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“Okay.” Violet said after only a heartbeat.
Her easy acceptance had Zander kissing the top of her head before he pulled back up to his full height and released her. His body was tense but he returned to the door and raised his hand again. He really hoped he was doing the right thing. He gave Violet one more glance and his tiny, seven-year-old niece, gave him a reassuring thumbs up. It was now or never, right?
Zander took a deep breath for courage and then lifted his hand and knocked on the door.
Chapter Three
The scream that had jolted Maya awake in the dead of night sent a cold shiver of dread skittering down her spine. It wasn’t the first time she’d been awoken by that shrill sound. Not even close. In the first few weeks and even months after they’d escaped Maddox Clary, her younger sister had woken screaming from nightmares nearly every night.
In the years that followed, as their lives had settled, the terrors had come back to Nova less and less. They’d found a way to bury their past hurts so deep that they rarely broke the surface. They’d focused on the good things in their lives and on the future instead of the past.
Seeing Luna happily mated to Michael had been the start of a joyously peaceful time in all their lives. They’d settled into their roles not just as princesses of the Crescent Pack but also as beloved little sisters in the Moirae Pack as well. They’d been given whatever they needed, anything they asked for, and more parental figures to fill that gap in their lives than could ever have been deemed necessary.
They’d grown up well and truly loved and cherished despite all that they’d lost. Their parents. Their innocence. Those things had been taken much too soon for both Maya and Nova, but they’d learned to cope and they’d always had each other.
That was why, when Maya had come of age and moved into her own place, Nova had chosen to go with her rather than stay with their other siblings. They’d split time between Luna and the Moirae Pack and Leo and the Crescent Pack for too long. They needed their own place and to figure out where they fit and which pack they truly belonged to no matter what the DeLuca blood running in their veins said.
Besides, Luna had her hands full these days caring for the twins. The Devilish Duo as Maya had nicknamed them were hell on wheels. The little Princes of the Moirae Pack were nothing like their calm, thoughtful father. They were brash, bold and quick to tantrums that could incite the entire pack into bouts of wariness. Michael and Luna had been too busy taking care of their pack and their toddler sons to put up much of an argument when Maya said she wanted to move out and Nova said she wanted to go with her.
Leo on the other hand had argued until he was blue in the face. Their older brother, their beloved protector, had made it clear he wanted them to stay. Even his mate, Darius, who was a man of few words unless he was arguing with his husband, had said the house would feel empty without them and tried to talk them into staying until Nova was of age too. If anyone could have convinced Maya to stay, it would have been Leo and Darius, the most unlikely of pairs and the best mates she’d ever witnessed.
But they’d deserved their time alone too. They’d done their duty, more than that even, and helped raise Maya and Nova into smart, strong, independent women and wolves. It was time they focused on their own family and deciding if, when and how they wanted to expand it. They had a legacy to cement in the Crescent Pack after all.
So Maya had accepted the offer to rent Zoey Hudson’s old apartment and she and Nova had moved into it. She wasn’t sure if it was the upheaval of the move that had triggered Nova or the fact that she was nearing her own coming of age. Maybe it was knowing that their siblings weren’t just down the hall and Enforcers weren’t outside the doors anymore. Whatever it was, Nova had woken screaming more and more lately, had gotten quieter and quieter during the days and had mentioned her visions less and less.
At first Maya had thought it was probably a good thing Nova was learning to keep her visions to herself. Not everybody wanted to know what lay in their future. God knew if her little sister hadn’t blabbed about Luna’s fated mate all those years ago they might have escaped Maddox unscathed. But she hadn’t blamed Nova then, as a young girl simply excited at the prospect of seeing a magical future for her eldest sister, and she didn’t blame her now for keeping whatever she saw to herself.
Visions were Nova’s gift. She was a Seer. She contained a powerful magic within her in addition to her wolf that allowed her to see into the future. Most of the time, she saw happy events. Matings, marriages, babies and all of the things that went with building a person’s life. But other times she was given glimpses of the darkness that existed in the world, of death and hate and destruction.
Maya hated the visions. She hated the idea that she had no power over her own future. Hated that Nova saw things that no girl her age should have had to see. She hated fate. What had it ever done for her? Gotten her thrown in a hole and beaten and abused. It had gotten her parents killed. And for what? She couldn’t see a point to any of it.
That was the other reason she’d wanted to move out. She wanted to build her own life. She wanted to make her own choices. She didn’t want to have to bend to the will of the fates. She had chosen this life, her life, and it was a good one.
But when she walked into Nova’s room and flipped on the light to find her sister breathing hard, her head in her hands, her heart still clenched and she hated herself for hoping whatever Nova saw wasn’t about her.
Her little sister glanced up as she came into the room and offered a small smile that Maya returned. She didn’t look like a baby anymore. She was a teenage girl and every day brought her closer and closer to the precipice of her own fate. Maya wiped her hair back from her face and let Nova cuddle into her side just as she had when she was young, just as she would let her until they were old and gray if and when her sister needed it.
“What was it this time?” Maya finally asked after Nova’s breathing returned to normal.
Nova shrugged, “I… I’m not sure I should say.”
“Because it was bad?”
“Because it was about you.” Nova leaned back upright and met her gaze, her teeth nibbling on her bottom lip nervously, “I know you’ve said you don’t want to know when I see visions of your future but…”
“I don’t.” Maya cut her off with a shake of her head. “I don’t want to know.”
A hurt look crossed Nova’s face, “Even if its good?”
“You woke up screaming barely an hour after your head touched the pillow. It’s not even eleven o’clock. What good news could you possibly have for me?”
“I didn’t know I screamed.” Nova was still chewing her lips, “I’m sorry about that. I think… I think I was just surprised more than anything. I wasn’t scared. I’m sorry if I worried you.”
“It’s fine.” Maya sighed heavily and played with her sister’s hair for a moment, “I always worry about you. It’s fine. But if you’re okay, I’m going to go back to bed.”
“Wait.” Nova caught her hand as Maya stood to leave.
“I told you already, I don’t want to know whatever it was that you saw. I don’t believe in fate the way you do. I can’t. I have to believe that whatever comes of my life, after everything we’ve been through, that I’m the one that gets to choose how it turns out.”
