Chapter 137 Zion’s Come For Nova

Chapter 137 Zion’s Come For Nova

I snap my head toward Nova. She's frozen solid, her eyes wide with total terror, looking like she's either about to sprint for the exit or throw up right onto the polished marble floor.

"What did you just say?" I seethe, my blood boiling.

"Nova. She's coming back home with me," Zion says casually, as if he didn't just utter the most absurd sentence of his life.

He's obviously pulling this stunt just to mess with my head. He knows how much Nova means to me, and he thinks pulling her away will tear me down.

But what I can't figure out is why he'd walk straight into my pack house, into my private home, acting so damn confident when I'm two seconds away from ripping his throat out.

"Have you completely lost your mind? You're not taking her anywhere," I growl, taking a heavy step down toward him.

He doesn't flinch. He doesn't even take a step back. If anything, his smile just turns darker, nastier.

"Well, long before she belonged to you, she was my daughter. My right to her goes a lot deeper than yours," he says simply, casting a glance back toward Nova.

I pause, my brow furrowing. "Daughter?"

"Oh God, no..." Nova whimpers behind me.

This makes zero sense. I must still be asleep in bed dreaming, because there's no way in hell Nova is Zion's daughter. They look nothing alike, and besides... she would never hide something that huge from me.

"How dare you march into my home and make up sick lies about her," I snap, my hands curling into tight fists at my sides, just waiting for the last thread of my patience to snap so I can throw him out myself.

Zion tilts his head, letting out a dark, dry laugh.

"Lies? I'm not making up a single word. Am I, Nova?"

I turn back around to face my mate, desperately expecting to see confusion on her face. I need her to say Zion is playing mind games, that this is just a cheap trick to start a war. Nova is my true mate, the universe wouldn't be fucked up enough to bind me to my worst enemy's blood.

Instead, she looks completely caught. Guilt and pure panic are fighting for control across her face.

"Cassian... I was going to tell you..." she whispers, her voice barely audible.

In an instant, the world beneath my feet completely gives out, leaving me cold and utterly breathless.

My eyes dart back and forth between Nova and Zion, and suddenly, I see it. It's subtle, but it's right there. They share the same slight curve at the bridge of their noses, the exact same angular cut to their jaws.

I can practically see the poison of his blood running beneath her skin like some kind of twisted joke designed to ruin me.

"No... this isn't happening," I mutter, grabbing a handful of my own hair and yanking hard, chasing the physical pain just to anchor myself to reality.

"He was hurting us, Cassian, my mother and me," Nova begs, trying to take a small step toward me, but I instantly take a step back.

I need distance. I need air. The man I despise most in this world is standing twenty feet away, and I'm discovering that his daughter is the woman I just bound my soul to. The woman I love.

"I don't get it..."

"It's true, Cassian," my mother's voice cuts through the tension.

I snap my head toward her, taking a sharp, painful breath. I knew that stony look on her face meant something. She probably instructed the guards to let Zion through the gates herself, knowing this storm couldn't be dodged forever.

"You knew about this?" I growl, my voice dripping with pure anger.

She doesn't flinch. She just stands taller, keeping her mask of cold composure perfectly intact.

"Grace showed up at my doorstep years ago with proof that she had once served a high-ranking Alpha," my mother explains smoothly, her eyes softening just a fraction.

"I suspected it was Zion, but she had a young girl with her, sickly, small for her age, and completely drenched from a torrential storm. I took pity on them."

My mind spins, digging through old, dusty memories. Grace was one of the kindest, gentlest women I've ever met. She adored Nova and treated me like her own, even in the brief time I knew her before she passed. How could a woman like that ever be tied to a monster like Zion?

"I..." I start, but my voice catches in my throat.

"I knew how you'd react if I brought it up," my mother continues, a quiet pang of grief cracking her voice.

"Right before Grace passed, she confessed everything to me. She begged me to keep Nova safe from her father, to make sure he never tracked her down. And I failed."

She looks over at Nova, trying to offer a silent apology, but it's far too late for apologies. Zion is standing in my home, and my entire world has just caught fire.

"And you still let her become my mistress knowing he might track her here?" I snap, a fresh wave of blinding, violent rage washing over me.