From Rejected Mate to Luna (Julia White) novel Chapter 197

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From Rejected Mate to Luna

Chapter 197

Grace’s POV

The silver moonlight washed over Nathan’s broken body, his limbs twisted unnaturally against the jagged rocks below the cliff. I lay curled beside him, every cell in my body screaming as waves of searing pain radiated from our shattered mate bond. Each pulse felt like molten steel pouring through my veins,

burning everything in its path.

Jack was gone. His final words–You and Nathan can rot together. As mates, you should die in the same place–hung in the night air like a curse. I deserved it.

God knows I deserved it all.

My fingers trembled violently as I fumbled for my phone, dropping it twice before managing to check the screen. No signal. Of course. A bitter laugh escaped my lips, quickly transforming into a gasp as another wave of agony shot through my chest.

“You bastard,” I whispered, not sure if I meant Nathan or Jack or both. “You goddamn bastard.”

My body convulsed, and I knew with terrifying certainty that I was dying. The magical binding I’d agreed to with Nathan ensured that. When a mate died, the other suffered–but what Nathan and I had done went beyond the natural mate bond. We had enhanced it, twisted it, strengthened it for power.

And now I would pay the ultimate price.

As the pain briefly subsided, my mind drifted back one year, to a small cabin deep in the woods. The old witch Helena had greeted us with eyes that seemed to see right through our pretenses.

“Are you certain you wish to proceed?” Helena had asked, her gnarled fingers arranging crystals and herbs on a worn wooden table. “This binding goes beyond the natural order. It will strengthen your power as Luna, but—”

“We’re sure,” Nathan had interrupted, his hand firm on my lower back. “Grace understands the risks.”

Did I? I remember nodding confidently, ambition burning brighter than caution in my chest. Nathan had promised me everything–respect, power, position. All the things my family’s declining status in the Silver Lake pack couldn’t give me.

Helena paused then, her ancient eyes locking with mine. The candlelight made deep shadows dance across her wrinkled face as she reached across the table and grasped my wrist with surprising strength.

“When power becomes your mate, love becomes your enemy,” she whispered, her voice suddenly clear as mountain water. “The crown you seek will become the noose you wear. Two paths lie before you–one glitters with gold but ends in moonlight and stone, the other shines less brightly but stretches far beyond

the horizon.”

I’d pulled my hand away, annoyed at the cryptic nonsense. Just another dramatic old wolf trying to make her magic seem more mysterious than it was.

“I know exactly what I’m choosing,” I’d told her, the words sharp on my tongue.

Nathan had smiled, pleased with my response, and placed more money on the table.

“It’s just a small risk,” he’d said later, as we drove back to Star Shadow territory. “The chances of either of us dying young are practically non–existent. And think of what we gain–twice the power when we’re together. You’ll be the most influential Luna in three generations.”

Now, as death closed in around me, I understood the moonlight and stone she’d spoken of. This cliff, this moment, this ending she had seen it all. Had tried to warn me in her way. But I’d been too blinded by ambition to recognize the truth when it stood before me.

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10:22 am

Chapter 197

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My body jerked with another spasm, bringing me back to the present. The irony wasn’t lost on me. I’d always known our relationship was a transaction- power for power, ambition for ambition. We were two manipulators who recognized the usefulness in each other. I’d never fooled myself that there was love.

Not like with Jack.

lack, with his easy laugh and uncomplicated desires. Jack, who looked at me like I hung the moon, even when I treated our relationship as a diversion, an escape from the calculated performance of being Nathan’s Luna.

A sob caught in my throat. I’d used Jack, keeping him hidden like a dirty secret while enjoying the raw honesty of his affection. All while knowing I could never fully commit to him–not with the magical binding tying my life force to Nathan’s.

The pain subsided again, and something strange happened. I felt myself floating slightly above my body, watching myself shiver against the cold ground. My vision seemed to split, showing not just the cliff where I lay dying, but glimpses of another life–a life I might have chosen.

I saw myself and Jack as a Beta couple in a small pack, living in a modest house with wildflowers in the garden. I saw genuine smiles, not the practiced ones I wore at pack functions. I saw contentment in simplicity, strength in honesty.

Jack had offered me unconditional love. Nathan had offered me conditional power.

“I chose wrong,” I whispered, my voice barely audible even to my own ears. “I chose so wrong.”

My senses were shutting down now. My vision blurred around the edges, the moonlight dimming. The scent of pine and soil faded. The taste of blood in my

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