Chapter 59: Hand Her Over (He Did Not)

The two most powerful packs in Helix squared off on sacred ground. Red-hot blades on the right. Blue-spark blades on the left. One slave in the middle who’d taken the wrong exit eighteen hours ago and somehow ended up here.

It took ninety seconds.

After every pack cleared, what remained was Thunderfang, Emberclaw, and Starborne.

"Celeste." Starborne’s voice carried the warmth of a man reading a terms-of-service agreement out loud. "Return to the trail. I’ll handle the rest."

Celeste looked at her father for exactly one second. That was all the confirmation she needed. The man had been handling the rest since before she could walk and he had never once fumbled. She lifted her chin, squared her shoulders, and turned on her heel.

Starborne waited until his daughter was out of earshot.

"7709 return to me. Now."

Maverick’s arms tightened around Nova so fast that his biceps went from resting to rigor mortis in under a second.

Nova’s blood went cold. Ice water. That was the only way to describe it. Anxiety flooded through her veins like someone had opened a valve at the base of her skull and poured winter directly into her circulatory system.

Every slave instinct she had was screaming to move because Starborne was addressing her directly.

"Emberclaw," Starborne said. "If you damage my asset, you buy it. Dead or alive. Those are the terms of holding her. Any depreciation in value will be billed to you at full market rate, which, thanks to tonight, is considerably higher than it was this morning."

Maverick said nothing. His arms stayed where they were. His jaw was tight enough to cut glass.

"The elders have ruled," Starborne continued. "This is less than ideal for everyone. I gather that. My daughter has been assigned, my property has been assigned, and the only thing left to discuss is the transaction itself."

He turned to Derek Thunderfang.

"Your lucky day, Thunderfang. Two hundred and fifty million. Wired to me tonight and you take her. If you cannot produce it, Emberclaw gets her and you take my daughter instead."

The ultimatum hung in the rain like a guillotine blade waiting for gravity to remember its job.

Derek didn’t blink. Derek didn’t do any of the things a man is supposed to do when someone quotes him a number with that many zeros because Derek Thunderfang had been born into a family that used numbers like that as rounding errors. He had also bet on a horse this morning and was prepared to go higher.

"Done. Half when she is standing in the Thunderfang section in front of me. The other half before we leave this clearing."

Starborne studied him for a long second, the kind of second that costs normal men their composure and cost Derek Thunderfang absolutely nothing.

"Acceptable," Starborne replied. "Bring her over."

That last sentence was aimed at Maverick Emberclaw the way a bullet is aimed at a target, and every wolf in the clearing heard the trigger pull.

"Problem with that," Maverick said, his voice carrying the conversational ease of a man ordering a drink while the bar burned down around him. "I am letting go of nothing. She stays with me. That’s the answer. No."

"No." Derek repeated the word back like he was tasting it. "Bold choice. Wrong. But bold. Tell you what, Emberclaw. I’ll let her visit sometimes. Now hand her over."

The delivery was so dry it could have started a brushfire. Maverick did not laugh.

Starborne stepped forward. One step. Measured. The kind of step that costs nothing and means everything because Lucian Starborne never moved without purpose and his purposes had a body count.

"Emberclaw, no one wants this to turn ugly."

Maverick’s chin lifted off the top of Nova’s head. His voice changed. The warmth that had been there for her, the softness, the gentleness evaporated like water on a hot engine. What replaced it was iron.

"Are you sure about that, Starborne?" He let the question sit for a full second before he reloaded. "Because from where I am standing, someone wanted this day to get very ugly. Explosively ugly."

Nova’s blood went sub-zero for the second time.

Her eyes widened. Half a second. She caught it, killed it, forced her face back to neutral before anyone could read into it.

The masked man who had said there were bombs in the arena. Did Maverick know about those too? The man currently holding her like she was oxygen, the man who had caught her when she stumbled, the man who had sent Maria to the trail and brought her water and offered a hundred million for her freedom, was he also the man who had planted explosives at a sacred ceremony?

She didn’t know. She wanted to ask. She couldn’t.

Starborne’s expression didn’t crack.

"I have no idea what you are insinuating, Emberclaw. But if Thunderfang cannot produce the payment, then she defaults to you regardless, so I suggest you hand her over so we can all be done with this soggy little evening."

"Oh, I think you know exactly what I am referring to, Starborne."

The clearing held its breath. Rain fell between the two Alphas like a curtain that neither of them was willing to close.

Then Starborne smiled.

"Sure. We are talking ugly tonight. Then let’s talk about how someone in this clearing abducted my property yesterday at three in the morning and thought I wouldn’t find out."

Nova’s lungs stopped.

Was Maverick Emberclaw the person who had stolen her out of her bed?

There was no way. There was absolutely no way. No.

Maverick didn’t let that thought sink any further.

"Starborne, I did not abduct your property. If I had taken her, I would have kept her, and we would not be standing in this clearing having this conversation."

Starborne opened his mouth to respond but he never got the chance. Every Emberclaw wolf in the section drew blades at the same time. The synchronization was terrifying, the kind of coordinated violence that only comes from a disciplined pack.

Nova stared.

The blades were unlike anything she had seen before. The edges glowed molten red, the metal itself radiating heat that she could feel against her skin from three feet away.

Whatever was about to happen, she didn’t want it. The idea that blood would spill tonight because of her made her feel sick.

"For fuck’s sake." Derek’s voice cracked across the clearing like a whip made of common sense. "Are we really doing this, Emberclaw? Drawing weapons over a girl who is two muscle spasms away from passing out."

He wasn’t wrong. Nova’s legs were trembling, her body was contracting in intervals, and the only thing keeping her upright was a man who had just escalated the evening from awkward to armed.

Behind Derek, half the Thunderfang pack shifted. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The other half drew blades with blue electricity pulsing along the edges.

This was insane.

She turned in Maverick’s arms. It took effort because the man was holding her like a seatbelt with feelings, but she managed to tilt her face up to look at him. His jaw was set. His eyes were still molten gold. The veins in his neck were standing at attention.

He glanced down at her.

"Alpha Emberclaw, I don’t want—"

He kissed her.

On the mouth. Full contact.