Chapter 53 THE WOLF WHO LOVES THE LUNA
Ethan had always known this moment would come.
He just never believed it would hurt this much.
The forest lay quiet around him, too quiet, as if the land itself held its breath. Moonlight filtered weakly through the canopy, casting pale streaks across the ground where Ethan stood alone, fists clenched, chest tight with a pain he could not shift away.
Amanda was alive.
He could feel that much.
The bond that was never meant to exist still tugged at him, faint but undeniable. Not a mate bond. Not an Alpha command. Something far more dangerous.
Choice.
He pressed his palm against his chest, fingers digging into flesh as if pain could ground him. Every instinct screamed the same truth his heart had tried to deny since the moment Andrew marked her.
She was not meant for him.
And yet.
The world had never cared what was meant to be.
Ethan had watched her fall into Andrew’s arms earlier, pale and shaking, stripped of the power that once set her apart. Mortal. Bleeding. Fragile.
And Andrew had looked at her like she was already dying.
That fear frightened Ethan more than the abyss ever had.
Andrew would burn the world to protect her.
And that would destroy them all.
A branch snapped behind him.
Ethan did not turn.
“I wondered when you would come,” he said quietly.
Angela stepped into the moonlight, her movements slower than usual, her posture stiff. Shadows clung to her skin unnaturally, slipping beneath her eyes, curling along her throat like bruises that breathed.
“You should not be alone,” she said softly.
Ethan finally faced her.
For the first time, he saw it clearly.
She was unraveling.
“What did you do,” he asked, voice low.
Angela smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. “I believed in something bigger than fear.”
“That is not an answer.”
She stepped closer, lowering her voice. “I believed the Luna power could be taken. Redirected. Rewritten. I believed the abyss would choose me.”
Ethan felt cold spread through his chest. “And now”
Angela’s hand trembled as she pressed it to her heart. “Now it is punishing me.”
The wind shifted.
Ethan’s wolf stirred uneasily.
“You tied yourself to her,” he said slowly. “Didn’t you”
Angela’s breath caught.
Silence answered him.
His eyes darkened. “You bound your life force to Amanda’s.”
Angela laughed weakly. “I needed leverage.”
“You made yourself dependent on her survival,” Ethan continued, horror dawning. “Every wound she takes bleeds into you. Every choice she makes rewrites your fate.”
Her smile cracked. “I did not expect her to choose mortality.”
Ethan stepped back, disgust and fear mixing violently. “You chained yourself to the one person who would never protect you.”
Angela’s gaze hardened. “She is human now. Weak.”
“No,” Ethan snapped. “She is dangerous now.”
Angela flinched.
“She does not dominate,” Ethan went on. “She influences. She does not command loyalty. She earns it. That kind of power reshapes worlds.”
Angela’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Then help me stop her.”
The forest seemed to recoil.
Ethan stared at her in disbelief. “You want me to betray my brother.”
“I want you to survive,” Angela said sharply. “Andrew will lose himself protecting her. The packs will challenge him. War is coming. And when it does, Amanda will be the target.”
Ethan turned away, jaw tight.
Because she was right.
But not in the way Angela believed.
“She does not need to be stopped,” Ethan said quietly. “She needs to be protected.”
Angela’s laugh was bitter. “You love her.”
It was not a question.
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
The word felt like a wound tearing open.
“I have loved her since before I understood what that meant,” he continued. “Since she stood between violence and mercy and chose neither. Since she bled and still refused to break.”
Angela’s face twisted. “She will never choose you.”
“I know.”
The truth hurt more than claws ever could.
“But loving her does not mean possessing her,” Ethan said. “It means standing where I am needed. Even if it destroys me.”
Angela stepped back, fury blazing. “Then you are a fool.”
“No,” Ethan replied. “I am a wolf who knows when the moon does not belong to him.”
A sharp pain suddenly lanced through Angela’s chest.
She gasped, dropping to one knee.
Ethan stiffened instantly.
Amanda.
Something was wrong.
Far away, through bond and instinct alike, Ethan felt a surge of danger ripple outward like a scream swallowed by distance.
Not attack.
Capture.
Ethan’s eyes snapped to the darkness beyond the trees.
“She is taken,” he whispered.
Angela clutched her chest, breathing hard. “That is impossible.”
Ethan’s wolf surged violently beneath his skin. “Nothing about this world is impossible anymore.”
He turned sharply toward the deeper forest.
Angela reached for him. “Ethan wait.”
He stopped only long enough to look back.
“If she dies,” he said coldly, “you die with her.”
Then he vanished into the shadows, speed tearing through the trees, heart pounding with one terrible truth burning through him.
Andrew would burn kingdoms.
But Ethan would cross every line to bring her back.
And the world was not ready for the wolf who loved the Luna enough to let her go.