Chapter 183: Daily Cat-Nap On An Alpha

Tavian had gone very still at the mention of the Beta Luna’s pairing. So had Sebastian, at the Gamma Luna’s. Maria’s hand found Nova’s under the table and held on.

The rest of the room lost its shit.

"They cannot redact a fated pairing, that is against the covenant—"

"Five hundred million, for a girl they are calling a slave in the same breath—"

"If the Council strikes the Beta Luna’s pairing, every mated couple in Helix is suddenly provisional—"

"This is a land grab dressed as doctrine, Alpha, they are testing whether Thunderfang will fold—"

"My son’s pairing is not a line item to be struck by old men who weren’t in that clearing—"

Alpha Thunderfang raised a hand.

The commotion cut out.

"We move pack initiation for every new member of Thunderfang to this week." His voice filled the room without strain. "All of them. At once. And every new member takes the house name of the family they are joining in that same ceremony. Once they are bound in blood and flame before the altar, the Council has nothing left to redact. You cannot strike a pairing that has already become a house."

Freya laced her fingers together in her lap, unhurried, and held them there a moment before she spoke.

"Rumor has it Wavecrest, Nightbloom, and Emberclaw are doing the same thing. You did not hear that from me."

???

STORMREST HOSPITAL - ICU

Alpha Thunderfang settled into the chair, pulling Nova on his lap with ice for her shoulder, holding her the way he held her now, like background weather.

His chin found the top of her head and stayed there, and the shoulder ached a little less for the cold and a little less for reasons she wasn’t ready to examine.

"I’m not going to let them take you," he said while icing her.

His mouth brushed her forehead and lingered. Nova stiffened in surprise, because the gesture had caught her off guard. But she settled quickly. It was the same thing as the ice and the blue baths. Another small act of care from a man who had asked for nothing in return.

Her hand found his, over the ice.

"Thank you, Alpha. I am very sorry that my presence has caused Thunderfang issues," she whispered.

He pulled back enough to look at her, really look, his hand going still beneath hers on the ice. Whatever he found in her face seemed to settle something and sharpen something else at the same time.

"You are not the one causing issues." He pressed his forehead to hers. "Don’t apologize to me for existing again."

She must have fallen asleep on him again, because when she woke up, it was evening and he was gone.

A blanket was draped over her that she had no memory of. She sat up and took Derek’s hand gently. Every time she looked at him unconscious like this, her heart cracked open.

Today was the first day the bandages were removed, finally.

His fingers twitched against her palm.

Nova went still. She didn’t breathe. She stared at his hand in hers and waited for it to happen again.

"Derek?"

Nothing. The monitors held their steady rhythm. His face didn’t change. His hand lay slack and warm in both of hers exactly as it had yesterday, and she could not have said, under oath, whether she’d felt anything at all or only wanted to badly enough to invent it.

"Derek," she tried again, softer.

Nothing.

She sat back slowly, her heart doing something complicated she didn’t have the energy to name, and did not let go of his hand.

???

THUNDERFANG - ALPHA’S CHAMBERS

The routine started.

Nova would wake up with ice on her shoulder every morning. She would go with Alpha Thunderfang to the war room. Afterwards he would take her to Derek, where he would ice her again in that chair with her in his lap. That would last about an hour. She usually would doze off because her body was recovering and because it was really easy to cat nap in his lap. She was aware how that sounded.

He would leave. Then come back for her that evening. Blue bath. Ice her to sleep.

Rinse and repeat.

On the third day instead of a leather tote before her blue bath, he brought her into his closet, which was now stocked with clothes for her. Different from what Derek had bought her. She knew this because she didn’t recognize any of it.

Dresses and soft things were folded on shelves, every piece of it new.

"Easier this way. It’s all for you."

She turned to him, confused.

Her lip did the thing again, the tremble she could never quite catch in time. She had not expected to still be staying in his chambers at all. She had assumed, every single night, that this was temporary. Him doing this, filling a closet, was so far past anything she had expected that her chest couldn’t hold it.

"This is very kind of you," she whispered.

He tilted her chin up and held it, his thumb resting along her jaw, his eyes on hers and then, briefly, lower. Neither of them moved. The room narrowed to the few inches left between them.

When Nova looked away, to her surprise, Alpha Thunderfang pulled her against his chest and pressed his lips to the top of her head.

???

This afternoon and evening was pack initiation.

Nova was getting ready with Maria and Sierra in Maria’s getting-ready room.

A holo-table hovered in one corner, a fire crackled in another, and the far wall held floor-to-ceiling mirrors. There was a full bathing chamber through one door, two walk-in closets through others, a low cluster of couches around the hearth. It was, without contest, the most beautiful room Nova had ever been allowed to exist inside of.

She was in a robe, hair done, makeup done, planning to borrow a dress from Maria.

A knock came at the door.

An omega brought in a stack of boxes for Nova. "For you, Your Highness."

When she said ’Your Highness,’ she was looking directly at Nova, so Nova did the only sensible thing and looked at Maria who was actual royalty.

Maria was already galloping across the room towards the boxes clapping her hands shamelessly.

There was no dignified way to witness Maria canter toward a stack of presents while clapping, and neither Nova nor Sierra attempted to find one. They both burst out laughing.

Maria picked up a tag. She froze. Then she glanced at Nova with a devilish smirk and dangled the tag between two fingers.

"NOVA. It looks like these SEVEN boxes are for you. From the Alpha. He didn’t even sign it with a note. Just ’the Alpha.’ Very mysterious. Very hot. I’m obsessed. One of you tell Tavian to start signing his gifts to me from the Beta."