The Apocalyptic Queen's Werewolf Journey (Thora and Darius) novel Chapter 485

"Thora, why'd you help them? Those two should've been dead a long time ago!"

Shirley's face was scrunched in protest, her voice carrying more than a hint of a pout. "We've had beef with them since forever. Back during the island trial, if you hadn't gone easy on them, they'd already be six feet under."

In Shirley's eyes, Frost and Sierra were like bad pennies—they turned up everywhere and only ever caused trouble.

She could live with Thora not killing them this time, but taking Sierra on as a personal servant? That made her blood boil just thinking about it.

After a long pause, Thora finally spoke, her voice light and unbothered. "I'm just giving her a chance."

"A chance for what?" Shirley pressed immediately, her eyes full of confusion.

Thora kept her gaze forward, her tone as even as still water. "A chance to start over." It was a simple enough gesture, and she'd get an extra pair of fists out of the deal.

Shirley still didn't get it.

She'd gone head-to-head with Sierra a few times herself, and every impression the woman had left was that of a cold-blooded killer.

Fair enough, Sierra wasn't exactly hateable when you thought about it objectively. But there was no way Shirley was going to tolerate anyone taking a higher spot than her in Thora's world.

"Oh, by the way, what happened to the car?" Thora's cool voice drifted through the silent, snow-covered landscape.

"Ditched it," Shirley answered casually, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

She'd had no idea how to brake, so she'd just rammed the car into a wall to stop it. She'd bailed out right before impact.

"So you know how to drive now?"

"No." Shirley's voice caught in her throat, shrinking to barely a mumble.

"Guess we'll have to do it again next time." A rare thread of teasing crept into Thora's tone.

"Hey! That's not fair, Thora!" Shirley immediately bristled, puffing up in indignation.

Thora laughed softly and ruffled her hair. Shirley was instantly pacified, nuzzling her head into Thora's palm like a puppy.

...

When they finally tracked Luke down, he was in a hotel—and not just any hotel. It was a seven-star luxury chain with locations across the globe.

The moment Thora saw the sign, the corner of her mouth twitched. These people really had no concept of budgeting, did they? Had anyone ever explained the meaning of "fiscal responsibility" to them?

Every time they returned to the military academy after a mission, Valen and the other instructors would call her out by name—her squad's mission expenses consistently ran several times higher than every other team's.

It wasn't just the military academy brass who had a problem with it. Other squads grumbled too, constantly running to Valen behind her back to file complaints.

Everyone grabbed skewers and started rotating them over the flames, faces glowing with excitement, eyes locked on the meat like hawks.

Thora glanced at the mountain of ingredients on the table and the skewers lined up on the grill, then tapped the table once. Before anyone could make a grab for the food, she got a word in first. "After you eat, I want a full status report from each of you."

"Got it!" Every voice came out in perfect unison, and even the hands flipping skewers paused for a beat.

"Dig in."

"Roger!"

The moment they confirmed Thora was done talking, everyone lunged at the grill like a pack of starving wolves, snatching skewers onto their plates as fast as humanly possible, terrified that hesitating for even a second meant going hungry.

Luke had just picked up his tongs, ready to claim his beloved beef skewers, when he turned to find the grill already picked nearly clean.

Watching everyone else tearing through their food with reckless abandon, he was instantly furious. These animals! Quick enough to throw him under the bus, and even quicker when it came to stealing his food—not even a dog could keep up with them!

Then he looked at Thora's plate—already stacked high with grilled meat. He had no idea when she'd even made her move.

A wave of nostalgia washed over him. If Tristan, Harvey, Ashton, and the rest were all here, it would probably be even crazier—more people fighting over food, more chaos, more like the old days when the whole squad was together.

"I knew something smelled amazing! You guys started without me!" Shirley had just finished her shower and walked in to find the room saturated with the smell of grilled meat. One look at the demolished grill and the scattered remains of skewers, and her cute little face crumpled into a ball of outrage.