Filed To Story: The Perfect Luna by Marissa Gilbert
The beauty jumped into the water, and before Fenrir realised it, Joran left their hideout, storming towards where the woman just stood.
“What the hell, Jor?”
He barely managed to catch up with him, pulling him behind a massive moss-covered rock to avoid her noticing them.
“What do you think you are doing?”
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely family reunion, Rir, but there is a gorgeous naked woman in that river, and that happens to be my speciality. Nature calls, so to speak. I just have to introduce myself. You and I can speak next month, all right?”
He was serious, and that made Fenrir angry.
“Of course not! No one is supposed to see you, remember?”
His words were laced with fury and frustration, but they didn’t have much effect on the dragon.
“She would never even know it was me. I can introduce myself as… anyone, really. What seems to be the problem? I can be any Asgardian who decides to swim at night. She would never know the difference.”
“Because so many people swim in the Gopul River at night!”
Fenrir ran his hand over his face. This was ridiculous, and he wasn’t sure what frustrated and annoyed him more – how easily Jor planned to abandon him or how confident he was that he could meet and woo Astrea.
“Who cares!”
Joran grinned at him, untying the top of his tunic as if this wasn’t up for negotiation.
“I saw her first!”
“Well, actually, I saw her first,”
Fenrir reasoned, trying to cool his brother down.
“Maybe, but unlike me, you aren’t interested, right?”
Jor snorted, throwing a quick glance at him.
“Wrong!”
Fenrir snarled, and his brother’s grin faded. The boulder was hiding them from the river well, and from the corner of his eye, Joran noticed that the girl swam back to the surface. Only to dive back in again in seconds.
“Would you just look at her?”
he sighed, admiring her.
“No women love to dive that deep! She was made for me to–”
“No!”
Fenrir growled louder this time.
“It’s dangerous for you to come here! Who knows what your next punishment will be if they find out.”
“And yours,”
Jor reminded him that his position wasn’t much better.
“And mine,”
he had to agree with this.
“Hell, even Father could suffer for this, and who knows what his wrath would look like this time.”
Joran groaned, throwing one last look at the beautiful maiden. He was closer to their father than his siblings and believed in his cause. That was why mentioning the impact on the god of mischief was a safe bet.
Joran knew that one night with a woman wasn’t worth the risks. He shouldn’t have been here. The rulers of Asgards couldn’t find out that he came here every month to find out their secrets and drink their mead to grow stronger. He may have hated it, but Fenrir was right.
Nevertheless, it didn’t mean he couldn’t have any fun.
He ran as fast as a flash to where the starry maiden stood moments ago and returned back to his astonished brother with her clothes in his hands.
“If I can’t touch, I can at least look!”
he smirked, and Fenrir got furious for some reason.
“What is wrong with you?”
he demanded, snapping the white fabric out of his hands.
“We can’t afford mistakes like this–”
“Correction,”
Jor chuckled,
“You can’t afford mistakes like this. I can afford all the mistakes in the world. What are they going to do? Throw me into the sea?”
His brother had a point. However, Fenrir calmed down, knowing that this was just his way of letting off some steam. Jor wasn’t going to risk their little arrangement coming to light. He literally needed it to survive. This was just a tantrum, and he would get over it eventually.
Now all he needed to do was return the clothes and lead Joran as far away from here as quickly as possible. Just why did this woman have to come and swim here? And where were her guards? She had to have at least a few.
“Who’s there?”
Fenrir heard a sweet but confident voice and realised they’d been caught red-handed, and there was no more time for extra manoeuvres.
He was ready to throw the clothes back to the goddess and thought they could escape while she pulled them back on. Jormungandr could get back into the river and swim all the way into the sea while he himself could shift, and she wouldn’t even notice his black fur in the darkness, thanks to his speed. Nor would she be able to catch up with him in his wolf form if she decided to try.
Yet in the next moment, his brother, his own flesh and blood, pushed him from behind the boulder that was their refuge, with the white dress still in his hands.
Fenrir glared at his sibling and only received an apologetic smirk in return as Jor lifted his arms to show him he was giving up. He was their father’s son, after all. And now Fenrir had to face the music because of that.
