Chapter 149: On A Scale Of One To SWAT

Dante looked at his wife with fondness and smiled. "We elders especially love to gossip."

Freya looked at him. "You. You love to gossip. I listen politely."

"You listen politely and then redistribute the information to every woman in the territory within the hour."

"That is because it is intelligence."

Dante’s eyebrows rose. He had lost this argument before. Many times. He was about to lose it again. His gaze flicked to Maria. "Then my wife is the most informed citizen in Thunderfang."

Freya whacked Dante playfully. Dante took the hit with the practiced ease of a man who had been whacked by this woman for decades and considered it a love language.

"What my husband is trying to say is we elders in Thunderfang enjoy intelligence because we are old and it is entertaining."

"I too enjoy intelligence." Maria said it like she was submitting a job application to Freya’s network. The application was accepted on sight.

Freya pointed at Maria. "I like this one."

Maverick exhaled. "Please don’t encourage her. She enjoys intelligence a little too much."

"There is no such thing as too much intelligence," Maria and Freya said at the same time. An alliance was formed. Maverick could feel it happening and could not stop it.

Freya’s eyes moved back to Nova. "The elders’ intelligence network inferred that she had been trying to make a statement on where you stood. But it backfired on her because everyone within earshot left with the impression that their future luna let her emotions get the better of her."

Nova’s thumb traced the rim of her teacup. The elder gossip network was powerful in Thunderfang. She was fascinated and also horrified in equal measure.

"Funny how intelligence works," Freya added, sipping her tea innocently.

"Good. Let the girl make a fool of herself," Dante stated as he leaned back a millimeter further in his chair. "But back to your origins, Nova. Did anything strange happen when you were a child? Anything you couldn’t explain?"

The question came out of left field.

Nova frowned, thinking backwards through years of silver and routine and walls and ceilings she had memorized from a bed she shared with three other girls.

"Not that I can think of. I was already cuffed before I turned six," she answered after a moment.

"When are slaves usually cuffed?" Maria asked, her voice quieter than it had been a moment ago.

"Before the age of ten. Mine was earlier than standard. But not unheard of."

Something crossed Maverick’s face that wasn’t anger. Anger would have been easier. What crossed his face was grief wearing a suit of rage and neither of them fit properly.

"Don’t worry," Nova added, meeting his eyes. "Silver doesn’t hurt children as much as adults because their wolves haven’t manifested. It stung for a few days, then became heavy bracelets."

"They put silver on a kindergartener and didn’t see anything wrong with that," Maria said flatly.

Freya looked at Dante. The look lasted one second. It contained an entire marriage’s worth of shared horror. Then Freya stood and refilled everyone’s teas. When she spoke again, the room was ready.

"Nova, may I ask, has anything unusual happened to you recently? Something physical. Something you can’t explain."

Nova’s brows creased. "Outside of glowing?"

Freya let out a laugh. "That was a terrible question. You’ve been glowing. Yes, outside of the glowing."

Maria turned to Nova. "She wants to know about the mark on your arm."

Nova blinked a few times. So much had happened in the last few days. "I’m not sure if I understand—"

Maria cut her off. "Yes, you do, Nova. Your shoulder was dislocated when you got it. Then Celeste started throwing a temper tantrum, fake fainted, you were accused of murder, then she got whacked with a tray so you were distracted."

Nova remembered the burning sensation, but hadn’t noticed it when she had taken a shower. Then again, she had been a bit distracted when she showered so maybe she missed it.

"Fair," she conceded after a moment.

The burning sensation had been the same arm as her dislocated shoulder. She carefully rotated her injured arm, wincing as she did. Her shoulder was still wrapped, and she wasn’t going to unwrap it unless she had to.

"Let me." Maverick’s hand was already there. He gently rolled the fabric of her sleeve, his fingers careful in a way that made Nova blush and the room go quiet for reasons that had nothing to do with what was underneath.

Then he stopped abruptly.

"Huh. That’s new. Interesting," Nova commented, looking down at a small glowing symbol on her arm that resembled a crescent with three pointed rays extending from it.

On a scale of one to watching wolves turn to ash and a SWAT team, this fell around a negative three.

"INTERESTING?" Maria looked at the ceiling for divine support.

"Yes. It showed up after my cuffs were removed. Interesting," Nova replied.

"How did you not notice that until now?" Maria stated.

"I have no answer for that one."

Maverick’s lips curved into something dangerously close to a grin. "You have a glowing mark on your body and you didn’t notice."

"Correct."

"It’s glowing, Nova. Right now. As we speak," Maria said.

"I see that, Maria."

"Nova. It glows," Maria repeated.

Nova turned to look at her and couldn’t help but smile because Maria loved things that glowed and loved things that were gold and Nova kept accidentally doing both.

"Yes."

"In the dark."

"Presumably."

"You didn’t see it in the shower."

"I did not."

"How?"

"The lights were on," Nova offered.

"So it was glowing and you couldn’t tell because the lights were competing with it."

"That’s my theory, yes."

Maria pressed both hands over her face. "Maverick, your girl is broken."

"Her arm has been wrapped, Maria. It hurts her to rotate it, so why would she look," Maverick said.

"IT GLOWS, MAVERICK."

"Yes."

"I need everyone in this room to remember her reaction right now," Maria stated. "Because when I tell this story later, and I will be telling this story, no one is going to believe me that was her reaction."

Nova stared at it for a moment longer, thinking back to everything she read about symbols. The room went silent around her. When she glanced up, everyone was watching her. "Is it safe to assume I’m missing something here?"