Chapter 25-Amrin
The first thing I realized after Menon had just fucked me into a mild coma was that silence could feel intimate.
Not awkward.
Not empty.
Perfect.
The room around us breathed softly beneath the glow of enchanted lanterns and moonlit runes etched into the black stone walls of Menon’s chambers.
Outside the massive arched windows, the skies above Asgarheim shimmered with ribbons of silver-blue auroras where ley lines crossed through the multiverse itself.
Beautiful.
Ancient.
Endless.
And somehow none of it felt half as overwhelming as the male holding me against his chest.
I could hear his heartbeat beneath my ear.
Slow.
Powerful.
Steady.
Mine.
The matebond thrummed warmly every time the thought crossed my mind.
Not possessive in a frightening way.
Comforting.
Like something inside me had finally stopped searching.
Menon’s fingers moved slowly along my spine beneath the blankets, tracing idle patterns across my skin while he held me sprawled atop him like he physically could not bear distance between us.
Honestly?
Same.
The exhaustion settling into my bones should have made me sleepy, but my body still hummed with awareness.
Heightened senses.
Magic.
Him.
Everything about him overwhelmed me now that the bond between us had fully settled.
The heat of his skin.
The scent of lunar magic and midnight forests clinging to him.
The way his chest rose beneath my cheek every time he breathed.
Even his silence felt heavy with emotion.
Protectiveness.
Wonder.
Relief.
Love.
Gods.
He really loved me.
The realization still made my chest ache painfully.
Not because I doubted him anymore.
Because I did believe him.
Entirely.
That was the terrifying part.
“What are you thinking?” Menon murmured softly above me.
His voice vibrated through his chest beneath my cheek.
I smiled faintly.
“That this doesn’t feel real.”
His hand stilled against my back immediately.
The bond tightened anxiously.
I lifted my head quickly, realizing too late how that sounded.
“No—not bad unreal,” I corrected softly. “Just…” My throat tightened slightly. “I spent so much of my life feeling unwanted that this feels impossible sometimes.”
Pain flickered openly across his face.
Immediate.
Fierce.
Gods, he hated hearing me speak badly about myself.
“Luna,” he said quietly.
The warning in his voice almost made me laugh.
“You do realize glaring at me every time I insult myself isn’t technically therapy, right?”
“It is effective, however.”
That actually startled a laugh out of me.
Menon’s expression softened instantly at the sound.
Like hearing me happy physically relieved him somehow.
And maybe it did.
The matebond still felt new and raw between us, but already I understood certain things instinctively.
He carried loneliness like an old wound.
Duty like armor.
And love?
Love like worship.
It was overwhelming being looked at the way Menon looked at me.
Like I mattered more than all the stars in the sky.
“You are not unwanted,” he said fiercely, one hand sliding into my hair. “Not now. Not ever again.”
Emotion clogged painfully in my throat.
I believed him.
That was the dangerous part.
“I know,” I whispered.
And I did know.
Not just intellectually.
Internally.
The bond between us pulsed warm with agreement immediately.
Mine.
Mine.
MINE.
Menon exhaled slowly beneath me like he’d been holding tension inside his body for centuries.
Maybe he had.
“You truly frightened me tonight,” he admitted quietly after a moment.
I blinked up at him.
“What? Why?”
His jaw tightened.
“When your mother spoke to you as though you were fragile.” His luminous eyes darkened slightly. “I worried part of you still believed her.”
Oh.
Oh.
That hurt in the gentlest possible way.
Because he understood me too well already.
“I think…” I swallowed hard. “Part of me probably always will a little.”
Menon’s expression turned murderous instantly.
Not at me.
At the idea itself.
“She was wrong.”
“I know.”
“She failed you.”
I hesitated.
Then sighed softly.
“Maybe. But I think she thought she was protecting me in her own weird emotionally constipated Coven way.”
That startled a rough laugh out of him.
“Emotionally constipated?”
“You met my mother.”
“Fair.”
I smiled faintly before tracing my fingers slowly across the glowing runes beneath his chest.
The markings brightened immediately beneath my touch.
Beautiful.
Everything about him was beautiful.
Even the parts that frightened others.
Especially those parts, honestly.
The claws.
The tail.
The impossible celestial power simmering beneath his skin.
Monster.
The word should have felt ugly.
Instead it felt sacred here at Runevald.
Like truth.
“I think Professor Kenna knew this would happen,” I murmured eventually.
Menon made a thoughtful sound.
“She likely suspected.”
“The whole Fates thing?”
“Yes.”
I shifted slightly atop him, propping my chin against his chest.
“Do you really believe in that? Destiny and mates and cosmic soul-bonding and all of it?”
Menon looked down at me like the answer should have been obvious.
“I did not before you.”
The honesty in his voice wrecked me instantly.
Gods.
This male.
“I mean it,” he continued softly. “Before you, mating bonds felt theoretical. Political. Necessary for power alignment among celestial bloodlines.” His hand tightened gently in my hair.
“Then you walked into my life and suddenly the stars themselves made sense.”
My chest physically hurt.
No one had ever spoken to me like this before.
Not even close.
“You make me feel brave,” I admitted quietly.
His brows furrowed immediately.
“You are brave.”
“I wasn’t before.”
“You stood against your mother tonight.”
“Only because I knew you’d catch me if I fell.”
Silence settled softly between us after that.
Heavy.
Tender.
Real.
Outside the tower windows, the auroras shifted slowly across the skies above Asgarheim while the distant sounds of the Spring Equinox Festival carried faintly through the cliffs below Runevald.
Somewhere out there students still celebrated beneath enchanted lanterns and ancient stars.
But here?
Here felt separate somehow.
Private.
Safe.
Menon brushed his nose gently against mine.
“You are tired,” he murmured.
“A little.”
“You should sleep.”
I smiled softly.
“You say that like I’m capable of sleeping when you look at me like that.”
His tail tightened lazily around my thigh beneath the blankets.
“How do I look at you?”
“Like you’re trying to memorize me.”
“I am.”
Gods.
I buried my face against his chest immediately.
“You cannot just say things like that casually.”
“I can. I am celestial royalty.”
I snorted against him.
“There it is. The ego.”
“It is not ego if I am objectively magnificent.”
I laughed again, louder this time.
The sound echoed softly through the tower chambers.
Menon smiled beneath me with such quiet wonder it nearly shattered my heart.
Because I realized then—he loved making me happy.
Not performatively.
Not possessively.
Genuinely.
Like every smile I gave him mattered.
The matebond wrapped warmly around us both as exhaustion finally began pulling at my body in earnest.
For the first time in years, sleep no longer felt frightening.
No racing thoughts.
No anxiety clawing beneath my ribs.
No endless restless ache.
Just warmth.
Magic.
Him.
I curled closer instinctively, pressing my lips softly against the glowing runes over his heart.
“I love you, Menon Blau.”
His entire body went still beneath me.
Then his arms tightened almost painfully around me.
“And I love you, Amrin Cordoza,” he whispered roughly against my hair. “In every realm. In every lifetime.”
And wrapped in moonlight and magic and the arms of my celestial Monster—I finally slept.