Chapter 68 AFTERMATH
Damien’s POV
The moon hangs too still tonight.
Too bright.
Too full.
Too wrong.
Its silver light spills over the treetops like a frozen wave, painting everything in an unnatural glow that raises the hairs on the back of my neck. Even the shadows look sharper, as if they’ve grown teeth.
I stand at the tree line, boots sinking slightly into the damp earth. The air is thick—humid in a way the night never is here—charged with a metallic tension that tastes like lightning about to strike. I stare into the Shadow Woods as if staring long enough might bend reality and force her back out.
My hands shake at my sides.
My lungs burn with breath I keep forgetting to release.
Everything is quiet.
Too quiet.
Not peaceful—but watchful.
Like the entire forest is holding its breath with me.
I lost her.
No…
she walked away.
And I let her.
Her scent lingers on the wind—lavender, moonlight, soft warmth—but instead of easing the storm inside me, it carves deeper, slicing slow, merciless lines down my chest. Every breath I take feels like memory pressed against open wounds.
Footsteps shift behind me—slow, deliberate, careful. Even the ground seems to muffle them.
Garron.
He stops just out of reach, as if afraid of touching my grief. “Alpha… you need to rest.”
“I’m not leaving this place.”
His breath stutters. I can hear the struggle in it—the desire to comfort me, the fear of making it worse. “She’s gone, Damien.”
My jaw locks until pain shoots up into my temples.
“I know.”
But my wolf snarls viciously inside me. Because it’s a lie. She’s not gone. Not truly. Not completely.
I still feel her.
Somewhere deep within the forest, something tugs at the broken edge of our bond. Not warmth. Not the familiar tether that once anchored us. Something colder. Older. Ancient.
A pulse like moonlight carved from ice.
It feels wrong.
It feels powerful.
It feels like her…
but not her.
Garron shifts nervously beside me. “What happened to her?”
“I don’t know,” I whisper, though the truth claws behind my eyes, replaying again and again.
Her tear-streaked face.
Her trembling lips.
Her fingers slipping from mine.
The shadows swallowing her like they’d been waiting.
The acceptance in her eyes—as if she knew she wouldn’t return.
And I did nothing.
Did not fight for her.
Did not stop her.
Did not follow.
Coward.
The word stings like a dagger slipped beneath my ribs.
My wolf snarls, pacing in circles, tearing at the inside of my thoughts. I drag a hand through my hair and begin pacing too, muscles burning with the need to act. To fight. To rip open the forest with my bare hands until I find her. Even if it kills me. Even if it damns me.
A tremor shakes the earth.
The ground ripples under my boots. Birds burst from the trees, scattering like shards of darkness against the too-bright moon.
We freeze.
The moon flickers.
For a heartbeat, a crack splits across its glowing surface. Jagged. Wrong. Then the light smooths over it like nothing happened.
“Damien—” Garron whispers.
Another tremor hits—stronger. Trees sway though there is no wind. Leaves rattle like bones.
Then—
A column of silver light erupts deep inside the forest.
Not soft.
Not gentle.
An explosion—violent, blinding, divine.
My breath punches out of me.
“Selene.”
Her name tears from my throat like something breaking loose.
Garron lunges forward, grabbing my arm. “Alpha—wait! You can’t go in there!”
“I’m going.”
“That place kills wolves!”
“I don’t care!”
My wolf roars, pushing against my skin, desperate to run, to reach her, to tear apart anything in the way. My muscles tense, ready to sprint into the trees no matter the danger—
But then—
The moonlight shifts again.
Slow.
Eerie.
Deliberate.
A silver wave rolls across the forest canopy, washing every branch, every leaf, every shadow in light that feels… aware.
A shiver crawls down my spine.
Something brushes the edge of my mind.
Not a voice.
Not words.
Emotion.
A tidal wave of sorrow and fear so deep it knocks the breath from my lungs.
She’s alive.
Alive… but hurting.
My fists clench until my nails pierce my palms. I take a step toward the tree line—
—AND FALL.
My knees slam into the dirt. A crushing force grips my chest, squeezing until my ribs creak. A stabbing pain tears through my skull, white-hot, merciless.
What—what is this?
My wolf howls, thrashing in agony.
My vision blurs. The forest tilts. My breath shatters into ragged gasps. I claw at the earth, fighting whatever invisible hand is crushing me into the ground.
“Selene!” I choke out, voice cracking. “What’s happening to you?”
Flashes explode behind my eyes—
Silver tearing open the earth.
Runes flaring like dying gods.
Her body rising in a vortex of light.
Her hair whipping like molten metal.
Her scream—raw, agonized—echoing through my skull.
I taste blood. I don’t know if it’s mine.
She’s transforming.
Becoming something untouchable.
Something older than wolves.
Older than kings.
Older than the Moonfire itself.
Something I cannot reach.
Cannot stop.
Cannot protect.
My wolf whimpers—a broken sound I have never heard from him. The pain slices deeper. The visions end abruptly, leaving me gasping, shaking uncontrollably. My palms dig into the earth as if the world might tilt off its axis.
Garron drops to his knees beside me. “Alpha—what was that? What did you see?”
“I felt her,” I breathe. “I felt all of it.”
“And?”
I lift my head slowly.
My voice is wrecked. Barely human.
“She’s becoming something else.”
Garron’s face drains of color. His eyes flick toward the glowing forest, fear widening them. “Damien… is she… alive?”
“Yes.” The word cracks. “But she’s not the same.”
The forest pulses again—soft, rhythmic, like a heartbeat echoing through the ground. Selene’s heartbeat. Selene’s power.
The air shifts—cool, then warm, then electric. Leaves rustle without wind. Shadows ripple as if startled.
He swallows hard. “Then what do we do?”
“We wait.”
Garron’s eyes widen. “Wait? You? Damien—this is Selene—”
“I know who she is.” My voice drops to a whisper. “And I know what the forest just showed me.”
The truth sinks into me like cold water.
“She’s changing. But she’s not gone. Not yet.”
I stare into the glowing woods, heart splintering open.
“Hold on, Selene,” I whisper into the night. “Hold on. I’m coming for you.”
And the forest answers with a pulse of silver light as if it already knows that I will.