Beneath the Alpha's Moon
Chapter 268: A New Tenant

Chapter 268: A New Tenant

Eldur’s POV

She tasted like rain.

Nova held my entire existence in her small hands. I knew it the second her lips met mine—soft and human and warm in the way that made my chest clench. But I didn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop.

Nova’s fingers were curled into the front of my hoodie like she thought I might disappear. Which, to be fair, wasn’t an unreasonable concern with me. Portals were a hell of a party trick.

We’d barely pulled apart from the first kiss, and she was already leaning back in. The space between us didn’t exist anymore. Her breath ghosted against my lips, and something inside me howled—not metaphorically. Not poetically.

Literally.

I ignored it.

"You’re so..." she whispered, like she couldn’t quite finish the sentence.

"Painfully handsome? Ridiculously humble?" I offered.

She laughed, and it was the sound of bells in a quiet temple. "So annoying."

"Accurate," I murmured, and kissed her again.

Goddess. Her lips. I’d fought in brutal battles. I’d opened rifts in space-time. I’d survived Raivo who nearly destroyed me from the inside out. But this? This gentle, slow-burning kiss on a worn-out couch with a human girl wearing my hoodie?

This was dangerous.

Her hands slid up to my neck, cautious but confident, like she was memorizing me through touch. And I... I melted. I let her lead. Let her warmth anchor me. Let myself be a boy again—not a monster, not a weapon. Just a boy.

"Nova," I breathed between kisses.

She hummed, not bothering to open her eyes. "Hmm?"

"If you knew how not-normal I was..." I trailed off, pressing my forehead to hers. "Would you still want this?"

Her eyes fluttered open—brown and soft, but sharp in the way only Nova could be. "Are you trying to talk me out of liking you?"

"No," I whispered. "I’m trying to make sure you won’t run when I screw it up."

She studied me, her thumb tracing absent circles along my jaw.

"You’re not that scary," she said.

I barked a laugh. "Nova, people literally flinch when I walk past them in a grocery store."

"Well, you have the emotional availability of a cactus and the stare of a villain in a Victorian novel. But... I see you."

My heart paused.

You see me.

I couldn’t remember the last time someone had said something that made my throat close up. Hell, I couldn’t remember the last time someone could say anything that made me feel... anything.

"I want to be your boyfriend," I blurted, because apparently, my mouth didn’t believe in timing or finesse.

Nova blinked.

Then blinked again.

"...What?"

I ran a hand through my hair. "I mean, if—if you don’t mind. If you’re okay with how I am. If you want to. No pressure. At all. We could just—"

"Eldur."

"—be friends who aggressively make out—wait what?"

Her face was turning pink, but her eyes were dancing. "You want to be my boyfriend?"

I nodded slowly, every bit of my confidence shattered by the fact that this girl could end me with a single syllable.

She smiled. "I thought you’d never ask."

I stared. "Wait, really?"

"Mm-hmm." She nodded, grinning. "On one condition."

I squinted. "What? Do I have to stop glaring at every person I don’t like?"

"No, that’s a given. I want... more movie nights. And grilled cheese. And you not disappearing on me ever."

"I do not—okay fine. Deal."

She leaned in and kissed me again, and this time, it wasn’t tentative or shy.

This time, it was ours.

And we didn’t stop.

Her fingers twisted in my hair. My hands mapped her back. Every touch was like lightning against my skin. I felt her heartbeat against mine and cursed the fact that mine was speeding up, aching in my ribs like it was trying to claw its way out.

I wanted her. Not just physically—though, yeah, that too—but all of her. Her laugh. Her smart mouth. Her quiet strength.

I kissed her like she was the first taste of air after drowning.

And then something stirred inside me.

It was subtle at first—just a tug in my chest. A pulse in my gums. An itch beneath my skin.

I brushed it off. Focused on her. The way she gasped softly when I trailed kisses down her jaw. The way she said my name like it meant safety.