He finally looked directly at the woman, who stood waist-deep in water, giving him the iciest gaze he had ever seen and he had seen a fair share of those. The dragonflies still hovered around her as if they tried to defend her from him. And that was a miracle all on its own…
She was undoubtedly the most beautiful woman he had ever laid his eyes on, shimmering like a star. Her beauty was otherworldly, almost ethereal, but at the same time… she held her heavy gaze on him with the whole universe enclosed in it. For a second, it seemed to him that she controlled a raw and ancient power. But it couldn’t be since everyone knew that Astrea was practically brand new.
There was something about her that he had never seen or felt before. Some kind of inexplicable power that kept him drawn to her.
“What is the meaning of this?”
she demanded sternly, not afraid of him in the slightest. If anything, she seemed annoyed and rightfully so. However, he admired how calmly she handled it.
“I– didn’t notice you,”
Fenrir lied, and he could swear he heard Joran chuckling just a few steps away from him, still leaning against the giant boulder.
“Didn’t you?”
She tilted her head, piercing him with her starry eyes.
“I know I am practically invisible with all that glow around me, and you–”
she made paused to arch her brow at him,
“you must be into pretty dresses then.”
The last phrase made his jaw clench, and he gave his brother, who had a hard time suppressing his laughter now, an annoyed glare. After all, this was all his fault.
Fenrir had wanted to be introduced to the divine guest, but this wasn’t quite how he wanted it to happen.
However, he wasn’t exactly unhappy about the whole situation because it allowed him to speak to her while they were alone. Something he couldn’t count on in the city.
“Oh, this?”
His lips curled slightly as he weighed the fabric in his hand.
“Is this yours?”
She furrowed her white brows, and the silver glow intensified, spiking his curiosity again.
“You know it’s mine! You stole it!”
she accused him bluntly, a frown on her perfect face.
“I did no such thing!”
Fenrir insisted, and it wasn’t even a lie.
“Then give it back!”
she gritted her teeth.
“Of course,”
he teased, not being able to help himself. She was so… not what he imagined she would be.
“It’s yours. Come here and take it!”
He stretched his arm, and she pursed her lips, offering him another withering glance.
Fenrir waited a few seconds, knowing that in the end, he would give up and do the decent thing, but teasing her had woken up some feral part of him that had rarely been awakened since he’d moved here.
“What is your name?”
she asked him, still not moving in the water where she stood, her skin glistening in the moonlight.
“Fenrir,”
he genuinely smiled at her for the first time, prepared to tell her that her dress would be where she left it and offer to escort her back later.
“Never heard of you,”
she shattered his plans with some kind of spite in her tone, and a little growl escaped him against his will. She was pushing buttons he didn’t even know he had.
“Well, you’ve heard of me now, Astrea,”
he smirked, and she rolled her eyes at him as if to tell him how insignificant that was, although a slight tint appeared on her cheeks.
“And you are going to see me,”
her lips stretched into a sneer, something he didn’t expect from such a sweet and innocent creature. He was coming up with a good reply to that when everything changed.
Her glow went from subtle to blinding within seconds and disoriented him completely. He shielded his eyes with his arm, knowing that trying to see anything was useless. Moreover, the temperature around him became unbearably hot, and Fenrir was ready to shift to defend himself when he felt the dress pulled out of his other hand.
She was so close and she wasn’t doing anything other than putting her clothes back on.
“Impressive,”
he chuckled, using the opportunity to take in her scent. It was composed of floral notes that were accented with hints of shimmering stardust, her divine magic evoking images of glittering galaxies and twinkling constellations in his mind. He tried to recognise the floral notes and smiled when he distinctively smelled moonflowers. All the details of her scent intertwined in her, connecting both the natural world that was so close to him and her own cosmic realm.
“You smell like a spring night right before the dawn, Goddess of Stars,”
he told her, and he could feel her close again.
“Stars burn, Fenrir,”
she whispered in his ear, brushing her delicate fingers over his cheek to demonstrate him that she was in control now.
“Never forget this.”
“Don’t worry, Astrea,”
he caught her hand, bringing it to his lips for a quick kiss, which he knew startled her.
“You are unforgettable.”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?