<h4>Chapter 113: Chapter 113: Between Worlds</h4>


    The white light faded, and ra found herself falling through nothing. Not darkness.


    Not space. Just... nothing. She could hear her family screaming her name, but their words sounded like they wereing from a million miles away.


    "ra!" Kael’s voice echoed oddly. "Where are you?" She tried to answer, but when she opened her mouth, no sound came out.


    Panic wed at her chest. Then she hit something solid. Hard. ra groaned and sat up, expecting to see the forest or the magical ce where they’d faced the stranger.


    Instead, she found herself in a ce that shouldn’t exist. She was standing on what looked like a bridge made of pure stars. Below her spread an endless void filled with swirling colors and half-formed shapes.


    Above her, the sky flickered between day and night, sun and moon, summer and winter. "What is this ce?" she whispered. "The space between worlds," a familiar voice answered.


    ra spun around. Standing behind her was another form of herself. This ra wore flowing robes instead of torn clothes. Her hair was longer, her eyes glowed with silver light, and she looked older. Wiser.


    "Who are you?" ra asked. "I’m who you could have been," the other ra answered. "If your parents hadn’t hidden your true nature." "My true nature?" "You’re not just a Luna, ra. You’re a Bridge Walker.


    One of the few beings who can travel between different worlds." ra’s head spun. "Different realities?" "There are countless worlds, endless versions of your story. In some, you died as a baby.


    In others, you became a bully. In a few rare ones, you found love and saved everyone." The other ra pointed to the swirling void around them.


    Suddenly, ra could see pictures forming in the chaos. Different versions of her life ying out like movies. In one, she saw herself marrying only Kael, bing a typical Luna.


    In another, she watched herself refuse all three brothers and run away. In a third, she watched herself going mad with power and destroying the pack.


    "Why are you showing me this?" ra asked. "Because Celeste’s final attack broke the barriers between worlds.


    All these worlds are bleeding together. If we don’t fix it soon, every form of your story will copse into one catastrophic mess." "How do we fix it?" "You have to choose," the other ra said sadly. "One reality to save.


    The others will cease to exist." "That’s horrible! All those people, all those lives..." "It’s the only way." ra looked at the swirling images.


    In each one, she could see her mates, her children, her pack. All of them real. All of them worthy to live. "I won’t choose," she said strongly.


    "There has to be another way." "There isn’t. I’ve been searching for centuries—" "Centuries?" ra stopped. "How long have you been here?" The other ra’s face copsed.


    "I don’t know anymore. Time works differently between ces. I could have been here days or lifetimes." "What happened to your reality?" "I made the same choice you’re facing now.


    I tried to save everyone. Instead, I destroyed my world and got stuck here." Horror washed over ra. "So if I refuse to choose..." "You’ll end up like me.


    Watching endless options but never able to return to any of them." "And my family?" "Will be caught in the copse. Not dead, not living. Just... stuck." ra closed her eyes, trying to think.


    But the longer she stood on the bridge, the more she could feel her power growing out of control. Silver light began pouring from her skin. The bridge beneath her feet started to crack.


    "What’s happening to me?" she gasped. "Your Bridge Walker abilities are awakening fully," the other ra exined. "But without proper training, they’ll tear you apart from the inside."


    "Then teach me!" "I can’t. My power is tied to my reality, and my reality is dead." The silver light around ra grew brighter.


    She could feel it burning through her blood like liquid fire. Suddenly, she heard voices calling her name again. But this time, they were closer. "ra!" Kael’s voice rang out.


    "Follow our voices!" "We’re here!" Ronan shouted. "Don’t give up!" "Use our bond!" Darian called. "Feel for our connection!" Hope red in ra’s chest.


    She reached out with her mate bond, looking for the familiar warmth of her triplets. There! She could feel them. Faint but real. "They’re trying to reach me," she told the other ra.


    "They can’t cross between worlds. They’re only human." "They’re not just human. They’re my mates. They’re part of me."


    ra focused on the bond, pouring her love and despair through it. The silver light around her pulsed in answer. And then something impossible happened.


