The music was getting louder.
So was the crowd.
The door slammed open at the front of the speakeasy, and in walked six warriors in dark leather — their golden wolf sigils flashing on each shoulder.
With them was the largest female warrior in the Shadowclaw pack. Broad-shouldered, taller than most men, jet-black hair pulled into a vicious braid. She moved like a beast barely contained by flesh.
And she was watching Nova.
The man beside her peeled away, eyes on Nova's hair like it was a prize. He crossed the room with that slow, cocky walk Jax knew too well.
Nova was in the middle of talking to the bartender when he shoved his hand between them, palm out and introduced himself.
She froze, slowly turning. Her hesitation was clear, but she reached out and shook it.
He didn't let go.
Instead, he grabbed a lock of her hair and began twisting it around his finger, smirking.
Jax and Finric both stood in perfect unison. The air between them crackled.
But—
Smack.
Elle's hand came down hard on the man's wrist. "Did you mistake her for a chew toy?" she snapped.
The man jerked back, startled. Nova gently pulled her hand away and turned back to the bar without saying a word.
Fin and Jax sat again. No shame. No attempt to play it off.
At this point, they didn't care.
"She's collecting enemies tonight," Jax muttered under his breath. "Nova, what are we going to do with you?"
Fin's eyes followed the large female warrior — still glaring daggers at Nova from across the room.
"I feel sorry for that one," Fin said, swirling the drink he hadn't touched. "Hell. I feel sorry for all of them. None of them hold a candle."
The next hour crawled. More people came. More eyes turned.
Nova, oblivious or simply uninterested, laughed with the bartender, hugged a few familiar Omegas, accepted drinks like she belonged there.
Every five minutes, another man approached her or Elle.
Jax's internal temperature rose with each attempt.
The first few, he kept his jaw locked.
By the seventh—
One of them touched the small of her back, leaning in too close.
Crack.
Finric's glass shattered in his hand. Shards and liquor pooled across the table, but he didn't even flinch.
"You've got to be kidding me," he growled. "I don't think I can keep watching this."
Neither moved.
But it was torture.
For two men who could command hundreds with a word — who had warriors, diplomats, and powerful she-wolves fall at their feet — to sit in silence while the one woman they wanted danced just out of reach.
Then Nova disappeared.
She and Elle — along with the three boys — slipped behind the bar and vanished through a hidden door.
Jax and Finric both stood up so fast the table nearly toppled. They scanned for another entry. Nothing.
Finric strode to the bar.
He didn't even speak — just let his aura out like a slow flood and minlinked the bartender in an alpha tone.
Fin:
Bartender:
Her head nodded once, and she opened the door for them quickly before anyone could notice.
They passed through the hidden doorway and followed the corridor. Dark. Narrow. Lined with closed doors. But Nova's scent was unmistakable — that blend of vanilla and moonlight that wrapped around Jax like a noose.
Finric stopped in front of a room.
Voices came from inside. Curtains obscured the entrance. A few steps down led into a sunken room. Jax and Finric slipped behind a curtain and watched from the shadows.
There she was.
Nova. With Elle. And the three idiot boys.
A woman in scarves sat at the head of the table, a crystal ball glowing faintly in front of her.
The fortune teller began.
She took Ash's hand. "You'll be a second Lieutenant. You'll die in battle."
She began moaning and shaking, obviously faking it.
Nova and Elle burst out laughing.
Even Finric's mouth twitched.
But then the room shifted.
The air dropped to freezing. The candles flickered out until only one remained on the table. The woman's body twitched. Her head dropped.
When she looked up, her voice wasn't her own. It wasn't even singular.
It was layered — like multiple spirits speaking at once.
Her eyes rolled white.
"Little red wolf." She snatched Elle's hand.
Elle tried to pull back. Couldn't.
The woman's eyes glazed white, her voice slipping into something not entirely her own. "You shall meet your fated mate before seven suns have set," she whispered, the words crawling through the air like smoke. "On that same day, the white wolf will be attacked while her back is turned."
