After a few seconds, he sighed and slowly stood up before brushing his coat clean from invisible dirt. His fury had cooled into something worse—disappointment and maybe even pity.
“Get your head straight,” he barked. “She’s missing a part of her soul. That part is you. We’ll hold things down, but if you’re not all in, if there’s even a shred of doubt, don’t come back. Just disappear from here. Get as far away from us as you can. Any pain she feels will be replaced with pleasure. Every stray thought of you will be turned into sweet or dirty thoughts of us. We’ll make her soul whole by giving her all of ours because we’re her mates.”
Leaving me with that, he strode away. Once he got into the car, I could see Zeth shouting about something, but Conrad didn’t take his eyes off me until he turned the wheel and drove off.
“Got off light,” I muttered to myself, letting out a shaky laugh. Zeth could’ve broken more than bones tonight. Conrad’s restraint was the real wound.
They’d done it all for Nova. Even their mercy was for her.
That tiny spark of hope flickered again despite everything. Shedidmiss me. That meant something. Everything. It had to.
Having decided what I wanted, I dusted my hands off and made my way over to the truck. My mind was already spinning through the details—gear, routes, supplies. If they were going after that doctor, I wasn’t staying behind.
I had started this fight, and I was damn sure going to finish it.
* Its Not Over by Naughty
31
NOVA
“Boss, we’ve hit every lake, every stream with a bank big enough to hide something. Every rock formation, landmark, and…” Robert swallowed. “Nothing.”
My palm cracked against the table. The holographic map flickered in and out. I didn’t bother turning toward him as heat crawled up my neck, my words coming out like I’d swallowed gravel. “So, we tore through half the damn wilderness, and not a single thing looked off to you?”
Silence. A hollow, guilty silence that only fed the fiery rage in my chest.
I turned on my heel and closed in, the air between us tightening with quiet menace. “You’re a werewolf,” I hissed, jabbing a finger at his chest. “One of my best trackers. Supes are getting snatched and turned into walking time bombs, and you’re standing here telling me you can’t sniff out one damn clue?”
His gaze hit the floor. At least he had that much sense.
I turned away and stalked back to the table before I did something regrettable. The map hovered above it, blue andgold layers twisting in slow rotation, showing mountain ranges etched in sharp, bright light. I touched the marker in the region he claimed to have checked, and the surface flashed before it became grey.
What the fuck am I missing!?
The door opened, and Zeth’s voice rang out with authority. “Rob,out.”
Robert hesitated for a heartbeat, looking at me, and when I gave a curt nod, he retreated as fast as he could. One set of footsteps faded down the hall as two sets of footsteps came up from behind.
Deslen was in the room with me, lingering by the window with his arms folded, eyes combing the forest like he expected something to pop out. An earthy grapefruit scent wafted from close by, and Conrad sat next to me, jaw tight, his glare firmly fixed on the glowing terrain.
Tattooed arms slid around my waist, that familiar cherry almond scent wrapping around me.
My first instinct was to shrug him off. Couldn’t have my men thinking I’d grown soft. That I wasn’t some weakling that couldn’t handle the pressure.
I closed my eyes and took a breath, but Zeth tightened his grip before I could move. “Shhhh,” he murmured against the shell of my ear. “No one’s watching. I waited ‘til he left.”
My shoulders unclenched as my worry melted away. He was right. It was just us.
I leaned back into him, letting his quiet sway pull the tension out of me. It was so… gentle. So un-Zeth that I almost doubted it was him for a second.
The Zeth I’d known for five years? Jokes, lingering glances, hesitant to do anything that might step over the line.
The Zeth holding me now? Pushy. Intense. A spark of heat licking under every word. And, damn it, I liked this version just as much.
“We’ll get him, Nova,” he whispered, an angry heat that matched my own threading through the promise. “We’ll make him pay.”
A soft laugh escaped me, breathier than I meant it to be. His voice lit something low in my spine, but the reminder of the mission dragged me back. Even if I wanted this moment to stretch on, I couldn’t. That was what bosses did—the hard thing.
