CHAPTER six

Serena’s POV

The forest looked endless under the moonlight, quiet, wet, and merciless.

I didn’t know how far I’d gone, only that I had to keep moving. Every step was agony. My lungs burned. My vision blurred. But stopping meant remembering, and I couldn’t survive that.

Lily’s voice trembled in my mind. Serena, we should rest.

“I can’t.” My voice cracked. “Not here. Not anywhere near him.”

You’re bleeding again.

I pressed a trembling hand to my side. The scent of blood faint but real drifted into the air. I swallowed hard. “It’s just the bond backlash. It’ll fade.”

You broke the tie of an Alpha, Serena. The pain doesn’t fade that easily.

She was right. The bond rejection had cut deep into bone, into soul. Every few steps, a flash of heat ran down my spine, like claws raking from the inside out. The pup shifted uneasily within me, reacting to my distress.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, tears slipping down my cheeks. “I’ll protect you. I promise.”

The forest swayed. The world tilted.

Lily whimpered. Serena stopped. You’ll fall.

But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. I stumbled on, half running, half crawling through the roots and mud until my body gave out. I fell hard, my knees slamming into the earth.

For a heartbeat, I thought I heard someone call my name.

Then everything dimmed to a blur of silver and shadow.

The last thing I saw before darkness claimed me was the moon full, bright, pitiless.

Lucien’s POV

The pain hit me like a blade to the chest.

One moment I was in my office, reading through patrol reports; the next, my wolf was tearing through my ribs, roaring.

Rheon’s voice boomed in my skull. She’s dying.

My chair toppled backward. “Who?”

Luna. Serena.

My blood turned to fire. “That’s impossible. She’s not in our lands anymore.”

You think distance stops a bond the Goddess forged? You felt her once you’ll feel her always.

The bond. The one I didn’t want to name. The one that should never have existed.

I bolted for the door, ignoring Kael’s shouts behind me. “Lucien! What’s happening?”

“She’s in trouble.”

“Who ?”

I was already gone.

The shift came violently, claws tearing through skin, bones snapping, fur bursting forth. Rheon exploded from within me, his roar shaking the trees as we hit the ground running.

Her scent was faint but undeniable moonlight and rain, laced with blood and heartbreak.

Faster, Rheon urged. She’s close.

The forest blurred past in streaks of silver and shadow. The cold wind stung my muzzle, but I didn’t slow. Every heartbeat pulled me closer to her.

Then I saw her.

Collapsed near the riverbank, half shifted, skin pale as snow, blood streaking her thigh. Her hair tangled with leaves and rain.

Rheon growled low in my chest. She’s ours.

“Not yet,” I muttered, forcing my wolf back enough to shift. The moment my bare feet hit the mud, I was at her side.

“Serena,” I whispered, brushing damp hair from her face. “Open your eyes.”

Nothing.

Her pulse was faint and weak, but there. I pressed my ear to her chest. The second heartbeat, smaller but steady, thudded beneath my hand.

Relief nearly made me dizzy. “The pup’s alive.”

Rheon’s tone softened. She’s stronger than she looks.

I lifted her into my arms, her body limp but warm. The scent of her still carried that spark, the same strange pull I’d felt the night she crossed my border.

“You couldn’t stay away, could you?” I murmured.

Her head fell against my shoulder, lips parting just enough to breathe one word. “Lucien…”

The sound hit me like thunder. She wasn’t conscious, but she knew.

Rheon rumbled with satisfaction. Told you. The bond isn’t gone, just buried.

I held her closer and turned toward the mountains. “Then we dig it back out.”

By the time we reached Nightshade’s borders, dawn was bleeding over the horizon. Kael and two guards met me halfway, their eyes wide.

“Lucien what in the Goddess’s name ”

“Get the healer ready,” I barked. “And no one touches her without my permission.”

Kael glanced at the unconscious woman in my arms. “You went after her, didn’t you?”

I didn’t answer.

As I carried Serena inside, the light of the rising sun caught her face. For a second, I saw something almost divine, fragile, broken, but still burning.

