Chapter 96: For His Own Good

Nova moved fast.

She pulled on leggings, a long-sleeve thermal, and boots. All things Derek had gifted her. All things that fit better than anything she had ever worn. All things she was still trying to feel normal about owning because the concept of owning things was new and the things themselves were nicer than anything she had touched in the Starborne manor, including the items she had been ordered to polish.

She tucked one photograph inside her cloak, the fourth one, the clearest shot with the room number written on the back. The other three she slid under a heavy book on the side table. Hidden enough that a passing omega wouldn’t find them.

She fastened the cloak and pulled the hood up. Then stopped.

If Derek came back and she was gone, he would lose his mind. An empty bed at midnight would send him into a full search-and-rescue operation involving Tavian, Maria, and possibly the entire east wing.

She found a pen and paper on his desk. Wrote: East wing, fourth floor, room 412. I’ll be right back.

She stared at the note. Read it again. Then imagined Derek reading it and the expression his face would make and the speed at which he would cover the distance between this room and that one and the state of the door when he arrived.

She tore the note in half. Then in quarters. Then dropped the pieces in the fireplace.

She would be in and out. Five minutes. He wouldn’t even know she left.

The alternative was telling him about the photographs, which meant telling him about the closet, which meant telling him about the board with the arena map and the rope and the gag, which meant telling him that someone in his pack, possibly his brother, had abducted her before the Moonfire, planted bombs, and was now sending her midnight invitations to meet alone.

That conversation needed more than five minutes and a silk robe.

She didn’t know the angle. That was the part chewing at her. Someone had evidence of her abduction and had chosen to show it to her instead of Derek or Alpha Thunderfang or the authorities. Why her? What did they want? Silence? Cooperation? Leverage?

She had been so certain it was Alpha Thunderfang. The closet on his yacht. The notches on the door matching the ones at Starborne. The way he had been standing outside that room when she ran into his chest.

But the photographs complicated it. If Alpha Thunderfang was the abductor, why would he send her evidence of his own crime? That was either the dumbest move in Helix history or it wasn’t him.

She didn’t know. And not knowing was worse than either answer.

It didn’t matter. Whoever sent these, whatever they wanted, Nova was going to shut it down. She was not going to be leveraged. She was not going to be blackmailed. She was not going to be someone’s pawn in a game she hadn’t agreed to play. And she was going to protect Derek from this.

She slipped out of his chambers.

The corridor was empty. No guards. She looked both directions. Nothing. That was odd. Derek’s quarters were on the Alpha’s floor. There should have been guards at every stairwell. Their absence was either a coincidence or a cleared path, and Nova’s 99th percentile brain did not believe in coincidences at midnight.

Hood up. Head down. She moved.

Thunderfang Keep was massive. She had seen parts of it but she had only been here for six hours, so the layout was still unfamiliar.

Derek’s quarters were in the west wing, upper floors. Room 412 was east wing, fourth floor. The other side of the keep.

She moved quickly through the halls, boots quiet on stone, cloak pulled tight. The keep was asleep. Most of the torches had dimmed to a low amber glow and the only sounds were her footsteps and the wind pressing against the windows.

Then she heard footsteps.

Nova ducked into an alcove, pressing her back against white stone. Her breathing went shallow. The voices were coming from around the corner, echoing off the walls the way voices do when two people think they’re alone and aren’t bothering to whisper.

"—but can they actually do that? To her specifically?" Sierra asked, her tone tighter than what Nova had heard from her earlier.

"They can try," Sebastian replied, voice firm and steady. "But Derek won’t let it get that far."

"You don’t know that. If the High Luna overrules him, it doesn’t matter what Derek wants. She outranks him, right?"

There was a long pause before Sebastian answered.

"She won’t overrule him," he said.

"She already sided with Celeste tonight, Seb. At her own dinner table. In front of everyone."

"Siding with Celeste at dinner and doing what you’re talking about are very different things."

"The High Luna made up her mind about Nova before Nova walked in the door and we all know it. Her duty is to back the future Luna. That was expected. But the comments at dinner were a line being drawn. Those were personal, Seb. She ordered Nova’s arrest and yelled at her for touching Derek."

"I was there, Sierra. The High Luna was worried because Derek was glowing gold. She also didn’t want to set the precedent that the guards can ignore Celeste’s orders. Landon was not doing anything so she stepped in for that. Once Derek shut it down, she backed off."

"Derek was upset because Nova was getting treated like trash by the High Luna and Celeste, and no one at the table could see it."

"We all saw it. Nova handled herself well. It is not our place to intervene."

They disappeared around another corner and their voices faded.

She moved faster after that. Through a corridor she didn’t recognize, down a stairwell she hadn’t seen, past doors that were closed and dark and none of her business. The east wing was quieter than the west. Emptier. The ivy on the walls was thinner here, the glow dimmer, like this part of the keep didn’t get the same attention as the floors where Alphas slept and dinners were ruined.