Chapter 160: You’re Sleeping Where I Say

"Did you get even?" Nova asked, grinning at Tavian now.

Tavian let out a maniacal villain laugh. "Funny you ask, princess. I did, in fact, get them back. During the day, a team of omegas swapped their rooms. All their furniture. Beds, desks, clothes, everything. Down to the last pillow."

"Both of them?" Maverick asked.

Tavian gave a nod. "Oh yeah. Both of them. One for each eyebrow."

"Your mate is terrifying," Nova said to Maria.

"Imagine this. End of the day. Both Thunderfang boys come and enter their rooms. Five seconds goes by. Then BANG. Two doors open from opposite ends of the corridor. Followed by two Alpha tantrums."

"I did not throw a tantrum," Alpha Thunderfang cut in.

Tavian let out another dark laugh. "Yes you did, Landon. It was the best twenty minutes of my life."

"I would have thrown a tantrum too," Maverick admitted.

Alpha Thunderfang looked at him. Something shifted. The smallest acknowledgment between two men who understood that a man’s room is sacred and messing with it is an act of war.

"See?" Alpha Thunderfang said to Tavian. "He gets it."

"I get it. Your Beta is a menace."

"He is."

"He’d fit in at Emberclaw."

"You can have him. But I should warn you this one is the highest maintenance wolf in Thunderfang. That includes my brother and the High Luna. I am surrounded."

Tavian fired finger guns at both of them. "Ladies, there’s enough of this Beta to go around."

Nova and Maria locked eyes across the room and that was it. Both of them collapsed into laughter. Maria was wheezing into Tavian’s shoulder. Nova had given up on posture entirely, folded forward in her armchair, her Lightning Nectar held at an angle that was one laugh away from becoming a spill.

"Your whiskey is excellent," Maverick commented after the laughter died down.

"It’s Thunderfang reserve."

"I’m taking a bottle home."

The corner of Alpha Thunderfang’s mouth moved. "Take two. Thunderfang owes you one."

Maverick leaned back, glass on his knee, looking more at home. "I think we’re going to get along."

Nova looked around the room. Maverick in the chair beside her. Maria across from her. Tavian performing. Alpha Thunderfang participating in conversation like a human being. If someone had described this scene to her a day ago, she would have recommended they see a healer.

???

THUNDERFANG KEEP - MIDNIGHT

Nova’s eyes were heavy. The fire was low and the glasses were empty.

Tavian yawned wide enough to be theatrical. "And on that note." He stood, pulled Maria up, kissed the top of her head.

Nova stood slowly then she looked at Maverick. "Are you staying tomorrow too?"

"Of course he is," Tavian answered before anyone. "I’ll take you to your quarters, Maverick."

Alpha Thunderfang rose from his chair. "Nova, with me."

Maverick didn’t move for a full second, his eyes locked on Nova slightly longer than necessary because his adopted daughter was being walked by Alpha Thunderfang. It lasted exactly as long as an Alpha watching his legal wife follow another Alpha down a corridor.

Nova walked next to Alpha Thunderfang, unsure where he wanted her to go. The walk was silent. He seemed tense. Whatever version of the Alpha was in that room was no longer here. Guards’ eyes followed them as they passed.

Where the hall split into two sides, Nova took a step towards Derek’s chambers.

The last time she was in Derek’s chambers, it looked like a tornado had gone through it. The door was also kicked in now, so unless that lock had been replaced she didn’t have one, which shouldn’t concern her but the vampire stories freaked her out enough that it was in the back of her mind.

She would figure something out.

She made it another step before Alpha Thunderfang hooked her around the waist.

"My chambers."

He steered her that way before she could form a response. He probably was worried about the security. Based on his three locks.

"Are you sure, Alpha? I don’t mind-"

He cut her off.

"Yes."

None of the guards reacted when they saw her, like they had been expecting her this time.

Alpha Thunderfang’s hand hovered over his door. He stopped then glanced at one of the guards.

"Is anyone in my chambers?"

"No, Alpha."

He pushed open the doors. Nova followed, unsure what ’is anyone in my chambers’ meant in this context.

After they entered his chambers, Alpha Thunderfang handed her a leather overnight bag that was entirely too nice to be handing her casually. "Packed by the omegas for you. Make yourself at home."

Nova took the bag with her good hand and blinked up at him, stunned. Out of all the things, she hadn’t been expecting that.

"That’s very kind of you and them. Thank you, Alpha."

"Would it be alright if I rinsed off? I’m happy to go to Derek’s-"

"His room is sealed, Nova. The bathing chamber here has been stocked for you. Use it."

The correction was gentle. The finality was not. She wasn’t going to Derek’s room tonight. She was here, in the Alpha’s quarters, with a packed bag and a stocked bathroom and a man who had thought of every logistical need before she’d had time to voice a single one.

"Alright then, thank you, Alpha."

She turned and moved towards his bathing chamber, feeling his gaze on the back of her head until the door shut with a soft click.

After the shower, she opened the bag and found pink silk shorts, a matching camisole, a bralette, a robe, slippers, along with clothing for tomorrow. Someone had packed this bag like a love letter written in fabric and Nova was going to thank whichever omega had been so thoughtful.

She took a towel to her hair until it was damp. Then she put on her robe, careful of her shoulder.

She stepped out of the bathing chamber and Alpha Thunderfang was standing at the bed with a compression wrap and two ice packs laid out like a field medic who had already diagnosed the problem and was waiting for the patient to show up.

"Sit," he ordered. "I’ll wrap your shoulder."

She hadn’t even thought about her shoulder yet. The pain was there, low and constant, the kind she had trained herself to file under deal with later.

"You don’t have to—"

"Sit down, Nova. Alpha’s orders." He tipped his chin at the edge of his bed.

She gave a nod and sat, gently taking off her robe and moving her hair out of the way for him.

He looked at the giant bruise on her shoulder.

Then his hands froze. She followed his train of sight to the new bruises she had on her upper arm. She had matching ones on both arms because that was where they had gripped her when she was arrested. The SWAT team probably had assumed she had wolf strength and would resist. They were mistaken, but if she were to guess that was why.

When she looked back at him, his eyes were molten gold. The thing Derek’s eyes did when he was upset. She wondered if he was upset about her bruises or if it was something else.