Rheon whispered in awe. She survived rejecting an Alpha. She shouldn’t even be alive.

I laid her gently on the infirmary bed, my hand lingering over her heart. “That’s because she’s not just any Luna.”

Kael hesitated at the doorway. “What now?”

I didn’t look up. “Now? We keep her alive.”

“And when Silvercrest comes for her?”

I finally turned, eyes flashing gold. “Then I’ll remind them what happens when they cross a cursed Alpha.”

In the quiet that followed, Serena stirred in her sleep. Her hand slipped over her stomach, a whisper escaping her lips.

“Thank you.”

I froze.

Rheon growled softly. She feels you.

“Yeah,” I murmured. “I feel her too.”

Outside, the first howl of morning rose hers or mine, I couldn’t tell. But it sounded like fate calling again, no longer asking, only waiting.

Serena’s POV

Warmth pressed against my skin before the pain did.

A steady heartbeat near my ear. The faint hum of power in the air. The scent of pine and storm.

Lily stirred inside me, sleepy and gentle this time.

We’re alive.

My lashes fluttered open. The ceiling above was smooth stone, traced with thin silver runes that pulsed faintly like moonlight trapped in veins. The air smelled clean, heavy with herbs and smoke.

“Nightshade again,” I whispered, my throat raw.

“Yes,” came a deep voice from the shadows.

Lucien stepped forward from the dim light, his hair damp, eyes burning in that strange gold-amber hue that always looked like fire restrained.

“You’re awake,” he said quietly.

My first instinct was to sit up and run, but pain lanced through my body, forcing me back down. I groaned.

“You shouldn’t move,” he murmured. “The healer said your body hasn’t recovered from the rejection pain.”

I blinked slowly, trying to piece the fragments of memory together the rain, the forest, falling to my knees, then his arms.

“You found me again.”

Lucien’s gaze didn’t waver. “You shouldn’t have left alone.”

“I had nowhere else to go,” I whispered.

He exhaled, crossing the room to stand beside the bed. His presence filled the space calm, powerful, impossible to ignore. “You shouldn’t have gone back to Silvercrest at all.”

A bitter laugh slipped out of me. “You think I don’t know that now?”

His expression softened. “If I hadn’t felt it ” He stopped himself, as if realizing he’d said too much.

“Felt what?”

He hesitated, then met my eyes. “Your pain.”

The words froze me.

“My… pain?”

“I felt it, Serena.” His voice dropped low, steady. “Every pulse, every breath fading. My curse flared the moment your heartbeat faltered. That’s how I found you.”

I stared at him, unable to breathe. “That’s not possible.”

“Neither is surviving me,” he said simply. “And yet you did.”

Lily’s presence inside me grew sharper, more alert. He’s telling the truth. We felt him too, remember? The pull before we fell.

I swallowed hard. “What does that mean?”

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he stepped closer and crouched beside the bed, his hand hovering near mine but not touching. “It means the Moon Goddess is playing her games again. And we’re her newest pieces.”

I looked away, tears burning behind my eyes. “I’m done being someone’s game.”

His jaw tightened. “So am I.”

For a moment, silence settled between us. Then he stood. “You’ll stay here until you can stand without shaking.”

I bristled. “You can’t just decide that.”

“I can when it concerns my land,” he said evenly.

“This isn’t your problem.”

His eyes flicked to my stomach, his voice low but sharp. “It became my problem the night I carried you across my border.”

My lips parted, but I couldn’t find the words.

Lily’s voice softened. He’s not threatening you, Serena. He’s protecting us.

“I don’t need protection,” I whispered.

Lucien tilted his head, studying me with that unreadable calm. “Then stop nearly dying in my territory.”

Despite myself, a faint, bitter smile touched my lips. “You’re insufferable.”

He almost smiled back. “And you’re alive. That’s enough.”

---

The next morning, I tried to stand. My legs trembled under my weight, the weakness still clinging like shadow.

