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Chapter 31 - The Astral Chains

The world dissolved into light.

Aria fell through it — no sound, no air, only the endless hum of the divine. Her body felt weightless, her thoughts scattered like ashes in a current too strong to fight. When she finally stopped falling, the light around her had hardened into crystal.

The Astral Realm.

It was not heaven, nor hell, but something older. The sky shimmered in liquid silver, and the ground was made of glass that reflected not her body, but her soul — fractured, luminous, and trembling.

"You came willingly," the goddess's voice whispered through the air, vast and soft, yet carrying the edge of thunder.

Aria turned slowly. The Moon Goddess appeared before her — not as a statue this time, but as light given shape. Her face was veiled, her hair a cascade of stars, her eyes endless galaxies. She was beautiful and terrible all at once.

"I didn't come to kneel," Aria said, her voice steady despite the tremor in her chest.

"And yet you did," the goddess murmured, glancing at Aria's bare knees against the glass. "Even power bows to creation."

Aria rose, fists clenched. "You took everything from me."

"I took nothing that was not already mine."

"Damian was mine," Aria spat, the word shaking with pain.

The goddess tilted her head slightly. "And what is a bond but a leash? Would you rather live as a wolf tied to a master's chain?"

"I would rather choose my chains."

That silenced the heavens for a moment.

The goddess drifted closer, her presence bending the light. "You speak of choice, yet you came to me begging for mercy. You would have let me keep you small — mortal, bonded, safe — when you were meant to be infinite."

Aria's voice cracked. "I never wanted to be infinite."

"Then you should not have been born of my flame."

The ground beneath them shimmered, showing visions — her mother's face, the burning of the village, the night she first shifted under the blood moon. The goddess's hand waved once, and the images deepened: Aria standing in the ruins, holding Damian's dying body after their first battle, screaming for a god who never came.

"You left me to suffer," Aria said, tears bright as molten glass. "You made me love him just to take him away."

The goddess's veil stirred in the celestial wind. "Love is not cruelty. Attachment is."

"Then curse me with it again," Aria whispered fiercely. "Because I would rather burn in love than live untouched by it."

The goddess's silence stretched until the realm itself seemed to hold its breath. Then, slowly, the divine form reached out her hand. "Come, child of the flame. If you wish to defy me, then wield what you were born for. Claim the power that no wolf or god has ever tamed."

---

The ground split.

From the fissure rose chains made of moonlight — glowing, alive, each link pulsing like a heartbeat. They wound around Aria's arms, her chest, her throat, until the pressure became unbearable.

Pain seared through her. She screamed, falling to her knees, her vision fracturing into shards of silver.

"Why?" she gasped.

"Because only through chains can one know if they deserve freedom."

Aria clawed at the light. Every movement burned her skin, but she refused to stop. The silver veins beneath her flesh blazed, fighting back.

"I am not your puppet," she whispered. "I am not your mistake."

The goddess's eyes glowed brighter. "Then prove it."

The chains tightened.

Aria's pulse thundered. The fire within her — that same divine spark the goddess had cursed her with — ignited. Flames of silver-white erupted from her palms, devouring the chains link by link. Her scream tore through the Astral Realm, echoing like thunder.

The goddess's laughter filled the void, soft but endless. "So the wolf remembers her fire."

Aria rose slowly, light pouring from her eyes. "No," she said, her voice no longer her own. "The goddess remembers she can bleed."

---

Far below, in the mortal world, Damian woke from his restless sleep with a start. The air in his room trembled, the moonlight outside flickering violently.

He could feel her — faintly, impossibly — like a whisper at the edge of his soul.

"Aria?" he whispered into the darkness.

The mark on his neck, long dead, glowed faintly for a single heartbeat. Then came the echo of her scream — not in his ears, but deep in his bones.

He was on his feet in seconds.

"Eli!" he barked, throwing open the door. "Gather the council. The goddess has her."

Eli blinked, half-awake, startled by the look in his Alpha's eyes. "Damian— we can't reach her realm. Not even witches—"

"I don't care," Damian snarled. "If she's in the heavens, I'll tear the sky open to bring her back."

There was something in his voice that silenced argument — a promise of destruction, of madness, of love unbroken.

---

In the Astral Realm, the chains shattered.

Aria stood in the ruins of her bindings, her body wreathed in light. Her power surged like a storm, bending the silver sky into a whirl of radiance and shadow.

The goddess stepped back, her first movement of surprise. "What have you done?"

Aria looked down at her hands — at the fire dancing there, alive and furious. "What you made me for," she said. "You just never expected me to use it against you."

The goddess's veil lifted slightly, revealing a hint of a smile — proud, almost sorrowful. "You truly are mine."

"I'm no one's."

The realm convulsed. The light around them fractured, shards of moonfire scattering like glass in a hurricane. The goddess raised her hand, trying to contain the storm, but Aria's power broke through.

"I'll rewrite what you wrote in the stars," Aria said, her voice thundering across the void. "No one else will be bound the way we were."

"You dare rewrite divinity?"

"I dare to be free."

The goddess's form flickered, the veil burning at the edges. The celestial chains snapped one by one, their remnants raining down as starlight.

"You think freedom is without cost?" the goddess warned.

Aria's eyes burned silver. "Everything worth keeping costs something."

The goddess's light dimmed, and for the first time, her tone softened. "And what of him? The Alpha you love? When the bond fades completely, he will forget the feel of your soul."

Aria's lips trembled. "Then I'll make him remember another way."

The realm began to fade around her, dissolving into light and shadow. Her body grew heavy again — falling, descending. The goddess's final words followed her like a whisper of wind:

"If you return, remember this — mortals who defy gods rarely die cleanly."

---

Aria gasped as she hit the earth.

The grass was wet beneath her palms, the night air sharp and real. The moon hung low over the valley, pale and watchful.

Her body ached, every bone vibrating with leftover power. The veins beneath her skin still shimmered faintly, but the mark on her neck — the bond mark — was gone, burned out completely.

She sat there for a long moment, staring at the horizon.

Somewhere beyond the forest, beyond the hills, she knew he was still awake. Maybe he could still feel her, faintly. Maybe not.

But she whispered his name anyway.

"Damian."

The wind carried it, soft and aching.

Then, somewhere far off, a wolf howled — deep and broken, the sound splitting the night like a prayer that refused to die.

Aria closed her eyes. "Wait for me," she whispered. "I'm coming back."

The silver light flared once around her heart — not divine, not borrowed — hers.

And when she rose, the night bowed to her.

---

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