Mated To The Twin Alphas

17: The Blood Oath

The storm passed, but the fear did not.

By the time we returned to the packhouse, the air itself felt charged — every wolf tense, every shadow whispering of what we had seen in the woods.

Damon’s men moved silently through the compound, bearing the wounded. The healers worked without rest, but no one spoke Darius’s name aloud. It was as if saying it might call him back — or what he’d become.

I couldn’t sleep that night. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the sigil — that black crown burned into the soil. It pulsed behind my eyelids like a heartbeat.

When dawn came, I found Damon in the war room, staring at the map table. His shoulders were tense, his hands braced on either side as if he could hold the world still by sheer will.

“He’s not gone,” I said softly.

“I know.” His voice was low, rough from exhaustion. “But whatever’s wearing his skin isn’t my brother anymore.”

I stepped closer. “You felt it too, didn’t you? That presence. The way the bond shifted.”

He looked up at me then, and for a heartbeat, I saw fear — not for himself, but for all of us.

“It wasn’t just power,” he said. “It was divinity twisted inside out.”

Before I could answer, the air in the room changed. The torches dimmed. The temperature dropped. And then she appeared — not in flesh, but in light.

The Moon Goddess.

Her figure shimmered, silver and white, her face hidden beneath a veil of starlight. The pack warriors who had followed us dropped to one knee instantly. Even Damon bowed his head — but I couldn’t move.

“You have broken the balance,” her voice said, soft and terrible all at once. “Two Alphas bound by one soul, one heart divided between light and shadow.”

I stepped forward, my voice trembling. “You did this. You made the prophecy.”

Her gaze — though I couldn’t see her eyes — pierced through me.

“I warned you what love could cost beneath my moon,” she said. “You chose to feel it anyway.”

Damon clenched his fists. “If you came here to punish us—”

“Punishment?” The Goddess’s tone shifted, almost sorrowful. “No, Alpha. This is consequence.”

She turned her face toward me. “The shadow that walks in Darius is older than either of you. The Eclipse freed it. Now it seeks to finish what it began a thousand years ago.”

“What is it?” I whispered.

“Not what,” she said. “Who. The first Alpha. My fallen champion. The one who defied the Moon and wore her power as his own. His name was Kael. His essence slept beneath the seal you broke.”

The room shook with her words. Damon’s eyes widened. “You mean… Darius is possessed?”

“Not yet,” she said. “But the merging has begun. Unless you stop it, Kael will rise again — wearing your brother’s soul as his crown.”

My pulse thundered in my ears. “Then tell me how to stop it.”

The Goddess lifted her hand, and a beam of light struck the map table, searing a new symbol into the wood — a circle wrapped in three intertwined wolves.

“You will find the Temple of the Three Moons,” she said. “There, the bond can be severed. But it demands a price.”

“What price?” Damon asked.

Her veil shimmered. “Blood for balance. Love for light.”

And then she was gone — leaving only the faint scent of jasmine and moonfire in the air.

For a long time, neither of us spoke. The symbol on the table still glowed faintly, pulsing with the same rhythm as the mark on my wrist.

Finally, Damon said, “She’s asking us to kill him.”

I looked at the sigil, my throat tight. “No. She’s asking me to choose.”