Chapter 144
Adrian Valehart.
I was drifting.
But not with human feet.
When I looked down—if I could still call it “looking”—I saw paws. Large. Covered in dark fur I recognized as mine and yet… not mine.
It was my wolf.
As if, finally, there was no separation between us.
I was him.
He was me.
The place… had no place.
Everything was white. A cold, silent white that reflected no sound, no scent, no direction.
There was no wind. No true ground. No sky.
I walked—or ran—and nothing changed.
No matter how fast I moved, the space around me stayed exactly the same.
Infinite. Empty.
Was this hell?
I had no idea.
All I knew was that the worst part wasn’t the emptiness.
It was the awareness.
Because I remembered the gunshot.
The sharp, brutal impact.
The searing pain that lasted only a moment.
I remembered the warm blood running down my face.
I remembered Sofia’s eyes the last time I saw her.
That thought made me growl—a deep, lonely sound swallowed instantly by that endless blank world.
“Sofia…”
I tried to speak, but my voice came out as a muted howl.
I needed to get out.
I needed to go back.
She had been taken. I felt it—like a bullet still lodged in my chest. A piece of me ripped away.
The bond… broken—
but not dead.
I started running.
I ran harder than I ever had in my life.
My paws are cutting through nothing.
My whole body was driven by panic and desperation.
But the faster I ran, the more the world refused to change.
Still white.
Still silent.
Still endless.
Until I heard something.
Far away.
A sound that didn’t belong there.
At first I thought I was imagining it.
But then the white around me began to move—twisting, spinning so fast the world blurred. And when it stopped abruptly, I stumbled forward.
In front of me… the moon appeared.
Not in the sky.
Right there.
Massive.
Close enough to swallow the world whole.
Its light was so intense it hurt.
And then—
It changed.
The white dissolved into red.
Not a mild red—
a deep, living crimson.
“What…?” I thought, panic rising.
Then a voice appeared.
Not from a direction.
From everything.
“You died, little pup.”
Dead…
So it was true.
I really had died.
But Sofia—
“No,” I growled. “I can’t stay here.”
As if responding to my desperation, another presence rippled through the void.
A distant murmur, like voices underwater.
And then… her voice.
My mother.
“There he is…” she said, her tone different—broken, strained to its limit. “Please… I’m begging you.”
I froze.
Never—
Never in my life had I heard my mother beg.
“Mother?” I called, turning, searching. “Where are you?”
I couldn’t see her.
But I could feel her.
An ancient, raspy voice answered—older than the moon itself:
“That is not possible. The Mother Moon has already chosen. She is the one who takes the children.”
“You’re right,” my mother replied. “Only the Mother can take them. And only she can give life.”
Silence.
Then the ancient voice returned, slower, almost intrigued:
“You are right. Only the Mother can take him. Only the Mother can give life.”
“What’s happening?” I thought, fear and confusion knotting inside me. “Mother? What are you doing?”
“Just listen,” whispered the voice from the moon.
And I did.
“I want you to exchange,” my mother said. “I give everything I have, for you to return the life I created. I give everything that exists in me, one last time.”
No.
“What? No!” I snarled, disbelief flooding me. “Don’t do this!”
But she didn’t hear me.
“You know there is no going back, Elenna,” said the ancient voice.
“I know,” she answered without hesitation. “I decided long ago—before he was even born—when I gave my life to the purpose of seeing him at the top, as Supreme Alpha.”
A weight settled over me.
Soft pressure, like a hand brushing over my head.
Through my hair.
A gesture she’d done when I was a child—rare, but unforgettable.
And slowly…
Slowly, I began to feel my body again.
Not the wolf’s.
Mine.
“I prepared everything for him,” my mother continued, voice breaking but still proud. “I sacrificed everything so he would have power, so he would conquer the world. It would be hypocrisy not to finish what I started.”
My chest tightened.
“Mother…” I whispered, agony tearing through every word. “Why…?”
In the end, she had always loved in her own way.
Deep.
Fatal.
Absolute.
“Elenna Valehart…” said the ancient voice.
A pause.
“…No.”
A correction. Firm.
“Elena D’arven. The ritual will be performed.”
The red of the moon grew brighter.
“Do not forget…” warned the voice. “The ritual can fail. And the place you’re going… no wolf returns from it. Not in this life. Not the next. Not any of the others.”
The consequence of interfering with the cycle of the moon.
“I know,” my mother said. “I already made my decision.”
The world began to dissolve.
The white.
The red.
The moon.
All swallowed by darkness.
And the last thing I felt before everything vanished
was the weight of her sacrifice—
the price I had to pay
to finally understand what I was meant to be.