“Nova?!” She called my name louder, and I wished for invisibility “Nova! Is that you? Are you sleeping on your desk? That's a little unprofessional.”
Nope. No invisibility. Just humiliation.
My dad Ax’s voice rumbled out, “Now, Siren, do you want us to bring up all the ‘unprofessional’ things you’ve done on your desk?”
She giggled for a second, smiling seductively before she shook it off and scowled. “That was all of your faults. Not mine.”
Before this went into a full-on play-by-play of their time together on her desk, I breathed and wiped at my eyes with the back of my hand. Forcing a grin across my face, I answered, “Hey, Mom! How’s Europe? Find anything fun?”
Her face tightening, she leaned forward before she inhaled as if the truth had punched her. “Nova! Are youcrying?”
That was the moment pandemonium erupted. Voices overlapped, sharp, affectionate, and utterly ridiculous.
“What the fuck?”
“Sweetheart, just tell me who we need to kill.”
“Not my Nova. Oh, hell no!”
“All I need is a name, baby girl.”
“We should take the next flight home and gut the whole Rossey old guard. She needs a fresh start. It’s the most logical solution.”
That last one was Father Falcon, and I almost laughed. Ever since I took over as the Rossey boss, he'd been wanting to get rid of the old guard, knowing they would give me a hard time since they were old school. His reasoning was to ensure I was respected correctly, and, in his mind, the only way to ensure that was to put new people in place. He tried to sell it as protecting my reign, but the rest of us called it his way of showing love… and it was out of the question.
I let their noise wash over me, half-embarrassed, fully loved, and absolutely aware that whatever disaster I’d accidentally broadcast, my family would descend like a storm, loud, ridiculous, and fiercely mine.
“All right—out! All of you, out!” my mom screeched, and I took a breath of relief. Talking to the dads about boy problems would be hard since every other word out of their mouths was about how they would make them pay. It was unproductive.
I watched Mom herd my dads like a dog moving cattle, shoulders squared, voice sharp. Men spilled out the doorway, half-grumbling, half-protesting, all wanting information to make this a “quick fix.”
Daddy Lex lingered at the threshold, loud and theatrical as always. “I’ll make them cry for you, baby girl. I’ll even film it! We could have a whole movie night, watching them bawl their weight in tears until they take their final breath! It will be great, and we’ll all have a laugh!”
Mom slammed the door in his face, smoothed a stray hair from her forehead, and turned back to me. “All right, Nov. Lay it on me now that the psychos are gone.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Mom. You’realsoone of those psychos.”
A grin split her face, flashing me some fang. “Oh, but I’m the leader of the psychos, so that means I think about it before I do it.” I lifted a brow at her, and she crossed her arms, one corner of her mouth lifting. “Fine.Most of the time. Just remember, I'm not the one trying to book international flights right now.”
That hit a nerve, and I laughed until the sound broke into more tears. I wanted that. I could admit it now. My own pack of lunatics who would flatten the world for me and our kids.
Mom’s expression softened. She leaned forward, and the voice we all called her “magic-mom tone” slipped into place: calm, steady, impossible to argue with. “Tell me what’s going on. Why are you hurting, Nova?”
I didn’t crumble, but I did something worse. I unloaded.
I left out the messy history with Zeth and the mate-blocking tattoo—I wasn't a snitch—but I told her about the four mates who’d shown up, how I’d kept them at arm’s length because of my fear. Confessed that one of them had broken my heart and walked away. Explained how confused I was, how stupid I felt for wanting something I wasn’t sure was meant for me.
She listened the way she always did, no interruptions, no judgment. When I finished, the weight I’d been carrying didn’t vanish, but saying it out loud had made it less absolute.
“Oh, honey.” Her smile was kind yet pitying all the same. She chuckled, and the sound was rich and full. “I see so much of your dads in all of you. Calix’s focus is so Falcon; Ezra’s clean, no-nonsense like Cosmo; Riot feels deeply like Lex; Aniyah, she’s pure Avery wildness. And you? You’ve got Ax’s strength—inside and out. But sometimes, I forget you all have a little slice of me in there, too.”
I blinked, confused. She reached across the holo and caressed the air like she was tucking back a strand on my hair. “Nov, I was you once. When your dads showed up, I fought them all tooth and nail, swearing it was just some fun and good sex. Then everyone started declaring themselves my mate, and your grandfathers got into trouble…. It was just so much easier to shove those feelings down, telling myself I’d deal with it all later. Sound familiar?”
My head bobbed.
“The hardest part isn’t knowing that this is your mate, the one or ones you were destined for. It’s the leap, trusting someone with pieces of you, pieces that you don’t even understand yet.” Her voice was quiet, but the words settled in my chest and started to click back on track like gears.
“That fear of the leap is what’s keeping you from going all in. Some people have bigger gaps to leap than others, but the decision is the same for everyone. Is it worth it or not?”
