Elara's Guardian Across Worlds

One wrong step through a forest in Moonglen, and Elara wakes up under two suns, in a world that doesn't exist — with a six-foot-something warrior standing over her like she's something to be protected rather than explained.Ralen has spent thirty-five years guarding a wall between his people and the wild ones his own parents chose. He's never expected anything for himself. He certainly never expected his mate to fall out of the sky with a head wound and no idea what a mate bond even is.Elara just wants to go home. Except healing takes longer than she'd like, and home never quite fit the way this stranger's kitchen does — the tea made exactly how she takes it, a little herb shop dusted off and handed to her like a gift, a giant scruffy dog who adopted her on sight, and a small found family who ask nothing of her except to stay for dinner. For the first time, she's allowed to rest instead of prove herself — and somewhere between steeping tea blends and finding her footing again, she starts building a life instead of just waiting to go back to her old one.She has a family who doesn't know she's safe. He has a bond he can't undo and won't force. And somewhere between bread-making lessons and a fair full of firefly lanterns, staying stops feeling like settling — and starts feeling like coming home.A cozy, low-angst, moderate-spice romance with a found-family sanctuary and a soft-hearted "e;monster"e; who's been waiting his whole life to be chosen.