Chapter 25 - Zeth #2
“It wasn’t just the cut. I couldn’t reach my wolf. It was like—like something had slammed a wall between us.” She shook her head and closed her eyes. “I could feel her, but I couldn't reach her.”
With all of us in thought, heavy silence dropped over the room until Nick threw his hands up. “So he licked your leg, it healed, your wolf came back, and you fucked a stranger?”
Nova’s head snapped to him, and she took an angry step toward him when a low growl vibrated from his chest.
Deslen moved before I could blink. Tall, naked, and furious, he slid right between them. His easy grin was gone, replaced with a frown carved in stone.
“First,” he said, his steady voice edged with something primal, “my mate was hurt. I was going to do anything to make her feel better. Anything.” His golden eyes flicked toward Nova, softening.
“Second, we didn’t fuck. She gave me permission to give her pleasure, making her feel grounded in the middle of all that chaos.
I won’t let you twist that. Not even if you are my mate-brother. ”
The words landed like a blow you didn’t see coming.
Nova’s eyes lifted, a flicker of warmth breaking through her guarded expression for just a heartbeat. I caught it, the spark of memory, the quiet relief she’d felt with him. My gaze slipped to her arm, where inky truth bloomed against her skin. I already knew what he said was true… she did, too.
Nick looked like he was splitting apart from the inside out. His face flushed bright before folding into something raw, something filled with shame and confusion. Deslen’s calm tone seemed to dismantle him piece by piece. For once, I was glad to keep my mouth shut.
“Mate-brother?” Nick barked, his voice cracking. “You keep calling me that! I don’t know what that even means, but I don’t have a mate!” Nova’s jaw clenched, but that fear flickered in her eyes.
Nick’s gaze darted between us wildly, desperate for someone to save him from the truth already clawing its way out of him.
Conrad’s voice came next, almost gentle. “Well, I know that I’m your mate,” he said, eyes locked on Nova. “At least one of them, it seems.”
He lifted his hand slowly, reaching toward her. She flinched, and a slice of pain crossed that controlled face. Still, he pressed on, fingertips brushing the skin at the back of her throat. “My mark is here.”
Nova flinched and gasped, a sound that was half-breath, half-recognition. Her eyes burned as he pulled back, his gaze daring her to deny it.
The words spilled from me before I could stop them.
“You know I’m your mate, Nova.” My chest tightened as her shoulders bowed like the truth was too heavy.
I exhaled, feeling the fight drain out of me.
Acceptance tasted bitter, but it was the only way forward.
“And as much as I hate to admit it,” I jerked a thumb toward Nick, “this confused bastard’s your mate, too… whether he can admit it or not.”
Nick’s jaw worked soundlessly. Nova’s breath came in short bursts, eyes darting between us like a trapped animal.
“And him,” I said, nodding toward Deslen. “He’s the last one. The final mate.”
I dragged a hand over my face, fingers catching in my hair, tugging just to feel some pain on the outside.
Conrad’s brow furrowed. “How do you know that?”
I pointed to Nova’s arm. “Because that’s showing.”
Everyone looked down.
From her forearm, dark lines spiraled upward, covering her bicep in inked vines that curled into four buds of wolfsbane. Each one was pulsing faintly as if alive.
Nova stared at them, her shoulders slumping. “Oh, fuck.”
The resignation in her voice said everything. She didn’t have to say it out loud. She and I both knew what that meant.
“What?” Nick’s voice cracked, pitching higher as his panic bled through. “What does that tattoo mean?”
Nova’s head snapped toward me, seeking, trusting, and, for just a heartbeat, I soaked in it. That look. The silent pull between us. She still turned to me first, even when surrounded by the others. That was something no number of mates could ever erase.
I’d been there before all of them as her childhood friend, her second, her anchor when everything else spun out. The tightness that had been coiling in my chest every time I saw her giving them her attention eased just a little.
“Tell them,” I said quietly. The words weren’t a command, just a nudge. It was her truth to speak, and they should hear it from her.
Her face fell. Chin dipped. The silence stretched until it snapped, then the words flowed out of her. “I had a mate-blocker tattoo put on after I became the Rossey boss.”
Conrad’s eyes flashed in realization, his lips flattening into a thin, pained line. Nick blinked, confusion twisting his face as he stared at the ground. But Deslen looked like someone had kicked the ground out from under him. He grabbed her shoulders, turning her toward him.
