Page 13

Chapter Thirteen

Remi

I had definitely ruined the moment. I’d loved Hayley, but it was never romantic love. I thought Juno understood that. When I saw him for the first time, I’d run because I didn’t want to be a cheater. If I’d known being with Hayley was basically cheating on Juno, I would’ve never been with her. I would’ve waited forever for Juno. I would’ve happily waited for him. But there was no way I could have known that. That there was even a thing such as mates and then someone from an entirely different world too.

I walked around his house, our house , trying to find him. The only indication that he was outside was the slightly open door that led to the garden. I hadn’t seen it yet, but it looked closed in with trees surrounding it. Here people had more room between houses, making it more private and quieter. I found that I preferred this world’s way of housing people. Maybe they had busy cities like my world had, but here where Juno lived, it was perfect.

I silently opened the door and joined him on the grass. He had his eyes closed and I could tell he was crying softly. I’d done that. Ruined our moment together and made my mate cry. I had to see it from his perspective. I’d cheated on him and then brought her up just before we mated. He’d never been with anyone else, waiting for me. His mate. This was basically like a marriage for Juno, and I’d brought up Hayley, simply because I wanted to assure Juno why I’d run, hoping he would understand. But how could he? It wasn’t normal here; he’d said so himself. Everyone waited to find their mates, happy with themselves and their friends until the day came where they found their person. I wished I could’ve done the same. I would’ve, had I known.

“I’m sorry,” I said, breaking the silence. “I keep forgetting about our differences and hurting you. I never want to be the reason you cry, Juno.” He’d cried just a few hours ago from happiness with his dad. This wasn’t happiness, though, and I had caused it.

“I know,” Juno replied, his voice breaking a little. “I’m really trying to be understanding of your world and not be angry at you, Remi. But why did you have to bring her up?”

Why indeed. “I guess I want to punish myself for it.” That was the only reason I could think of. “I think some part of me knew it was wrong to be with Hayley, but I wanted to fit in, to please my parents, to show them that I could find a partner. And Hayley was my closest friend. I love her. It was never romantic love, but I thought it could turn into that. It didn’t. I understand why now, but then I thought my unease with the situation was because something was wrong with me. I felt wrong. I wished I’d just followed my heart and stayed true to myself. That having friends and going to school was enough for me. But I stupidly let my parents influence my life.” Letting my mom guilt me into asking Hayley to prom and then calling Hayley my girlfriend when we weren’t even dating had made Hayley ask me if I wanted to date and I’d thought why not? She was a person I loved and we had fun together.

He looked at me with a pained smile. “I’m dealing with the same mess of emotions and feelings as you are. Our bodies need balance and it will only get worse until we mate, but I won’t mate with Hayley’s name between us. I’d rather be a mess than allow her into our mating.” I nodded, understanding him completely. “I don’t blame you for having had love in your life. This isn’t something you did knowingly and I know this is something I just have to deal with.” He laughed then, “I can’t even blame her for loving you. Not loving you is simply impossible. And I know you love her too, not the same kind of love, but still love.”

He shook his head with a wistful smile, like he was working through everything while battling the heightened feelings simultaneously. I took his hand in mine, grateful he wasn’t blaming me but just needed to work through it. We would work through it. Together.

“I’m glad you had her friendship. Had it not been for her you might’ve turned out differently, and the person I’ve been blessed with is perfect.”

Damn these feelings were hitting hard. A tear escaped my left eye as I clutched his hand tighter in mine, not quite able to respond to those kind words.

“We’ll mate another time,” I agreed with a watery smile as more tears joined the first one. “We can spend the day getting to know one another instead?” I hoped he wasn’t going to push me away again. That would kill me.

“I would love that,” Juno said as he stood up and offered me his hand. I took it, placing a soft kiss on his cheek. He wiped my tears away and led me back inside.

“So, this is normal here?” I asked, looking at the TV. Juno had put on a reality show where they would play hide and seek on a world wide scale, using their magic to hide and find one another. The winner won something, not sure what yet, and it was oddly entertaining. I still hadn’t figured out my own magic, promising Juno’s dad and the rulers I would wait so I didn’t mess anything up. Juno thought reality TV would be a great way to show me the different ways our magic worked. So far, I’d learned that we couldn’t magically make something appear, but we could use glamour to make it seem like something was there, when in fact, it wasn’t. Using fireballs and other cool stuff wasn’t a thing either. Sadly. We could do many things, but making stuff appear wasn’t included in that.

“You don’t have this sort of entertainment?” he asked, rubbing my feet. We lay on the couch, me with my feet in his lap as we got to know one another better. I was being tortured by his firm touch, knowing we’d soon mate. Every time my mind wandered to that, I felt flushed and itchy, like only Juno could scratch the itch my body felt. His hands on me kept igniting whatever we’d started, never allowing my body to calm completely.

“No magic, but we do have reality TV and fake magic shows and movies,” I replied, trying to stifle the moan that almost escaped me. His hands were fucking magical.

“Fake?”

“Yeah, like fantasy, with dragons and elves, and all sorts of magical beings,” I replied, thinking if dragons actually did exist in another world somewhere.

“We have that too. Just with different magic than ours,” Juno said. I liked how similar our worlds were, it made it easier to connect like this. He put a little more pressure on my foot, making me moan out loud this time.

Juno faltered a bit after my escaped moan, so I quickly asked, “What about romance?” I had to ask that, too curious not to.

“We have some shows with mates finding each other and how their lives turn around. It’s mostly reality, though. I like seeing people fall in love with their mates, but I much prefer action and adventure.”

