Chapter 153 On our mating night
IRIS
Gasps ripple through the crowd like a sudden gust of wind, sharp and startled, sweeping across the reception hall. The chandeliers tremble slightly, or maybe that’s just me—my vision vibrating as the world tilts under my feet.
I clutch Darian’s arm harder, fingers digging into the fabric of his ceremonial jacket. He doesn’t flinch. His warmth anchors me, but it’s not enough to steady the storm that is roaring to life inside my chest.
The Seer stands at the foot of the dais, her expression carved from stone and moonlight. Behind her, two junior seers bow their heads so deeply their hoods shadow their faces completely. All three of them look like they’ve stepped out of a nightmare no one asked to see.
She just said he must present the sacrifice tonight.
Tonight.
The day of our mating ceremony.
Whispers surge behind us, frantic and terrified. Someone mutters, “The prophecy…does this mean—” before another hushes them.
I can feel every pair of eyes burning into us. Into me. Because of course the rumors spread. Of course everyone knows by now that the Lycan Prince mated the cursed girl. The forgotten bloodline. The supposed harbinger of doom.
But no one expected this.
I swallow, my throat dry and raw. “What… what do you mean it has to happen now?” My voice cracks, not with fear—no, fear is too small for this—but with something primal, something breaking open in my chest. “Today? You want to do this today?”
The Seer lifts her chin. Her eyes, pale and unfocused, seem to glow faintly. “The Moon Goddess has spoken. The sacrificial window opens only tonight. It must be completed before dawn.”
The room tilts. I tighten my grip on Darian so hard now I’m probably hurting him. “This is…this is our mating ceremony,” I say hoarsely. “We just… we just completed it. You want to take him from me now? Right after?” The disbelief laces my voice with acid.
Darian tries to place a hand on my back, but I shake him off, not out of anger, but because if he touches me right now, if he comforts me, I might collapse completely.
“No.” I turn fully to the Seer. “Tell me why. Tell me why it has to be tonight. Why now? Why my wedding night? Why couldn’t the goddess give this command any other day?” My voice is rising, trembling, sharp as broken glass. “Why today? Why would she do that?”
The Seer does not blink. “The timing is not for us to question. The Goddess’s will—”
“I’m questioning it!” I snap, my voice slicing through the hall. A few people flinch. “I am questioning it because you’re talking about my husband’s life like it’s something you can schedule between meals!”
“Iris,” Darian murmurs beside me, but I shake my head furiously.
“No! Don’t ‘Iris’ me. Not right now.”
He falls quiet.
I take a shaky step forward, standing between him and the seers. If they want him, they will have to go through me. “You come in here, into our ceremony—
after we just exchanged vows, after we sealed our bond, after we howled, after the Moon Goddess herself witnessed us, and you tell me she wants his life now? Immediately? Why? For what? For some prophecy none of us even fully understand?”
The Seer’s brow furrows. “Child…”
“Don’t call me that,” I hiss. “Don’t you dare call me that. I’m his mate.”
A murmur spreads through the crowd.
“I am his mate,” I repeat, louder this time. “And you’re telling me I’ve waited all this time, suffered through all of this, survived your king’s attempts to have me executed, watched my entire world turn inside out, only for you to come here and demand his life?”
“The sacrifice is beyond us,” the Seer says. “It is decreed. The portal will not open again. If tonight passes, the curse remains forever.”
“And what curse is that exactly?” I demand. “The one that says he’ll die? So you want to kill him to prevent him from dying? Does that make sense to you? Because it sounds insane to me!”
A ripple of tension rolls through the room, wolves and alphas exchanging uneasy glances. No one intervenes. No one dares interrupt a newly mated Lycan pair whose bond is still crackling through the air like lightning.
“The curse will consume the realms,” the junior seer says quietly. “Not only him. Not only you. All. The tether between life and death is thinning. The mating has accelerated the prophecy’s climax.”
My heart stops. Then starts again too quickly.
“It’s our fault?” I whisper. “Because we chose each other?”
“The bond was destiny,” the Seer replies. “But destiny has a cost.”
Something inside me breaks. Or bursts. Or shatters. I can’t tell. All I know is that my voice stops working for a moment, and when I speak again, it’s barely a whisper.
“He just became my husband.”
Darian’s hand rests gently at the small of my back now, grounding me. I don’t push it away this time. I need it. I need him.
