NOVEL WEB Chapter 5: Chapter 4: Fractured Divinity
Luna had been traveling for days now, clutching onto her last bits of cash with a frugality that made her stomach churn. One meal a day—that was her new routine. She rationed each coin carefully, knowing it was all she had.
The mortal world had a strange way of humbling even the most ancient of beings.
On her way through yet another nameless town, Luna spotted a small café. The scent of coffee wafted through the air, pulling her in. The temptation was too much to ignore. Just one cup, she told herself. She could spare a little for that.
As she pushed open the café door, the small bell above her chimed, and for a moment, everything seemed ordinary. But then her eyes locked onto a pair of familiar, piercing grey ones. Her heart skipped.
It was him—the man from the street, the one who had carried her to the hospital.
For a moment, she stood frozen in the doorway, every thought in her mind tangling into confusion. He looked at her, but there was no recognition in his gaze. Just a fleeting, indifferent glance, like she was no more than another face in the crowd. He grabbed his cup of coffee and a burger from the counter and turned to leave, walking right past her without a second thought.
Luna blinked, feeling a sharp pang of something unfamiliar—hurt.
How could he just walk past her like that?
She had been waiting for him, looking for him. She had convinced herself that he was the one who had saved her, and yet now he moved as if she didn't even exist.
Was she wrong?
She stood there, staring at the door as it slowly swung shut behind him.
Was it not him?
The realization hit her with a force that knocked the air from her lungs.
It was him.
She whispered the words to herself, shaking off the shock. She had to know for sure.
Without thinking, she rushed after him, slipping through the busy streets as fast as her legs would carry her. Once she got close enough, she grabbed his wrist, halting his steps. His body tensed, and he turned around, eyes cold and full of confusion, irritation clear in his stance.
"How can I help you?" he asked, shaking her hand from his wrist. His voice was low, sharp—bordering on anger.
Luna faltered for a moment. His hostility took her by surprise.
"Don't you know me?" she asked, her voice steady despite the rush of emotions. She had lived for millennia, long enough to handle uncertainty with calmness. But this felt different—personal.
"Do I have to?" His tone was firm, distant, his gaze flicking over her with cold indifference. He began to turn his back on her, dismissing her entirely, as though she were just an annoyance.
Her heart raced, but she stood her ground.
"Alpha King Alexander Valencia Anderson? It's you, isn't it?" She almost shouted his name, hoping it would stop him an it did.
He paused, just for a second.
"I'm Luna. Don't you remember me? We've met twice now," she called after him, her words more certain, her smile creeping up despite the coldness of the moment.
He turned his head slightly, his expression one of pure apathy. "So?"
"Third time's a charm, you know?" Luna quipped, the hint of playfulness in her tone contrasting the tension between them. She didn't back down, even when his demeanor was cold enough to freeze the air around them.
"More like a curse." His words came out like venom, his back still turned to her.
People on the street began to slow down, stealing glances at them, intrigued by the unusual exchange. To them, it was like watching a scene from a drama unfold.
"A curse? Come on," Luna said, her voice light, almost teasing. "You should be thankful, you know? It's not every day you meet your goddess."
Luna's playful smile faltered the moment Alexander turned on her, his eyes ablaze with fury.
"God?" His voice was low, simmering with contempt, yet it hit her like a thunderclap. His gaze, sharp and seething, cut through her, tearing away the lightness she had carried for millennia. "You think I should worship you? Thank you?"
He stepped closer, his towering frame casting a suffocating shadow over her. His presence wasn't just commanding—it was overwhelming, a tidal wave of raw emotion that Luna hadn't anticipated.
The air between them grew heavy with his rage, radiating off him in waves so thick she could almost taste it. She had lived countless lives, had seen the rise and fall of empires, but nothing prepared her for the storm in his eyes.
"Let me tell you something about you and your so-called gods," he spat, his voice trembling with the force of his hatred. He stepped closer still, the space between them now nonexistent.
"Devils are better than you lot. At least they don't wear facades. They're cruel, selfish, and they don't pretend to be anything else." His words dripped with venom, and Luna felt each syllable slice through her like a blade.
"But you?" He stepped back, his lips curling into a sneer. "You gods sit on your thrones, watching us suffer. Pretending to care." His voice cracked with a bitterness so deep it made Luna flinch. "You're worse than any devil."
