Nova's POV
Nova cannot move.
Her body lies on the cot like something broken that someone has tried to reassemble and failed. Every muscle screams when she breathes. Her shoulders are covered in welts from the constant shifting. Her hands are raw and bleeding from the way her bones reshape during each transformation.
She has lost count of how many times she has shifted. Thirty? Forty? The numbers stopped mattering around shift twenty.
Footsteps approach her cell.
Nova tenses, bracing for Kael. Bracing for more pain. Bracing for that voice that commands her to stand and shift and push past limits her body does not have.
But it is not Kael.
Willow enters the cell carrying a tray of food and a leather pouch that smells like herbs and honey. She takes one look at Nova and her gentle green eyes fill with tears.
"Oh, Nova," Willow whispers.
She sets the tray down and kneels beside the cot. Her hands are soft when she touches Nova's shoulder. Soft and warm and completely different from Kael's grip. Willow pulls back Nova's shirt to examine the damage and makes a sound like she is in pain herself.
"He is destroying you," Willow says quietly.
Nova does not answer. What is there to say? That Kael does not care? That she is just a prisoner to him? That the way he looks at her means nothing?
Willow opens the leather pouch and removes a salve that smells like medicine and earth. She applies it gently to Nova's shoulders. The pain fades almost immediately, replaced by a cool relief that makes Nova want to cry.
"Why are you being nice to me?" Nova asks.
"Because someone needs to." Willow continues applying the salve. "Because kindness should not be this rare. Because you deserve it."
"Kael hates me." The words come out before Nova can stop them. "That is why he is doing this. He hates what I am and he is punishing me for it."
Willow sits back on her heels. She studies Nova for a moment before answering. "Kael does not hate you. He is terrified of you."
"That does not make sense."
"Yes it does." Willow's voice is gentle. "The Silvercrest bloodline nearly destroyed our world. Centuries ago, they were so powerful that they could command any wolf to obey them. They could reshape alliances with a single word. The other Alphas were afraid they would take over everything. So the Council decided to eliminate the threat." Willow touches Nova's hand through the bars. "They murdered your entire family because they thought it was necessary. Because they thought the alternative was worse."
Nova absorbs this slowly. Her family was not just killed. They were killed because they were powerful. Because they scared people.
"Kael's father was part of that," Willow continues. "He helped massacre the Silvercrest. And then he spent the rest of his life regretting it. He died begging Kael to fix what he had broken. And now Kael finds you. The last Silvercrest heir. The last remnant of a bloodline that nearly tore the world apart."
"So he is training me hard because he is afraid I will destroy everything?"
"He is training you hard because he is terrified," Willow says. "He is terrified that you will become the thing the Council feared. He is terrified that you will use your power to hurt people. And he is terrified that if you do, it will mean his father was right to murder your family in the first place."
Nova stares at the healer. She has spent days assuming Kael was cruel. Assuming he enjoyed her suffering. But if Willow is right, if all of this is coming from fear and guilt and desperation, then it changes everything.
Or maybe it changes nothing. Pain is pain regardless of the reason behind it.
"I am not going to destroy anything," Nova says. "I just want my life back. I want to go home. I want to stop hurting."
"I know." Willow wraps her arms around Nova and for a moment Nova lets herself lean into the comfort. Let herself be held by someone who believes in her. "But Kael needs to believe that too. He needs to know that you are good. That your bloodline does not make you evil."
"How do I show him that?"
"By surviving this. By becoming strong but staying kind. By proving that the Silvercrest power does not have to destroy. It can protect instead." Willow pulls back and looks at Nova with absolute certainty in her eyes. "You are good, Nova. Your heart is good. Kael will see it eventually. I promise you that."
Nova wants to believe her. She wants to believe that somehow Kael will stop looking at her like she is a problem that needs solving. That somehow he will see her as something other than a threat.
But she is afraid.
She is afraid because when Kael looks at her, there is something in his ice-blue eyes that makes her chest hurt. Something that goes deeper than training or strategy or pack politics.
"Willow?" Nova whispers.
"Yes?"
"Why does he look at me like that?"
Willow tilts her head slightly. "Like what?"
Nova's voice cracks when she answers. "Like I hurt him just by existing."
Willow's expression changes. Her eyes go soft and sad and knowing all at once. She stands up slowly without answering the question directly. Instead she touches Nova's hair, brushing it back from her face with a tenderness that makes Nova want to break.
"Rest," Willow says gently. "And know that not everyone in this fortress thinks you are a monster. Some of us see what you really are."
She leaves the salve and the food and walks out of the cell. Nova lies back on the cot, her shoulders already feeling better but her heart feeling worse.
Because Willow did not deny it. She did not say Kael does not look at her that way.
She just smiled sadly like it was something she already knew.
And somewhere deep inside, in the part of Nova that is learning to be a wolf, something recognizes the truth. Kael is not just training her. Kael is not just afraid of her power.
Kael is looking at her like she has broken something inside him that he cannot fix.
And she has no idea how to make that right.