Eldur’s POV
"Please..." I rasped into the night, my voice cracked and threadbare from everything I’d held back until now. I tilted my head to the dark, cloud-choked sky, staring past the stars I couldn’t see—to the goddess who wove fates and forged bonds stronger than bone and blood.
"Please... just let reach her."
The universe heard .
The portal didn’t open—it tore through reality, like a scream given form. My scream. One I’d been holding inside ever since she ran from , ever since I felt the pulse of our bond begin to fade.
I stepped through.
The scent of blood slamd into like a truck.
Her blood.
Nova’s.
My breath caught. Everything inside —heart, lungs, soul—froze, then ignited into a wildfire of rage. My vision blurred, not from grief or panic, but from pure, volcanic fury. That kind of rage that makes ti bend. That makes gods flinch.
Red.
That was all I could see at first.
Red, thick and glistening, soaking into the carpet. Red sared down the side of her face where soone struck her.
Nova. My Nova lay crumbled on the ground like soone had shattered her from the inside out. Her skin was pale. Not in that sleepy, I-had-a-long-day way, but in that terrifying too-still-to-be-alive way. One hand clutched her stomach like she was still trying to protect herself from sothing long gone. Her chest moved—barely.
She wasn’t conscious.
She wasn’t okay.
My soul didn’t just break.
It fractured.
Then I heard movent. A shift of feet. A breath that didn’t belong to her.
And I knew.
He was still here.
I turned my attention to him and my jaws clenched.
Jimmy.
The man I’d t months ago with the sleazy smile and predator’s eyes. The one who talked to Nova like he had the right to breathe the sa air as her. The one who made her flinch just by being in the sa space with him.
He stood in room, wide-eyed, frozen like a deer staring into the headlights of a freight train.
He had no idea how right he was.
I didn’t speak.
Didn’t growl.
Didn’t warn him.
I didn’t need to.
He knew.
Jimmy bolted for the door, heart thundering in his chest so loud I could feel it in the floorboards. The stench of his panic was thick in the air, bitter and sharp, clinging to the walls like smoke.
Coward.
He didn’t even make it two steps before I snapped my fingers.
"Did I say you could leave?" My voice was low, flat—deadly calm in the way that usually made mortals wet themselves.
Jimmy slamd into an invisible wall that shimred to life the mont he got within reach of the exit. He staggered back, rubbing his head, eyes going wide when he realized the door wasn’t real anymore. The whole room had shifted—walls lted into shadows, the air thick with magic that pulsed like a second heartbeat.
I was in control now.
With a flick of my fingers, he was yanked backward like a marionette on strings. He landed hard on his knees, facing , inches away from the unconscious body of the girl he dared to touch.
"You laid your hands on her," I growled, crouching down until our faces were almost level. "You thought that was brave?"
"I-I didn’t know—" he stuttered, his voice high-pitched and trembling.
"Didn’t know what?" I snarled. "That she was mine?"
His lips quivered, and sothing foul-slling hit the air. I didn’t even need werewolf senses to know he’d pissed himself.
"Your what?"
"My mate," I said with finality. "The only reason you’re still breathing is because she wouldn’t want her floor painted with your guts."
Jimmy started sobbing. Ugly, sputtering sobs. "I didn’t an—! I thought she was alone! I—"
"You thought?" I repeated, my voice so cold even the shadows around recoiled.
With a flick of my hand, he scread.
His body twisted—limbs bent at unnatural angles, bones creaked but didn’t break. Not yet. That would be too rciful. His voice cracked and then turned hoarse, like his throat was raw from inside out. I wanted him to feel everything. Not just pain. Hopelessness.
"I could end you with a whisper," I said softly, fingers curling like I was sculpting the air. "But that would be too easy."
A portal opened behind him—dark, void-like, hissing with air that didn’t belong to this world. The scent of ash and rusted tal poured from it, carried by screams that had no mouths.
"Where does that lead?" he choked, his eyes wide, body trembling so hard he could barely stay upright.
