After The Altar Falls Novels & Stories

Dust danced in the faint light that flickered from the candles seemingly lit by unseen hands, their golden glimmers reflecting the abandonment surrounding her. Tristan had stayed outside, hesitating at the threshold. This moment was hers alone. The altar, stark and bare, was adorned only by a cracked photograph ensconced in rusted metal—a portrait of her grandmother, Mirabella, her smile radiant yet laced with an unsettling depth of knowing. Autumn leaned closer, brushing her fingers gently across the layer of dust that enveloped the frame. As she did, she heard a faint click, and the floor beneath the altar groaned and shifted.

With a final, deep roar, he slammed into me, emptying his release inside the condom. We stayed like that for a moment, both of us panting, joined in the most intimate and impersonal way. Slowly, he softened and slipped out of me. His hand, surprisingly gentle now, stroked my sweaty back. "The altar has been accepted," he whispered, his voice hoarse. "Rest now." He helped me to my feet, my legs buckling. He guided me to what felt like a bed, laying me down on clean, cool sheets. In the profound darkness, a terrifying hunger was already stirring again. I was learning to crave my own annihilation.

I claw at the fetus, static tearing my hands to bone. The Bloom screams, timelines fracturing. ***YOU WIN***, it weeps. ***BUT YOU'LL DIE WITH ME.*** The mausoleum collapses. --- **The Aftermath** We wake in the field, the lattice gone. The sky is whole, the air sweet with mundane rain. Ravel's crossbow is ash. Lira is gone. The survivors are silent, hollow. But Talin kneels where the lattice stood, cupping a sprout in his palms-ordinary, fragile.

I snapped, grabbing Cin and towing her along behind me. And Hyacinth tripped over. She knocked Caleb forward – and he knocked into me. What the hell was going on? Why was my dad’s funeral becoming an episode of the fucking Chuckle Brothers? It was more than I could bear. I stumbled upright and shoved Alpha Caleb away. Only to realise that more and more of the seats in The Endpoint had filled, and half the damn pack was watching us with eagle eyes. “I’m sorry,” I said, too loudly, my throat thick with unshed tears, “I fell.”

Alpha Luther's POV I sat, with my back against the chair and my piercing gaze on the field. I battled with my inner self believing that Benedict looks younger, and stronger. There is this glow in his body I couldn't deshiper. He looks like one that had been cleaned by the moon goddess. “Fuckkk! What am I saying? The moon goddess can't come down to Clean mere mortals. And even if she fucking dose. It’d be men with value,men without sin, righteous and moral men.

He looks down at me — really looks — and something fierce and protective burns in his eyes. “I’m going to end this,” he says. “Before he ever gets close to you again.” And for the first time since the altar shattered, I don’t feel like I’m falling. I feel like I’m being held.

The altar screamed. The children screamed with it. Every chain tightened. Niall dropped to his knees, clutching the ring as red light raced up his arm and into the altar’s carved roots. Bardolph’s heart is refused. The words came through the children together, old and furious, shaking dust from the Alpha Hall ceiling. For one wild second, hope opened inside the chamber because the altar had admitted Daciana’s refusal mattered. Then the red hollow closed beneath my knees. I almost collapsed from relief.

I stand at the altar in my ivory dress, trying not to think, because if I did, all I’d do is blame myself and think of solutions that will no longer help me. Aldric’s thumb moves across my knuckles, and I let my mind go blank, trying to look for even just one thread of control that I might still have over my life. The priest turns to us. He looks at Aldric first, then me, his expression even and professional. He draws in a breath to begin the vows. “Do you take—” The first shot splits the world in half. Four more shots follow, each one faster than the last. Aldric’s hand leaves mine. I don’t realize why until he collapses to the ground, the white runner darkened beneath him.

Aimed it at the groom. "The power," Volkov said, his voice carrying across the silent cathedral, "is revoked." And fired. The sound was apocalyptic. The burst caught Moretti in both legs. I watched his knees explode, bone and flesh and blood spraying outward in a red mist that painted the white marble altar. He screamed. A sound that wasn't human. His body dropped like someone had cut his strings, collapsing into the spreading pool of his own blood. The white tuxedo turned crimson in seconds. He writhed and screamed and tried to crawl with legs that no longer existed.

She took a moment to realize we arrive and she did not waste time to open the door oblivious to our entwined hands. She stopped abruptly looking at our hands, shock visible on her face and I borrowed the same expression. With a flushed face, Bella pulled out her hand stalking out of the car leaving me to wake up Dylan who dozed off somewhere in the ride. Bella's POV Leo caught up to me easily as I climbed the stairs slowly trying not to trip over myself. Why does this goddamned church have so many stairs. Right now I was on the twentieth stair trying to calm my uneven breathing.