“I get that. I love romance because I wanted to feel what they felt, you know? Seeing them explore their feelings made me a part of it, and even though I now know why I couldn’t feel the same, it still helped me be a part of how my world worked. I thought I was ace, which can mean different things, but from my perspective it meant I wasn’t sexually attracted to anyone, but I didn’t have romantic feelings towards others either, which some ace people have.” It was so confusing trying to figure out your sexuality when it was different for everyone. Saying I was ace was just easier to explain to Hayley why I wasn’t interested in having sex with her after our first few times. She’d been understanding at first, but as time passed, I could tell she needed more intimacy than I could offer. Thinking back, it was actually a mystery how we’d stayed together for a year.

“I hate that you felt so lonely in your world.” He stopped massaging my feet and moved to snuggle into me instead. “I hadn’t thought about how being my mate affected you.”

I ran my fingers through his hair, grateful we had this moment together. Being near him felt so comforting and easy. “I still don’t get why I was picked to be yours. What if you’d never visited my world? And why do I even have magic to begin with?”

Juno was silent for a bit, then he looked up from my chest. “I believe the rulers have some theories they’ll share with us tomorrow. But for now, I don’t know. I just know you’re mine.”

I hugged him tighter against me. This was still so weird. Were my parents magical too? They seemed to truly love one another so they could be mates, but it still didn’t make sense in my mind. Neither did the fact that I was conceived using donor sperm. My stomach grumbled, reminding me I hadn’t eaten since I was at work.

“Oh!” Juno jumped away from me, like I was hurting him with my angry stomach. “I’ll feed you!” He rushed from the room, leaving me too stunned to go after him. Thinking about work and how I likely wouldn’t return to it, made me text Earl. He needed to know I wasn’t coming back, he deserved a heads-up, even though I felt horrible doing it over text. I would make it a priority to see him when we returned. After the text was sent and it said delivered, I realized it would have to be some kind of magic juju that made me able to use my phone in another world. I would have to ask Juno about that.

“Any allergies?” he called from the kitchen.

I smiled and stood, following his voice, joining him as he opened cabinets in search of food. “Damn,” he muttered, opening his fridge and freezer. “We have nothing to eat.”

“Can’t we order food?” I really hoped food deliveries were a thing here, since it would be torture living without it. I couldn’t cook, since Dad preferred to have his kitchen to himself most of the time, and I never considered learning since we had free food from the cafeteria.

“We do,” he assured me, opening up his slate. “Pizza?” I nodded eagerly as my stomach did another angry growl. “Toppings?” he asked, scrolling on his slate. It was so cool. When he’d shown it to me, I’d been filled with ideas I wished I could’ve written down, but Juno assured me I would get my own slate soon.

“Ham and pineapple,” I replied, envying his slate as he placed our order.

“That’s not a thing here,” he chuckled, showing me the options.

“Well, it should be,” I pouted and looked over my options. “I’ll just have the cheese and pepperoni one, oh and add chicken and garlic too.”

Juno ordered one with pepperoni and cheese, assuring me theirs were similar to the ones I was used to back home.

“It’ll be ten minutes,” Juno said, taking my hand in his and leading me back to the living room. “I want to snuggle until then.” He was too adorable. The way he so easily spoke his wants was admirable. I hoped to be as confident as him, or close to, some day. Maybe I could be like that with him, if I let myself trust he’d never judge me for it. I’d never thought about how much I held myself back, a normal response since people often rejected me or didn’t care enough. Like with my ideas. Would Juno think them a waste of time too?

We snuggled up again and resumed watching the reality show, watching as one of the women made herself invisible and climbed out of a window to escape a building. It was way more exciting than I’d thought it would be, and before we knew it, the doorbell rang.

Juno ran over and opened the door to a robot. An actual robot. It had wheels and arms and with said arms it gave Juno our food, then set off again, driving down the street like a scooter.

“That’s so cool!” I exclaimed, standing up, looking at its retreating form. “I wish we had that.”

Juno laughed lightly and waited for me to see my fill before closing the door. “They’re made from magic and metal. Don’t ask me how, I’ve never been able to grasp the workings, though Nix loves it and could easily teach you.”

I was all for forgetting the pizza and claiming Juno right there on the floor. “I can make robots with magic?” I whispered, afraid to get my hopes up.

“Sure, and many other things too. We have several institutions that teach us how to use magic to make stuff work like that. Often those people end up creating different things we soon won’t be able to live without. Like the delivery robot. It’s designed to find its own way using GPS and then it’ll return once the delivery is done.”

My knees felt weak. I would be able to work, actually work, doing what I loved? Tears trailed down my face as I sat back down on the couch, too overwhelmed by emotions again.

Juno sat the pizza down on the side table and grabbed my face with both hands, looking pained. “You don’t like robots?”

I shook my head. “I love them.” How could I explain what I was feeling? How life-altering this was for me. It was one thing finding Juno, my mate. Another thing was to learn I had a calling that was normal here, that I could do the thing I loved and be paid for it.

“My love,” Juno spoke softly, still looking a tad worried. His hands were warm on my face as he looked at me with those beautiful blue eyes. My love.

“I want to learn it,” I finally said, letting Juno in further. “I want to make stuff with magic and materials, stuff to help people’s day to day lives. It’s all I ever wanted.”

“Then we’ll live here and make sure you get the education for it.” I didn’t know if it was the heightened emotions or something in the air, but right then I knew one thing. I loved Juno.

“Thank you,” I whispered, placing my own hands on top of his that were still on my face. Then I kissed him. Forgetting about the pizza, I let myself fall deeper in love with my mate. My wonderful mate who would do anything to make me happy, and who obviously loved me too.

“Pizza,” Juno breathed against my lips. “I won’t let you starve, my love.” There was that endearment again. I swooned inside.

“Fine, but afterwards we’re going to bed,” I stated boldly, loving how his eyes gleamed when I said it.

He grinned. “Deal.”