The Wolf God's Unwanted Luna

Vivians POV

I picked up my phone from where I’d left it earlier that morning and started tapping away at random games. Anything to keep my mind occupied. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop my thoughts from circling back. I shoved the looming anxiety about my parents’ arrival as far back as I could, trying to bury it under everything else.

Instead, my focus shifted to the gnawing discomfort in my chest, the feeling of being utterly useless. While I’d spent the day lounging with Hannah and strolling through boutiques, part of me felt like I should be doing something meaningful. I didn’t want to just drift around in Zaliver’s world. I wanted to contribute, to stand beside him, not trail behind.

That thought planted a seed. Maybe I could talk to him, convince him to let me help somehow. There had to be something I could do. Then I started wondering about his role in all of this. Being the Lupus Deus wasn’t just leading a pack. It was leading alphas, managing territories, balancing politics and power and gods only knew what else. How did he even find the time to be with me?

I didn’t get to go much further down that train of thought.

I felt him before I heard him.

The tether between us grew shorter, tighter. The bond shifted from a distant pull to something more immediate, wrapping around me like a hand closing gently. He was close. Very close.

Then I heard it, barely there, the soft patter of his footsteps, too light and fast for a normal wolf. And before I could fully get to my feet, he was already inside, standing behind me.

"You know," I said with a half-laugh as I turned around, "you’re freakishly fast. Remind me never to race you."

I stepped around the couch to face him, but the way his gaze dropped from my face and slid slowly down my body made me stop mid-step. His eyes darkened, his wolf coming to the surface in a way I could feel like static on my skin.

"You," he murmured.

Just the one word, just that, and it sent a shiver the full length of my spine.

I stayed where I was, unable to take that last step toward him. The way he was looking at me had a weight to it, something between hunger and reverence, and it pinned me there as effectively as anything else he’d ever done. My heart thudded in my chest, heat moving up my neck to my cheeks.

His chest rose and fell slowly. I’d be lying if I said my eyes didn’t drop for half a second to the lean cut of him through that black shirt. Well. If he was going to look at me like that, I figured the score was even.

"You look beyond beautiful," he said, voice low and unhurried, like he was thinking through every word. "The sun is the dullest star in the sky compared to you."

My lips parted.

"I wish I had the words to describe you, but you’ve outdone all of them. I’m speechless."

He stepped closer, and he was looking at me the way people look at things they can’t quite believe are real. Something in my chest tightened in a way that had nothing to do with the bond.

I didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t throwing out hot or cute. He’d called me beautiful and meant it, and I could feel how much he meant it in the way his voice had gone quiet, in the warmth that moved through the bond like something settling. It shouldn’t have mattered as much as it did. But it did.

He reached out, took my hand gently, and raised it to his lips. Kissed my knuckles, eyes still on mine. The whole thing felt slightly unreal.

"Have you been secretly writing poetry on the side?" I teased, trying to let some air back into the moment.

He chuckled, that rare, boyish smirk pulling at his mouth. "Maybe a little," he said, before slipping past me and heading upstairs.

Still a little stunned and hopelessly flustered, I followed him.

He walked straight into the shared closet without a word. I sat on the edge of the bed, the ghost of his compliment still echoing somewhere in my chest.

"Are you going to shower?" I asked, tugging my skirt down as I shifted on the mattress. Goddess, I loved the look of dresses, but my body still moved like I was in jeans. Sitting with my knees together was starting to feel like a full-body workout.

"Yeah," Zaliver replied from inside the closet.

"Ooh," I called back, unable to help myself. "Are you going to change into one of your signature looks? You know, the legendary black shirt, dark jeans, and scary boots combination?" I blinked at him all innocently as he stuck his head out with a perfectly deadpan expression.

He narrowed his eyes. "Maybe. But with the variety of black shirts I own, the possibilities are endless."

I snorted, laughing, as he rolled his eyes and disappeared back in. A moment later he strolled out barefoot and headed for the bathroom without closing the door, already pulling his shirt over his head. His belt came next, the metallic clink landing in the quiet room.

I looked away quickly, frowning very hard at the wall. The smirk he shot me before stepping behind the tiled wall did not help. My wolf was practically vibrating with interest but I kept my eyes exactly where they were and thought very firmly about other things.

When I finally heard the water running, I let out a breath and glanced over my shoulder. The shower was, thankfully, not visible from where I was sitting. Not that I’d been planning to look. Obviously not.

But there was something unexpectedly comfortable about the moment. Domestic in a way that caught me off guard, the ease of it, the quiet ordinariness of sharing space with someone.

"Hey, Zaliver?" I called over the sound of the water.

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking, while my parents are staying here, maybe I should sleep in a different room—"

His growl cut through the steam and the wall between us.

"No. Absolutely not. Don’t even think about it. You’re staying with me," he snapped. Something banged, probably the shower wall, probably his fist.

I rolled my eyes. Of course.

"I’m just saying it’s temporary. They don’t know you. They’re already going to be overwhelmed, and finding out their daughter is sharing a bed with a powerful stranger under the same roof isn’t going to ease them into anything," I said patiently. "Even if nothing’s happened between us, they’ll assume it has. It’s about making them comfortable."

The temperature of the room seemed to drop a degree.

"They’ll be appreciating me if I even allow them to sleep in the same house," he growled. "Because if you’re moving to a separate room, so are they."

"That’s completely unreasonable!" I called toward the bathroom, pinching the bridge of my nose. "You can’t be serious. Actually, no, you probably are."

"Unreasonable? You want to see unreasonable? I’ll come out right now and show you unreasonable. But I’m telling you now, Vivian, you’re not sleeping anywhere else."

I froze, eyes going wide in the direction of the bathroom as the water shut off.

My imagination helpfully filled in several visuals my poor, entirely unprepared brain was not asking for.

"Oh my goddess," I muttered, face absolutely on fire. My wolf let out a deeply disappointed huff.

"Fine, whatever," I said loudly, waving the white flag. "But on a completely unrelated note," I added, trying to shift the conversation onto safer ground, "I wanted to ask if there’s anything useful I can do around here. I don’t want to just lounge around all day. I want something to actually do."

Silence.

Then muffled grumbling from the bathroom, mostly unintelligible, definitely disgruntled.

I smiled to myself. Asking for responsibility seemed to be the one reliable way to disarm the territorial grump that was my mate.

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