“You tried to block me? Block us?” His voice cracked, raw and bleeding. “Why, Nova? Why?”
Guilt churned low in my gut at the hurt lacing his words, the truth settling in hard. I was the reason she’d chosen that path.
Her eyes, glassy but unbroken, locked on mine. The unspoken truth passed between us, heavy and choking. We knew the price of what we’d done.
Before she could speak, a voice from the hall shattered the tension.
“Hey! Look! Someone broke the third-floor window!”
“Do you think there was a fight?”
“Where is the body?”
We all froze, glancing at Frank’s mangled form. That would be a problem if someone came by this. Especially a human.
Nova inhaled once, and everything about her shifted. The tears vanished, swallowed back. Her posture straightened, her shoulders squared. In the span of a heartbeat, the vulnerable woman before us disappeared, replaced by the boss. By Nova Rossey.
“We don’t have time for this,” she said, her flat tone cleanly cutting through the air. “If my actions hurt you, I’m sorry, but right now, I have something more pressing to handle. A poison has infiltrated my territory, and I need to handle it.”
When no one said anything, she sighed. “We can talk later about,” she waved her hands around all of us, “all of this, but not before this is resolved.” Her last words were exacting and final.
Her gaze swept over us, sharp and commanding, her unsaid words part question, part decree. Agree or get out of my way.
And really, what choice did we have? She wasn’t just our mate right now; she was our boss. Well, technically mine, Nick’s, and now Deslen’s.
Her voice sliced through the silence. “Nick, Zeth, what happened to the man you were chasing?”
Nick jumped in fast, words tumbling over each other. “His natural scent was faint, almost gone, but his fear—yeah, that reeked. We tracked that all the way to a canyon.”
I clasped my hands behind my back, giving her my report. “While following him, we saw him pass through a rock illusion. That’s probably why none of our men spotted the place before as it looks like a regular rock face.”
Nick rolled his eyes and covered his face with his hands, though that failed to muffle his words. “Told you we should’ve gone after him.”
“I didn’t want to follow because I knew Nova would want to handle this situation herself,” I said.
“Zeth’s right.”
Nova’s words landed like a pat on the shoulder and a victory horn at once. I couldn’t resist the smirk I shot at Nick. He growled under his breath, lip curling. Yep. He was definitely starting to get in tune with his wolf side.
Nova turned back to business. “I want to be there when we catch these bastards, and I want to see if that substance shows up again. If that cave is a base, we need to know. It’s smarter, and safer, when more eyes are on the area.”
The air in the room shifted, becoming focused. No more emotions clawing through the space, just her clarity, her command. The Nova I knew best. The one who made chaos look like structure. For the first time in days, I felt… useful again, like I was doing what I was meant to do.
“Timing is everything,” she continued. “He thinks he got away, so we still have the element of surprise on our side.” Her gaze circled the room, locking with each of ours in turn. “Five of us should be able to handle whatever’s waiting.”
I gave a curt nod, filling my role as her second, her enforcer, the one who always had her back, then threw a look at the others that said, ‘fall in line.’
“Then it’s settled.” Nova clapped her hands. “You two lead the way.”
She glanced at Frank before pulling out her phone and lifting it to her ear, mumbling to herself. “Please have someone nearby, Riot. Plea—Oh, hey, Ri! Is there any chance you have someone free… like, now, near my location?”
While she finished setting up a clean-up crew for Frank, I picked up her clothes and helped her put them on while she talked. Just like normal.
She looked at the skirt and sliced it with her claws, making it into strips of fabric from the thigh down, ensuring she could move.
Once she was done, she turned, then paused, eyes sliding toward Deslen. The corner of her mouth twitched as her gaze dipped lower.
“Des,” she said dryly, “pretty sure we’ve got time for you to find some pants.”
We moved through the trees in a tight line, careful and quiet, every step placed with purpose. The solid rock face we’d watched him enter was just ahead. No guards. No movement. Just stillness.
Nick crouched near the entrance, eyes gleaming. “Right here,” he whispered. “Marked a few lines of sight so I wouldn’t lose it.”
Nova nodded, studying the rock face. “Good thinking, Nick.”
He straightened up a little too fast, shoulders pulling back, pride flickering across his face. When he caught me watching, he forced a frown, but it didn’t quite stick.
“Deslen,” Nova murmured, eyes still on the cave. “You feel any of that ancient magic?”
He shook his head. “No. Just regular runes. Mage work, nothing fae.”