The next few days fell into a familiar routine that settled me after what had happened in Lunar's market-square. I woke to coffee already brewed, and the Alpha Supreme sitting at the kitchen table and pouring over the daily news. The morning was a quiet, nice comfort that sometimes ended in a kiss, a hug. Something that distracted me and scattered me before the tutor rang the door-bell and Easton's rich laughter chased me into the hall.

The afternoon was either work in the town-hall, or a visit to the compound. I found comfort in Adken's existence. To know that there was someone who understand the inner workings of the Ravi and how they twisted people, broke and reformed them. It only made me feel guilty then, to be glad that someone experienced what I had.

"Supernova," Kale burst through the front door, his dark hair wind-swept and his eyes feverishly bright. Nothing had been truly said to my family on what had transpired, but Kale was a clever boy. I could see the concern on his face as he looked over me.

Without hesitation, he swept me into a tight hug. I returned it gingerly, warmth gnawing at my heart. "Hello Kale."

He leaned back. His fingers bit into my shoulders as he examined me, his smile wide but his eyes concerned. "You were gone for a little bit?"

"I'm back now."

I didn't like the way worry creased his forehead. The uncertainty in the eyes that were once like mine. "Do I need to speak to someone?"

I snorted at the thought. Kale against the Ravi – all his brotherly worry would be useless in the face of their tyranny. Kale's expression tightened for a second, hurt.

I bit down a sigh. "I didn't mean to do that. I just – the people I have a ...problem with, aren't going to be dissuaded by a 'talking-to' by my younger brother. Besides, am I not supposed to be the terrifying older sister who scares away those who bother you?"

"You're a bit late in the game for classroom bullies," Nyssa stepped through the doorway behind him. She looked beautiful, with her dark hair pinned back by jade clips. A caped red coat hung from her slender shoulders. Her darkly lined eyes swept through the foyer and she pursed her lips before looking at me. "Hi Nova."

Kale sidestepped as I smiled at her. "Hi Nyssa. Your clothes are gorgeous."

"Hmm," She brushed her hands over that blood-red coat, her expression pensive. "It cost an arm and a leg, but it was worth it. Looking well is a must. Even in our own houses."

Kale rolled his eyes, but I didn't miss Nyssa's sweep over my outfit. Orange and purple flared pants that belonged to an era long dead; a warm pale green-knitted jumper that was stretched thin but had been loved well by an older owner. My jaw set. "I suppose that's a rule in your home. But in my house, anything goes."

"Where is the Alpha?"

"Easton ran into town." I turned on my heel, towards the kitchen. "Do ye want some tea?"

"When is he coming back?" Nyssa followed me in.

"You know, I didn't realize you were Easton's keeper, Nova?" Lux, who had been sitting in the kitchen, looked up from mishap that resembled pancakes.

Nyssa's eyes flashed. "You live here. Surely you'd know how long he is supposed to be gone."

"What's the problem, Nys?" Kale opened the fridge, peering inside. "Oh. Fresh strawberries! Can I have some."

"Eat away."

Lux and Nyssa just stared at each other, eyes unshifting. Unsettled by the darkness on Lux's face, I set about making tea and found myself spilling into an un-necessary conversation, talking about my tutoring and my new attempts to pick up old skills on the piano.

"I remember you playing the piano," Kale took the mug I handed him, his expression wistful. "I remembered it being the best music that I had ever heard."

"Well, our memories of childhood can never live up to reality." Nyssa sipped her tea. "I took up piano too. The Alpha even came to a few of my recitals."

My chest tightened at the thought of Easton in the crowd, too large for the tiny seats. He had known my love for music – the sunlit music room was a testament to that, but he had even attended my twin's events. If I had been there, I would have been seated in the crowd and cheered too loud to be proper every-time. Every time I thought I knew the Alpha, he surprised me.

"You do look like Nova," Lux mused, a bite in her voice. "I wonder if he imagined it was you up on stage, Nova? I can't imagine him ever missing your performances."

"He's a busy man." Nyssa's lip curled. "He couldn't attend every paltry performance."

