Chapter 123: Identify Yourselves, She Ordered

Jean hadn’t been exaggerating. Ten guards turned to look at her the moment she stepped out of Alpha Thunderfang’s quarters.

All of them seemed to be short-circuiting. Maybe they had assumed they were guarding Celeste? Nova wasn’t going to stick around to find out.

She gave a polite nod, and booked it past them.

"WAIT!" one of them called after her.

She didn’t.

Down the stairs.

This side of the keep was untouched. No smoke. No damage. No trace of the fire that had consumed the east wing. The stone was clean, the ivy was glowing, and the corridor was quiet.

"Wait! Come back. Alpha Thunderfang’s orders were—"

Nova made a right on the landing and went down another flight and waited. Steps thundered on the opposite staircase.

They were chasing after her, which told her everything she needed to know.

She took the next staircase faster than her body wanted, her hand on the rail, her legs momentarily wobbling.

"Nova!"

Sierra came from a side corridor, face flushed, eyes red. She pulled Nova into a hug so fast Nova’s shoulder screamed in protest. Nova bit down on the pain and hugged back because Sierra was shaking and shaking meant something was still wrong.

"Sierra, what’s—"

VROOOOM.

The sound swallowed her sentence. The vibration traveled through the stone floor and up into her chest before she saw what was making it.

A massive armored hover carrier slammed down onto the front courtyard. Armored. Military class. Matte black. No lights. No insignia.

Red flag.

Nova clocked that first because that was what slaves were trained to look for before anything. Pack insignia. There was always some form of identifier and the fact Nova couldn’t find one was absolutely deliberate.

Sierra’s brows were creased, not understanding.

Before Nova could say anything, the guards at the entrance had drawn their weapons and men were jumping out of the hover carrier.

Masked. Armed. Black from helmet to boot.

Eight. Ten. Twelve. Moving in formation, the synchronized precision of soldiers who had done this a thousand times and would do it a thousand more.

Still no pack crest or identifier of any kind that Nova could see.

Omegas screamed. Scattered. Running for doorways and corridors and anywhere that wasn’t the front courtyard. A tray hit the ground. Glass shattered. The panic spread through the hall like a current.

Nova couldn’t move.

Her legs had locked. Her hands were fists at her sides. Her brain was screaming run but her body had chosen a different response, the one it chose when the fear was too big and too fast and too familiar.

The soldiers advanced towards the keep entrance. In formation. In silence. Weapons raised.

"Why does this feel off?" Sierra asked, her voice tight.

"Because they are armed, wearing zero identifiers, masked, and people are screaming," Nova replied, her voice calmer than it had any right to be.

"All valid points," Sierra stated. "Shit. What do we do?"

"Call Sebastian on your holo. Ask if Thunderfang is doing drills today," Nova said on the off chance she was reading this wrong.

Sierra nodded, already pulling up her holo-band.

Nova’s eyes tracked the soldiers through the window. They had fanned out across the courtyard. Controlled. Methodical.

Then one of them broke formation walking towards a pup. A small boy, maybe four, in a Thunderfang suit that was still pulsing blue because nobody had told him to go inside and he didn’t understand what was happening.

"Shit."

Nova didn’t even see the boy there until now. He was standing alone near the fountain, looking at the soldiers with the curiosity of a child who hadn’t learned to be afraid of strangers yet.

She was down the rest of the stairs and through the front double doors before anyone could stop her. She closed the distance, placing herself between the man and the boy. Feet planted. Shoulders back. Hands at her sides.

"Can I help you?" she asked without flinching, but with no warmth in her voice because an armed man was approaching a child and in no world, in no pack, was that acceptable.

The man looked down at her. The mask hid everything except his eyes and his eyes gave her nothing.

Neither of them moved.

The man looked past Nova at the boy, who was pressed against the back of Nova’s legs.

"Just tell us where it is, kid." His voice was artificially modulated, covering his real one. Nova had heard that used once before and that was from the man who had attacked her.

Her blood ran cold.

The pup lifted one small hand and pointed towards the far side of the courtyard where a large metal pail sat. On top of it was a heavy looking statue.

The man turned without another word and walked towards it. Two others followed. Formation intact. Purpose clear.

Nova watched them remove the heavy statue. Then the large bin covering something horrible underneath.

She saw it before she could look away. The head of the thing that had choked her. Grey-green skin. Milky eye still open. Jaw still hanging at the wrong angle. Severed clean at the neck. It was moving.

Her stomach turned. The courtyard tilted for half a second.

The little boy shifted against her legs, craning his neck.

"Close your eyes," Nova said, her hand finding the top of his head, guiding his face into her hip. "Count to ten for me."

"One," the boy whispered into her clothes.

"Good. Keep going."

"Two. Three."

They took the large pail with the thing inside of it. Then the masked man looked back at Nova.

"Where’s the body?"

Nova stared at him, then she went with her gut.

"You have landed on Thunderfang property with zero identifiers without notifying the Alpha and scared a wolf pup. Please identify your pack and name so I may notify our Alpha."

The masked men looked up at her.

"We don’t answer to Thunderfang."

Nova didn’t flinch. "You’re standing on Thunderfang stone. That means you answer to Thunderfang."

She was praying Sierra was on a call with Sebastian and that she was wrong. These men were doing a drill or something. Gods she hoped she was wrong.

The lead man turned from her without answering. He signaled to his team with two fingers. They moved. All of them. Towards the keep doors in combat formation, weapons drawn.

"Stay here," Nova said to the boy gently. She booked it, placing herself in between them and the door.

WHOOSH.

Every torch in the courtyard ignited white, easily triple the natural height they should have been.

The formation stopped.

Nova was definitely glowing. She didn’t know why she was glowing. She didn’t know why the fire lit at that moment. But she would take the win.

Starborne used to tell Kai, "They think you meant it? You meant it. Shut your mouth. Half of every legend is bullshit."

Nova was going to be taking that wisdom today and she was going to sell it like she meant it.

"Identify yourselves," she ordered.