41. Runa
Runa
“Ash?”
“Hm?”
“I have something to tell you.”
He drops the fork and licks blue frosting from the corner of his lips. “Is it about the cakes? They all taste good to me, and I’m useless when it comes to judging which one we should commission for the wedding.”
I swat at the air. “It’s fine, Ash. I’ll ask Maren when she gets here.” Maren sent word that she’s alive and is making her way to Fireborn territory.
We receive periodic news about the rest of my family. My mother barely survived, my father lost his leg, and when Soren woke up, the alchemists put him to sleep for fear he would drown the enemy troops when he found out what they did.
Once the first shots went off, nobody could stop the carnage. The Stormcrest castle, for the first time ever, fell under a rule that’s not Stormcrest. Humans live in the castle now and are using it to control the rest of our territory.
Pockets of wolf rebellion rise, but the Wardens squash them quickly with their weapons and alchemy.
Within the castle, the Wardens hold my family hostage and use them against Ash.
The alchemists lost control of him the moment Ash no longer needed a Regulator or meds or to purge.
Now their leverage is my parents and my brother.
Otherwise, Ash will wipe them all from existence. His words, not mine.
“It’s not about the cake,” I say.
He turns his chair to face me and rests his elbows on his knees. “Come here. I want to kiss your freckles before whatever you say pisses me off.”
“How can you tell it’ll piss you off?”
“It’s written all over your face.”
“What is?”
“Ash is about to get pissed off, but I’m doing it anyway.”
He kisses my nose and my cheeks. Since I’ve tanned at his beach house, I have even more freckles than before.
Ash likes them. Whenever I’m near this male, I want to fuck him.
I’ve wanted to bang him from the moment I laid eyes on him.
“Do you remember how I volunteered to be your conduit for the signing of the treaty?”
Flames burn in Ash’s eyes, a constant reminder of his fire. “It’s not something I can forget,” he says.
“I did that because I spotted Sven in the crowd, reaching into his bag as he made his way to the front. I thought I saw the butt of a gun in his hand.”
Ash’s eyes widen, and he rears back. “And you stood between him and me?”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t want him to shoot you.”
“Fuck, baby, don’t do that again.”
“Should I have let him shoot you?”
“Yeah.” He swallowed a duh.
“Do we know what happened to Sven?”
“He’s behind the city walls.” Ash leans in to kiss the side of my neck. “Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because we’re a couple.” The pack mates bake cakes, expecting a wedding announcement, but Ash swore we would wait until my family could join us. Stormcrest is werewolf territory, and the alchemists can’t have it. “I don’t want us to have secrets.”
Ash clears his throat. “I have something to say too.”
“Uh-oh.”
Ash scrunches up his nose, stroking his neatly trimmed beard. His beard feels amazing when his face is between my legs. He can keep it trimmed just like that. Mmhm. I withdraw all my complaints against Ash’s beard.
“When I was sick in the Midlands, I met a woman…”
My heart pumps hard. All the blood rushes into my face. I prepare for the worst by fisting my hands, eyeing the cake sampler plates, and fantasizing about slamming them all on his head.
Unaware of my violent intentions, Ash continues. “She was one of those moon fanatics who practices dark alchemy. She purged the poisons of my body, and when I was ready to leave, she said something that stuck with me. I’ve thought about it ever since.”
“Okay.” This is much better than what I thought this conversation would turn into, but just in case, I ask, “You didn’t sleep with this woman, did you?”
“What? No. What the hell? Why would you think that?”
“You started the conversation with I met a woman. Why would I not think you slept with her?”
“Because you’re my moon. I would rather lose my limbs, my heart, my eyes than do something that would hurt you.”
He can’t see how his words melt my heart.
Ash doesn’t speak affectionately often enough.
He’s a hard-shelled male heavily protected by emotional armor built after his sister’s brutal murder and the subsequent betrayal of his parents.
But when he tells me things like this, I fall in love with him even more.
I twirl my hair around my finger. “Really? I’m your moon. That’s so beautiful.”
Ash takes my hands and kisses them. “I have something very silly to tell you.”
Our faces are inches apart. “I love silly things.”
“Do you?”
It’s almost like he needs reassurance from me. “Most girls love things that boys find silly. Pink totes, sparkling blue wedding dresses, cakes, bows, romance novels.”
Ash sighs. “Here it goes. You ready?”
I nod.
“Surrender the moon to that which owns it.”
I gasp. I lied. I was not ready. “Where did you hear that?”
“I heard it from the woman in the Midlands. She said you would know. She said the moon always knows.”
Tears cloud my vision before they spill down my cheeks. “I read that in a story about fated mates. It…it’s what Bjorn said to Freya before their bond was completed and they became fated mates.”
Ash wipes my tears away with his thumbs. “Don’t cry, Runa. I don’t mean to make you cry.”
“It’s okay. It’s just a story.”
Ash sits back and looks at the flock of seagulls making their final scavenger hunt as the sun sets into the sea. Soft waves wash onto the shore. “Yeah.”
I study his profile. Dark hair, dark trimmed beard. Black shirt, jeans, boots. I fell for him before he even knew who I was. I can be silly with him. “Are you disappointed it’s not real?”
Ash nods.
“I can’t hear you, Alpha.”
Ash smiles. “Yes, Omega, I’m disappointed this kind of bond exists only in your story.”
“Me too. But for what it’s worth… The moon surrenders.”
The world tilts on its axis. Ash whips his head toward me. We stare at each other as a sharp pull between my ribs wrenches something that’s coiled inside me. I gasp, not because it’s painful, but because whatever it was inside me unfurled. I feel as if I’ve taken my very first breath.
Ash inhales sharply.
There is no visible clue. No glowing lights.
No fires or storms. But in the space between us, the string that uncoiled from inside me twists around another string that comes from Ash, forming a single bond, a bridge between us that promises we will never drift apart.
There are no fireworks; only a profound sense that Ash and I are bonded mates.
“Say something,” I tell him.
Ash blinks. “If… if we found each other among billions in the world, do you think my luck has turned? Do you think I won’t eat alone anymore? That I will have a family coming to sit with me out here for breakfast?”
I curl up in Ash’s lap and kiss him on the cheek. “Yes, I do.”
Ash wraps his arms around me and holds me tightly. “We’re not just a couple. We’re fated mates. I love you, Runa Stormcrest. You are my moon.”
“I love you too, Ash Fireborn. You’re my fire.”