"He has always made time for Nova," The feigned innocence in Lux's voice didn't fool me. Whatever reply Nyssa wanted to whip out was halted by the sound of the front door. I knew it was him the second he stepped inside and couldn't help the bloom of a fragile smile.

Two other voices, clambering over each other, made Lux laugh. "Blav and Merri arguing again. Why am I not surprised?"

The Alpha was the first to step into the kitchen. His gaze found me instantly and his smile seemed to melt the scars that brutalized his face. The knot that was ever-present inside of my chest loosened and that whiskey-gold eyes warmed at my returning smile.

A beat passed.

He blinked and then addressed the three others in the kitchen. He held a small paper bag in his hand and as Merri and Blav poured into the kitchen behind him, he headed towards me. With his voice low, he said, "I saw these in town and thought of you."

Gingerly, I took the paper bag and peered inside.

They were rings. Gaudy, sparkly, colourful butterfly rings with the rings a multitude of coral pinks and soft blues. Fake jewels were inlayed into the eyes. Giddy with delight, I pulled them out of the bag and slipped them onto my fingers. They didn't go with my outfit, or with each other. I didn't care.

"Thank you." I rose onto my tip-toes and kissed his scarred cheeks. "They're sparkly!"

He smiled down at my fondly, his cheeks reddening. "Magpie."

In a pointed voice, Lux said. "You are so good to think of Nova when you're out and about."

Easton frowned, confused. "I got you one of those Cinnamon buns you like. I thought of you too."

Her tension melted and she shook her head. "I – I didn't mean that you had to get me something E. But, I do love those buns. If you don't lock that man down, Nova, I will."

Merri had made her introductions. Poor Kale couldn't look at her in the face, his cheeks red and his voice shaky. Blav just seemed amused by it, or proud of his moon-bound's eerie beauty. Nyssa was sulking, which was made obvious by the knot that pinched between her brows. It was the first time since I had seen her since the market. Blav's wariness was obvious and he watched me critically.

"Merri."

She smiled so wide, her green eyes became crescent moons. "It's good to see you again, Nova."

Her hands fell softly on my shoulders and she drew me in so she could kiss my cheeks. Faintly, I could scent sea-salt on her skin. It was easier to smile back at her. "You too, Merri."

Blav sighed. "I smell tea? Any chance of a cup, Nova?"

"You know where the kettle is."

"You made them tea." Blav pouted in a mocking manner, pointing to the twins.

"They're guests here."

Nyssa set down her mug, reaching up to fix the clips that held back that dark hair from her face. "We've been here enough times to know where the kettle is."

"Welcomed guests are still guests." Lux said sweetly.

The kitchen fell silent. The bite in Lux's voice was obvious to everyone now and I didn't anyone could believe such venom could come from her. Merri's lips twitched, before she masked it. I saw it though and the Siren arched a brow at me. As if challenging me to realise something.

Merri took over the pancakes and Kale began regaling us with his latest adventure. An escaped cow that evaded capture for three hours. He was an animatedly story teller, who used his hands to chop through the air and give his story dramatization. A call rang from the office and Easton stepped outside.

"It's probably from the compound." Lux said to me. "He might need your help."

"Brew me another pot, please." I set down my mangled pancake. It was lumpy, there were shells in it, but Lux had tried so hard. Besides, I wasn't a fussy eater and it was amusing me to watch Kale and Nyssa try and choke it down without offending her.

"That's your third this morning!" Lux shouted after me. "You're going to be cut off."

"I dare you to try."

The door of the office was open. I strolled down the hall, catching sight of Easton standing over his table with a pinched expression.

"What's wrong?" I mouthed.

His mouth tensed and he said a curt goodbye to whoever was on the other end of the phone. He set it down and pushed a hand through his hair, his chest swelling with a sigh. "There have been sights of Ravagers moving through the countryside. Doresly won't speak, but Carada believes threatening a reappear of the Omega might encourage him."

"I am quite fearsome." I didn't like the worry clouding his face either.

"Terrifying."

I stepped up to him, a hand sliding up his chest. "Today is a good day. The twins are here. Our friends are here. The sun has come out to say hello."