The Seer says, “We understand your grief. But this is the will of—”
“You don’t understand anything!” The scream rips out of me before I can control it. My wolf surges beneath my skin, claws threatening to burst through my fingers. “You don’t understand what he means to me. You don’t understand what it took for us to get here. You don’t understand how many times I thought I lost him already. You don’t understand!”
My voice cracks violently.
“You don’t understand that I finally have him,” I whisper. “I finally have him. And now you’re telling me the goddess wants to take him?”
The Seer’s face softens for the first time. “The lunar veil is open now and now alone. If the sacrifice is not accepted…”
“I don’t care!” I scream. Tears blur my vision, finally spilling over. “I don’t care about veils or windows or portals! You’re talking about the man I love!”
The words hang in the air, trembling.
Darian moves closer, wrapping an arm around my waist firmly, guiding me backward so my trembling legs don’t give out. The moment he touches me fully, I let out a sob so loud it startles some of the guests. My forehead presses into his chest, and I clutch his jacket with both hands.
“No,” I sob. “No, Darian. No, please. Please don’t go with them. Don’t you dare.”
“Iris,” he murmurs, voice raw.
“I just got you,” I cry into him. “You can’t leave. You can’t, you promised me. You told me we’d have tonight. You told me we’d have a future. Darian, please don’t let them take you. Don’t let them do this.”
He strokes the back of my head, fingers gentle but trembling. “I’m not going anywhere.”
But the Seer steps forward.
“He must come with us now.”
I whirl around so fast Darian’s arm slips from my waist. “No. No, absolutely not.” Tears streak down my cheeks, hot and relentless. “Do you hear me? He’s not going anywhere. Not tonight. If the goddess wants him, she can come down here herself and say it.”
The crowd gasps again.
“Blasphemy,” someone whispers.
I don’t care.
Let the Moon Goddess hear me. Let her strike me down if she wants. I am not letting Darian walk into a death sentence without a fight.
“Iris,” Darian says gently, reaching for my hand.
I grab him desperately. “Don’t. Please don’t go. Don’t agree to anything. Don’t you dare be noble right now. I need you. I need you. Darian, I can’t…I can’t survive losing you.”
His eyes soften, agonized, full of a love that crushes the breath out of me. “Iris,” he murmurs, cupping my face. “Look at me.”
I do. Barely. My vision swims with tears.
“I’m here,” he says. “I’m right here.”
“But they want to take you,” I whisper. “Tonight. Now.”
He brushes a thumb across my wet cheek. “And I’m not leaving your side.”
The Seer speaks again. “The ritual site must be opened before the third moon crest. Time is short. The sacrifice must be prepared.”
Prepared?
Prepared!
As if he’s something on an altar.
“No,” I choke out, voice cracking on the word. “No, no, no—you cannot do this!”
“Iris,” Darian murmurs again, arms wrapping fully around me now, pulling me against him as I begin to shake uncontrollably. “My love, breathe.”
“I can’t!” I sob. “I can’t breathe because I’m thinking about you dying! I’m thinking about you walking away with them and never coming back! I can’t, Darian, please! I can’t do this!”
He presses a kiss to the top of my head. “You’re not losing me.”
But the Seer begins chanting quietly under her breath, signaling that the preparations must begin.
“STOP!” I scream.
She stops.
Everyone stops.
Even the music cuts abruptly.
I step away from Darian, planting myself between him and the Seers again. My hands are shaking violently, my knees unsteady, my chest aching so fiercely I feel like I’m being stabbed from the inside but I stand my ground.
“If you want him,” I whisper, “you’ll have to kill me first.”
A stunned silence.
Darian stiffens behind me. “Iris..”
“No.” I don’t turn. “No, Darian. I’m not moving.”
The Seer whispers something to her juniors. They shake their heads, uncertain.
At last, the Seer looks at me.
“The Goddess does not ask for your death,” she says quietly. “Only for his life.”
“Then she can come take it herself,” I whisper. “Because I’m not letting you.”
My voice breaks. My knees buckle. Darian catches me instantly, arms wrapping around my waist as I collapse against him, sobs tearing out of me in heaving waves.
“No,” I cry again, clutching him with shaking hands. “No, please. Please. Please don’t go.”
And in front of the entire Lycan world—guests, alphas, warriors, seers, soldiers— I bury my face in my husband’s chest and wail like my soul is being torn apart.
Because it is.
Because they want to take him away to die.
On our mating night.
And I don’t know how to stop it.
But I know one thing:
I will burn the goddess’s sky if I have to.
I will not let him go.