Julian's lungs rattled with the Silver Rot, each breath a death rattle echoing through the packhouse. Seraphina heard whispers that a Lupine Heart could cure anything, even the blood-blight eating him alive. She didn't hesitate. She ordered her guards to slaughter the Silver Soul-Wolf that had been bound to me for a millennium. Carve out its heart while it still beat. A millennium of Primal Guardian Essence turned to ash in seconds. I threw myself over the dying wolf. Every slash of the silver blade tore through my own chest like they were cutting into my ribs. "You know what I am!" I gasped, blood soaking through my shirt. "When the Soul-Wolf dies, I die with it!" Seraphina sneered. She peeled back the silver fur with her own hands, blood coating her fingers like war paint. "Only the Matriarch believes your lies about being some ancient guardian," she hissed. "You think I'll fall for this pathetic act?" Her eyes were cold, merciless. "It's just a wolf. I'll buy you another one if it means Julian gets to breathe." My Primal Guardian Essence drained out in waves. My vision blurred as the bond shattered, and my eyes bled from silver to ash-gray. I stumbled toward the Matriarch's chambers, clutching the jar that held what remained of my Soul-Wolf. "I've shielded your pack from disaster a hundred times." My voice came out hollow, broken. "I've repaid the debt. My power is destroyed." "Let me go." --- White smoke rose from the Soul-Wolf's severed body like a departing spirit. The Pack Healer shook his head, his expression grave. "They struck the heart and spine in one blow. Whoever killed this wolf knew exactly what they were doing." He met my eyes. "There's no bringing it back." I placed the bloody remnants into the jar. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. The Soul-Wolf was linked to me through ancient magic. I felt phantom pain slice through my lower back where the blade had severed its spine. My face burned like the skin was being flayed off in strips. The Matriarch steadied me as I swayed. "I warned her a thousand times that the wolf was your life force!" Fury made her voice shake. "And she dared to carve out its heart with her own hands, watching you collapse!" My legs went numb. I forced myself to walk. Seraphina knew about the Soul-Link. Of course she did. But she still brought down that blade, her eyes locked on mine as I screamed. She grabbed my neck and hissed in my ear, her breath hot against my skin. "You're a good actor. This is how you fooled the Matriarch, isn't it?" Her smile was cruel. "You really thought I'd fall for your Guardian bullshit?" She ordered her men to cut out the heart. I fell to my knees, screaming until my throat bled. She threw the wolf's corpse at my feet like roadkill. "If you really had a millennium of power in that thing, it must be potent medicine." Her eyes gleamed. "If it cures Julian's blood-blight, I'll get you a new wolf to keep up your charade." The butler rushed in while I was drowning in pain. He shoved a cardboard box into my hands. Seraphina's orders. Bring it immediately. I forced my shaking hands to open it. A hawk burst out, yellow eyes locked on the jar. The hawk dove. I threw myself over the jar as talons tore into my spine. I tried to summon my power, fingers forming the ancient signs. Nothing happened. My Primal Guardian Essence was gone. I could only curl my body around the jar, protecting what little remained. Everyone knows wolves fear hawks the way prey fears predators. Even in human form, the terror was bone-deep. Primal. The hawk pecked holes into my back until the Matriarch's guards beat it to death with iron rods. I lay motionless on the clinic floor. Then I heard a heavy thud beside me. The Matriarch knelt before me, her head bowed in shame. "Ethan, I never imagined my granddaughter could commit such an atrocity against her own fated mate." Her voice cracked. "You are this pack's Sacred Guardian, blessed by the Moon Goddess herself." "I will find you a sacred place to restore your bloodline. Please, for the sake of your debt to my grandmother, forgive Seraphina this once." I didn't know how to respond. My mind was too fractured. A hundred years ago, the Matriarch's grandmother found me dying in the mountains from a hawk attack. She brought me home, bandaged my wounds, nursed me back to health over long months. Out of gratitude, when I achieved my full ancestral power, I sought her out. I vowed to protect her bloodline for generations. Later, to save Seraphina from a death curse, I broke the Sacred Moon Vow. I took human form, trapping all my power inside the Soul-Wolf. But now Seraphina had destroyed the wolf herself. My power was gone. I looked at the Matriarch kneeling before me. My voice came out cold, hard. "I promised your grandmother I would shield her descendants from calamity. I've kept that vow for a century." "But I've lost my Guardian powers. I've turned back a hundred disasters and sacrificed my immortality to save Seraphina when the Moon Goddess herself marked her for death." "Consider your grandmother's debt repaid in full. Let me leave this territory before what remains of me dies here."
