All Chapters of Returning in Reverse After Betrayal: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

I woke on the cold temple floor, magic crackling in the air like the aftershock of a storm. Kael was already over me, hands shaking as he cupped my face.“Sophia. Talk to me.”“I hear you,” I rasped.Before I finished another word, he crushed me against his chest. “You checked out. No pulse. Five minutes.”“Still here,” I muttered. Barely.I lifted my palm.The Moon’s Tear， no longer liquid but a crystal, pulsed with a cold glow. It's threaded under my skin like a second heartbeat.Rachel stepped out of the shadows, eyes wide. “Holy hell. You actually claimed it.”Before I could reply, the temple shuddered violently—dust raining, alarms wailing from the halls.“They’re onto us,” Marcus snapped. “Move!”Kael hauled me upright. We sprinted through the tunnel, burst through the waterfall veil… straight into a squad of Silver Moon sentries.“Seal the exit!”Wolves surged toward us. We bolted along a razor-thin ridge, scree sliding under our boots. One wolf lunged from the dark—I threw a M

I stood, no, floated, in a place that was neither light nor darkness.A realm between breaths, between heartbeats, between worlds.Colors I didn’t recognize shimmered around me, shifting like liquid moonlight. The air tasted cold and old, like the first snowfall of creation.I wasn’t afraid.Or maybe I was too numb to feel it.A figure drifted toward me, her shape forming slowly as if sculpted from the very mist around us. She wore no face, no form truly fixed, but I recognized her presence with a certainty deeper than memory.The Moon Goddess.My lungs tightened. My body—whatever version of it was here—knew reverence.“You have been calling me,” she said. Her voice didn’t sound; it was a sensation—warm and soft, pressing gently against my thoughts. “And now you answer.”“I didn’t mean to,” I whispered, though my voice felt too small, too young

"I... I don't know." I thought about the power inside me.The infinite web of connections I'd felt."The Tear lets me sense other wolves. Feel them. I could potentially..." I stopped.Shook my head."No. I won't use it for control. That's exactly what Seraphine wants to do.""Even to defend your pack?" Thea asked softly."Even then." I squared my shoulders."I took this power to keep it from her. Not to become her. There has to be another way."Silence.Then Kael spoke: "There is. We train. We prepare. We use Moonbane magic, which you can control ethically, to give our warriors an edge. And we pray it's enough.""And if it's not?" someone asked."Then we die free," I said simply. "Better that than enslaved."I

At breakfast, Garrett burst into the safe house.His face ashen, chest heaving. "Luna! Scouts are back. Seraphine's army... they're moving. Not a raid. A... ritual.""What ritual?" My voice sharpened; the bread in my hand fell."The Bleeding Moon. Scouts saw her camp's center: an altar. Hundreds in a circle, chanting ancient tongues. Sacrificing living wolves. As fuel. For something greater."Thea followed, her shaman robes mud-streaked."I deciphered symbols from last night's prisoners. Seraphine's summoning the 'Shadow Moon.' An ancient entity, legend says, was sealed by the Moon Goddess. It devours pack wills, making Seraphinean an immortal queen. But it needs the Tear as anchor.""She thinks the Tear's still hers," Kael said, fists clenched. "When she learns it's in my mate...""She'll come to take it." I rose, po

I was placing a ward near the northern creek when I felt it.A surge of power from inside me. The Tear wakes up without permission."No, no, no!" I tried to push it down.Contain it.Too late.Ice erupted from my hands.Sharp spikes that shot out in all directions. They tore through trees. Shattered rocks. One headed straight for."Erica!"She was twenty feet away, focused on her rune. Didn't see the ice spike coming.I screamed.Tried to redirect it.Couldn't.Then Kael was there.His wolf form crashed into Erica, knocking her aside. The ice spike meant for her hit him instead.Drove through his shoulder. Blood sprayed.He collapsed.