Chapter 89 — The Moon’s Bargain

Chapter 89 — The Moon’s Bargain


Scarlett

Not in the way forests breathe when wind moves through their leaves, or in the way wolves breathe when they run. This was different, deeper, older, like a sleeping giant shifting just beneath the surface of reality. Every heartbeat echoed back at me from the air itself, as if time had softened and folded in on me.

I blinked and the darkness dissolved into a pale silver glow, revealing a place I didn’t recognize.

A meadow. Endless. Quiet. Too still.

Moonlight pooled across the grass like liquid glass, shimmering around my feet. I touched my chest, no wounds, no blood, no weight. My body felt lighter, softer, as though the edges of my existence had been blurred with something celestial. My wolf stirred weakly, confused.

Where are we? she whispered.

Good question. I wasn’t sure if this was a dream, a prison, or the threshold between worlds. All I knew was that the moment I exhaled, the moonlight shifted gathering, forming, shaping itself into a woman.

Tall. Terrifying. Beautiful in a way that made my skin crawl.

Her eyes were molten silver. Her hair flowed like strands of pure starlight.
And when she smiled, every bone in my body seemed to hum in recognition.

“The vessel awakens,” she murmured, her voice echoing from every corner of the sky. “At last.”

I swallowed, hard. “You’re the Goddess.”

“Names are human things,” she said, tracing the air with slender fingers. “I am the Moon’s wrath. It's a forgotten daughter. And you…” Her eyes narrowed. “You are the cage I am forced to inhabit.”

The words struck like icy water. “Forced? You took me. You’re the one who invaded my soul.”

“I did not choose you,” she hissed softly. “The bond chose you. His bloodline chose you.”

John.
Her fury vibrated the entire sky in memory of him.

My heart clenched. “What does John have to do with this?”

The Goddess stepped closer, the ground trembling beneath her bare feet. “You still speak his name.” She studied me with something like wonder… or disgust. “A cursed Alpha’s mate, clinging to the traitor who shackled me ages ago.”

“That makes no sense,” I snapped. “John didn’t—”

“Not him.” Her voice shredded the air. “His ancestors. His father’s line. The Silver Moon Alphas were born from a pact with my power. They stole what they desired and buried me in chains forged from their betrayal.”

My breath stuttered. Memories of John’s father—his cruelty, the strange markings beneath the mansion, the rituals I’d overheard about—tightened around my mind like bruising fingers.

But it still wasn’t enough.

“That wasn’t John,” I said quietly. “He didn’t do any of that.”

The Goddess paused, her expression unreadable. “And yet the blood that wronged me still runs in his veins.”

Anger flared inside me. Not for myself—for him. “John has done nothing but suffer because of his family. He has lost everything. He fights for me even now.”

The meadow wind shifted. A faint tremor rippled across the sky.

“You defend him.”
“You love him.”

It wasn’t a question. It was an accusation.

I forced myself to meet her silver gaze. “Yes.”

For a moment, the Goddess looked stunned.

Then the earth cracked beneath her feet.

“The last Luna who loved a Silver Moon Alpha helped bind me,” she said, her voice growing colder, sharper, more brittle. “And now history repeats itself.”

I stepped back as fissures of light spidered across the meadow. My wolf whined, sensing danger we couldn’t outrun.

“What do you want from me?” I whispered.

Her gaze softened in a way that terrified me even more. “Freedom. Justice. Balance.” She tilted her head. “But you, Scarlett, want something too. You want your body back. Your voice. Your choices.”

The ground dissolved beneath us, and suddenly I was falling—not downward but inward—plunging into a sea of memories that weren’t mine.

I saw a young girl standing beneath the first full moon.
I saw betrayal. Torture. Chains of silver burning into celestial skin.
I saw men wearing the Silver Moon crest binding her with ancient spells.
I saw her howl with grief as her magic was ripped from her.

And then I saw something I never expected:

Her face twisted not with rage, but with heartbreak.

She had been in love with the Alpha who betrayed her. A love that ended with her being sealed away.

When the visions ended, I was trembling.

“That is why I cannot trust your mate,” she said. “Why I cannot allow another Silver Moon Alpha to bind me.”

I forced air into my lungs. “But John isn’t them. He’s fighting to break the curse.”

“Perhaps.” She walked closer, lifting her hand until it hovered just above my cheek. “But you cannot save him and save yourself. One path destroys the other.”

My throat tightened. “What are you saying?”

The Goddess’s expression softened into a cruel pity. “To reclaim your body… to silence me… you must sever the curse’s anchor.”

I waited.

And then she whispered the words that shattered something deep inside me.

“You must kill John.”

I stumbled back, shaking my head violently. “No. No, I won’t. I can’t.”

“You must.” Her voice was gentle. Too gentle. “His bloodline binds me. As long as he lives, I cannot be expelled. I will only grow stronger. And soon, he will be the first mind I take after yours.”

A suffocating dread wrapped around my heart.

“He is the reason I am in you,” she continued. “He is the reason your world is dying. His line cast the first chain. Only his death will break the last.”

“Stop,” I breathed. “Please—stop.”

She watched me with an expression that almost resembled sadness. “You love him. But love has never saved anyone in my story. It only damned us all.”

“John is not his ancestor,” I whispered.

“History does not need a willing hand,” she replied. “Only a repeating pattern.”

A roar of wind swept the meadow, shaking the sky like a sheet of torn cloth. The Goddess lifted her arms, moonlight swirling around her like a storm.

“When you awaken,” she said, “you will feel him coming. Your bond will pull you toward him. And you will have a choice.”

Her voice dropped to a whisper that scraped like ice along my spine.

“Save yourself, or save him.”

The meadow burst into blinding silver light.

I gasped awake, choking on air, lying on a cold stone.

My limbs trembled. My body felt both mine and not mine. But the bond pulsed like a heartbeat.

John was near. Closer than he had been in days. Running toward me.

The Goddess's final words echoed through my mind:

Kill him, or be consumed.

My heart cracked in half.

Because for the first time since this nightmare began…

I didn’t know which choice would truly save us.