Bonus Arc The Rebuilding Era – 3 Ethan’s POV – Moonstone Clearing The sky was open. No clouds. No omen. Just stars. The forest had gone quiet in reverence. He stood in the center of the moonstone circle barefoot, heart pounding, the silk of his ceremonial robes clinging to skin still marked by battles. He wasn't Alpha tonight. Just a man. In love. Silas stepped into the circle barefoot too. No armor. No mask. Just him beautiful in soft gray, a sash wrapped around his chest like an offering. Their eyes met. And nothing else mattered. Silas’s POV – Under the Moon He’d dreamed of this once. When he still believed in fated mates. Before prophecies. Before knives and chains. Now, standing here, looking at Ethan He didn’t need a myth to tell him what this was. He knew. Ethan held out a single black thread. Silas held a white one. They tied it around each other’s left wrists, binding bone to pulse. It wasn’t magic. It was a choice. Ritual Vow (spoken in mangy languag
Bonus Arc The Rebuilding Era – 2Nina’s POV – Crescent Healers’ CompoundThe light here never felt clean.Even the air smelled of damp herbs and dusted shame.She sat alone in the inner chamber. No chains. No guards.That was the punishment.Not being restrainedBut being free enough to feel it.The door creaked.Selene stepped in, again without a crown.She always did that. Walked in like herself. Not her title.“Your sentence has been confirmed,” Selene said. “No prison. No exile.”Nina blinked. “What then?”“You’re to stay here,” Selene answered. “Under the Healers. You’ll work. Serve. Study. Repay.”“For how long?”Selene didn’t flinch.“Until you stop seeing redemption as a trick.”Marcus’s POV – Crescent Garden CourtyardSilas was already there.Kneeling, weeding the overgrown roots beneath a moon tree that refused to bloom.Marcus stepped into the sunlight cautiously.Silas didn’t look up. “You used to hate gardens.”“I still do,” Marcus said, settling beside him. “But I hated
One Year LaterLocation The Borderlands SanctuaryThe world didn’t end.It just… softened.They built it slowly stone by stone, vow by vow.Not a kingdom. Not a throne.A home.Far from Crescent’s rigid towers.Far from Red Moon’s bloodstained soil.A sanctuary carved from peace.Silas knelt by the garden bed, fingers sunk in the warm earth. His bond mark was still there but it didn’t burn anymore.It pulsed like a heartbeat.Like a reminder.Ethan emerged from the cabin, shirt loose, hair wet from the spring, holding two mugs of wild mint tea.“You’re still planting lavender?” Ethan asked with a grin.Silas smirked. “She said it’s good for wounds.”“She also said I’d lose my left arm. And yet…” Ethan raised his arm, flexing playfully.Silas rolled his eyes and took the tea. “Miracles happen.”They sat on the porch together shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee. The forest beyond their land whispered with life.No guards.No politics.No fear.Just the wind.And them.Letter Fragment – S
Silas POV – Hollow Spine, Eclipse AltarBlood hit the altar.But it wasn’t Ethan’s.It wasn’t Lucien’s.It was his.Silas drove the dagger into his own shoulder deep, clean, deliberate.The altar sizzled. The stone lit with runes that hadn’t glowed in centuries.Lucien stumbled back, shocked. “What have you done?”Silas breathed through the pain. “I ended it on my own terms.”Silas’s POV – Hollow Spine, After the EclipseThe altar was cold now.Quiet.The runes had faded, leaving behind only bloodstains and cracked stone.Silas stood beneath the breaking skywhere the moonlight no longer bled.Ethan was beside him, his hand steady on Silas’s back. Silent.Selene stepped forward.She looked like a ghost wrapped in silver fire. And yet, somehow, she felt more real than anything in this world.“I’m not here to rule,” she said softly.“I’m here to end the rot.”Lucien knelt before her, bound by vines that had risen from the stone itself.Still defiant.Still bitter.“Do it,” he spat. “Fini
Silas POV – Hollow Spine AltarThe blade felt heavier now. He hadn’t noticed the weight until now.Lucien pressed it into his palm, his gaze colder than stone.“The Moon asked for blood,” he said. “Yours, mine or his.”Behind Lucien, a second figure stepped from the shadows.Ethan.Bound. Bleeding. Breathing… Barely. But he looked like he’d survived regardless.Silas staggered forward. “What did you do?”Lucien’s voice was even. “ yet. That’s the point.”He turned the blade flat. “You can end the prophecy here.All it needs is one marked soul.”Silas’s fingers trembled at the hilt.“You said I was the Moon’s choice.”Lucien smiled. “That’s what I wanted you to believe.”He turned to the altar and placed a second pendant beside Silas’s.Silver.Delicate.Feminine.“Selene Hati,” Lucien said softly. “Your sister. Hidden. Raised in exile after your mother’s death.”Silas couldn’t breathe. He felt his throat choked.“No. That’s not possible.”Lucien’s tone hardened.“She was the Moonborn.
Silas’s POV – Crescent Council HallHe walked into the chamber alone.No guards. No escort. No Ethan. Just the pendant hanging cold around his neck and the prophecy burning in his veins.The Crescent Elders flinched when they saw him.He no longer looked like the obedient second son.He looked like something risen from ash. They looked like they had seen a ghost.“Before anyone speaks,” Silas said, “I’m not here to beg.”Marcus stood at the high table, arms crossed. “Then why are you here?”Silas raised the pendant.“To stop a war before it eats us all.”Ethan’s POV – Red Moon HallHe stared at the same sky.But across a different border.He didn’t like being apart from Silas, but this had to be done his way.And deep down, Ethan knew something was about to snap.The Moon was too red.The air is still.And somewhere in that stillness… something ancient stirred.Marcus’s POV – Crescent Hall, Later That NightThey argued for hours.Elders cried betrayal. Others demanded proof.Silas ga