Chapter 5 THE GODDESS WARNING

THE GODDESS WARNING

Sleep came like drowning.

First, the cold. Then, the silence.

Then the voice.

"Ava Blackthorn," it whispered - soft, haunting, ancient.

Her eyes fluttered open, and the world around her was gone. No packhouse, no firelight. Just endless moonlight stretching across a frozen lake, silver and still.

She knew this place. She'd been here before - in her bloodline's memories. The Moon's Domain.

Ava's bare feet touched the water, ripples spreading beneath her as she walked forward. In the reflection, she saw not herself but the woman from her dreams - Lyanna, the healer who had loved a forbidden Alpha. The curse's first victim.

And beside her reflection stood another figure - tall, radiant, terrible in her beauty.

The Moon Goddess.

Her skin glowed like starlight. Her eyes shimmered with galaxies and judgment. She looked both divine and heartbreakingly human, like the embodiment of mercy and cruelty intertwined.

Ava fell to her knees. "Please... spare him."

The Goddess tilted her head. "You ask mercy for another Draven?"

Ava's breath caught. "He's not his ancestor. He's-"

"He is my reminder," the Goddess interrupted, her voice echoing through the void. "A reminder that even the strongest hearts fall when they defy me."

Ava's eyes filled with tears. "Then why bond us? Why let me feel this at all?"

The Goddess stepped closer. Every movement sent tremors through the lake, every word a weight pressing into Ava's chest. "Because love without pain teaches nothing. Because devotion without sacrifice is hollow."

The wind rose around them, carrying whispers - screams, laughter, memories of all who'd died by the curse. Ava clutched her chest, feeling the mark flare like fire.

"You can end this," the Goddess said softly. "Kill your mate, and your bloodline will be free."

Ava's heart stopped. "No..."

"Refuse," the Goddess continued, "and watch the world burn for your defiance - as it did before."

Ava trembled, shaking her head. "There has to be another way."

The Goddess's eyes softened briefly, almost pitying. "There was, once. But you are too much like her."

"Lyanna," Ava whispered.

"She too begged for mercy," the Goddess said, voice turning cold again. "She too mistook desire for destiny."

The light began to fade. The lake turned crimson beneath the moon. The Goddess's last words echoed through Ava's soul like a curse reborn.

> "Love him, and you will destroy him.

Deny him, and you will destroy yourself.

Choose, Ava Blackthorn - before the moon chooses for you."

Then everything shattered.

---

Ava woke with a gasp, drenched in sweat. Her throat burned with the scream she hadn't released. The packhouse was silent, but her pulse thundered in her ears. The mark on her chest glowed faintly - faint, but alive.

The door burst open. Kael stood there, shirtless, eyes wild, as if he'd felt it too.

"Ava," he said, crossing the room in two strides. "What happened?"

She couldn't speak at first. She could only look at him - the man the Goddess had commanded her to kill. The man her heart refused to live without.

"The Goddess spoke to me," Ava whispered finally. "She gave me a choice."

Kael's eyes darkened. "What kind of choice?"

A tear slid down her cheek as she looked up at him. "One that will end with someone dying."

Kael reached out, his hand trembling as it brushed the side of her face. "Then it won't be you."

The bond pulsed, hot and alive between them - and for one dangerous second, Ava almost believed him.

But above them, hidden by clouds, the blood moon still watched... and waited.