My fingers tighten around the phone 150

Aria’s POV
“Ethan is your destined mate.”
Each syllable seemed to burn itself into my soul, white-hot and undeniable as the ethereal landscape around us began to
dissolve into swirling mist.
The scene materialized before me with breathtaking clarity, and I gasped audibly, my hand flying to my mouth. This wasn’t the nightmare I’d constructed in my mind over countless sleepless nights. There was no violence, no violation, no
horror.
Instead, I watched as Ethan’s hands—those same powerful hands I’d come to know so well—traced the contours of my
face with exquisite tenderness. His touch was reverent, almost worshipful, his fingertips barely grazing my skin as if I were made of the most delicate porcelain. Those mesmerizing green-gold eyes that still haunted my dreams were overflowing
with an emotion I couldn’t possibly have mistaken for anything but love. My past self leaned into his touch, eyes
fluttering closed with a trust so complete it made my chest ache to witness it.
“It was you,” I whispered, the words escaping on a broken sob as realization crashed through me like a tidal wave. My
legs trembled beneath me, threatening to buckle as six years of misplaced shame and fear crumbled into dust. “It’s
always been you.”
My fingers unconsciously rose to touch my own cheek, trying to recreate the ghost of that caress, and I felt hot tears
spilling unchecked down my face. How could I have forgotten something so profound?
The air around me shimmered like sunlight fracturing across the surface of a disturbed pond, and the intimate scene
dissolved. I found myself once again standing before the Moon Goddess, her impossible form perfectly bisected—one
half radiant silver that hurt to look upon directly, the other a darkness so complete it seemed to absorb all light around it.
Cassandra pressed her warm body firmly against my legs, as if sensing I might collapse without her support.
“Why?” The question tore from my throat, ragged and raw with six years of accumulated grief. Something primal and wounded rose within me, a rage so pure it made my vision blur crimson at the edges. My fist slammed down onto the mercury table with such force that pain shot up my arm, but I welcomed it, needed it to anchor me to this moment.
Ripples distorted our reflections as the impact traveled across the liquid surface.
“Why couldn’t I sense him?” I demanded, my voice rising with each question, cracking under the strain of emotions too
vast to contain. “Why couldn’t I remember? Why didn’t Ethan recognize me when we met again at the training camp?”
My chest heaved with labored breaths as tears streamed hot down my cheeks, leaving scalding trails that felt like they
might permanently mark my skin. “Do you understand what you’ve done?” I choked out, jabbing my finger accusingly
toward the impassive deity. “I’ve spent every waking moment believing I was violated by a stranger! I’ve carried that
shame like a stone in my chest, crushing me a little more each day!”
I gestured wildly, my entire body trembling with the force of my outrage. “Lucas—my beautiful boy—has grown up
without his father! Without knowing his rightful Alpha heritage!” The injustice of it all threatened to swallow me whole.
“You stole six years from us! Six precious, irreplaceable years we can never get back!”
My words echoed across the impossible landscape, hanging in the air like physical things before slowly dissipating into
nothingness. The silence that followed felt deafening.
“*I protected you,*” Cassandra’s voice flowed through my mind like cool water, her mental touch somehow both
steadying and sorrowful. The familiar weight of her consciousness pressing against mine nearly brought me to my knees
with longing for what we’d once shared.
She lifted her magnificent head, those amber eyes that had once been my own meeting my gaze with unflinching
honesty. “*The poison they gave you would have destroyed us both, little one. I had no choice but to separate myself, to
absorb the toxin into my essence and retreat to heal in isolation.*” Her ears flattened slightly against her head, a gesture
of regret I recognized from our shared past. “*Without completing the mating ritual with your true mate, I ensured we would survive when otherwise we would have perished.*”
“Without wolf essence, no mate recognition possible,” the dark half of the Goddess intoned, her voice like obsidian
shards grinding together, the sound sending involuntary shivers crawling down my spine.
The silver half leaned forward, her luminous eye catching the impossible light in a way that made it shimmer like a
diamond. “Your wolf retreated to heal, which rendered the young Alpha prince unable to identify you as his fated partner when your paths crossed again at the training camp.”
Her bell-like laughter rippled through the air, the sound simultaneously beautiful and maddening in its lack of empathy
for our suffering. “Such delicious irony—so close to each other for months, yet separated by a veil neither could perceive.
Still, that didn’t prevent him from being drawn to you again and again, did it? The threads of destiny cannot be severed
so easily, no matter how many attempt to interfere.”
1/2
I raked my fingers through my hair, pulling at the roots until the physical discomfort provided a momentary distraction
from the emotional turmoil threatening to drown me. Frustration burned behind my eyes, turning my vision blurry.
“Enough with these cryptic half-truths and this… this cosmic amusement at our expense!”
My fists clenched at my sides as I forced myself to stand taller, drawing on reserves of strength I didn’t know I possessed.
“I need to return to my body. Now that I understand what happened, can’t I reconnect with Cassandra and complete the mate bond with Ethan properly? We’ve lost enough time already!”
“NO!” The obsidian half shrieked with such force that the mirrored lake beneath us rippled violently in response, the
perfect reflection of the divided sky above distorting into chaotic patterns. “UNWISE! DANGEROUS!”
The force of her reaction startled me into taking a step backward, my heart hammering against my ribs.
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“Calm yourself,” the silver half murmured, placing a gleaming hand on her darker counterpart in a gesture that seemed
almost tender. Both mismatched eyes—one radiant silver, one bottomless black—fixed on me with penetrating intensity
that made me feel utterly exposed, as if they could see through flesh and bone to the very core of my being.
“You’ve been poisoned a second time, child,” she continued, her voice gentling in a way that somehow increased my
unease rather than alleviating it. “Cassandra shields you and your unborn cubs from the worst effects, but at great cost to
herself. She requires more time to fully recover from this new assault.”
The obsidian side’s voice dropped to a guttural growl that seemed to vibrate through the ground beneath my feet.
“Attempting to force a shift now would be catastrophic—she would manifest as something unnatural, neither truly living
nor dead, a shadow creature born of pain and poison.”
The gravity of those words settled over me like a physical weight, pressing down on my shoulders until I could no longer
remain standing. I dropped to my knees beside Cassandra, the fight draining from me in an instant, replaced by a bonedeep weariness and grief so profound it seemed to hollow me out from within.
I buried my face in her thick, warm fur as tears leaked unchecked from my eyes, soaking into her coat. Her familiar scent
filled my senses, unleashing a flood of memories from before our separation. The perfect unity of two beings sharing one
purpose, one heart, one soul.
“Thank you,” I whispered against her coat, my fingers curling into the warm softness as if I could somehow anchor her to me through sheer force of will. My voice broke on a sob. “For everything you’ve sacrificed to keep us alive. You saved me
from that first poisoning, you saved Lucas when we were alone and vulnerable, and now you’re protecting our twins
when I couldn’t. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay such devotion.”
Cassandra turned her massive head, her rough tongue gently licking away the tears on my cheek in a gesture so achingly
familiar that it nearly broke me all over again. “*One day, we will be truly whole again,*” her response flowed through me
like honey, warm and certain, carrying with it a promise I desperately needed to believe. “*But until then, you must be
strong enough for both of us. For our cubs. For our mate.*”