The room seemed to darken with each syllable. "If the Dark Alpha rises, you won't be a widow for long before your death follows. Your fated mate's death awakens the power buried beneath you. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Start to remember, little Red."
Elle flinched, trying to pull her hand away, but the woman's fingers clamped tighter, dragging her nearly across the table. "A woman aligned with a dark mage will poison the red wolf once… and the white wolf twice."
Elle tore her hand free, heart pounding, as the woman's head turned—slowly, almost mechanically—toward Nova.
"You!"
She grabbed Nova's wrist and flipped her palm up so quickly it was unnatural.
Nova gasped. Fin and Jax both saw light flashed beneath her skin. It was quick, and by the time Ash, Rael, Milo, and Elle looked up it was gone.
"White wolf…"
The woman's voice thickened, layered with something ancient and wrong.
"Your blood and mark shall be your curse.
The clock counts down…
before your blood spills — so sweet. Silver first."
Her fingers twitched. A pulse of cold rippled through the air.
"Before four sunsets drown in red,
your wrists in silver shall be wed."
Her head jerked sharply, bone cracking as her eyes rolled white.
"Before six suns break then fall and fix,
a captain finds you in the mix;
his strikes are low,
you will deliver the final blow."
Her grip tightened. Nova's pulse thundered. The woman leaned closer, smiling as if savoring the fear in her breath.
Her voice dropped to a hiss:
"Before seven suns have burned to set,
the Dark Alpha threads will be met.
Her grin stretched too wide, skin straining."
"Run fast, or be on death's door…"
She giggled — a child's giggle twisting into static.
"But remember destiny keeps score."
Her next words slithered like smoke:
"Before ten sunsets there's no peace to be seen,
Five alphas rise against the Varos Fourteen."
Nova tried to pull away, but the woman yanked her closer, driving her ribs into the table.
Her smile split. Three discordant voices layered beneath her own.
"When spring breaks winter's strangling choke,
a second Alpha lifts his stroke—
a blade held high to taste your throat."
Her head snapped sideways again — a grotesque marionette pulled by invisible strings.
"A third Alpha will rise — the thread fate binds —
and steal you back from death's designs."
The voices deepened, rumbling like something buried.
"A fourth will be left for dead;
Yet you will halt the reaper's tread,
And for the life you force to stay,
his men spill blood till four alphas lay."
She froze.
Then, slowly… deliberately… she licked her lips.
Her voice cracked into radio static, dissolving into a hiss:
"At the hands of the one who rules,
you'll meet your mother's end — same tools."
The air thickened. Words fractured.
"Tick… tock…
tick—tick—tick—tick—tick…"
Her laughter wasn't human.
It wasn't even singular.
It rattled, glitched, multiplied.
"Panic. Panic.
You can't breathe.
Time's almost out…"
And the torches guttered as if something else had entered the room with them.
Nova yanked again, as hard as she could and pulled it away from the woman. Her heart was pounding but deep down, she felt defeat. Like something bad was going to happen and she couldn't fight it.
Fin felt that through the matebond and his wolf spoke in his mind.
Mate. She's ours.
Claim her.
"Enough—" Milo snapped. "We're done here."
The woman grabbed Milo at unnatural speed. Her eyes rolled white.
"You'll die in battle," she hissed, voice splitting between octaves. "Young. Before your mate. You'll die protecting the white wolf."
Her grip trembled, lips twisting into something like a smile.
"Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. The clock bleeds faster for you, little soldier."
Then her hand shot toward Rael.
"You must choose," she breathed, the words cold enough to frost the air. "Betray your blood… or betray your pack. One saves you. One damns you."
She tilted her head, the sound of her teeth clicking like the tick of a clock.
"Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Time favors no traitor."
Her gaze snapped to Ash, pupils gone to slits.
"The shadow," she whispered, almost reverent. "You will rise in flame and fall in ash—your name a prophecy written in your own ruin. When the moon burns red, you'll stand alone."
Her voice deepened, guttural now.
"Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. The fire remembers your name."
Then—The candles and torches all lit in the room, even the ones that were not lit before.
The woman blinked.
She didn't even realize what had happened.
