HEARTS OF DIVINE RUIN (The MoonGoddess and The AlphaKing)

"Then what?" he demanded, his grip on her chin tightening, eyes blazing with a rage she had never seen in him before. "Then you die? Is that it?"
Her silence was answer enough.
His expression twisted, the fury in his eyes shifting into something darker—something that made her chest tighten and her resolve quiver. He pulled away, running a hand roughly through his hair as if the very idea burned through him, as if her quiet admission shattered something inside him.
"Damn it, Luna!" he roared suddenly, the sound reverberating through the room like a thunderclap, raw and furious and utterly devastating. "Do you think I can just stand by and watch that happen? You think I can just let you walk into your own damn grave while I sit back and do nothing?"
She flinched, the intensity of his anger wrapping around her like a vice. But underneath the rage, she could see the pain—sharp and unbearable—etched into every line of his face, darkening his gaze with a depth of torment that made her chest ache.
"You—" He pointed at her, his hand shaking slightly, voice thick with emotion. "You don't get to decide this, Luna. You don't get to just choose death like it's some sort of easy solution. Do you have any idea what that would do to me? To know that you—" He broke off, a bitter, disbelieving laugh escaping his lips as he shook his head, his expression twisted in anguish. "No, of course you don't. Because you've already made up your damn mind, haven't you? You've already decided that dying is better than asking for help, better than letting anyone in."
Alex's breathing was ragged, his chest heaving as if the weight of his own words was crushing him. He took a step back, eyes narrowed on her with a look that bordered on desperation.
"If dying was your plan all along—if that's where this has been heading—then why?" His voice cracked, the rawness of his pain slicing through the air. "Why drag me into it? Why bother me? Why make me—make me feel things again? Why make me care so much, damn it, why make me fall for you so fucking badly? You, out of all people—you know what my past was like. You know what I've been through. That I—" He stopped, jaw clenched tight, his whole frame trembling as if he were barely holding himself together.
"Do you have any idea how it feels to be this helpless? To be so—so fucking in love with someone and know you might lose them just like that?" He snapped his fingers, the sound like a gunshot in the silence. "That I could wake up tomorrow, and you'd be gone. Just gone. And there would be nothing I could do to stop it. Nothing I could have done to change it."

His eyes were wild now, his voice breaking as he took another step closer, looming over her, his presence suffocating in its intensity. "I can't go through that again, Luna. I can't. Not after everything. Not after Davina. I barely survived it the first time—and you—" He sucked in a breath, his hands flexing at his sides as if resisting the urge to reach for her, to shake some sense into her.
"Why drag me into your life if you were just planning to leave?" His voice lowered, rough and strained, as if every word was tearing him apart. "Why make me love you, only to rip it away? Was that your plan all along? Just make me fall for you so you could tear me apart when you're gone?" His eyes were blazing now, the storm in them raging unchecked. "You don't get to do that, Luna. You don't get to—after everything—to just say dying is your end destination."
She felt herself tremble under his gaze, the full force of his anguish crashing over her like a wave. It was suffocating—so much more than anger, so much more than pain. It was the raw, unfiltered agony of a man who had been broken and rebuilt too many times and couldn't bear to lose the one thing that made it all bearable again.
"Alex," she whispered, her voice trembling, her own pain bleeding into her words. But he cut her off, eyes flashing.
"No." He shook his head, teeth bared in a snarl of desperation. "You don't get to say my name like that. You don't get to act like this is just some... some choice you're making for yourself. You're dragging me with you—dragging my whole goddamn heart with you. And if you think I'm just going to let you walk away to die, then you don't know me at all."
Her heart pounded in her chest, and for a moment, she couldn't breathe, couldn't think past the storm in his eyes. "It's not your choice," she whispered, voice small and trembling. "It's not—"
"It became my choice the moment you looked at me and made me care, damn you," he snarled, his forehead almost touching hers. "So, you're going to tell me what's going on, Luna. You're going to tell me, and we're going to deal with it. Together."
The word rang in the silence between them, heavy and filled with a promise she didn't know if she could keep.
"Together?" she echoed, almost incredulous, shaking her head. "There's no 'together' here, Alex. I'm doing this alone. I have to."
"No, you don't," he said fiercely, his gaze boring into hers. "You don't have to. You're just choosing to. Because you're too damn stubborn and afraid to let anyone else shoulder the burden."
"Afraid?" She gave a bitter laugh. "You think I'm afraid to die?"
"No," he said quietly, and there was something achingly raw in his voice. "You're afraid to let me in. "
Slowly, he leaned in, his lips brushing against the shell of her ear as he whispered, "Tell me, Luna. I can take it. Just... tell me."
Just like that, the fight drained out of her, leaving her trembling and breathless as the reality of his words—of his plea—settled deep in her chest.
But even as she sagged against the restraints, tears welling in her eyes, she shook her head. "I... I can't," she whispered, her voice trembling with emotion. "You don't understand. You have no idea how many times I've seen you fall, bloodied and broken, in that prophecy. No matter how many ways I try to change our fate, you still die. This is the only way, Alex. And trust me, I won't die—it's really not that complicated."
As her words settled in, Alex was engulfed by a whirlwind of emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. Anguish twisted his insides, each realization hitting harder than the last as he grasped the weight of her sacrifice.
Before meeting Alex, before she had been stripped of her divine essence and reduced to a mere human, his life had been just another thread in the tapestry of her existence—important yet distant. She had always been a goddess, responsible for the well-being of her people. But in that moment, everything shifted. The idea of accepting his help, which might have once stabilized her plan, now felt utterly foreign. She couldn't risk his life. The mere thought sent chills of fear racing through her.
The horrific images of his demise—burned to ashes, the Alpha King of the Wolves falling—flashed vividly in her mind. Each time she had faced that vision, each time she had witnessed his death, she had felt a crushing sense of helplessness.
But Alex just smiled sadly, the warmth of his voice wrapping around her like a soft blanket, despite the storm raging between them. "Luna," he breathed, his voice breaking on her name.
"I can't lose you," she whispered, closing her eyes against the sting of tears. "Not you."
For a long moment, silence enveloped them—thick, tense, and unbearably heavy. Then, with a soft curse, Alex reached up, his fingers trembling as he slowly loosened the belt binding her wrists.
But he didn't pull away , neither she pushed him.
Instead, he stayed there, his forehead resting against hers as they both struggled to breathe, to hold on to whatever fragile threads kept them tethered to each other.
"You said this is the only way—then tell me what it is. I promise you won't lose me," he murmured softly, fiercely. "Because I'm not letting you go."