But then it hit again.

Stronger.

A sharp, aching pressure behind my teeth. I winced.

What the hell?

Raivo was gone. The demon-wolf who once lived in my soul was banished by the Moon Goddess herself. I was—technically—free.

So why were my canines sharpening?

Why did I feel the urge to bite?

I pulled back abruptly.

Nova blinked, dazed and a little breathless. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No—no, gods, no," I said, trying to smile through the chaos boiling in my chest. "You’re perfect. You’re just—um—it’s late."

She glanced at the clock. "It’s barely ten."

"...Late emotionally."

She raised a brow.

I panicked.

"You’ve had a long day. Rain. Drama. Possibly hypothermia. You should rest."

Nova tilted her head, studying me like she was trying to read between the lines I hadn’t drawn yet. But then she sighed, softly, and nodded. "Okay. Let’s go to bed."

She didn’t mean it like that, obviously. But my brain short-circuited anyway.

I stood up, offered her my hand. She took it.

We slipped into my room. The air smelled like pine and magic and whatever shampoo she used that I was definitely going to steal later.

I handed her a blanket. She threw it on the bed and climbed in without hesitation, curling toward the middle like she belonged there. Because she did.

I joined her.

Our limbs tangled naturally. Her head rested on my chest, her hand over my heart.

"Eldur?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you ever get scared?"

I swallowed. "Only when I think I might lose something that matters."

She looked up. "Do I matter?"

"You’re the only thing in this entire human world that feels real to me."

She pressed a kiss to my chest, over my shirt, right where my heart thundered like a war drum. "I’m not going anywhere."

I didn’t say anything after that.

Because if I had, I would’ve told her everything.

That I was a werewolf who didn’t have a wolf anymore. That magic ran through my blood like fire. That every instinct I’d buried for years was trying to claw its way to the surface just because of a girl with sleepy eyes and a hoodie two sizes too big.

That I wanted to mark her.

That even without Raivo, my soul screamed mate.

I held her tighter.

Buried my face in her hair.

And let her warmth lull me to sleep.

********

Later that night, Nova’s breath rose and fell softly on my chest, warm and steady like a heartbeat I didn’t know I needed. Her fingers were still resting where she’d left them—over my shirt, on top of my heart, like she was making sure it stayed in my chest where it belonged.

It was quiet.

The silence was soft. Like the hush of falling snow.

I didn’t sleep.

I couldn’t.

Every time I closed my eyes, I felt it. That... tug.

The edge of something not quite gone.

Something that had teeth.

I stared up at the ceiling. My room was cloaked in darkness, lit only by the dim blue light from the window—moonlight filtering through the glass like a whisper.

Nova shifted slightly, her nose scrunching up as if her dreams were dancing just beyond her reach. A soft, almost inaudible hum slipped from her lips.

I felt that too.

Goddess, I felt everything.

How had she done this to me? This fragile human who liked grilled cheese and made me laugh and looked at me like I wasn’t something broken and sharp. Like I wasn’t dangerous.

I brushed her hair back gently.

She didn’t stir.

And that’s when I heard it.

"You’re not alone, Eldur."

I froze.

No.

No.

That voice—I hadn’t heard it since the first night she slept here. That strange, soft rumble that didn’t belong to Raivo or any echo of my past.

I held my breath, staring into the dark.

"Not again," I whispered under my breath. "I banished you. I buried all of it. I’m done hearing ghosts."

"I’m not a ghost," the voice said calmly. It was deeper now. Stronger. It came not from the walls or the shadows, but from... inside. Deep, where Raivo used to live. Where I’d thought there was only silence and ash left behind.

Nova murmured something in her sleep and shifted, her leg curling around mine like she was trying to anchor me. As if she knew something was trying to pull me away.

I held her closer.

"You’re not real," I hissed, low and sharp. "Raivo is gone."