His words shook her to her core. Luna stood there, her body still, but inside, something shattered. She had expected anger, yes, but this... this was something darker. His hatred was not born from simple disappointment but from a deep, festering wound that had been left to rot. And she could see it now, in the way his hands clenched into fists, the way his jaw tightened with barely restrained fury.
She had never seen such raw emotion in a mortal before. Or had she simply never cared to look?
For the first time, Luna realized she wasn't just facing an angry Alpha king—she was standing before a man who had suffered deeply, who had been betrayed by the very beings meant to protect him.
By her.
The truth hit her like a tidal wave, each memory, each decision she had turned away from resurfacing in painful clarity. All those years, centuries even, where she had distanced herself from the suffering of the world, indifferent to the cries of those who once prayed to her.
Luna's heart began to race. "Just because one wronged you, doesn't mean we all did," she said, her voice steady, but the truth clung to her tongue like ash.
Alexander let out a harsh, bitter laugh that sent chills down her spine. He leaned in, his breath cold against her face. "Where were you?" His voice dropped, almost a whisper, but it carried the weight of a thousand grievances. "While they were playing with our lives? You call yourself righteous? Ancient? You call yourself a god? Where were you then?"
His words struck with more force than any physical blow could. Luna felt them settle deep within her, like a poison spreading through her veins. The look in his eyes wasn't just anger—it was betrayal, and that cut her deeper than she ever expected. He wasn't wrong. She had turned her back on her responsibilities. She had let the world burn while she slept in the comfort of her isolation.
She hadn't just been negligent; she had abandonent them and had been derelict to her position
She had failed them.
A memory surfaced— A village praying at a shrine long abandoned. People calling out her name for help that never came. Children weeping over bodies of the fallen, curses muttered under their breaths as they realized no god would save them.
She had ignored it all.
For what? A single mistake that had wounded her pride, shattered her belief in her own divinity?
Her knees weakened under the weight of it, but she refused to fall.
Alexander's gaze bore into her with the kind of intensity that could strip away all the façades she had built over the centuries. He wanted her to feel it—every moment of his and every other wolf's suffering, every betrayal, every drop of blood that had been spilled while she turned a blind eye.
"You think we didn't know?" he sneered, his lips curling in disgust. "You gods, so high and mighty. Watching us like insects. We suffered, we died, we bled for you. And where were you? Sitting on your throne, oblivious, uncaring."
He was right. She had turned away. For too long, she had allowed the weight of one mistake, one wound, to keep her from her people. And now, standing here before him, Luna realized just how much damage her absence had caused. She had let them suffer—her people, the very ones she was supposed to protect. She wasn't their god. She didn't deserve to be called one.
Alexander's smirk returned, twisted and mocking. "You were too busy being a coward, weren't you?" His voice was laced with so much venom that it almost physically hurt her. "That's why I don't pray anymore. I don't bow to you gods. Praying to devils is better. At least they don't lie. They don't pretend to care. They're selfish, and cruel—and they admit it. You? You pretend you're righteous while letting us burn."
"YOU.AREN'T.MY.GOD"
Luna's breath hitched, her chest tightening as his words settled like lead in her stomach. She had heard mortals speak of the gods with contempt before, but never like this. This was personal. His anger, his bitterness—it wasn't just against the gods as a concept. It was against her.
The truth of it hit her harder than any battle she had ever fought.
Alexander's eyes were ablaze, as if the years of betrayal had come to a head in this moment. His words hung in the air like a curse, and for the first time in millennia, Luna felt the weight of her own inadequacy. She wasn't the goddess she thought she was—she hadn't been for a long time. She had been running, hiding from her mistakes. Hiding from her people.
Hiding from herself.
"I..." Her voice faltered, and for a second, the ancient, powerful goddess had no words. The weight of her own guilt pressed down on her, threatening to crush her where she stood.
Alexander's smirk deepened, the mockery in his eyes a reflection of the truth she had ignored for so long. He didn't wait for her to respond, didn't care for any justification she might offer. To him, she was no different from the rest. Just another god who had failed.
With one final, contemptuous glance, he turned his back on her once more and walked away, leaving Luna standing in the middle of the street, her heart heavy, her spirit shattered.
For the first time in a long while, she felt truly vulnerable. Where had she been?
As the crowd around her continued moving, oblivious to the cosmic weight of their encounter, Luna stood alone, the full reality of her failures sinking in. She wasn't the goddess she had once been.
And perhaps... she never had been .