Chapter 129: The Royal Verification Department

Celeste Starborne watched Nova slip through the Alpha’s chamber doors from the alcove at the end of the corridor.

Dawn crawled through the windows like a hungover bitch, grey and anemic, slapping the stone floors with the exact shade of morning reserved for women who’ve been pacing hallways all night waiting for the universe to confirm what they already fucking knew.

"I knew it. That ho-bag slut," she hissed.

The guards rotated their heads at the sound. Celeste pressed herself deeper into the alcove, flattening against the stone like a woman on a mission.

The guards scanned the corridor. Saw nothing. Turned back to their posts.

Celeste’s jaw tightened in the shadows. She stood there like a statue until Nova’s footsteps finally fucked off down the stairwell, then she moved.

Game on.

???

THUNDERFANG KEEP — MAIN CORRIDORS

Dawn in Thunderfang was beautiful and lonely when you didn’t know anyone.

Every omega Nova passed found something fascinating about the floor. Every servant discovered an urgent task in the opposite direction. Eyes averted. Heads turned. The universal body language of people who had heard rumors about a courtyard full of ash, a glowing girl talking back to enemies, and had decided no thank you.

At least that’s what it looked like. But that wasn’t Nova’s focus. She was a woman on a mission and that mission was Derek Thunderfang.

That was the only thought in her head and it had been there since she opened her eyes in the Alpha’s chair and it was louder now, a low hum behind her ribs that was getting more insistent with every minute she spent walking in the wrong direction.

"NOVA!"

Maria Emberclaw came around a corner at a speed that suggested she had been looking for Nova.

The hug landed before the greeting finished echoing off the stone. Nova hugged her back with her good arm and the tightness in her chest loosened by a fraction because Maria’s hugs had a way of convincing her nervous system that the world was less terrible than it was, even when it objectively wasn’t.

"Maria, do you know where Derek is?" Nova asked the second they separated. "I heard the hospital. But that is all the information I’ve been given and I don’t know who to ask."

Maria’s face shifted. The motormouth stalled for half a second, which was Maria’s version of a five-minute silence.

"Tavian isn’t telling me anything," she admitted after a moment. "Something is fishy. I’ve asked three times. Three, Nova. Each time he does the face."

Nova’s stomach tightened. Not knowing was worse than any answer and not knowing while people avoided her eyes and her mate’s Beta went quiet was a combination that was eating through her composure like acid.

"I’m worried, Maria. I can’t shake this feeling that I need to see him."

She couldn’t describe it better than that. It lived in her chest, low and constant, a pull.

Maria looked at her. The golden retriever was gone. What replaced it was the woman who had waited on a dark forest trail and offered her wolf’s back to a slave she had known for thirty seconds.

"Then we go see him. We are free women. We are adults. And we will damn well get there."

The sentence landed in Nova’s chest and stayed. Free women. The words felt borrowed, like a dress that belonged to someone more deserving. But Maria said them like they were fact and Maria’s facts had a way of becoming true through sheer force of delivery.

Maria cut her off mid-thought.

"Stop thinking that. No cuffs means you’re free. Celeste can suck a dick if she thinks you’re going to be her slave. That’s bullshit and everyone knows it. You are the Alpha’s brother’s mate. In no pack would that be acceptable."

Nova’s lips twitched.

"What?" Maria asked. "You never heard suck a dick before?"

"Not from you, Maria. A first for everything," Nova replied.

???

20 MINUTES LATER

"Do you need to tell Tavian?" Nova asked, pulling up the hood of the cloak Maria had given her before they left.

"I will tell Tavian. But he’s asleep. He needs it."

Nova gave a nod.

Two rebels in Thunderfang, hoods drawn, leaving the keep at dawn and done asking for permission.

The city was waking up around them. Transport pods hummed along their rails. Hover carts carried supplies between districts.

Nova kept pace with Maria, her shoulder throbbing under the bandage with every step, her lungs still tender from the smoke. The cold air helped. It hurt going in and felt clean coming out, and the trade was acceptable.

"Sierra says you saved Sebastian’s life," Maria commented casually.

Nova swallowed. "I have no idea how, if I did."

"We won’t talk about it," Maria said immediately. "We are on a mission."

???

STORMREST HOSPITAL - ICU

The front desk was staffed by a woman whose face communicated that she was the final boss. Every hospital had one. The woman who had outlasted three shifts, two emergencies, and every lie known to man.

"How may I assist you?"

"Good morning. I am here to see Derek Thunderfang," Nova replied.

The woman looked at Nova. Looked at Maria. Looked at Nova again, her eyes narrowing.

"The Alpha’s brother is not accepting walk-ins, Ma’am. Please consult the proper channels through Derek Thunderfang’s team and they may assist you."

Nova opened her mouth. Maria was faster.

"She’s Derek Thunderfang’s mate," Maria stated.

"Yeah, right." The front desk woman’s expression didn’t change.

"I am Beta Tavian’s mate," Maria stated. "The Princess of Emberclaw and you are being disrespectful."

The woman looked at Maria. Then at Nova. Then back at Maria.

"And I’m the Queen of Lavamount. Do you have identification?"

Maria held up her wrist and projected her credentials from her holo-band into the air between them. The royal seal rotated. The Emberclaw crest glowed.

The woman stared at it like a bouncer at a bar who had seen better code on fake IDs than this shit. Then she snorted.

"Nice try."

Maria had been dismissed by a desk-dwelling, dead-eyed, don’t-give-a-damn gatekeeper who had weaponized apathy like a government employee.

"What do you mean ’nice try’? You’re looking at a biometric-encrypted credential."

"This is clearly fabricated," she replied. "I’ve been on shift for fourteen hours. I’ve had six women claim to be relatives. One of them said she was his wife. He doesn’t have a wife. So forgive me if I’m not impressed by a hologram and a title."