“I can’t believe I’m holding you in my arms.” Vulf rearranges us into a more comfortable snuggle and sighs.
“Yeah, it must be really weird for you,” I say with heavy sarcasm.
“Do not pretend you’re still mad.” Azuran pinches my waist, and I squeal. “Just wait until you learn the full truth.”
“Excuse me?”
“Azure—”
“Tell me.” I try to scoot back, but even half of their weight is too much to easily roll out from under. Since Vulf clearly has more of a conscience than our meddling fae, he gets the brunt of my stare. “Now.”
“Do you remember the first time you looked me in the eyes?” Vulf asks.
“You were a wolf.” I think harder. “And then I fainted.”
“Yes, but do you remember the feeling?” He smooths a lock of hair out from the tangled mess around my antlers, trailing his finger along my collarbone to rest over my heart. “Here?”
I remember. Like the world was collapsing and being remade all at once. Then, darkness.
I nod.
“When people are tied by an unbreakable bond, they’re called mates.”
“Oh.” My shoulders relax, a long exhale loosening my chest. I giggle again. Because of fucking course mate bonds exist here. Knots and gods and werewolves and fucking mate bonds. As I thought, too good to be true. “Okay.”
A heavy tail thumps the chaise. “Okay?”
“Yeah, sure. That makes sense.” I glance down at Azuran, whose eyes are positively glittering. I stifle a yawn. “So you guys are mates, too? How did you guys meet?”
“That’s quite enough epiphanies for one day, don’t you think, little doe?” Azuran teases. “Rest now.”
Vulf’s calming purr envelopes my senses, and I don’t bother trying to resist.
Chapter Fourteen
Terra
Iwake in the lavish crystal bedroom, alone in the four-poster bed. I lean onto my elbow, bumping my antler on the mattress. The mirror that changed my life is covered in frost, but I make out a grassy scene. Wherever it is, it definitely isn’t Chad’s bathroom.
Male laughter filters in from the hall. Azuran’s twinkles like the quartz windchimes hanging outside of my favorite bookstore. Vulf’s is deeper, gritty, like distant thunder on a cozy day. The perfect pair, and they want me. They claim I’m their mate.
I stare at the frosty mirror. There’s nothing for me back the way I came. I have a few superficial friendships back home, and one foster family I still visit on the occasional holiday, but mostly, I exist in the human world like a drifter. Knowing Vulf’s story and seeing this place, it all makes sense now.
“The goddess awakens.” Azuran’s suave voice is as silken as the sheets shushing between my legs as I awkwardly rearrange. Damn antlers.
“What’s the show?” I wave toward the mirror.
“That’s Aevium’s neighbor, the Dawngrass plain. I thought you might like to see it.”
“Can we go there? Today?”
“Of course, Wildflower.”
“Great.” I bite my lip.
“What else, my dear?” Azuran pries my lip from my teeth, a wicked look in his watercolor gaze.
I glance behind him at Vulf, who hasn’t shifted out of his werewolf form ever since I expressed my appreciation for it. His tail flicks.