    Three figures appeared on the bridge beside her. Kael, Ronan, and Darian, all shining with the same silver light that surrounded her. "How?" the other ra breathed.


    "The mate bond," Kael said, ice crystals forming around his feet to bind him to the bridge. "It transcends reality." "We’re connected across all worlds," Ronan added, his berserker strength keeping him stable despite the chaos.


    "Wherever she goes, we go," Darian finished, his shadows reaching out to touch ra’s light. The other ra stared at them with naked envy. "My mates never came for me."


    "Maybe they tried," ra said softly. "Maybe you just couldn’t hear them over your own fear." "It doesn’t matter now. My world is gone." "Then help us save ours."


    The other ra shook her head. "You still don’t understand. To stabilize the facts, you have to make a sacrifice. Someone has to stay behind to hold the bridge together." "I’ll do it," Kael said instantly.


    "No, me," Ronan countered. "It should be me," Darian maintained. "I’m the nner. I can figure out how to—" "STOP!" ra shouted. "Nobody is staying behind!" "It’s the only way," the other ra said.


    "No, it’s the only way you could think of. But I’m not you." ra looked at her mates, at the love shining in their eyes. At their readiness to sacrifice themselves for her and their family.


    Then she looked at the other ra, alone and bitter after centuries of istion.


    "The difference between us," ra said slowly, "is that you tried to save everyone by yourself. But I have help." "What do you mean?" "I mean we’re not just mates. We’re a pack. A family. And families stick together."


    ra reached out and took her mates’ hands. Their united power zed like a star. "Together," she said. "Together," they agreed. Their united energy mmed into the cracking bridge.


    Instead of trying to choose one reality, they started weaving them back together. Not into one world, but into a stablework where all versions could live. "Impossible!" the other ra cried.


    "That much power will kill you!" "Maybe," ra admitted. "But at least we’ll die together." The silver light around them grew so bright it was blinding.


    ra could feel her Bridge Walker skills stretching to their absolute limit. Her body was breaking apart and reforming with each beating. But through it all, she held onto her friends’ hands. And they held onto her. The bridge began to settle. The swirling chaos calmed into ordered streams of light.


    The bleeding realities slowly separated back into their right ces. "It’s working," Darian gasped. But their sess came with a price. The strain was too much for mortal bodies to take. ra could feel herself begin to fade.


    Not dying, but bing something else. Something between person and pure energy. "I can’t hold on," she whispered.


    "Yes, you can," Kael said furiously. "We won’t let you go." "You might not have a choice." "There’s always a choice," Ronan snapped. "Always." But even as he spoke, ra could feel herself slipping away.


    The Bridge Walker power was consuming her, turning her into something that could live between worlds but never truly belong to any of them. "The twins," she gasped. "What will happen to our babies?" "They’ll be safe," Darian promised.


    "We’ll take care of them." "Will you tell them about me?" "Tell them yourself," Kael said desperately. "You’re not leaving us." But ra could feel the truth.


    To save all the worlds, someone had to be the permanent bridge between them. Someone had to sacrifice their physical form to be a guardian of the areas between worlds.


    "I love you," she whispered to her mates. "All of you. Forever." "ra, no!" they screamed. But it was toote. Her body melted into pure silver light, spreading across the bridge and beyond.


    Thest thing she saw was her mates reaching for her as she became one with the space between worlds.


    And then she was everywhere and nowhere at once. The other ra watched in wonder as the realities stabilized. "She did it. She actually did it."


    But on the bridge, three broken-hearted dogs knelt where their mate had disappeared. "How do we get her back?" Kael whispered. "I don’t know," Darian revealed.


    "We find a way," Ronan said with deadly purpose. "No matter what it takes." Far above them, in the space between spaces, ra’s awareness floated in a sea of starlight. She could see all worlds, all options. Including one where she might find a way home.


    But first, she had to survive what wasing next. Because her change had been noticed.


    And the ancient forces that ruled the spaces between worlds were not happy about a new Bridge Walker appearing without their permission.


    Thy wereing for her. And they were bringing an army.