Chapter 29-Raven
The wind over Asgarheim carried memory.
Not the kind bound to thought.
The kind etched into bone.
Ancient.
Endless.
I held Serena close as we cut through the skies, my wings beating against the currents that rose from the cliffs and forests below.
The Institute faded behind us—its towers of knowledge and restraint, its wards and watchers and carefully constructed control.
That place had saved me.
But it had never been mine.
Not truly.
Not like this.
Not like what I carried in my arms now.
Her.
My Unnasta.
My mate.
Mine.
The bond pulsed between us—not wild, not unstable, but settled.
Like something that had always been meant to exist had finally been allowed to take shape.
She fit against me perfectly, her arms looped around my neck, her breath warm against my skin.
Alive.
Always alive.
And now—so was I.
Not in the hollow, cursed way I had endured for centuries.
But fully.
Terrifyingly.
And I was so hopeful.
The castle came into view slowly, emerging from the mist like something pulled from an old saga.
It stood on the far edge of Asgarheim, where the land dipped into black stone cliffs and the sea below roared like a beast chained to the shore.
Jagged towers.
Weathered walls.
Runes carved deep into every arch and column—older than the Institute itself, older than the bindings placed upon my bloodline.
This place did not pretend to be safe.
It did not hide its power.
It simply was.
Serena shifted slightly in my arms as we descended, her gaze lifting as the structure came into full view.
“Raven…”
I felt the awe ripple through her.
Good.
She should feel it.
This place had once been feared.
Respected.
Avoided.
And for a very long time—abandoned.
I landed in the courtyard, stone cracking faintly beneath the force of my wings folding inward.
Silence followed.
Not empty.
Waiting.
This castle recognized me.
It always had.
But now—it recognized her as well.
The runes along the walls flickered faintly, reacting to her presence, to the bond, to the shift in what I had become.
I set her down slowly but did not release her.
Not fully.
I never wanted to.
“This,” I said, my voice quieter than I expected, “is my actual home since coming here, Unnasta.”
The words felt strange.
Unfamiliar.
Because they had not been true for a very long time.
“Though I’ve not dwelled here for an age,” I continued, my gaze sweeping over the courtyard, the towers, the worn stone that had once echoed with voices long gone. “Because it never felt like home.”
Not with the curse.
Not with the hunger.
Not with the constant fear that I would become something that destroyed everything around me.
But now—I looked down at her.
And everything changed.
“With you now,” I began, my voice roughening slightly, “there is possibility.”
Her eyes softened.
Gods.
That look.
That trust.
That certainty.
It undid me far more thoroughly than any hunger ever had.
“I know there is much to do at the Institute,” I went on, forcing the words out before I lost them entirely. “Much to learn. Much to control.”
Especially now.
Especially with what she had become.
What we had become.
“But I thought—” I paused, something unfamiliar tightening in my chest, something dangerously close to hesitation, “perhaps we could continue our studies and live here. Together.”
The words felt fragile.
Ridiculous.
Hopeful.
“Make a home with me?” I finished quietly. “A future?”
The silence that followed was unbearable.
Not because I feared rejection.
But because I realized—I had never asked for anything like this before.
Not in all my years.
Not in all my cursed existence.
Serena stepped closer.
Not away.
Never away.
“On Asgarheim?” she asked softly.
“Yes,” I said. “Earth is not the place for me. I cannot hide my true face for long.”
I let the truth sit there.
Unfiltered.
Unapologetic.
“But here,” I continued, “I am able to live to my full potential. And now that my Clan is freed from the curse, we can always return to the North.”
The past.
The curse.
The bloodline.
All of it was in the past now.
And there was only the future ahead of us.
“I would rather leave the past where it is,” I said finally, my voice steadying as I looked at her, “and focus on my future.”
With you.
I didn’t need to say it.
The bond carried it.
Clear.
Certain.
Unbreakable.
But I said it anyway because sometimes you had to.
“With you, Unnasta. I love you fiercely, mate.”
Her breath caught.
And then—she smiled.
Not tentative.
Not uncertain.
Certain.
“I want that too,” she said.
The words hit me harder than any blow I had ever taken.
“Earth isn’t my home, Raven.”
Her hand came up, resting over my heart.
“You are.”
Everything inside me stilled.
The wind.
The castle.
The ancient pull of power that had defined my existence for centuries.
All of it—Silenced.
“And I love you too.”
The words should not have meant as much as they did.
But they did.
Gods.
They did.
“I love you more than anything in all the realms, my mate. My sweet Serena,” I said, my voice low, reverent, certain.
I meant it.
Every part of it.
“I love you until all the stars in the multiverse burn out in all the skies…”
I brushed my thumb across her cheek.
“…and maybe even longer than that.”
Her laugh was soft.
Warm.
Alive.
“Are there that many skies?”
I smiled—something I had once thought impossible.
“I’ll introduce you to a friend of mine,” I said. “A descendant of the moon god himself. He will tell us of the skies, Unnasta.”
The future.
We had one.
That realization still felt unreal.
But right now—
Right now—
I had something far more immediate.
I stepped closer.
Close enough to feel her breath.
Her warmth.
Her everything.
“But right now,” I said, my voice dropping, hunger stirring—not wild, not dangerous, but devoted, “I have other things to do.”
She tilted her head slightly, a knowing smile curving her lips.
“Mm, like what?”
I didn’t answer with words.
“Like this.”
And I kissed her.
And kissed her.
And kissed her some more until we were both entwined in the large canopy bed in the master suite, writhing against one another and striving for that singular bliss only we could reach together.
Our clothes fell away with the wave of her hands—a new magic she’d recently picked up and I had to say I was a fan—and with no resistance at all I slid into her in one hard thrust.
“Fuck, Unnasta, your body welcomes me every time,” I growled, reveling at how tight her sweet pussy gripped me with every slide of my cock.
“Oh God, Raven, you feel so good!”
“You were made for me, Serena. Only me. Tell me,” I demanded as I pushed her legs wider apart, my gaze dropping to her dripping slit as I rutted into her.
The runes etched into my body glowed as we renewed our bond with every caress and embrace—with every kiss and shiver—and every contraction of her hot little pussy around my cock.
She dug her nails into my skin, and that bite of pain was all I needed to double my efforts. And just when I felt her sweet heat tighten and ripple with her orgasm I struck, biting her neck and drinking from her vein her sweet life’s force that was the only thing I craved these days.
And when she bit me back? Oh, I followed my beautiful mate right over the edge into ecstasy, snarling like the Monster I was as my cock painted her walls with my seed.
No, this castle did not feel empty anymore.
Neither did the wind feel so cold nor the nights so long.
The past no longer felt like something that defined me.
Because for the first time—I was not the Draugr bound to a curse.
I was Raven.
Mate.
Lover.
I was a Monster with a mate and a future.
And this?
This was our home.