“Zeth,” I called over my shoulder, knowing he wouldn't be far away. That was one of the only things I felt like I knew for sure. “Take Conrad and Deslen to my house. Get their prints and signatures set up in the system.”
That was all I said before the shift took me.
Bones cracked, skin stretched, and white fur replaced everything human. The forest swallowed me as I ran, each stride pulling the ache further from my chest. Tears fell hot and silent, scatteringthrough the wind, but only the forest saw, and she kept her secrets.
27
NOVA
“Sooooo, how was your night? Magical? Full of dick?”
Aniyah’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts, though not far enough to escape where they always went. I was thinking about that stupid traitor of a human cop turned wolf.Again.
One of the flower bulbs inked along my arm thumped faintly, a heartbeat gone weak.
It had been thirty hours since that damn cave. Since Nick and I went our separate ways. To his credit, he stayed gone, just like I’d told him to, yet the emptiness he left behind dug in deep, sour and sharp. I didn’t know if I was more angry at him or at myself for missing him like this.
Zeth, Conrad, and Deslen had made an effort to keep me company. Some came armed with half-baked excuses, others with actual work. Either way, I let them. Their presence filled the silence, kept me from staring too long at that hollow space inside my chest.
They were trying to be comforting, I knew that, but every time I looked at them, all I could see was what wasn’t there,whowasn’tthere. I was pining like some lovesick fool over a man I barely understood. Pathetic.
It didn't help that I could feel all three of them wanting to talk about the elephant in the room. To their credit, none of them brought it up or put pressure on me to talk about it, but the air between us hummed, tight and electric, charged with their uncertainty and longing.
I could sense their eyes on me, asking me questions without saying a word. Their gazes lingered as I moved around. Sometimes I ignored it, letting them hover while I buried myself in work. Other times, the weight of it pressed too close, and I’d shut the door, locking out their unanswered questions.
I needed an enemy. Something to burn this restless ache out of me. Finding the doctor should’ve done it, but ever since we released those captives, any potential leads had gone dark. I’d searched all the buildings that used to be banks with no luck.
“Niyah…” I sighed, rubbing a hand over my face. “You got your picture. What more do you want?”
The holographic projection of her perched on my desk leaned closer, eyes gleaming like a cat with a secret. “No, no, that was just the amuse-bouche,” she purred, her voice on the edge of laughter. “Now I want the play-by-play.” Her grin widened. “A girl’s gotta eat, Nov. I need my meatandpotatoes.”
Before I could shut her down, Calix’s hologram crackled to life beside hers. His expression was already sour. “What the fuck are you two talking about?”
“Nothing—”
“How much dick Nova got on fight night,” Aniyah blurted, cutting me off.
Riot’s image blinked into the middle of the chaos. She took one look at Calix’s horrified face, Aniyah’s feral excitement, and my silent plea for mercy, then sighed, pulled up a book, and hid behind it like she wanted no part of this circus.
“The fuck, Niyah!” Calix barked. “I haven’t even had my breakfast yet!” He slammed the mug of blood that had been poised at his mouth onto his desk.
She only smiled, eyes sliding past the camera to someone off-screen. “Then shut your ears, Cal. Even Ras wants to hear what happened. Don’t you, my little stalker?”
Rasmus drifted into view, that strange, unblinking devotion on his face. “Oh, yeah,” he said easily. “Whatever my star wants is what I want. Very much so.”
Glaring at them like they’d personally ruined his morning, Calix groaned. “I think I just threw up in my mouth.”
Aniyah’s gaze snapped to him, sharp enough to cut. “Just because you don’t know how to please?—”
“Oh, fucking try me,” he shot back. “Ask the woman from last night?—”
Ezra’s hologram appeared, snapping everyone into focus like a silent command. She sat back in her high-backed chair, fingers steepled, face carved with calm authority. “All here? Ready.”
The room froze. Riot put a bookmark in her book and closed it. Even Aniyah stopped smirking. Ezra had that effect. Her voice didn’t rise or bite, but the meaning was clear as a brandishing of a blade:shut the fuck up and focus.
“Morning, E! You know how much welovethese early meetings.”
Aniyah batted her lashes like she had a scrap of innocence left, her grin stretching so wide it looked painful.