"Who's next?" she chirped. "You?" She pointed at Elle.
Nova stood abruptly not speaking. Her face was neutral, not showing the sadness in her heart.
She turned and exited the room, Elle was right behind her, all color drained.
Rael, Ash, and Milo all seemed too stunned to stand for a second. When they came to their senses they all stood, and exchanged a glance of horror.
Finric and Jax stayed in the shadows — frozen in place until the woman retreated into another room.
When they returned to the bar, the five were gone.
The night no longer felt wild. Or fun.
It felt like the beginning of something much, much darker.
Neither of them spoke as they left the bar and stepped into the cold. The night air bit at their skin, but neither noticed. Both were lost in thought, her words still echoing in their minds.
Jax felt the weight of grief sink into his chest. He couldn't tell if it was his own sorrow, or if he was feeling hers. Or worse—if he was only imagining it. Mate, the word brushed against his consciousness, soft and haunting. He wasn't sure if it came from his wolf… or again if it was even real.
Fin's heart fractured, feeling her through their matebond. He wanted to protect her—run to her, tell her everything—but duty clawed at him. He couldn't move until he secured Meredith another throne and another betrothal. Without that, he'd be trading his pack's peace for one forbidden heartbeat. He shook his head, stopping that trail of thought in its tracks. There was nothing he could do about Meredith at this point that wouldn't insult her and Ashbane. He needed to accept that.
Jax blew out a shaky breath. "Well," he muttered, "that was nightmare fuel."
Finric's expression didn't shift. Not flinching. Not surprised. Just… calculating.
"I've seen dark magic before," he said. "That wasn't it."
Jax scoffed. "Really? Because that felt like someone let a demon possess a scarecrow."
Fin ignored the joke. He always ignored jokes.
Finric snorted. "She was out of her mind."
"Out of her mind?" Jax repeated. "Fin, she spoke in three voices, licked the air, and tried to reenact a horror prophecy. That's not crazy—that's career crazy. That's advanced-level, professionally-certified crazy."
Fin shook his head, running a hand through his hair.
"I've seen delusional elders, cursed shamans, hex-drunk witches… whatever that was? New category."
"A bad one," Jax added.
"A pathetic one," Fin corrected. "If she'd tried that in the south, they'd have thrown her in a pond to see if she floated."
Jax barked a laugh. "Honestly? She'd probably just hiss and crawl out backward."
Fin hummed. Not disagreeing.
They reached the top of the alley, the night crisp around them.
"You think anything she said was real?" Jax asked, mostly out of obligation, not belief.
Fin rolled his eyes.
"She was reciting rhyming riddles like an intoxicated nursery witch. Nothing she said made sense."
"Right?" Jax agreed too quickly. "All that 'before seven suns' and 'doom and death' crap. Please. Half the drunks in the southern quarter say the same thing when you ask where the bathroom is."
Fin grunted.
"She's lucky she didn't try that on me."
"Oh, absolutely," Jax said. "You'd have stared at her and she would've apologized to the furniture."
Fin didn't deny it.
They walked a few more steps before Jax added, "I mean, I've heard dramatic threats, but that woman made me want to check the water supply."
Fin huffed.
"She clearly wanted attention."
"Yeah," Jax nodded. "And she picked the wrong pack for that."
Finric shrugged, dismissive, already bored with the topic. "Shadowclaw doesn't negotiate with drunk fortune-tellers in dive bars."
"Damn right," Jax said.
There was no tension.
No prophecy weighing on them.
Just two powerful wolves brushing off a deranged woman who'd ruined their night.
Finally, Jax sighed dramatically.
"Next time we follow the girls out," he declared, "we're going to a bakery. No more cursed speakeasies. No more crackhead oracles. Just pastries."
Fin actually snorted.
"I'd prefer that."
"Good," Jax said firmly. "Pack decree."
They split ways at the corridor fork, both fully convinced the incident was behind them.
Neither of them even entertained the idea that any part of it might matter.
The woman was insane.
The prophecy was nonsense.
End of story.
Tick.
Tock.
Whatever.
They were done with it.