He brushed my hair behind my ear and murmured, "Our friends."

When I frowned, he smoothed a thumb between my brows. He didn't look at me as he said, "I liked the way you said that. Our friends."

"I don't get it."

"Don't mind me." He settled back against the table, his arms loosely around me. "I've had a long morning."

"Shopping for butterfly rings."

"A short diversion." He defended.

"Oh, you just don't want to admit that you think of me."

"That isn't something I would deny." Easton said. "Though it would be embarrassing to admit how often I think of you."

The warmth that rushed through my chest, the easy weight of his hold, made me blush. "You're too sweet. I'll have to put a limit on the syrup you load into your coffee."

"You couldn't be that cruel."

"Is that a challenge?"

His smile sharpened, just a second, before he was kissing me. Once, twice- with an easy devotion that melted my spine so that I bowed into him. He fisted a load of my jumper into his hand, pressing it against my back. That hand doesn't linger and instead dropped to my thigh to draw me closer. If I was one to cry, I would have, as I felt the burning, white hot fire that twisted between us, burning and melding like star-light.

Who knew in all those years of cold halls and empty hands, I could feel such warmth and fill my hands with the feel of him?

His breathing hollowed as I drew my lips along his neck. His pulse was jumping, his hold on me bruising. My teeth scored the skin softly and when his breathing seemed to still, I grinned. The impulse was building, a foreign part of the mess that they had pumped into me. Not a desire to tear out his throat -no I liked it quite where it was.

"Do you have a tazor?"

"A – tazor?"

"Sounds like a no. I'll have to remember that."

He let out a low laugh. "Do I need protection against you?"

"Hm, I haven't decided."

He watched, breathless as I began to pop open the buttons of his shirt. I remembered the bloom of colour on his chest and wanted nothing more than to see it again. It was still there, as if it would go anywhere, nestled among the raised scars that decorated his torso.

"Your tattoo is..."

"A supernova."

Another confirmation. With a trembling hand, I traced the tattoo that rested over his beating heart. "Everything you do, everything I see makes me think that you love me."

"I do." He said it easily.

"You loved me when you met me once. I keep waiting for you to trip up and reveal your true nature, but... now I – I think now that you're not trying to trick me. This isn't some big trick." Even as I said it, that paranoia that had been a watchful companion, roused. "Now that I say it, that probably means you are tricking me. Speaking these things aloud means they come true."

"You're afraid." He held my hands, soft against his heart.

"Terrified." The weight of it all. The inevitability I could feel gathering in my bones. Like I could sense my softening feelings, could sense that I was falling and there was nothing I could do to stop myself. "I'm terrified of you."

"I don't want you to be scared of me, Nova. That's the last thing I want."

"You're not scary. You're not what I expected you to be. If you were the man I imagined you were all these years, hating you would be easy. But you're not. You're kind in a strange, effortless way that makes me think it's as easy as breathing for you. You pet the cat in the morning and curse when you prick your finger on the roses' thorns. You read the paper and squint and let the children in the town hang off you when you train their football team. You're so good, so easy to love that I don't know if I'll be able to stop myself from... I – don't know."

"You think you could fall in love with me?" He did a great job of masking the tremulous hope, but I was in tune.

Lordie, give me a doctor to confront. It was much easier than this. "I don't want to talk about it anymore."

"Another time then?" His lips teased mine before he eased back. I helped him to button his shirt, skin warm. How easy it was be here like this with him. If I hadn't been carved by my experiences, letting myself fall in love with Easton would have been as easy as breathing. Even now, I found myself fighting against it. Even with my nature, my distrust and fear, I was fighting against it.

I didn't flee into the hallway, with my heels chased by the sound of his warm laughter. I closed his office door with a hastily spat insult. At the end of the hallway, hidden by the shadows of the corner, was Nyssa. She smelled of the bathroom soap and as I approached, her eyes flickered with something malicious and dark.

I slowed, "Why are you waiting at the end of the hallway?"

Nyssa faced me. There was no warmth on her face. Her lips were flat, her eyes cold. "Do you know why Mam didn't come today?"

