Chapter 204 AURORA

His jaw clenched, and for a moment, I saw the flash of pain in his face... not from his injuries, but from the helplessness of watching me fight alone.

And with this, the Nameless presses his advantage, attacking relentlessly to shower his blows upon me.

With every strike, the lair ripples with the shockwave that forces the pack to huddle for protection behind crumbling walls.

“She’s losing,” someone says, his voice trembling.

“No,” Piper snaps, her tone razor-sharp. “Aurora’s stronger than any of us. She’ll find a way.”

But even as she says it, doubt flickers in her eyes.

I call on the Moon Goddess’s power once more, the pendant at my chest ablaze with light. The energy courses through me, wild and untrammeled, filling every corner of my being.

The strain is beyond endurance. My vision blurs, my limbs shake, and my heart feels as if it will burst. The Goddess’s whispering in my mind is barely audible but relentless.

You cannot wield this power without cost.

“I don’t care,” I whisper, my voice hoarse. “I have to end this.”

The Nameless roars, his body expanding, the shadows around him darkening, churning wildly. His power is huge—smothering. I know this is it—his last stand.

“You will fall,” he growls. Words that boom like thunder in my ears. “You and everything you love will be consumed.”

“Not today,” I return, putting every last ounce of energy I have into one final attack.

Light exploded from me in a blinding wave, merging with the shadows of the Nameless in that cacophony of clashing powers that had shaken the earth to its foundations. Everyone went flying across the ground—the lair crumbled with us.

The Nameless was screaming, dissolving as a form from under the flood of light, and for just one moment I felt a fickle surge of triumph… until the backlash did indeed hit me.

Energy surges back toward me, sheer force overwhelming… The scream is ripped from my lungs, the pendant shattered against my chest as the last of the Moon Goddess’ power leaves me.

Pain racks my body, but it’s the emptiness that really terrifies me. The connection to the pack, the bond that has always been my anchor, is gone.

The lair goes silent; the Nameless is defeated. But the aftermath is immediate, and it’s brutal.

“Aurora!” Dane’s voice filters through, and then he’s there, his hands on my shoulders, his eyes wild.

“I’m… I’m okay,” I say, even though the words seem empty.

He shakes his head, the look in his eyes incredulous. “You’re not. Your eyes… Aurora, the bond is gone.”

I nod, the reality sinking in. “The power… it’s gone too. I’m mortal now.”

The weight of those words settles between us, a chasm that feels impossible to bridge.

The pack closes in, their faces marked by both relief and grief.

For though the Nameless may be defeated, the injuries and destruction in his wake certainly are not. Piper approaches, her face twisted in anger and sadness.

“You did it,” she says, her voice full of emotion. “But at what cost?”

“I don’t know,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper.

We left the lair as the battle took its toll upon us all, but what the pack could have become died the night before in more ways than just battle damage.

Holden can never be replaced, leaving a large void, same as Trajan, inside the bond the pack shares with one another, a fracture to my relationship within the pack; I was lost.

Still, I know looking upon Dane and Piper, along with the others, that we would persevere.

“We’ll rebuild,” Dane says. His voice is steady.

I nod, taking hold of the spark in his words to comfort me. “Together.”

Morning sun paints came, catching up on edges of broken stone and charred wood at Broken Ridge.

This once vibrant pack house now lay weak in wrecked splendor, reminding me with immediate effect of how close to death we’d fought a pitched battle.

I sit beside the old garden, the smell of damp soil combined with the subtle scent of ash in my nostrils.

My fingers trace through the dirt, finding its coolness, but the feeling of loss weighs on my chest.

Dane is near. I can sense it as surely as I feel the warmth of the sun upon my skin, but he keeps his distance.

We haven’t spoken since the Nameless fell. There’s too much unsaid between us, too many wounds yet to heal.

A voice cuts through the silence—smooth and unfamiliar.

“You’ve been busy, haven’t you, Luna?”

I spin around, my heart racing.

At the edge of the garden, a tall, silver-haired werewolf is leaning casually against a tree.

His eyes, two gleaming disks of gold, seem to pierce through me with an intensity that runs a shiver down my spine.

“Who are you?” I demand, rising to my feet with muscles coiled.

He steps forward; his movements fluid, unhurried, as though he has all the time in the world.

“Elias,” he says, the rich melodious sweetness of his voice like a whispered promise. “A name which you won’t find in your histories, but one that belongs here nonetheless.”

I narrow my eyes, peering into his face for even the slightest trace of familiarity. “I don’t know you.”

His lips curve into a faint, knowing smile. “No, but you know what I am. A ghost of the past, you might say. One of the original members of this pack, back when Broken Ridge was little more than a dream.”

My breath catches. “That’s impossible.”

“Is it?” he echoes, unrelenting in his stare. “You have seen impossible things, have you? The Nameless. The Moon Goddess. You think that with them it stops?”

I step into the clearing, and Dane’s frame becomes a block, arresting my escalating distress. His gaze searches for and captures Elias.

“Who is he?” Dane asks, an edge to his voice.

“Elias,” I reply, much softer.

“Convenient,” Dane says, his eyes never leaving the stranger. “You show up right after we defeat the Nameless, claiming to be from some forgotten past. Why are you here?”

Elias chuckles a soft, malignant sound.

“I am here because the balance has shifted. The Nameless was a keystone in a much larger structure. With him gone, the cracks are beginning to show.”

“Speak plainly,” Dane snaps, his patience wearing thin.

Elias tilted his head, gold glinting with humor in his eyes. “There is a curse that binds with this land… one that has been dormant for centuries. The defeat of the Nameless has… stirred it.”

Piper and Warrick drew closer, pulled by the weight of tension. Piper’s face flickered with curiosity and wariness, and Warrick narrowed his eyes to study Elias.

“And why should we trust you?” Warrick says heavily with skepticism. “For all we know, you’re another threat dressed up like a friend.”

Elias doesn’t look at him; his smile doesn’t falter. “I could be. But if I were your enemy, would I have warned you about the curse? Would I offer to help?”

“With what?” Piper cuts in sharply.

“Understanding what’s to come,” Elias says smoothly.

“The defeat of the Nameless has unbalanced the power binding this territory. If you do nothing, Broken Ridge will crumble—not from an outside force, but from within.”

He leads us through the forest, his confident stride suggesting he knows every inch of the land. Dane stays close to me, tension rolling off him, while Piper and Warrick exchange wary glances.

“Where are we going?” I ask, uneasy with the silence.

“To the heart of it all,” Elias says cryptically.

Finally, after an eternity, we break out into a clearing. In the center of it lies a weathered stone—faced with strange runes that glow, the air around humming in a faint vibration that puts my nerves on edge.

“What is this?” I whisper, stepping closer.

Elias reaches out and touches the stone. His face is almost reverent. “The heartstone of Broken Ridge. It’s connected to the land, to the pack, to everything that makes this place what it is.”

“And what does it have to do with the curse?” Dane asks, his voice hard.

“The heartstone holds the truth,” Elias replies, “the history of this land, the choices that formed it, the consequences of those choices. It comes at a price to unlock its secrets.”

I hesitate, my gaze fixed upon the runes which seem to pulse in time with my heartbeat.

“What kind of price?” I ask, barely above a whisper.