Filed to story: Luna Riannon and Alpha Brayden Novel
Maybe Astraea already hated him like the rest of the gods.
Maybe they were done, and she was preparing for a wedding with her mate…
He drifted in and out of consciousness, trying to stay alert but too weak to do so. Gleipnir was slowly sucking the life out of him.
“Fenrir!” Warm hands cupped his face, and for a moment, he leaned into them, a familiar scent enveloping him. Gods knew he needed that warmth after such a long time alone in the darkness. “What did they do to you?”
Her voice was so sweet that he wanted to soak in that sound until… the memories rushed back, and his whole body shivered with fear.
“Get away from me!” He shook the hands off him.
Astraea’s eyes widened as she looked at him, tears stinging her eyes. She was more beautiful than ever today in a flowing white dress with silver vines entwining around her slender frame. She had a white cloak on to cover her glowing hair, and a gleaming star necklace adorned her neck.
Fenrir closed his eyes, muttering, “It’s not her. It’s not her. It can’t be her.”
It pained her to see him like this. She hadn’t seen him for months, and he looked at her as if she was a stranger now.
“Fenrir, please!” She begged him, brushing her palm over his cheek. “It’s me. I came to free you. Tell me what to do.”
“Lies,” he mumbled quietly under his breath. “Not real-“
“How do I take this off?” Astraea tried to remove the chain, noticing how deep it went into his skin, leaving red lines.
Tears rolled up in her eyes as she searched for a flaw or a loophole but found nothing.
“Go away,” Fenrir stuttered. “Not- her-“
“It’s me!” Astraea insisted, taking his face into her hands again. She simply couldn’t take no for an answer. Not like that. “Fenrir, I love you! I came for you! It’s me! I swear it’s me! I am yours, and you are mine, remember? Those words bound us forever. Stronger than any chain!”
He finally looked at her, allowing himself to doubt that she was an illusion for the first time. Then his eyes lowered to her hands on the chains, and he saw his bead bracelet still on her wrist.
“It’s you-” he breathed out, his heart clenching painfully.
She nodded and continued to check the chains, searching for a way to free him.
“We will go far away,” she promised him, trying to hold back a sob that threatened to escape her. “To a place where no one will find us! We’ll go to the human realm if we have to!”
“Will you- drop everything for me?” He was watching her in disbelief.
“Of course I will,” Astraea wiped the tears off her cheeks. “I came back here just for you. I am not leaving without you!
Not if I can help it!”
“Did you – marry him?”
“No, Fenrir, I didn’t. Damn it, you have scars all over you.
What have they done?”
“You didn’t marry him!” A smile curled his lips despite the situation they were in. At this moment in time, nothing mattered to him more than Astraea being there for him and avoiding the marriage everyone else tried to force on her.
“My mother took me back to our realm at first and only agreed to let me return here when I promised to go through with the marriage and mating bond. So, I had to pretend,” she explained hastily, “but I was searching for you. Fenrir, no one was saying a word until that one valkyrie-“
She didn’t get to finish her words when a sharp blade poked out of her abdomen.
Shock coursed through Fenrir’s veins, rendering him momentarily numb as their eyes met in the understanding of what happened. He tried to scream, but no sound came out. His body jerked against the restraints in an attempt to intervene and save her, but Gleipnir held him well.
Astraea grasped his shoulder for support as the sword disappeared again. Blood gushed over both of them as she leaned into him, and he held her with his free hand.
“Pretend?” Vidar gritted his teeth, glaring at the red stain growing over the once white dress of his fated mate. A woman who dared to be in love with another.
He couldn’t let them humiliate him like that. There and now, Vidar knew what kind of God he was. She made him that.
The God of Vengeance.
“You think you can humiliate Asgard like that?” he shouted as Valkyries started to appear, trying to separate him from Astraea and Fenrir. “You think you can humiliate me?!”
“You are prohibited from entering this cave!” Kara bared her sword, ready to fight the deity who was much stronger than her. “Leave!”
The air in the cave thickened as a portal opened, and Tyr ran out of it, shocked by the scene unfolding before his eyes.
“Vidar!” He shouted, charging towards him and taking the sword away from Odin’s son.
Another portal opened just a few seconds later, and Freyja walked out of it together with Selene. The Moon Goddess searched for her daughter and gasped in disbelief when she finally found her, colour draining from her beautiful face.
Fenrir did not care if they all killed each other. Life was slipping away from the woman he loved, and he couldn’t help her. All he cared about was slipping away before his eyes.
His knees buckled, and he lowered her to the ground. For some reason, the chains loosened enough to allow him that.
“No!” His voice was hoarse as he watched Astraea trying to say something, too. “No, my love. You cannot leave me. Not like this. Not ever. Please-“
For the first time in his adult life, tears burned his eyes, rolling down his cheeks.
Astraea’s gentle fingers brushed them away as she tried to smile at him.
Vidar pierced her with a divine weapon. Life was draining away from her, and yet she was the one who tried to console him.
“If we ever were to be married- she whispered so that he was the only one who could hear her, “I’d want it to be in the Glowing Garden. This is where I fell in love with you, Fenrir-“
*Then this is where I will always be waiting for you. Do you hear me, Astraea? I’ll wait for you in the Glowing Garden.” He kissed her forehead, unable to stop the tears when he felt her hand slipping down his cheek. He caught it and kissed it too, kissed her palm and every finger. As if it could help him to hold her here for longer…
He tried to take her in the hair, the face, the way she looked at him, the way her lips curved, yet at the same time, he knew too well none of this would ever be nearly enough if she wouldn’t be with him.
She was watching him with glassy eyes when he leaned down to claim her lips one last time. The bittersweet feeling only brought him more pain.
“I am not losing you-” All the hurt was slowly turning into something else. Something dark and hollow.
“Don’t give up-” Astraea’s lips barely moved when she squeezed his palm as strongly as she could. “Fight- Be free-“
“What have you done?” Selene screamed at the two gods, looking at the bloodied sword in Tyr’s hand. “How could you? Why?!”
“It was an accident!” Vidar replied dryly, and the Moon Goddess created a sphere of energy on her band, ready to erase them both from existence. “No one was supposed to be here. We thought it was an intruder! We realised that it was Astraea when it was too late”
Fenrir heard the lie, but he couldn’t bring himself to react.
Not with dying Astraea in his arms.
However, Vidar didn’t stay calm for long, grasping his heart just a few moments later and falling to the ground
“What is this?” His face was contorted with pain.
“The mate bond!” Selene replied coldly. “When she is in pain, you feel it, remember?”
Vidar groaned on the ground, but he wasn’t the main concern for anyone now.
“What did you think that I would give my daughter away without precautions? You two are connected by a thread woven by Fates themselves.”
“Let’s calm down,” Freyja touched Selene’s shoulder. “We can fix this.”
“My daughter is dying!” The goddess pushed her friend away. “Stabbed by a divine weapon! How do you imagine fixing that? It’s impossible!”
“It is possible,” Freyja replied confidently but slightly quieter than usual. “I saw Astraea in the future. More than once.”
Selene wasn’t listening, her attention on her daughter in the arms of that… animal
“I can’t imagine what kind of power is needed to save her,” she mumbled, biting her lips. “She is the only one who potentially has that kind of divine power, but now it is disappearing before our eyes. She can’t save herself because her power had never reached its prime. There is no deity who can-“