"She has a school-board meeting." She had always been determined to involve herself in the community, even when I was a girl. She had her finger on the pulse and her connections had made our lives easier. Connections meant the single mother of three children could afford to send the eldest to piano lessons, could afford dance lessons for Nyssa even when she was waddling. After all this time, that had not changed about her.

Nyssa smiled, slow and ugly. "And you believed her? Who chooses a school-meeting over visiting the child that has been missing for eight years?"

"I haven't come back to usurp her life."

"That's the problem, isn't it?" Nyssa's voice was a soft whisper. "Nova never really came back at all. You can imagine her excitement when she gets the news. She scrambles to come back from her holiday, scrambles to get to Lunar to see you again. But it's not Nova she finds. Instead, she finds a freak of a girl in her place. A shell of Nova, wearing her face. Badly at that. She doesn't want to come over because she doesn't want to pretend. She doesn't come over because the daughter she lost all those years ago is gone."

Stricken by the pure venom in Nyssa's words, I yielded a step. Her words had leaked under my carefully constructed shell and torn me open, exposing my soft underside to the world. Her words were true. The old Nova was gone, but that didn't mean that I was any less deserving of my mother's love.

Nyssa advanced, her words soft. "And you came back and ruined everything. You've completely won over Kale, made a room for yourself in this house and distracted the Alpha."

Ruining things was not untoward for me. The last edge on her words made me pause. "Distracted the Alpha? Why would that matter to you?"

Her lips pursed, alarm flickering across her face. "You ruined everything. You are not wanted here. No one wants to dance around the obvious issues that you have. No one has time to waste in their lives, pandering to the needs of a crazy woman."

"That is enough." Rage coursed through the hallway, heavy and oppressive. Nyssa's eyes widened, her gaze falling over my shoulder. The Alpha Supreme stood in the door, his face dark and ominous. He made no sound as he strode down the hall, but his approach was felt like the great swell of a terrible storm.

He stopped a breath behind me. Nyssa did not breath, but something dark flickered in her eyes as his hand fell onto my shoulder. "You have always been welcome in my home, Nyssa. Your family has always been welcome in my home. But, I won't tolerate this kind of behaviour in a place that is supposed to be a sanctuary for Nova."

Her lip curled. "Nova. Nova. Everything is always about Nova."

Footsteps clambered into the hall. Uncomfortable with the growing tension, but sick of this poison spilling from her mouth, I spoke. "You have the right to feel upended by my return. I have issues, I have problems. It's obvious to anyone who looks, but I am free now and I am trying. Trying to fit into a world that I barely recognise."

If only she had seen me when I had nowhere to stay. The dirt matting my hair. The animals I nabbed when walking the roads and tore apart in my hands.

Nyssa noticed the gathering crowd. Like a cornered animal, she continued to lash out. "You're not trying hard enough."

"As if you could do any fucking better." I snapped. "You wouldn't last a half-second in the Mad-Maze, never mind rule it. Never mind break out of it with your sanity still clinging to life. Instead, you're coming into my home and insulting me for no reason. Are you jealous of the attention that I'm getting? I would trade that for a life-time in the shadows if that meant even a minute was shaven off my time in that prison."

Colour darkened her cheeks, but I could never resist an open wound, could never resist the smell of blood. "A lot of my suffering in that damn maze could have been prevented if I had given up your existence, if I let them know that I had a weakness. I endured it all for you and Kale and Mam so don't come here and tell me to try harder."

Nyssa looked to Easton, but he was silent. Then, to Kale who just shook his head, stricken and disappointed. With tears brimming, she fled.

"What a ... unfortunate outcome." Lux rolled her eyes.

Easton's thumb circled my shoulders. Kale looked at me, his voice small. "She was out of place, Nova. I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize for her."

He shrugged, his shame obvious. "She's the other side of my coin. I should make sure she gets home safe."

"Please." I croaked.

I couldn't bare the look in Blav and Merri's eyes. Not straight pity, but something akin to it. I marched back to the kitchen, determined to wipe the disaster from my good day.