Chapter 178 Ethan Monroe

Chapter 178 Ethan Monroe
Luna’s POV

Three days after the Blood Moon, they finally found Ethan’s body below the ruins of Crescent Valley High. Or what remained of it.
The gymnasium had collapsed completely after the seal ritual, leaving half the school buried under stone, twisted steel, and ash. Rescue teams….human and wolf alike now….worked through the wreckage in exhausted silence.
Nobody in Crescent Valley pretended anymore.

The supernatural world had become impossible to hide. Too many people had seen the wolves. Too many people had died. The truth was out now.
Military barricades surrounded the town while emergency crews moved survivors into temporary shelters. News helicopters circled constantly overhead, though most reporters were kept far from the forest.

Still, rumors spread everywhere, of animal mutations, terror attacks, and government experiments.

Humans always searched for explanations they could survive emotionally.
The real truth was harder.
Monsters had existed beside them all along. And sometimes….
Monsters were once human.

Rain fell softly across the destroyed school grounds as I stood near the collapsed gymnasium wrapped in Kai’s jacket. The cold no longer bothered me much. Not after the transformation. My senses had changed permanently now.
I could hear distant heartbeats. Smell blood through the rain and feel emotions lingering around people like heat under the skin. Part of me hated it.
Another part had already accepted it.
Kai stood beside me silently while workers carefully lifted broken concrete from the ruins.

No one spoke much anymore. Not after everything.
Selene approached from behind us slowly and was unusually quiet for once. Her dark hair moved in the wind while her sharp gray eyes stayed fixed on the wreckage ahead.

“They found the ritual chamber,” she said softly.

My chest tightened immediately and Kai’s hand touched mine instinctively.
Anchor is still there and still real. I swallowed hard.
“And Ethan?”

Selene hesitated. That alone told me enough.
“They found him with the seal blade.”

Pain hit harder than expected. Because part of me had still hoped.
Even after seeing the ritual consume him under the Blood Moon… even after watching the silver light tear through the hierarchy itself…
Some irrational part of me thought maybe Ethan survived. Maybe because Ethan had always been tied to my human life.
My childhood. My normality. The version of myself that existed before wolves and bloodlines and destiny.

Losing Ethan felt like losing the final piece of that old world forever.
The rescue workers finally stepped aside. And I saw him.
My breath caught painfully. I saw Ethan lying below the broken remains of the gym floor, one hand still wrapped around the ritual blade embedded in the stone under him.

The dark markings covering his body were gone now.
So were the shadows that always seemed to follow him toward the end.
For the first time in months….

He looked peaceful and human. Tears burned my eyes instantly, as Kai stayed beside me but didn’t speak. He understood this grief belonged to me.
I stepped carefully into the ruined chamber, rain dripping through cracks overhead while memories hit me one after another: Ethan teaching me to ride a bike when we were kids, walking me home after school, laughing beside the lake during summer, looking at me like I mattered even before I understood who I was.

Then later: his jealousy, his fear, his obsession, and his mistakes. And finally….
His sacrifice.
I knelt beside him slowly. “You idiot,” I whispered shakily.

My voice broke immediately. Because now I understood the truth about Ethan better than I ever had before. He wasn’t weak and he wasn’t evil.
He was human in the most tragic way possible and Ethan loved too hard.
That was his flaw. And his downfall.

He spent so long trying to save me from the supernatural world that eventually he let darkness consume him piece by piece. Every forbidden ritual, every dangerous alliance, and every terrible choice, started from fear of losing me.

Not power and not domination. It was fear. The same fear that destroyed so many people throughout history. The same fear that created the First Wolf and that realization hurt the most.

The story had never really been about wolves alone. It was about what fear turns people into when they refuse to let go.
Ethan feared becoming irrelevant. Feared losing me to Kai and feared being powerless in a changing world. So he chased control. And the more control he chased…
The more he lost himself. Until the very end. That was why his final choice mattered.
Because when it truly counted, Ethan stopped trying to possess fate, he stopped trying to force outcomes, and stopped trying to control me.
Instead….
He chose sacrifice. He chose humanity. And maybe that was the most important lesson of all. Power alone never saved anyone. Choice did.
I looked down at Ethan’s still face through blurred vision.
“You came back to yourself,” I whispered softly.

The rain intensified overhead.
For a moment, silence filled the ruined chamber except for distant thunder beyond Crescent Forest. Then Kai finally stepped closer behind me.
“He saved all of us.”

I nodded slowly. “Yes.”

And somehow….
That made the grief worse. Because heroes were easier to hate when they survived long enough to become villains. Ethan never got that chance.
He died in the middle of becoming better again.

Selene stood quietly near the entrance of the chamber watching us.
Even she looked affected.
“That ritual should’ve destroyed him instantly,” she murmured.

I wiped my eyes carefully. “Why didn’t it?”

Selene looked toward the broken seal under Ethan’s body. “Because he held it together manually.”

Cold realization slid through me.
No.
Kai understood too.

“He stayed inside the collapsing seal…”

“…to make sure it closed completely,” Selene finished quietly.

The image nearly shattered me. Ethan is alone below the collapsing hierarchy. Holding the ritual together while the Blood Moon tore the town apart around him. Knowing he wouldn’t survive.
And still choosing to stay. I closed my eyes painfully.
Then slowly…
I reached forward and removed the ritual blade from Ethan’s hand.
Silver light flickered once across the metal before fading completely.
The seal was stable now, the First Wolf was gone and the war had ended.
But the cost of that peace would stay with me forever.

I looked toward the ruined ceiling where dawn light slowly broke through the storm clouds.
Then softly, almost like a promise, I whispered…
“I won’t waste what you gave us, Ethan.”