I limped home, the jar clutched to my chest. My legs barely held me. Before I reached the door, I heard moaning from inside. The sound made my stomach turn. "I heard ancient guardians have insane stamina from all that primal power." Julian's voice was lazy, satisfied. "Did Ethan keep you up all night with that freaky supernatural shit?" He laughed. "Now that I've eaten his Soul-Wolf's heart, want to see if I've got his strength?" Seraphina's arms wrapped around his neck. "He was never the one. You're the only one who's ever satisfied me." I slammed the door open. The frame cracked. Seraphina didn't even look at me. She stayed on Julian's lap, lips locked, like I was invisible. Nothing. But Julian saw my eyes turning ash-gray in real-time, the silver light dying to nothing. He shoved Seraphina off, clutching his chest as he coughed violently. Blood speckled his lips. He pointed at me with a shaking finger. "Monster! Freak!" The more he yelled, the worse his coughing became. Seraphina rushed to pat his back. Then she whirled on me. Her hand cracked across my face hard enough to split my lip. "What trick did you just pull?" she screamed. "Are you trying to curse Julian to death?" Her heel ground into my foot with deliberate cruelty, pinning me in place. On the couch, Julian caught my eye and smirked. Still pretending to gasp for air. Then he pointed at the jar in my arms with greedy eyes. "Seraphina, my Luna, Ethan's pet wolf's heart worked so well for my Silver Rot." He coughed between words. "I bet the meat would be even better medicine." His smile was vicious. "How about some wolf stew to finish the cure?" Both of them turned their eyes to the jar. Predatory. Cold. I held it tighter against my chest. "Seraphina, you know I'm Soul-Linked to this wolf through my bloodline." "If you turn it into stew, the boiling water will cook my organs while I'm still breathing." She didn't let me finish. She knocked the jar from my hands with one vicious swipe. It shattered on the floor. She ordered the butler to take the wolf's remains to the kitchen immediately. The heat hit me within minutes. It felt like being thrown into a furnace. My insides cooking as the water boiled. I dug my nails into my thighs hard enough to draw blood, trying to fight through the pain. Diving into cold water didn't help. Seraphina stormed in. She grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked my head back. "Did you dye it on purpose? Planning to run to the Matriarch and get me in trouble?" She snarled in my face. "You always used your magic tricks to manipulate the old woman." "You even claimed you traded your immortality to save my life! But Julian told me the truth." Her grip tightened. "He's the one who flew overseas to buy the real medicine. He fed it to me while you kept me locked in that room, refusing treatment, hoping I'd die!" She yanked me from the tub. Watched me writhe on the floor as the burning intensified. "You know this pack has a Sacred Guardian who grants the Alpha Female's mate the Lunar Blessing of prosperity and long life." Her eyes were full of contempt. "If I hadn't believed your lies about saving me, I never would have accepted you as my mate!" "That blessing should have gone to Julian from the start. You need to step aside and let the right wolf claim what's his!" I lifted my head. Forced a bitter smile through the agony. "He wants to steal the Moon Goddess's blessing of longevity? That's a fantasy." He'd already destroyed the pack's fate. There was no blessing left to steal. Hours later, they brought The Profane Feast to the table. A pot of stewed Soul-Wolf meat, its scent thick with ancient power and my own lifeblood. Julian devoured it like a starving animal, laughing as I collapsed against the wall, blood pouring from my nose and mouth. My organs were being cooked alive from the inside. Every bite he took was another layer of agony carved into my flesh. When he finished, he threw the empty bowl at my feet. "See? I'm cured! No more coughing fits!" He flexed his hands, grinning at Seraphina. "And I feel stronger than ever." "Your precious Guardian was just a fraud all along." Seraphina smiled at him with adoration. Then she turned to me with disgust. "The Matriarch is hosting a banquet tonight to celebrate Julian's recovery." Her voice was cold. "You're banned from attending." "I don't want your cursed face ruining the celebration." I crawled to my feet, using the wall for support. My vision was darkening at the edges. "The Moon Goddess doesn't grant blessings to those who desecrate the Sacred Hunt." My voice came out broken, weak. "You've destroyed my power. You've consumed what was never meant for mortal consumption." "Now watch what happens when the Goddess withdraws her protection from this pack." Julian laughed in my face. "Still threatening us with your make-believe curse?" "You're pathetic. Get out of our sight." I stumbled toward the door. Before I left, I looked back one last time. Seraphina was already in Julian's arms again, kissing him like I'd never existed. Like she hadn't just destroyed her fated mate and invited divine retribution upon the entire pack.
