Chapter 5 - Edge

As soon as I walked into Griffin and Sonni’s home, Ranger was on his feet. Pushing him back, I focused on Natalia and reminded her to go slowly in her wheelchair so she didn’t run one of her cousins over. She laughed at that and tried to take off. I grabbed the back of the chair and held it in place. Thankfully, it didn’t have a lot of horsepower.

As I stepped into the main living area, I scanned the room and felt Ranger surge and yell, “Mate.”

My entire body froze. I wasn’t about to go through that shit again. My eyes landed on a pathetic-looking female. She was small- no, that wasn’t right; she was gaunt. Her cheekbones were too sharp, her eyes too big, and her body too lean. She looked like a half-starved street urchin in tattered clothes. 

Her black hair was dull and shoved into a haphazard bun on top of her head. She stayed away from the crowd, and I wondered who in the hell she was. Ranger was pacing but was also confused. 

“I don’t sense a wolf. Our mate doesn’t have a wolf.”

“Is she human?” Sonni had a soft spot for those less fortunate, and I wondered if she had found another project. 

“I sense wolf blood in her veins, but if she has a wolf, it is not active.” Ranger had sat down and was closely watching the woman. 

She was young, probably in her early twenties. Stood maybe five and a half feet tall, but was very thin. Her eyes continuously scanned the crowd, watching for a threat. When those vivid blue eyes landed on me, I drew in a breath. They were so haunted and broken. 

She wouldn’t sense the mate bond without a wolf, and there was no way I was about to acknowledge that the Moon Goddess paired me with that.  It was bad enough I had to deal with Louisa. Staring at this broken female, I knew the Moon Goddess was paying me back for being such an arrogant asshole. 

Sitting down to lunch, Natalia was oddly fascinated with the newcomer. 

“Daddy, who is that?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart. Probably someone your Aunt Sonni wants to help.”

She nodded and continued eating. I kept an eye on the female. She took very little food and kept her eyes down, never looking anyone in the eye. When she finished her food, she sat silently. Sonni encouraged her to eat me, but I felt her terror. Someone had definitely harmed her for eating too much. I knew she was hungry; I could hear her stomach all the way down the table.

Now, that female was sitting across from my daughter, playing Uno while I tried to focus on the meeting. Smoke asked me a question, and I tried to recall what he said. 

“Edge, I need you to focus,” Griffin growled.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. 

Sonni stood and closed her office door. “Let’s just get this out in the open right now. Nova is doing wonderfully with Natalia. I think they found a kindred soul in each other, just like Blanche did with Nova ten years ago. Sitting in here pouting because a stranger is being kind to your daughter is a little childish.”

“We don’t know a damn thing about her, Sonni. What if she hurts Natalia? She’s been through enough already.” My biggest fear was that my pup would be injured again. 

“You cannot wrap her up in bubble wrap and keep her safe. She has to learn how to live, how to be independent, how to decide who she can trust and who she can’t. I’m not saying move Nova into your home, Edge. I’m saying let Natalia breathe and enjoy an hour or so with a new friend.” 

Sonni made it sound so reasonable, and I hated her for it. Hawk tapped on the door and asked Sonni if he could come in. When he closed the door behind him, he handed his phone to Sonni. 

“At lunch, I kept trying to figure out where I knew Nova from, so I looked in the royal archives. I remembered when Alpha Rye took over from his father, there had been a huge scandal about him and the former beta’s daughter. When I went to the Silver Moon Pack to negotiate an alliance, I met Nova. She was maybe thirteen at the time. I remembered her name because it was unusual, like mine.”

Sonni’s brow furrowed. “Zaia said she can’t sense a wolf. How is that possible?”

Zaia is Sonni’s wolf. 

“I don’t know, but Nova Harrington is the daughter of Rye Harrington and Nora Collins, who is now Nora Fletcher. Nova has an alpha father and a beta mother. But she’s obviously been treated like shit. My fingers touched when I put my hands around her waist to help her stand. She has been starved; you saw her reactions at lunch. She was terrified to eat more than that tiny bit she put on her plate.”

“She ate an omega’s portion,” Dallas said softly from her corner seat. She was in the room taking notes during the meeting. 

We all stared at Dallas. She came from a different pack, and her own father hadn’t been a good alpha. 

“What do you mean?” Griffin watched her closely.

“In my old pack, omegas were only allowed so much food. My father made the warriors check every omega’s plate before they were allowed to eat. Their food couldn’t cover more than one third of the plate. I watched Nova when she got her food. She measured what she put on her plate, then she rechecked to make sure it wasn’t too much. When Sonni offered her seconds, she was terrified Sonni was trying to get her into trouble. She also refused to eat dessert. Omegas probably aren’t allowed dessert. You saw her reaction when Cass gave her iced tea.”

My stomach clenched. She was born an alpha’s daughter and then turned into an omega, probably when her wolf didn’t appear. I felt like a piece of shit for judging her, but I still didn’t want to acknowledge that she was my second-chance mate. I didn’t need a weak, wolf-less mate. 

Natalia’s laughter rang out through the door. 

Griffin smiled. “That has to be the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard.”

I had to agree with him. Hearing my pup laugh so freely was something I didn’t hear enough of. Maybe I could ask Nova to help with Natalia until I found someone else. I didn’t want her moving into my home, but maybe she could come up and help a few days a week. 

Once the meeting was finally over, I stepped into the main office and stared at my daughter. She was beaming from ear to ear as she styled Nova’s hair. Styled was a very generous word. Poor Nova had her hair sticking out at odd angles with barrettes, scrunchies, and clips everywhere. When Natalia pulled her hair, she winced but didn’t lose her temper.  

Griffin had to turn away before the merriment dancing in his eyes got him in trouble. Sonni chuckled and hugged my daughter.  

“I think you have a few more years before you’re ready for beauty school, my sweet.”

Blanche snorted, but kept typing. “Nova has been so patient. If that pup had yanked my head as hard as she did Nova’s, I would have been screaming bloody murder.”

After getting Natalia to take a nap, I went to speak with Nova. Smoke mentioned that she would be staying with Blanche, but surely she would be looking for a job. 

Finding her sitting in the corner sitting area, staring out the window, I sat down opposite her. She turned those big blue eyes toward me, and Ranger sighed. Pushing my damn wolf back, I cleared my throat. 

“Thank you for keeping Natalia busy while I was in a meeting.”

She nodded and then looked back out the window. I felt thoroughly dismissed. 

Clearing my throat, I dove in. “So, my nanny found her mate and moved away. I’ve been looking for a new one, but so far, Nat hasn’t been fond of any of them. I was wondering if you would be willing to look after her three days a week. I can pay nine hundred dollars a week, and it would just be from six in the morning until six in the evening, Tuesday through Thursday. Those are the days I have to be in the office.”

Her eyes were locked onto me, but I couldn’t read what she was thinking, so I added, “It would just be until I found a permanent nanny.”