Although Nova had walked away from Cannon for a moment in the fields, she had eventually returned after reminding herself that her father wanted her to learn from Cannon. When the working day had finally come to an end, she was beyond exhausted. Though she tried, she hadn’t been able to keep up with Cannon and the ridiculous pace in which he worked. They had taken samples from nearly forty plants in just a matter of six hours. When they were down to the last ten or so plants, Nova didn’t even bother helping; Cannon wouldn’t tell her what he was looking for or how to measure the irrigation anyway, so she gave up. As the hours went by, he steadily grew more and more standoffish towards her. Needless to say, by the end of the day, Nova couldn’t wait to get away from him.

Desperate for some alone time, she headed back to her cabin at the far end of the property, wanting nothing more than to lay down on her queen-sized bed and have a moment to herself. But when she opened her cabin door, she immediately saw that her solitude had already been disrupted.

Julius Windego stood at the window, casually gazing outside with his hands in his pocket. “Hello, little sister.” He was only a minute older than her, but this was a fact he never let her forget.

“Julius!” Nova said, genuinely surprised. She closed the door behind her and crossed the room to give him a hug. The sight of him dissipated her tiredness. “What are you doing here?”

He raised his eyebrows, making an expression that was identical to the one that so often crossed her own face. “Did you not beg me repeatedly to show up in lovely old Crescent Valley?”

“Yeah. And you kept turning me down. So I sort of took the hint and assumed you might not come.”

Julius tsked. “You should know me well enough by now to know when I will or won’t show up.”

“I know you well enough to know how unpredictable you are.”

He smiled. “Everyone knows that.”

“Touché. I guess that’s something we’ll always have in common.”

“Anyway,” Julius said. “I just thought I should check up on my baby sister. You know, to see if you were running the family empire yet.”

Nova crossed her arms. “No, not exactly. I guess Father told you what’s going on? That I’m stuck here?” She took a seat on the edge of the bed and Julius settled into a chair opposite of it.

“Yeah. He mentioned something about a phantom? Sorry sis, I guess that was kind of my fault.”

“You did send me here after all, so yes—it’s exactly your fault. How’s Dad? Is he feeling any better?”

Julius shrugged. “Yes and no. Whatever was happening to him has certainly slowed down to some degree. He’s up and about now, walking with a cane, but walking no less. But I don’t know, Nova—things still just don’t seem right.”

“Well, he’s going to need time to recover. But please—no more talk about being alpha. We can go back to just being ourselves, wild and free.” Nova couldn’t even find comfort in her own words though; she wished she could go back to being wild and free, but instead, she was trapped in the place her mother had died. She had never felt less free in her life.

Julius looked down at his hands, avoiding Nova’s gaze. He cleared his throat. “About that…”

Nova narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “About what? Julius, why are you here?” she said, her voice developing a clipped tone.

Julius cracked his knuckles. “We need to talk about Father’s place as alpha,” he said. “When he was incapacitated, some of the pack members came to me. They liked the way I ran things. I kept things moving smoothly. Some of them said I gave a fresh outlook to the pack. Father has been in charge for decades—they want something new now.”

Nova blinked, stunned. “Are you kidding me? Are you freakin’ kidding me? Neither of us is prepared to take over as alpha full-time, Julius! Dad is feeling better, so he’s still alpha, as he should be! There’s no discussion to be had here. I can’t even believe you’re even considering listening to the pack! Not to mention anyone who would say that is a traitor.”

“We should always listen to our pack members and their wishes, Nova. They’re our people. If we don’t listen to them, who will? It’s our responsibility to protect them!”

“And you think a change in alpha is going to do that? Julius, you know what they’ll do to Dad! They’ll treat him like an outcast! He’s alive, which means you would have to challenge him in order to take his place. And you know he won’t go down without a fight! What if you lose, Julius? Did you think about that? Would you make our own father kill you? Because that’s what would happen! He’d leave you in a bloody puddle on the ground and you know it. Besides, we’ve discussed this already—we’ve lost enough, don’t you think? I can’t believe you sometimes, Julius!”

“It’s just something I want you to consider,” Julius said after a stretch of silence. He stood and walked towards the door.

“Well, I won’t,” Nova said crossly. “So don’t get your hopes up. Now, is there anything else you’re here for other than to gloat about a handful of pack members thinking you’re qualified to be alpha? Because if not, you can just go back home.”

Julius halted at the door. “Actually, I think I'll stick around for another couple more days.”

“You're not going to convince me.”

“We’ll see about that, little sister.” With that, Julius exited and softly shut the door behind him.

Nova grabbed a pillow from the bed and tossed it to the fireplace, which fortunately wasn’t lit.

How could he do this? she thought. How could he even consider challenging our father?

Julius wasn’t alpha material. He may have been a minute older than her, but they had always agreed neither of them would become alpha. Their uncle was to be next in line so that they wouldn’t have to fight each other for the position. But ever since their father got sick, Julius had changed and the idea of power had gone straight to his head.

But this was about more than power, as far as Nova was concerned. This was treason.

Nova brought her hands to her head, realizing that she would have to decide whether to tell her father about her twin’s plans. If she did, she knew he would go after Julius. If she didn’t, there was a chance she would lose both family members forever—and that, she feared more than anything.