The Matriarch's banquet hall glittered with expensive chandeliers and decorated tables laden with prime cuts of venison and roasted game. Pack members filled the space, celebrating Julian's miraculous recovery from the blood-blight that should have killed him. Julian stood at the center of attention, soaking in the praise. Seraphina clung to his arm, her smile radiant. The Matriarch had banned me from the celebration. So I sat outside in the cold, my back against the stone wall of the packhouse. Listening to their laughter echo through the night. At midnight, the sky turned black. Storm clouds gathered from nowhere, blocking out the moon completely. The first bolt of silver lightning struck the packhouse roof. Then another. And another. The Silver Storm descended on the pack like divine judgment, each lightning bolt infused with lunar power that burned through flesh and stone alike. Inside the banquet hall, screams replaced laughter. Pack members ran for cover as the roof collapsed in sections, silver fire consuming everything it touched. The Matriarch rushed outside, her face pale with terror. She grabbed my shoulders. "Ethan, please! Whatever anger you hold, whatever curse you've called down on us—stop this!" "I'll make Seraphina apologize! I'll exile Julian myself if that's what it takes!" I looked at her with hollow eyes. My hair had turned completely white in the hours since Seraphina destroyed my Soul-Wolf. "This isn't my doing, Matriarch." My voice was empty. "This is the Moon Goddess withdrawing her protection." "Your pack's ancestors desecrated the Sacred Hunt for profit a century ago. I was the only thing standing between your bloodline and divine retribution." "Now that my power is gone, she's collecting what you owe." Another bolt of silver lightning struck, this time hitting Julian directly. He screamed as lunar fire seared through his chest. The Soul-Wolf's heart he'd consumed began to burn inside him, cooking him from within. Seraphina ran to him, trying to shield him with her own body. The lightning threw her back, leaving scorch marks across her arms. "Ethan!" she screamed, her voice raw with panic. "Ethan, please make it stop!" "I'm sorry! I'm sorry for everything! Just make it stop!" I didn't move. Didn't respond. Julian collapsed to his knees, coughing up chunks of blackened flesh. The Silver Rot he thought he'd cured was returning with a vengeance, multiplied by the divine power now destroying him. The Soul-Wolf's heart was rejecting his body, tearing him apart from the inside. "Ethan saved you once before, at the cost of his own immortality." The Matriarch's voice shook. "He broke the Sacred Moon Vow to give you human life." "And you repaid him by destroying his Soul-Wolf with your own hands." She grabbed Seraphina by the throat, rage overtaking grief. "You've damned this entire pack for your selfish cruelty!" Seraphina tore herself free, running toward me on her knees. Blood streamed down her face from cuts left by falling debris. "Ethan, I was wrong! I was so wrong!" Tears mixed with blood on her cheeks. "Please, I'll do anything!" "Just save Julian! Save the pack!" I looked down at her without emotion. "The Moon Goddess doesn't forgive those who betray their Sacred Guardians." My voice was cold as winter frost. "This is her judgment, not mine." "Pray for mercy if you want. But I'm done protecting you." I walked away from the burning packhouse. Away from the screams and the smell of silver fire consuming everything I'd once protected. The Matriarch's pleas followed me into the darkness. But I didn't look back. My debt was paid in full. Whatever happened to them now was between them and the Goddess.
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