CHAPTER 87: CHAPTER 87: DON’T ABANDON ME

Selene’s POV ~

Hope flickered in my chest like a fragile flame, delicate yet persistent. For the first time since he had tackled me into the dirt, I dared to believe...I might escape.

My lungs still trembled with his suffocating presence, my skin still burned beneath the press of his massive body, but somewhere inside, relief whispered: I still can get out from here.

Luca. Of all four brothers, he is the most brute, the most reckless, and the one who relied on claws and teeth more than cunning.

If it had been Kael’s cold eyes pinning me down, I would have had no chance of running once caught. Because Kael saw through lies like glass and dissected truths as if they were his prey.

But Luca... he was different. He is simple-minded. He thinks by strength and not thought. That meant he could be swayed, manipulated, and deceived. If I played the part well enough, I could get out of his grasp before the others caught wind.

Yet his eyes, glowing with raw confusion, refused to let me breathe freely. That questioning gaze—why? Why did I smell like her? He couldn’t let go of the mystery, and I could almost feel his mind tugging at the fraying threads, pulling closer and closer to the truth.

I couldn’t waste time. Not when every second in their presence brought me closer to discovery. The bond screamed between us, louder now, thrashing against the walls I had built around it. If I lingered more, the chances would be more; he would definitely see through me. So I had to leave.

My fingers pressed against the earth, nails digging into the soil as I whispered a silent chant beneath my breath. The words rolled soundlessly from my lips, curling around the beast above me.

His massive frame shuddered. His glowing eyes blinked, slow and heavy, like someone fighting against an unseen tide. The growl rumbling from his throat faltered, breaking into sharp breaths as his body began to sag, betrayed by exhaustion that wasn’t his own.

For a heartbeat, triumph flickered in me. It was working.

But the wolf is an Alpha; he was undoubtedly strong. His spirit clawed against my spell, refusing to surrender. His chest heaved violently, his claws tearing at the ground as though anchoring himself to consciousness.

And in his faltering gaze, I saw it...the dawning realization.

***

Author’s POV~

This was not the helpless human girl Luca thought she was. No—there was nothing simple about her. His mind wrestled with the truth, confusion twisting into realization. Had he been mistaken again? Could this girl truly be the one he thought lost to him forever?

And then, like a blade slicing through doubt, another voice thundered across his mind. It was Aeron, his brother, who was mind-linking him.

"Luca, Selene, our mate is here; you have to find her." Aeron’s desperate voice rang clear in my mind.

The words struck him like lightning. Luca’s head jerked up, ears twitching at the command only he could hear. His glowing eyes widened, cutting through the fog of enchantment that clouded him.

If Aeron had spoken, then it was truth. Luca had always trusted him—above his own instincts, above his own judgment. Even drowning in the pull of her spell, even fighting against the haze clouding his mind, he clung to Aeron’s word as law.

And in just a second everything becomes clear. His mind was not playing tricks at all. She was really his mate.

"Selene..." The name broke from him in a rasp. "Please, don’t go."

The sound tasted of agony on his tongue. He didn’t even know how he knew—only that he did. His wolf surged with recognition, tearing through the veil of confusion. She was his. His mate. The bond they shared quivered, fragile yet unbreakable, and through it poured a tide of torment.

He felt her slipping away.

The wolf howled, the sound reverberating through his chest, through the bond, and through the earth beneath his claws. Pain roared through him, violent and suffocating, as though the very air was torn from his lungs. Wolves did not survive without their mates. The bond was life itself, and she was tearing free.

Luca lowered his massive head, muzzle pressing close to her neck, needing contact before she vanished from him entirely. His tongue swept over her skin once, twice, trembling.

It was not desire that drove him, but desperation. He licked her as if to soothe her, as if to anchor himself, as though convincing his own heart she was still here. His growls faltered, softening into broken whimpers that clawed at his chest.

In that moment, his pride, his rage, his brutality—all of it fell away. There was only the wolf. A creature stripped bare, clinging to the last threads of hope, begging not to be left behind.

He would not survive if she really left. Luca has already found his wolf, losing himself more than a few times. His wolf would definitely not survive this. As they mate for life and their mates are their whole world, if something happened to their mate, they would follow them to death.

His massive frame trembled. His claws sank into the soil as though he could dig himself closer to her, closer to the bond that slipped like smoke through his grasp.

"Forgive me," he choked, voice breaking, desperate. "Please... don’t abandon me."

But already he felt her pushing, her strange magic curling through his mind, tugging him down into unconsciousness. His glowing eyes burned against the pull, fighting to stay open, his soul rebelling with every last breath.

The howl tore out of him, filled with the kind of pain that only a bond could birth. It ripped through the forest, echoing across the night, a sound that carried his agony into the sky.

And then she was gone.

Her weight vanished from beneath him. Her presence slipped from his grasp.

Luca’s howl faltered, breaking into a shattered whimper as the forest swallowed her retreat. His body shook, his strength failing beneath the crushing emptiness hollowing him out. He dug at the soil with his claws as if he could claw her back from the darkness, but the bond quivered with silence.

His head fell to the earth, his chest heaving, his world bleeding out into the soil of the forest. His mate had fled, and all that remained was despair.

Selene could feel the despair of the wolf, but still she didn’t look back. She tore herself free from beneath his weight while his strength faltered and ran.

The sound of his howl chased her, splintering into whimpers that made her throat ache. And then silence.

But still she did not turn. She did not allow herself to see him fall.