Bound By Moonlight to My Mates (by Sofange Daye) novel Chapter 101

Chapter 101

Aelara

I storm away from the undercity’s entrance, needing to put as much space between myself and Seren. Her words echo painfully in my head, and I can’t shake them. They reply over and over again like a broken record,

Every step I put between myself and the temple feels like wading through water that is too high. Caleb walks beside me, close enough that the heat of his skin brushes against my arm. I ache to reach for him, but I can’t. Not this time.

I stop walking. The air feels too thin and I struggle to draw in a breath.

“Aelara?” His voice is soft and concerned.

I shake my head, trying to focus on anything but the bond that is growing between us. But the sound of him, his heart beating in time with mine, drowns out everything else. He is everything I was taught to avoid, but I still cling to him like he is my last breath. It is becoming too much for me to handle.

“Don’t,” I whisper. “Just… stay back.”

He hesitates, but steps forward, closing the distance between us. “You’re shaking.”

“I said stay back!”

He freezes. The words come out harsher than I intend, but it’s already too late. My hands tremble as I press them against my chest, trying to hold myself together. I close my eyes and reach inward, into the part of my mind that I have ignored for too long. The place where the divine bond should reside.

For a heartbeat, there’s nothing. I search for it again, and I finally hear it. It is faint, but it is there. Charlotte.

The Silver Wolf’s heartbeat drums somewhere far away, weak but still there. Relief crashes through me so hard that it almost brings me to my knees. But before I can hold on to it, another rhythm surges beneath it, the bond with Caleb. It wraps around me like chains of warmth.

His name replaces Seren’s words, echoing in my mind: Caleb, Caleb, Caleb.

It shouldn’t be possible. The mortal bond isn’t meant to overpower the divine one. But it’s happening.

This time my knees buckle.

He’s at my side in an instant, catching me before I fall. “Hey, what’s wrong? Aelara, look at me!”

I shove him away, gasping. “Don’t touch me!”

His hands drop, hurt flashing across his face. “I’m just trying to help.”

“You can’t.”

He stares at me with his chest heaving with pain. “You said that before. You were wrong then, too.”

I drag in a breath and then another, but it is not enough to fill my lungs. “No. This time you really can’t. You’re killing me.”

He takes a step back. “What?”

“My connection, to the Silver Wolf, to the others, it’s fading. Every second I spend near you, it gets weaker.”

“Then we’ll find a way to fix it.”

“There is no fixing this!” My voice cracks. “You are mortal, Caleb. And I…”

I stop. The rest of the sentence stays caught in my throat, because when I look up, I see my reflection in the shop window beside us. For the first time in my life, it doesn’t glow.

My eyes, once bottomless black, threaded with silver light, are turning gray. Not storm–gray. The look decidedly… human.

I take a step closer to the glass, touching my reflection with the tips of my fingers. The faint shimmer of magic that usually clings to my skin is gone. My veins no longer hum with power. I look like every other woman on this street.

“Caleb…” My voice breaks. “I’m turning mortal.”

He moves closer. “Is that… bad?”

I laugh, but it sounds like it’s breaking me apart. “It means the Goddess’s curse is unraveling. The bond that makes me immortal, it’s tied to my divinity. When that’s gone, I die like you.”

He’s quiet for a long moment. “You say that like it’s a tragedy.”

“It is.” I press my hand against the glass, against the reflection that looks nothing like who I was. “If I lose what I am, I lose the ability to find Charlotte. The zealots will reach her first.”

He steps behind me, close but not touching. “And if you leave me?”

I squeeze my eyes shut. “Then she lives.”

The silence between us stretches, raw and heavy.

Finally, he says, “You already made that choice once. How did it end?”

I turn to face him. “You died.”

“Then maybe this time, we do it different.”

“Don’t you understand?” I shout. “It doesn’t matter what we do! The Goddess made sure love would always destroy us. Every time I choose you, the world pays for it.”

He flinches, but doesn’t look away. “So you think the world’s worth saving if it means living without love?”

“Yes!” The word tears out of me like blood. “Because someone has to break the cycle!”

He studies me for a long, agonizing moment. Then, quietly: “You already did.”

I blink. “What?“.

“You think this is punishment,” he says. “But maybe it’s a gift. Maybe turning mortal isn’t the end. Maybe it’s freedom. Maybe you were never meant to be a goddess forever.”

“I can’t believe that.”

“Then believe me.” He takes a slow step closer, eyes burning with something too human and too beautiful. “Believe that you’re not alone in this.”

I shake my head, tears threatening. “If I stay, I lose Charlotte. If I leave, I lose you.”

He doesn’t answer, just reaches for my hand. His fingers hover above mine, trembling, waiting.

I want to take it. Gods, I want to.

But the moment his skin brushes mine, the bond flares like silver heat threading up my arm, flooding through my chest, louder than the heartbeat that connects me to Charlotte.

I gasp, jerking away. The air crackles around us, the lights in the nearby shop flickering.

Caleb steps back, fear and awe mingling in his eyes. “What’s happening?”

“The bonds are fighting,” I whisper. “The divine one, the mortal one, they can’t coexist. One will consume the other.”

“And you think mine’s stronger?”

I press my lips into a hard line, not wanting to tell him the truth. “It’s closer.”

He swallows hard. “Then tell me to go.”

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