The softness of her curves beneath enchanted silk.
The wonder still lingering inside her pale luminous eyes.
I could not stop looking at her.
And perhaps the most terrifying thing of all?
I never wanted to stop.
Amrin moved through the forest paths slowly, pausing often to admire strange nocturnal plants blooming beneath the moonlight.
Runevald’s northern woods were ancient.
Alive.
Magic saturated everything here.
Bleeding blue bonnets glowed faintly beneath the roots of twisted trees while real lunar moths fluttered lazily through silver fog curling along the cliffs.
Somewhere deeper in the forest, nocturnal creatures chirred and hummed beneath the pulse of the ley lines.
The realm itself seemed to breathe around us.
And my Luna noticed all of it.
She touched things gently.
Wonderingly.
Like she still could not believe this world belonged to her too.
I watched a million emotions move across her beautiful face as we walked.
Joy.
Astonishment.
Curiosity.
Contentment.
The matebond remained too newly formed for me to fully interpret every shift in her emotional state, but I felt enough to know she still battled uncertainty beneath her happiness.
Patience had never been one of my strengths.
I wanted certainty.
Possession.
Forever.
But for Amrin?
I could learn restraint.
Or at least attempt it.
Because she deserved gentleness after everything the world had denied her.
