Mated To The Twin Alphas

21: The Lunar Of Shadow And Light

Days blurred into nights.

The valley became our cage — a sanctuary of stone and silence where the world held its breath. The temple’s ruin lay behind us, but its magic lingered like a scar in the air.

Every sunrise, I felt it — the hum beneath my skin, the shadow stretching just a little farther, testing its limits.

And every sunset, Damon stood beside me, forcing me to fight it.

“Again,” he said one evening, as the fading light painted the mountains gold.

I exhaled, closing my eyes, letting my pulse slow. My hands glowed faintly — one palm silver, the other black. The trick was to hold both energies at once without letting either consume me.

The first time I tried, I nearly burned down the forest.

Now, I could control it — barely.

Damon circled me like a wolf sizing up his opponent. “You’re thinking too much,” he murmured. “You don’t fight the darkness. You use it.”

I opened my eyes, meeting his. “Easy for you to say. You don’t have a dead god whispering in your head.”

He smiled faintly, the kind of smile that made my chest tighten. “No. I just have you.”

The air between us shifted. My pulse quickened. For a moment, everything else — the curse, the prophecy, the fear — fell away. His eyes softened, and I felt the familiar warmth that had anchored me since the beginning.

“Damon…” I started, but he stepped closer, his voice low.

“You are not a vessel, Selene. You are the Luna. You were made to hold both light and dark — and choose who you are.”

The bond between us flared, a golden spark meeting the shadow coiled within me. I felt his heartbeat through the space that separated us. For a second, I thought he’d close the distance — but before either of us could move, the mark on my wrist burned.

I gasped, stumbling back. The shadows surged outward, curling like smoke around my fingers. Damon caught me before I fell, but the ground beneath us split — a line of pure moonlight cutting through the soil.

A voice filled the air — soft, divine, familiar.

“Enough.”

The Moon Goddess appeared at the edge of the clearing, her veil torn, her light dimmer than before. For the first time, she looked almost… human.

Darius emerged from the shadows behind her, his expression unreadable. “She said you summoned her,” he said. “I didn’t believe it.”

“I didn’t,” I replied quietly. “She came because she knows what’s happening.”

The Goddess’s gaze fell on me, heavy and sorrowful. “The shadow has anchored itself in you, Selene. You are now both Luna and vessel. The balance has shifted.”

“Then help me fix it,” I said.

She shook her head. “I cannot. The choice is yours.”

Her light dimmed further, her voice trembling with exhaustion. “The shadow does not feed on evil. It feeds on love. On what you are willing to give up. The only way to silence it is to stop feeling altogether.”

My breath caught. “You’re saying I have to—”

“Bury your heart,” she said softly. “Or it will be your undoing.”

Silence.

Damon’s jaw tightened, his fists curling at his sides. “You’re asking her to kill what makes her human.”

The Goddess looked at him. “I’m asking her to survive.”

She vanished before we could speak again, leaving only falling starlight behind.

For a long time, none of us moved. The night was too still, too quiet.

Finally, Darius spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. “Maybe she’s right. Maybe love is what keeps the darkness alive.”

I turned toward him. “You think I should just stop caring? About you? About Damon? About everything?”

He met my gaze — pain and longing woven into every word. “I think it’s the only way you live long enough to save us all.”

But Damon stepped forward, his eyes burning gold in the dark. “No. Love is the only thing that’s kept her from losing herself completely. Take that away, and she’s already gone.”

The tension between them was unbearable — light and shadow, faith and fear.

And caught between them, I felt both — the warmth that steadied me, and the darkness that called my name like a promise.

For the first time, I realized what the prophecy truly meant.

Two Alphas bound by one soul.

One heart divided between light and shadow.

And me — the balance between them.