CHAPTER 93: CHAPTER 93: WHEN THE MOON WEEPS

"Ahh," I woke up with a gasp, taking deep breaths to calm my frantic heartbeat. My entire chest ached, like someone had ripped my heart apart and then roughly pieced it back together.

After several deep breaths, I realized it had only been a dream...my most feared dream. Why did I dream it again after so many years? Why did it replay the worst day of my life and my mother’s?

I wanted so badly to remember her, to dream of her...my sweet mother, who had once gently cradled me to sleep and always played with me.

But not this scene. Not this nightmare. My trauma... I never wanted to see it again.

I felt like I had been dragged back to that day, the day I lost everything and witnessed my mother being cruelly abused in front of me. Her endless cries echoed through the night, and I had been forced to listen, helpless.

No... no... A scream ripped from my throat. Unknowingly, I grabbed the bedside lamp and hurled it against the wall, screaming, "No! Mother!"

"Selene will protect you. She will become stronger and take you away from him—the bastard who made you hate yourself. Mother, you have to wait for me... Mother, don’t leave me!" I sobbed with each word.

These were the same words I had whispered in the past to my mother, begging her not to leave me alone in the world. I wished I had been stronger that day. I hated that I had been a helpless child, able only to make empty promises and unable to save my mother, who had seemed to lose herself in that monster’s hands.

"Mommy, Selene is sorry. She couldn’t protect you... Will you forgive her?" I whispered.

"No, Mother, you don’t have to forgive me. I know it is my fault. I was the weak one who couldn’t protect you, and you had to sacrifice yourself to protect me."

"Mommy, I am sorry..." I whispered the words like a chant. My mind no longer felt right. I found myself pulled back to the day I lost her, curling my hands around my knees and dragging them closer to my chest, whispering "sorry" with every breath.

I blamed myself for my mother’s demise and wondered—if I had never been born, would she have been spared? Would she never have had to make a deal with that bastard?

It was all my fault... If I had not been born, perhaps my mother would never have endured the humiliation, torture, and all the disgrace I had witnessed at that monster’s hands.

I wished that bastard were still alive so I could rip him apart with my own hands and drink his blood. But someone had even stolen that opportunity from me.

But there is still one; that man—my so-called biological father—is still alive. One day, I would find him and tear him apart for giving my mother so much pain. It was because of him that I had come into this world, and she had suffered for it...

"Mom, don’t worry... Your Selene is no longer the helpless child who could not protect you. Now she is strong. She will avenge you... Okay, Mom? So your soul can rest in peace."

I promised I would do anything to avenge you. Every person who had had a hand in torturing you in the past, I would dig them out of the earth and let them die a cruel death.

Hatred burned in my mind, my heart, and everywhere inside me. I screamed in frustration and kicked the pillow with all my might... But soon I realized that nothing I did could bring her back. My mother was already gone, and I had no one left in the world.

A tear slipped down my face, followed by more, until my entire face was wet. My helpless body collapsed onto the bed. I hugged the pillow and cried, letting every sound escape. I knew that if I didn’t, I would lose myself to grief. It was my only way to release it, to calm down enough to plan a grave for all those alphas who had tormented my mother.

Everyone thought I was helping the coven to find witches, but I have a selfish desire hidden beneath it all...my desire to avenge my mother and kill all those alphas who had visited her that night while I sat outside, crying.

Even thinking about it brought endless tears to my eyes. I never wanted to remember that scene—my mother’s lost stare when she even refused to recognize her own daughter. And her soulless eyes as she breathed her last in my arms.

I had buried these memories deep in my heart. But today, all my wounds ripped open. I remembered the last scene when I had fallen unconscious in the forest before Sara and others rescued me and how helpless I had felt, as if even breathing was a struggle.

Was it because of him? Was it because I had used my powers on my mate? Was the Moon Goddess punishing me?

I felt pathetic. I knew that harming your own mate was punishable because of the sacredness of the bond.

Ah... so she only knew how to punish me and not them? Where were you when they abused me like this? Or was the Moon Goddess favoring her children and taking it out on me, who no longer believed in her?

You are truly partial, Moon Goddess. Can’t you see your children have already wandered from the right path? They have gone so far that even redemption cannot bring them back.

You cannot protect them forever. A day will come when hell’s wrath falls upon them, and when it unleashes its anger, no one will escape its fury. That day will be the last breath they ever take.

I whispered with all the hatred in my eyes. I didn’t know whether the Moon Goddess had heard me or not, but I would make this come true, and she would never be able to stop me. I would avenge my mother and myself.