The blast of silver light tore through the trees.
Luna's body glowed like starlight, her eyes blinding, her hands pulsing with the kind of power that only existed in old legends and warning songs.
The guards—once so confident—were now groaning on the forest floor, tossed aside like leaves in a hurricane. Even Aster, her own blood, was on one knee, gasping for air as if the magic itself rejected him.
"You shouldn't have touched him," Luna growled.
Her voice echoed, layered in power that wasn't entirely her own. The Moon Goddess was with her now. Not just watching. Not just whispering. But guiding.
Min SUGA lay behind her, his breath shallow, blood pooling beneath him. The gash across his shoulder had gone deep—too close to the heart, too much blood lost.
"SUGA," she whispered, spinning around, the magic trembling in her chest. "Stay with me."
His eyes flickered open. Barely. Glowing dimly with his wolf still inside, holding on.
"You're glowing," he rasped. "It's…hot."
She let out a choked laugh, brushing his blood-matted hair from his face.
"Don't you dare die after that kiss."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
But he was fading fast.
Her magic flared again, uncontrollably—reacting to her panic, her grief. She didn't know how to use it. She only knew it wanted to protect him. To save him. To complete the bond fully.
"Don't move," she whispered, placing her hands over his chest.
And then she prayed—not like a human, not like a wolf, but like a child of the moon itself.
"Goddess of the Hunt, Lady of the Moon, I offer myself. My magic. My future. Just don't take him."
The wind stilled.
Time paused.
And a voice—not hers, not the Goddess's, but something older—spoke through her blood.
"A bond sealed in death is stronger than a bond made in life."
"Will you break the balance to keep him alive?"
Luna didn't hesitate.
"Yes. Take whatever you want."
There was a pulse. A blinding silver burn that seared into both of them.
SUGA arched off the ground, gasping as the light pierced his wound, pouring into his veins like molten silver.
And then… it was done.
His wound was gone.
His body—whole.
His Alpha aura—shifted.
More powerful.
Tethered to her, not just by fate... but by sacrifice.
He sat up slowly, blinking, confused.
"You did something," he said.
Luna nodded, exhausted. "I gave the Goddess my future."
"What does that mean?"
She didn't answer.
She didn't have to.
Because just then, her legs gave out—and she collapsed into his arms, her magic spent. And when he looked down at her...
Her mark was fading.
Not gone.
But changed.
The Goddess had taken something from her.
Her ability to choose another path.
Her fate was no longer her own—it belonged to SUGA. To the Bloodshade Pack. To this bond.
They didn't return to the forest clearing. Not that night.
They fled to the northern peaks—an abandoned sanctuary, known only in whispers. There, in the shadow of forgotten temples, Luna rested. SUGA kept watch. The mate bond, still raw, connected their thoughts in flickers.
She felt his pain.
He felt her exhaustion.
But neither regretted it.
"I would've died for you," he said one night, watching her stir by the hearth. "But you lived for me instead."
She gave a tired smile. "I figured that was more poetic."
"Do you regret it?"
"No," she said. "But it means we can't run anymore."
And they didn't.
Back in the lowlands, the council was raging.
Silverhollow declared Luna rogue. Bloodshade was preparing for war. Rumors spread that the Moon Priestess line had returned—and was bonded to the most cursed Alpha alive.
But they had a plan.
Luna's power was still growing. The bond was still evolving. And SUGA? He wasn't running anymore. He was claiming what was his. Her. The truth. And his place in the world—not as a cursed Alpha.
But as a chosen one.