happened.

She'd loved them both, but not the same way.

Kael had been her fire.

Riven, her calm.

Together, they'd broken something sacred.

The wind shifted. She felt him before she saw him.

"Luna."

Kael stood a few feet away, drenched, his expression unreadable. "I felt the bond stir. You remember."

She nodded slowly. "All of it."

He took a hesitant step forward. "Then you know why I did what I did."

Her voice trembled. "You killed the bond."

"I had to." His eyes burned with pain. "The Moon chose you for both of us, but I couldn't share you. I wasn't built for that. I tried to break the connection before it destroyed you."

"And it did," she whispered. "I died, Kael."

His voice broke. "And I've been dying every day since."

The confession hit her like a wave. He looked wrecked-haunted by his own choices, by the love that had consumed them all.

"I can't undo the past," he said. "But I can protect you now. From Riven. From the Moon. From anything that wants to claim you again."

Luna stepped closer, so close she could feel his breath. "And if I don't want protection?"

His eyes darkened. "Then tell me what you want."

She hesitated. Her pulse stuttered. Every instinct screamed don't, but her heart whispered stay.

Her fingers brushed his chest, right over his heart. "I want the truth. No more lies."

Kael's hands came up slowly, one resting on her waist, the other tangling in her wet hair. "Then I'll give you everything-" he whispered, "-even if it destroys me."

The world narrowed to that moment. The rain, the scent of him, the heat that shouldn't exist between two people bound by so much pain.

But before their lips met, the air shifted again-cold, sharp, wrong.

A voice echoed through the clearing.

"Too late for confessions, brother."

Riven stepped out of the shadows, eyes glowing gold. "The Moon's chosen her again. But this time... she won't survive both of us."