Filed to story: Luna Riannon and Alpha Brayden Novel
Every muscle in his body got tense hearing that.
“What do you mean?” He could feel the fire burning through his skin, anticipating the answer and hoping he was wrong about it.
“Because – it’s Astraea’s last life,” the Moon Goddess confessed, causing him to fall to his knees, pain engulfing every cell of his body.
“No.” He shook his head, not accepting the news. “She is a celestial. She is supposed to live forever.”
“Fenrir!” Selene covered her face with her hands. “She already died. She hasn’t reached her celestial powers once in millennia. Astraea she lived on borrowed time thanks to Freyja’s gift. Unfortunately, her time is over. This is her last life in a werewolf’s body.”
“I f*cking hate you!” He said the words with a note of despair in them, not sparing her a glance. “I hate what you did to us! I hate everything you represent! I hate how you feel you are better than anyone and that you know better.
You ruined her! You ruined the best, the purest creature in the entire universe and never paid the price for what you have done!”
“I know!” she shouted, bursting out crying, unable to control her emotions.
Fenrir observed her in utter shock. They had known each other so long, and yet he never saw her like that.
A mess.
“I know-” she repeated after a while in a much weaker voice. The whole time, he was watching her, not knowing what to think and sadly realising it did not bring him joy to witness her falling apart. “But don’t think I paid no price. I have been paying it for so long. Watching her suffer like that – it wasn’t a walk in the park for me either.”
“You could have stopped it!” he growled.
“I wish I could!” she countered. “Fenrir, the more time passed, the less control I had over anything. Vidar has forged the threads that bind them to each other, sacrificing the divine weapons of his deceased family for it to happen.
I had nothing to counter it with. I asked him to consider letting her go, but he -“
For once, Fenrir was glad he was chained. Just listening to this made him want to destroy everything around it. This void was a good place to get the news.
“He still wants his revenge.” Fenir gritted his teeth, clenching his hands around the chains. “Hasn’t he had enough?”
“You know him as well as I do,” Selene sighed, pacing back and forth. “He claims he loves her, but The mate bond is driving him crazy.”
“And who do we have to thank for that?”
“Look, I came here for a reason.” The Moon Goddess stopped him. “In this world, you are the only one who would do anything for her, and so am I.”
“Are you?” he scoffed. “You let so many of her lives be destroyed by that monster!”
“That monster is the only one who can save her,” Selene reasoned, and he became anxious hearing this.
“Save her? Do you even remember how many times he was the reason for her death? Each time Astraea and I got together, he was throwing hell at us until he got us apart!”
“I remember very well. I had to watch this. Over and over and over again! Each wolf I gave her perished as a result.”
There was the Selene he remembered, her face once again lacking emotions.
“I was the one who pitched him the deal you two made.
You steer clear of Astraea, and he lets her be as long as you two don’t meet.”
Every muscle in Fenrir’s body stiffened
That deal gave Astraea a few calm lives, but he wasn’t allowed to be with her or help her in any way.
“That was you?” He always thought it was weird Vidar even considered offering him something like that.
He hated it, but it was better than watching her be tormented and killed. Ironically, she never was completely happy in those lives, but she lived. And there were good days in those lives. Knowing what bad days could look like, he wanted to give her at least that.
“Yes,” Selene nodded. “It was better than nothing. I hoped that maybe he would calm down and leave her alone, but-
“But he is too obsessed to forget.” Fenrir chuckled darkly.
The silent pr*ck was a sadist. “So, if you solved the problem and everything was amazing, what is all this?”
“He broke your deal.” The Moon Goddess informed him, and he pulled the chains harder.
“What do you mean? Astrea didn’t meet him. She knows nothing of him.”
“He tried to kill her when she was a child,” Selene frowned, fisting her hands. “If not for your brother, her last life would be over-*
ASGARD
Fenir watched his brother fighting Thor in the sea next to Asgard. The bloody battle took longer than it took him to kill Odin, but he knew he couldn’t interfere. It was Jor’s destiny to kill his nemesis
His own fight exhausted him, but also finally gave him some closure.
Odin destroyed his life. The Allfather was the reason for his suffering, and now he finally paid the price. If the ruler of Asgard didn’t treat him like an unwanted pet, none of this would have happened. And Astraea would have been alive.
The gods were dying like flies around him, and he needed to find one more man. The man who took Astraea away from him.
A deep s***h left by Odin on his abdomen was bleeding and he tried to heal it, but the power and strength were slipping away from him.
A stomp of water rose to the skies, and somehow Fenrir knew it meant the end of his brother’s battle. He saw Thor walking out of the sea on shaky feet, black liquid oozing from his wounds. Jor’s venom. This would be Thor’s end.
Fenrir turned away from the dying son of Odin. He did not feel sorry for him. Strangely, he felt nothing. Somehow, all his emotions had been blocked since the last shimmering star of Astraea dissipated in his arms
He searched for his brother, not knowing what he would do without him and found his human body washed up on the shore. An ominous sign for sure
It took him a while to get there, but he dragged Joran, barely breathing, to safety, collapsing next to him.
“He got me!” His brother was trying to close his gushing wound, but judging by its placement, it was useless. The two gods killed each other. This wasn’t the end they counted on.
“Hold on just a little!” Fenir begged him. He had already lost Astraea. He wasn’t losing Jormungandr, too. His brother did not deserve it. He didn’t have the long and fulfilling life that Thor had. He wasn’t everyone’s favourite; he never knew what home or love was. It wasn’t fair!
” “Damn, that’s one embarrassing death!” Jor could barely focus his eyes.
“For what it’s worth, his wounds look more embarrassing to me,” Fenrir tried to keep a brave face. “A slow death from poison is not that heroic if you ask me. And lucky for you, you have a far better brother than all of his taken together.
You are not going anywhere.”
“I probably lost most of my dragon form-“
“You’ll grow a new one. Remember you wanted large wings to be able to fly?”
Joran smiled at the thought. Flying was one of his biggest dreams, but he needed to slay another dragon and steal that ability from him. Dragons were hard to come by.
“We can get you wings, too,” he muttered
“I’ll pass,” Fenrir chuckled
He ripped his bracelet off, searching for suitable beads. It was hard to concentrate now, but even if he simply gave Jor more time to regenerate, it could work
Finally, he found what he was looking for and crushed it, seeing instant relief on his brothers face.
His joy was short-lived because a sword went right through his back and all the way to his chin and nose at a sharp angle.
Such an unexpected and brutal attack…
No Asgardian hit from the back. They were all too honourable-
All but one.
“You didn’t think you were getting away with it all, did you?”
Vidar spat, disgust clear on his face.