Lyra, the Nightshade healer, hurried in with a tray of broth and herbs. “Easy, Luna ”

“Don’t call me that,” I muttered, steadying myself on the wall.

She hesitated. “Old habits. The Alpha said to make sure you eat.”

“The Alpha gives too many orders,” I said, but took the cup anyway.

Her lips twitched. “He’s only like that when he cares.”

I froze mid-sip. “He doesn’t care. He just doesn’t like loose ends.”

Lyra’s gaze softened, but she said nothing. When she left, I sat by the window, staring out over the mist-covered forest.

I could still feel it that strange hum under my skin, like a second heartbeat that didn’t belong to me.

Lily whispered, It’s him.

“No,” I said softly. “It can’t be.”

You know it is. You’ve felt his heartbeat too many times to deny it.

“Then the Goddess is crueler than I thought.”

Or smarter.

I turned my face toward the glass, watching the sun break through the clouds. “Lily, what if I’m cursed now too?”

She was quiet for a long time before answering. Then we survive it like we survived everything else.

---

Night settled over the mountains again before Lucien returned. He didn’t knock, just entered quietly, his presence filling the air like the scent of rain before a storm.

“You’re stronger,” he said.

“I can stand,” I replied, not looking up. “That’s all.”

“That’s enough for now.”

“Why do you keep saying that?”

He leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “Because survival is more important than vengeance.”

I turned then, meeting his eyes. “You speak like someone who’s lost both.”

He didn’t smile, but something in his face shifted. “Maybe I have.”

For a long time, neither of us spoke. Then I asked quietly, “Lucien… what really happened to you? The curse what is it?”

He took a breath, the air around him thickening as if even the walls listened. “The Blackthorn line was blessed once pure Alpha blood. But a century ago, one of my ancestors tried to claim the Moon Goddess’s vessel as his mate. She cursed our blood to destroy every woman it touched.”

My chest tightened. “Every woman?”

“Every woman,” he said. “Until one didn’t die.”

I froze. “You mean ”

His eyes locked on mine. “You.”

The room felt smaller suddenly, the air too thin. “Lucien, I don’t remember ”

“Of course you don’t. You were drugged that night, weren’t you? The feast. You thought Nathan took you.”

My blood ran cold. “How do you ”

He stepped closer, the space between us alive with tension. “Because I was there, Serena. The prisoner they dragged into Silvercrest that was me.”

The world tilted. My fingers tightened on the bedpost.

“You ” I could barely form the word. “You were in my room.”

He nodded once, slow and certain. “You came to me, trembling, dazed, smelling like moonlight and wine. I didn’t know who you were. I only knew that when you touched me, my curse went silent for the first time in my life.”

Tears welled in my eyes. “That can’t be true.”

“I didn’t understand it either,” he said. “But when you crossed my border, I knew that scent. That heartbeat. That strength. It was you.”

I shook my head, voice breaking. “No, Lucien, please ”

He caught my wrist not hard, not rough, but enough to still me.

The moment our skin met, the world erupted in heat and light. The air shimmered, and Lily gasped inside me. It’s him.

Lucien’s eyes flared gold, his voice barely a whisper. “Do you feel that?”

I couldn’t speak. Every nerve in me was alive, singing, breaking, healing all at once.

The bond between us pulsed weak, fragile, but real.

He let go first, stepping back like the contact burned him.

“We were never supposed to meet again,” he said roughly. “And yet here you are.”

My heart pounded. “What does this mean?”

He looked at me the cursed Alpha, the man the Goddess had doomed and for the first time, I saw fear in his eyes.

“It means,” he said quietly, “that the curse wasn’t meant to kill me. It was meant to lead me to you.”

---

The fire crackled softly between us, filling the silence with its steady hiss.

I turned away, unable to look at him. My hand drifted to my stomach, the faint pulse beneath my skin steady and strong.

Lucien’s voice softened. “Rest. You’re safe here.”

I closed my eyes. “For how long?”

He didn’t answer.

And somewhere deep inside, Lily whispered the truth I didn’t want to hear.

Until fate decides otherwise.