Chapter 60: Finders Keepers, Your Highness

The Emberclaw Gamma delivered a sentence so confusing it should’ve come with subtitles, Kai Starborne screamed like a girl, and Nova Grey accidentally became the most dangerous person in the clearing. In that order. Gods help us.

It started when Maverick Emberclaw decided to kiss a girl in the rain in front of the Thunderfangs.

He jolted the moment their lips touched.

At what? Nova wasn’t sure.

All she knew was her face was on fire and it was fast. He pulled back enough to speak into the space between them, his chest heaving.

"It’s Maverick. Do me a favor and never call me Alpha again."

CRACK.

Lightning ripped the sky open directly above the clearing. Thunder followed, rattling the torches. And Derek Thunderfang was right in front of them with a blade at Maverick’s throat.

Nova jolted in surprise.

The Emberclaw Beta’s blade was already at Derek’s throat in response. "Remove the blade from my Alpha’s neck, Thunderfang. Or I remove your head from your shoulders. Pick one."

The Beta delivered that ultimatum like a man who had been waiting all night for an excuse to say something cool. To his credit, he would have landed it except for the fact that before he finished the sentence, Landon Thunderfang’s blade was at his throat.

"That’s one. You don’t get two," Landon said.

The Emberclaw Gamma came from the left. The molten edge of his sword found the Alpha of Thunderfang’s jugular like a signature on a declaration of war.

"Respectfully, Alpha Thunderfang, my blade disagrees with your blade’s suggestion to my Beta’s blade regarding my Alpha’s blade situation."

Nova blinked a few times. That was confusing. The field didn’t give her time to process it. In a matter of ten seconds, two packs were blade-locked. Emberclaw was outnumbered.

"So," Derek said, his blade still kissing Maverick’s throat. "This is fun. Everyone comfortable? Anyone need water? A moment to reflect on how we got here? Oh wait, I know, an Alpha touched my mate."

"Derek. I like you," Maverick replied. "I do. But you’ve got about three seconds to lower that sword before liking you becomes a scheduling conflict with killing you."

"Now that delivery was actually good," Derek commented. "How many times did you rehearse that one? Be honest."

"I’ll rehearse your eulogy if you don’t lower the sword."

"Meh, that one was weaker. Go back to the scheduling thing."

On the edge of the clearing, at a safe distance, Kai Starborne rolled his eyes so hard his ancestors felt it.

"Fine. I’ll do it."

Then he moved.

Alpha speed is the kind of thing you describe after the fact because during the fact your brain is still loading the previous frame. One second Kai was at the treeline, arms crossed, experiencing holo-feed withdrawal symptoms. The next second Nova was ripped out of Maverick’s arms so fast that Maverick’s hands closed on air and his brain was still holding a girl that his body had already lost.

Kai’s blade sat against Nova’s throat before a single man had processed what had happened.

The chain didn’t break. Nobody moved. Two packs stood exactly where they were because the geometry hadn’t changed for them. What had changed was the center. Where Nova had been, there was nothing. Where Kai stood, fifteen feet outside the circle, there was everything.

Nova’s back was against Kai’s chest. She could smell the triples on his breath and the boredom radiating off him like cologne. Her body rejected the new positioning. Wrong hands. Wrong heartbeat. Wrong everything.

Maverick stood there fist-clenched with fury-flooded, fuck-everything energy radiating off him in waves. His eyes were locked on Kai, like Derek’s sword wasn’t there.

"Put them away. All of you. Right now," Kai ordered.

FWOOM.

Kai’s blade ignited, white plasma on the edges. Nova could feel the heat of it against her skin.

Everyone had a blade except for her and everyone’s blade was the coolest thing she had seen since the fire exploded and she couldn’t appreciate it because of Kai Starborne and the fact that two packs were fighting over her, which was the opposite of what she wanted.

Every head turned at that moment, staring at a drunk-ish prince holding a glowing blade at a slave girl’s throat like he’d been asked to hold someone’s bag and was annoyed about it.

"I’m not going to ask twice," Kai snapped. "Put the swords away or I make this everybody’s worst night. My arm is tired, my buzz is fading, and every single one of you is between me and my bed."

Nobody moved.

"Really?" Kai looked at the sky like the Goddess might cosign his frustration. "You all are standing in the rain holding swords to each other’s necks over a slave."

He pressed the blade a millimeter closer to prove the point. The heat from the plasma stung, burning her. She grabbed his arm and tried to push it away, but he didn’t budge.

Derek’s eyes were locked on the blade at Nova’s throat. The humor that had been living in his face had been evicted without notice. What remained was a man doing math on how fast he could cross fifteen feet versus how fast a drunk prince could twitch a wrist.

"Kai," he began. "Buddy. You’re three drinks past coherent and you’re holding a blade on an unarmed woman’s throat and your hand is shaking. Put the sword down."

"My hand is shaking because it’s cold, Thunderfang. Not because—"

Nova shifted her weight at this moment because her leg was spasming.

Her cuffed wrists bumped against his hand.

Silver grazed his skin. It was an accident. Kai screamed bloody murder like she had stabbed him. The sound that came out of him was high-pitched. His fingers sprang open.

The sword fell. Plasma off.

Nova caught it. She didn’t mean to. Her fingers closed around the hilt on pure reflex and the weight of it almost took her sideways.

Kai stumbled. Her ankle caught his shin and he went down, hitting the mud back-first.

Nova recovered her balance and turned towards him, mainly because she was confused on what just happened, and found herself standing over him with the sword pointed directly at his throat.

She had no idea how she got here.

The clearing went dead silent.

From every angle, what had just happened looked like a tactical disarmament executed by a girl in silver cuffs who had just relieved a prince of his weapon in under two seconds.

From Nova’s angle, she had tried to switch feet and the rest was gravity.

FWOOM.

The sword powered back on. Nova didn’t know the mechanics on how. There was no button and she had never held one in her life.

It vibrated in her hand.

"Bad, 7709. Drop it. Alpha angry," Kai scolded from the ground.

That did it.

Nova was going to roll with it.

Finders keepers.