"I know. Our goddess locked him away forever. I was born from later."

My blood ran cold. Or hot. Or both. I didn’t know anymore.

"...What?" I asked aloud before I could stop myself.

Nova didn’t stir.

"The Moon Goddess doesn’t leave her children empty," the voice said. "She saw your pain. Your rage. Your loss. So she gave you me."

My mouth was dry.

I sat up slowly, carefully, easing Nova off me like I was handling the most fragile artifact in existence. She groaned softly and turned away, curling into the blanket like a cat.

I pressed my back to the headboard, fists clenched.

"...Who the hell are you?" I whispered.

The silence that followed wasn’t silence at all.

It throbbed.

"My name is Aethros."

The name hit something in me. Like a drumbeat in my ribs. Like thunder in my spine. It was ancient. It felt like it belonged.

"Aethros," I repeated, the word foreign and familiar on my tongue.

"I am not Raivo," he continued. "I am not madness. I am not fury. I was made for you, Eldur. To steady you. To bring back the parts you were never allowed to keep."

I gritted my teeth, my vision burning.

This had to be a dream. Or a trick. A cruel spell.

"I don’t want another wolf," I snapped. "I don’t need another voice in my head. I barely survived the last one!"

"And yet... you did survive," Aethros said, his voice like a fire in winter. "You endured. Because even in your darkest moments, you didn’t give up. That’s why she gave you me."

My throat felt tight again.

Why did everything feel so damn human lately?

I rubbed at my face with both hands. "I’m not ready for this."

"You don’t have to be. I will wait. But I’m here. You don’t have to carry it alone anymore."

I felt him then.

Not in a violent way—not like Raivo, who clawed and howled and twisted inside me like a storm begging for release. Aethros was... calm.

Warm.

Present.

Like he was laying down roots in soil long thought barren.

I swallowed hard, forcing back the tide rising in my chest.

"What are you supposed to be?" I asked. "My emotional support wolf?"

"If that’s what you need, sure. I can also chew through steel and break a man in half, but we can stick to hugs and pep talks for now."

I stared at the ceiling and laughed.

It was a broken sound, but it was real.

"You’re kidding."

"I’ve been alive for only a months and half, Eldur. Cut me some slack."

Gods help me... I liked him.

"You’re seriously not going to try to take over my mind?"

"Nope."

"Not going to tell me Nova’s my fated mate and I should bite her?"

"...Would you like me to?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Then no. I’ll keep my teeth to myself."

A pause.

Then I heard him chuckle. A low, rumbling sound that vibrated in my chest.

"She’s lovely, by the way. Nova."

I tensed. "Don’t talk about her."

"Relax. I wasn’t going to say anything inappropriate. I just... felt her. The way your soul shifts when she’s near. I feel all of it."

"Yeah. Well. Don’t get used to it."

"Why not?"

I didn’t answer.

Because the truth?

I was terrified.

Of loving her too much. Of breaking her. Of her finding out what I was and running so fast I’d never see her again.

I looked down at her.

Nova’s mouth was parted slightly, a quiet breath slipping out. She looked so peaceful. So unaware of the chaos I was holding back with the thin threads of my willpower.

She deserved so much better than a cursed wizard-wolf hybrid with a new soul tenant.

"I don’t want her to know," I said, quietly. "Not yet."

"Then she won’t," Aethros said, gentle. "But when you’re ready, I’ll be here."

I nodded slowly

The voice faded into a hum—not gone, not silent, just... resting.

I laid back down beside Nova, careful not to disturb her.

She rolled toward me instinctively, one arm flopping over my stomach like she owned the place. I smiled softly and kissed the top of her head.

"I don’t know how to do this," I whispered. "Any of this. But I’ll try."

The moonlight brushed her hair, turning it silver where it fell across my chest. And for what felt like years... I didn’t feel like I was drowning.

I felt like I was coming up for air.

Like I was becoming whole again.