Chapter 6: When Wolves Break
1279 Words
The suppressant crash hit Nova like a silver blade through her spine at three in the morning.
One moment she was checking the triplets' breathing in the abandoned church's back room, the next her wolf blood was staging a violent rebellion. Ice-cold shivers racked her frame before blazing heat followed—her skin felt like it was being flayed alive by invisible claws. Even the soft cotton of her shirt scraped against hypersensitive nerve endings like broken glass.
Fuck. Not now. Not when they need me.
The hunger came next—a gnawing, desperate need that made her eye the wooden pew like prey. Her hands trembled as she gripped the stone wall, fighting the urge to sink her teeth into anything solid. Four years of military-grade suppressants. Four years of carefully controlled bio-alchemy keeping her lycanthrope form locked away.
And now, when she needed her strength most, her body was staging a full-scale mutiny.
The worst part? Her scent blockers were dissolving.
She could feel it happening—the artificial Beta mask melting away like ice in hellfire. Underneath, something infinitely more dangerous began seeping through the cracks. Rose petals and wild honey. The scent that had driven the Alpha King to madness once before.
Nova pressed her palm against the cold stone altar, forcing herself to focus. Think. The children need food. Need safety. Need—
A sharp prickle shot up her nape. Her wolf senses, no longer suppressed, caught something that made her blood freeze.
He's coming.
Fifteen miles away in the royal palace, Ethan Blackwood shot upright from his desk like he'd been struck by lightning.
That scent. Faint as a whisper, delicate as morning mist, but unmistakably hers. The fragrance that had haunted his dreams for four years, that had made him question his sanity on countless sleepless nights.
His wolf roared to life, clawing at his consciousness with desperate hunger.
MATE. FIND. NOW.
"Sir?" His aide looked up in alarm as Ethan swept past, knocking over a crystal decanter. "The Council meeting—"
"f**k the Council."
Ethan was already shifting mid-stride, his human form dissolving into something far more primal. His massive black wolf burst through the palace doors, following an invisible thread that pulled him through the city like a man possessed.
She was close. She was hurt. She was his.
And this time, he wasn't letting her disappear.
The church door exploded inward with a sound like thunder.
Nova looked up from where she'd collapsed against the altar, her vision swimming with exhaustion and pain. Through the haze, she saw him—six feet four inches of barely leashed violence filling the doorway like a dark angel of retribution.
Ethan's golden eyes swept the sacred space before locking onto her huddled form. What he saw there made his wolf whimper with distress.
Flushed cheeks, bloodless lips, tremors wracking her small frame. The scent of her distress was so thick he could taste copper and fear on his tongue—along with something that made every protective instinct scream for action.
"You look like hell," he said, his voice rough as gravel.
Nova tried to push herself upright, her pride warring with her body's rebellion. "I'm fine."
"Bullshit." Before she could protest, he was kneeling beside her, one large hand cupping her chin while the other produced an energy bar from his jacket. His touch was firm, uncompromising. "Open."
"Ethan, don't—"
He pressed the food against her lips, his thumb brushing the corner of her mouth. The contact sent electricity shooting through Nova's hypersensitive system like a live wire. In her current state, his touch was magnified a thousandfold—part torture, part salvation.
A soft whimper escaped her throat before she could stop it.
Ethan's pupils dilated at the sound, his wolf responding to her distress with possessive hunger. "That's it," he murmured, his voice dropping to something dark and commanding. "Let me take care of you."
"I don't need—" Nova started, but her protest died as he pulled her against his chest, burying his face in the curve of her neck. His breath was hot against her skin as he inhaled deeply, like a man finally allowed to breathe after years underwater.
The mate bond pulsed between them, stronger now that her defenses were down, whispering seductive promises of surrender.
"Tell me something, Nova," he said, his voice muffled against her throat. "In four years of running, did you think about me? Even once?"
The raw pain in his voice made her chest tight. "Ethan—"
"Because I thought about you every f*****g day. Every night. Every moment between sleeping and waking. My wolf has been howling for you."
His arms tightened around her, and Nova felt herself melting despite everything. Her suppressant-weakened state made her vulnerable to the bond's pull, to the heat of his body, to the way he held her like she was something precious instead of a runaway prize.
"Mommy?" A small, sleepy voice drifted from the next room. "I'm hungry…"
Luna's plaintive call shattered the moment like glass.
Ethan went rigid, his grip on Nova loosening as if he'd been burned. For a heartbeat, she saw something vulnerable flicker across his features—longing mixed with terror at the thought of facing his daughter.
Then the mask slammed back into place.
He stood abruptly, shrugging out of his expensive jacket and draping it over Nova's shivering form. The gesture was awkward, unpracticed, but achingly gentle.
"Stay here," he commanded, his voice carefully neutral. "Don't move."
Nova watched in stunned silence as he stalked toward the door, his broad shoulders rigid with tension. Where was he going? What was he—?
Twenty minutes later, he returned carrying bags from an all-night diner—roasted chicken, fresh bread, milk, fruit. Enough food to feed a small army. He set it all down in front of her without ceremony, then retreated to lean against the doorframe like a sentinel.
"Feed them," he said simply, his golden eyes unreadable. "Feed my children before you get your strength back and run again."
The words hit her like a physical blow. He wasn't trying to trap her or force her into anything. He was just… making sure his babies were taken care of. Even if it meant letting her go afterward.
"You could force me to stay," Nova said quietly, testing him. "You're stronger. You have resources I can't fight."
"I could." His jaw clenched. "But I won't. Not like that. Not again."
Not again. The admission hung between them like a bridge neither dared cross.
"I'll wait," he continued, his voice rough with suppressed emotion. "However long it takes. I'll wait right here."
Like a dragon guarding treasure. Close enough to protect, far enough away to let her breathe.
Nova stared at him—this impossible man who'd just fed her children and was now standing guard over their sanctuary—and felt something crack open in her chest.
But as Luna's sleepy voice called out again, followed by Leo's groggy complaints about being hungry, Nova realized their fragile peace was about to face its ultimate test.
What would happen when the children woke up and found the Alpha King—their supposedly dead father—standing in their sanctuary?
And more terrifyingly, what would happen when Ethan discovered that his precious heirs had inherited far more than just his royal bloodline?
The suppressant crash had revealed more than just Nova's scent. In her weakened state, she could feel it—the children's own abilities stirring, responding to their father's presence like wolves recognizing their pack leader.
The real storm was just beginning.
- Writer