"A place where nothing lives. Nothing dies. Just... exists. Forever. Alone."
And with that, I pushed him in.
Not gently.
He scread the whole way down. Until the portal shut and sealed like it had never been there.
Silence filled the room.
Stillness.
Except for her.
Nova.
I turned back to her body—my body moving before I even realized—and gathered her into my arms. Gently. Like she was made of snow and might lt if I held her too tight.
She was so warm, even in her unconscious state. Her heartbeat fluttered weakly against my chest. I laid her on the couch, brushing hair from her swollen cheek.
This... felt familiar.
Too familiar.
The last ti I held her like this, she’d opened her eyes, seen ... and ran like hell. That mory stung like a blade buried in my ribs.
I should go.
I should leave.
I—
No.
Not this ti.
I leaned in and pressed my tongue to the angry wound on her forehead. Just a soft, careful lick. It was instinct. My kind have healing in our saliva, and damn it, I wasn’t going to let her carry a scar because so parasite thought he could break her.
The wound sizzled, closed.
Perfect.
She was safe.
I stayed crouched beside the couch for a long ti, watching her chest rise and fall, listening to the slow, steady rhythm of her breathing like it was the only thing holding my world together.
She would wake up soon.
And then, she’d see .
And hate .
Again.
Just like before.
I was already standing up—half-standing—when I heard the soft, broken whisper.
"Eldur?"
Her voice.
I froze.
My heart—if it was even still mine—twisted violently in my chest.
I knelt again. Quickly. Too quickly. Like a soldier returning to the battlefield.
"You’re okay," I said, my voice cracked and raw in a way I hated. "I... I was just leaving. I didn’t want to scare you. Just... needed to make sure you were safe."
Her eyes blinked slowly, unfocused. She winced as she tried to sit up. I reached out instinctively to help—but stopped myself halfway.
And then—before I could even think—
She lunged at .
Arms wrapping around my neck, trembling fingers gripping my shirt like it was her lifeline.
"Don’t go," she sobbed. "Please don’t leave again."
I blinked. Once. Twice.
"Nova?"
She was crying. Real, broken sobs that soaked my shirt, that made her shoulders shake like the earth was crumbling beneath her.
"I’m sorry," she whispered. "God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t an to push you away. I was scared. I was—but not of you. I didn’t understand then. And when I did... I realized I was more scared of losing you than anything else."
I stared at her.
Was she—?
Was she serious?
"Nova, are you... concussed?" I asked cautiously. "Do you see one of or two?"
She let out a watery, snorting laugh against my neck. "I see one incredibly annoying magical guy who’s too emotionally constipated to realize soone loves him."
Oh.
My whole brain short-circuited.
"You... love ?" I whispered.
She pulled back slightly, her eyes swollen from crying, but still the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.
"I do," she said. "I love you, Eldur. Even when you’re being an ass. Even when you show up through angry portals and rip humans apart. I love you."
I didn’t know what to do with that.
So I cried.
I actually cried.
Big, pathetic tears that stread down my cheeks and dripped onto her shirt. My shoulders shook, and I let my forehead rest against hers, closing my eyes like I was trying to morize this exact second.
"I was wrecked when you ran," I said, voice low, raw. "It felt like the ground gave out under . Like I’d lost you... for good."
"I’m so sorry," she whispered, tears sliding down her cheeks as she reached up to brush mine away with those small, trembling hands—like she could wipe away the ache written into every part of . "I’ll make it right. I swear, I’ll find a way."
I cradled her face in my palms, careful as ever, like she was sothing fragile the universe had trusted to protect. I leaned in until our foreheads touched, breathing her in, grounding myself in her presence.
"I love you, Nova," I murmured. "So damn much, it makes everything else fade. Nothing else even matters."
She let out a shaky laugh, smiling through her tears like the sun breaking through rain.
And just like that, the war inside went still.
The chaos faded.
She was mine again.
And I was never letting her go.
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