Chapter 3
1188 Words
Chapter 3: The Moon's Judgment
*Seraphina's POV*
The Moon Goddess was coming. Tonight.
Those five words made every wolf in the medical building freeze. The Moon Goddess never came to Earth. She watched from above, gave us our mates, and blessed our babies. But she never, ever came down here.
"Everyone out!" Elder Morgana shouted. "Now!"
Wolves ran. Even sick ones dragged themselves from beds. Only Zander stayed, standing between me and the door like he could protect me from a goddess.
"You too, Alpha," Morgana said. But she said 'Alpha' like it was a joke.
"I'm not leaving her," Zander growled.
"Yes, you are." I stood up from Mary's bed. The little girl was sleeping now, healed and safe. "Get out."
"Sera—.."
"Don't call me that!" Power leaked from my skin. The windows cracked. "You lost the right to call me anything when you rejected me."
He left. But I felt him stay right outside the door. Stupid, stubborn Alpha.
Morgana's blind eyes looked right through me. "You've been playing with dark magic, child."
"I've been surviving."
"The Shadow Witches' power. You took it. Ate it. Made it yours." She stepped closer. "Do you know what you've become?"
"Strong."
"Dangerous. You're a Moonblood who ate shadow magic. Light and dark in one body. The Moon Goddess made rules against that."
"The Moon Goddess can.."
Lightning hit the building. Not normal lightning. Silver lightning that made my bones shake.
She was here.
The room got cold first. Then hot. Then something else, something that felt like standing in front of everything good and terrible at the same time.
The Moon Goddess appeared like smoke becoming solid. She was beautiful. She was terrifying. She had silver skin and white eyes. Her hair was made of actual moonlight. And she was furious.
"Seraphina Moon," she said. My real name sounded like thunder when she said it. "Last of the Moonblood line. Thief of shadow magic. What have you done?"
I should have bowed. Should have begged. I should have been scared.
Instead, I got angry.
"What have I done?" I laughed. It sounded crazy even to me. "I survived! You let them reject me. You let them throw me out. You did nothing!"
"I gave you a mate.."
"You gave me pain!" My power exploded. The walls shook. "You gave me to someone who looked at me and saw trash. Who picked another woman two seconds later. Who"?
The Moon Goddess moved so fast I didn't see it. Her hand was around my throat. Not squeezing. Just holding. But I couldn't move.
"I gave you Zander Blackwood when he was cursed," she said softly. "Did you think I didn't know? Dimitri Shadowclaw put a compliance curse on him. Made him reject you against his will."
What?
No.
"You're lying." The words barely came out.
"I am a goddess. I don't lie." She let go of my throat. "Zander fought the curse so hard it almost killed him. But compliance curses are old magic. Dark magic. He couldn't win."
My legs felt weak. "He... he didn't want to reject me?"
"His wolf screamed for three hours inside his head. Begging. Pleading. Zander himself was trapped, watching his mouth say words he didn't mean, watching his body pick another woman, watching you run away crying."
I fell to my knees. No. No, no, no.
"I let it happen," the Moon Goddess continued, "because I saw the future. You need to become strong. The pack needed to suffer. And Dimitri Shadowclaw needed to think he won."
"Dimitri?" The name felt like poison in my mouth.
"He's coming. Tomorrow. He wants you, child. The last Moonblood. He thinks if he force-marks you during the eclipse next week, he'll become immortal."
"Let him try." My hands made fists. "I'll kill him."
"Yes. You will." The Moon Goddess smiled. It was scary. "But first, you need to accept something."
"What?"
"Your mate bond with Zander never broke because true mate bonds can't break. Even rejection can't destroy what I create." She touched my chest, right over my heart. "You love him. Still. Always."
"I hate him!"
"Hate is just love wearing a disguise." She started to fade like smoke. "Save the pack, child. Save your mate. And maybe, save yourself."
"Wait!" I stood up. "How did my parents really die?"
She was almost gone. Just a silver outline. "Dimitri killed them. He's been planning this for thirty years. Everything: your rejection, the plague, Celeste, all him."
Then she was gone.
I stood there shaking. Everything I thought I knew was wrong. Zander didn't reject me because he wanted to. He was cursed. Forced. And he had been suffering for three years, just like me.
The door opened. Zander stood there, his face white. "I heard everything."
"You were listening?"
"The walls are thin." He stepped closer. "Sera, I.."
"Don't." I backed away. "Just because you were cursed doesn't mean I forgive you."
"I know." His gray eyes were full of pain. "But I need to tell you something. Show you something."
"What?"
He pulled out a key. "My office. There's something you need to see."
I followed him through the pack house. Wolves stared. Some whispered. I didn't care. My mind was spinning. Dimitri. It was all Dimitri.
Zander's office was huge. Dark wood and leather chairs. Very Alpha. But one wall was different. Covered with a sheet.
He pulled the sheet down.
Drawings. Hundreds of drawings. All of me.
But wrong. In some, my eyes were blue. In others, my hair was black. Like he was trying so hard to remember my face but couldn't get it right.
"Every night," he said quietly. "I dream of you. But when I wake up, your face fades. So I will try to draw you. To remember."
One drawing was different. Newer. It showed me in my black cloak at my cottage door.
"That's from today," he said. "Finally seeing you again... it's like breathing after three years of drowning."
"Stop." My voice cracked. "Please stop."
"The curse is still there," he said. "I can feel it. Like chains in my mind. It's weaker now, but still there. That's why Kai went crazy when he saw you. He's been fighting it for three years."
I looked at the drawings again. Some were torn like he'd gotten frustrated. Some had tear stains.
"I picked Celeste because the curse made me," he said. "But I could never mark her. Could never... be with her. My wolf wouldn't let me. Even cursed, some part of me knew she wasn't you."
"I can break it," I said without thinking. "The curse. I learned how from the Shadow Witches."
"What's the price?"
Because there was always a price with magic.
"Pain," I said. "It will hurt. Bad. Like having your soul ripped apart."
"I deserve it."
"Yes. You do."
We stared at each other. The mate bond pulled tight between us. It wanted us together. It had always wanted us together.
A horn sounded outside. The warning horn.
Marcus burst through the door. "Dimitri Shadowclaw is here. With an army.”
- Writer
