Chapter 134

Elora’s POV

My chest squeezes up tight, first that low, annoying ache, then bam, it’s like a fist yanks the air right out of my lungs. I open my mouth to say I’m fine, but nope, the words just... melt. The room spins and goes all watercolor blurry.

“Elora?” Dante’s voice, all echoey and weird, comes at me from somewhere underwater.

Then the universe just flips sideways.

The floor's gone. I’m weightless, but someone’s arms are strong; catch me before I faceplant. My head lolls back. I hear Dominic yelling for the healer, but his voice is just noise, buried under this ringing that’s taken over my brain.

“Elora, look at me!” Dante’s voice cracks, desperate. He grabs for my wrist, checking for a pulse. I catch a glimpse of his eyes, those ridiculous golden eyes that always made me feel safe, they’re wide with panic now.

“I can’t... she’s not...” the healer stammers, and honestly, that’s not what you want to hear right now.

Everything dissolves into chaos. Hands everywhere, pressing cold clothes to my skin. I can’t feel any of it. My vision flickers. Dominic’s hand clamped on mine, Dante’s lips moving in silent prayer, candlelight sputtering out. Fragments.

I try to breathe. Nothing happens.

Then it hits, two wild, guttural roars rip through the air. Their wolves.

The sound shakes the walls and rattles my bones. My body twitches, once, twice. I want to yell, “Hey, I hear you! I’m still here!” But I’m already slipping.

Something weird and warm spreads through me, soft and endless. The pain? Gone. Fear? Just... drifts away. And then light.

Not the blinding, “oh no, am I dead?” kind.

Suddenly, I’m standing barefoot on water that glows like stars. The air hums, and my heart’s beating, but it feels like it belongs to someone else. I turn and there she is. Tall, radiant, eyes like starlight.

The Moon Goddess.

It’s not the beauty that shocks me. It’s the way she looks at me, like she’s always known everything about me.

“Am I dead?” My voice is tiny in all that quiet.

She smiles, softly. “No, child. You're in between.”

“Between?”

“Between what your heart wants,” she says, voice gentle, “and what your soul needs.”

Confused, I shake my head. “I don’t get it. I love Dante. He’s my mate.”

Her gaze gets all heavy and sad. “You love him, truly… but your heart doesn’t beat for him alone.”

That hits like a block of ice. “No,” I whisper. “I would never…”

She cuts in with a look. “Then why does your wolf answer to two?”

I freeze, gut-punched. Suddenly it’s all there... Dominic steadying me when I was falling apart, his quiet laugh that soothed my nightmares, his touch, dammit, that made something forbidden spark under my skin.

Tears leak out. “I didn’t ask for this.”

“Nobody ever does,” she murmurs. “Love isn’t about rules or bonds or blood. It just is.”

My throat burns. “So why does it hurt so much?”

“Because you were made to love big,” she steps closer, “but the world only wants you to pick one.”

The water ripples under my feet. There’s tugging, voices... Dante is desperate, and Dominic is pleading. My body’s still somewhere down there, chaos swirling around, but up here? It’s just quiet. Peaceful.

“Am I going to die?” I choke out.

The Goddess brushes her thumb across my cheek, and warmth floods through me. “That’s not set,” she says. “You’re at a crossroads, Elora. Two souls, two halves, both real, both yours.”

Her eyes flash with something ancient, wild. “You can’t belong to one when your heart refuses to choose.”

I just stare at her, totally shocked. Like, what now? What am I even supposed to do?

She just shrugs, or maybe it’s more graceful than saying, “Live.” Like it’s the simplest thing in the world. “Let them see what love actually is. Show them your heart isn’t some trophy... It’s a damn lantern. Share it.”

Her words bounce around my head, refusing to settle. I open my mouth to ask something... anything... but the world refuses to come out. Colors drain out. The silver water goes black. Suddenly the air’s splitting apart, filled with a mess of voices, people yelling, desperate, begging me to come back.

That warmth, the one I didn’t know I needed, slips away. Now it’s just cold, sharp, unforgiving. I gasp, like I’ve been drowning for hours. My lungs are on fire. Someone’s voice cracks straight through me, raw and panicked, shoving my name through the dark.

“Elora!”

It’s Dante. I feel his hands shaking on my shoulders. Dominic’s there too, cradling my head so gently.

“She’s alive.” I catch it, barely a whisper, a prayer, disbelief tilting into hope. I feel it too, this weird rush of relief slamming through whatever’s left of our bond.

My eyes finally find theirs. My chest’s doing its best impression of a broken drum. My voice scratches out like it’s forgotten how to work. “I saw her.”

Dante’s face is a mess, tears everywhere. He leans in, voice all tangled. “Who?”

“The Moon Goddess.”

Dominic’s jaw goes granite. “What did she say?”

I look from one to the other, my heart racing for the wrong reason. “She said I can’t just pick one,” I whisper, almost ashamed. “Not when I’m in love with both of you.”

Everything freezes. Nobody says a word, but I see it all, the hurt, the fear, the understanding that shouldn’t be possible.

Nothing moves for ages. Dante just bows his head and grabs my hand. Dominic’s palm settles over my chest, feeling for the heartbeat he almost lost.

Two hands, two hearts, and me, stuck right in the chaos.

And somewhere inside, the Goddess’s voice slides back in, soft as a secret, sharp as a slap:

“The curse of love isn’t having to choose. It’s loving too hard... loving too much.”