Page 33 of Stargazer

At some point, there had been quite a few wolves around their mother’s age in the Saint Claire pack, but most of them stepped down and chose a life of retirement, wanting to live the rest of their existence in peace. They were now scattered around the state but technically still tied to their new Alpha.

I’d learnt in my time at the compound that River’s pack was considerably large, albeit spread with many unactive members. Most packs ranged from seven to fifteen wolves in total. Of course, there were exceptions to that rule.

Amelia was a member of this pack now too. Unofficially of course, but a member at heart.

Speaking of Amelia …

“Amelia’s probing has provided our pack with some key details about the rogues and how they operate.” River’s authoritative voice broke me out of my thoughts and initiated the meeting. His tone was so very leader-like. Similar to Griffin’s, if I was being totally honest. “We can confirm that the rogues are turning humans to build an army and are in fact working together.”

“So the Knights were right,” I muttered, mostly to myself but also to the group at large.

“Do you know why?” Griff interrupted. Already thinking one step ahead and wasting no time shifting into strategy mode.

“Not yet. There are higher ups giving Amelia and the other newly turned rogues orders. But at her level, they’re not privy to that information. So we don’t have answers yet in terms of motive. At the moment, it’s about gaining numbers. That’s basically as much as they’ll tell her. But there’s something big coming, they keep mentioning it, either to scare them into submission or hype them up, depending on their willingness and perception of the cause,” River explained.

“I thought rogues can’t return to their human form. How is it possible that they’re working together and that shifters like Amelia can be among them?” I questioned, causing everyone to look in my direction. I tried not to baulk at the attention. I knew these wolves, even if it had been a while. Though I couldn’t lie and say I was comfortable being on this side of things and sitting in on these meetings with them.

“You’re right, Vee.” His warm eyes held mine. “Normal rogues can’t turn. They are stuck in their wolf forms due to prolonged time as their animal. But that isn’t the case for newly turned wolves, even if they are turned by rogues. They start as normal shifters and it takes time—weeks, if not months—of being solely in their wolf form before the process of shifting back becomes irreversible. Amelia spends a lot of time as her wolf to keep up appearances, but regularly changes back to keep that shift fresh and prevent the wolf from taking over full control. Given her new positioning in the pack, it’s working fine … for now.”

Sky cut in, “It has been something we’ve been brainstorming with her. A problem we need to eventually solve. We won’t be able to go on like this forever and will need to get as much information from her as possible before we pull her out for good. Before they can figure out what she’s playing at and her lack of change becomes concerning to them.” Her bushy brows were scrunched in distress.

My mouth popped open. Dangerous. The game Amelia was playing … it was so dangerous. And every day that passed made it more and more risky for her. They’d catch on soon—when her wolf looked too fresh and sane to be a rogue. It had already been months of her doing this. I wondered how much longer she had.

“The rogues in their pack communicate solely in wolf form and given their nature, they can’t communicate directly to the new shifters while they’re human. So the newbies need to be in their canine forms to get their orders, or they receive smaller commands from other shifters. It’s harder to communicate like that when their pack bonds are not as strong though. The fact that there are multiple types of wolves—rogues, shifters and newly transformed—in their ‘pack’ would make their links weaker. Rogues just aren’t meant to be in packs,” River added. “But they’re trying … for whatever reason. They meet up in smaller groups of around eight to ten members and in different locations each time. Sometimes in other pack territories, sometimes in No Man's Land. The newer shifters, once initiated in the pack, are allowed to live on their own. At least, that’s been the case so far with her group. They go through their induction phase and then they’re required to be available whenever they are needed. They convene mostly at night—almost every night—but don’t get the location until around twenty minutes beforehand, unless it’s further away, giving them just enough time to get there.”

He continued, “At the start, she was looked over more closely. All the surviving victims from the area were put in a pack house, and other, slightly more experienced but still recent shifters who had previously gone through the process chaperoned them, teaching and helping them with the transition, as well as showing them how to look after and train the future newcomers. Even so, they’ve been busy, and their numbers are still limited, so they haven’t been watching closely enough to notice Amelia sneaking in phone calls or occasional trips to the nearest town. They’re not that extreme, at least not as far as we know. Although, they have given them all their own phones to make communication between the shifters easier during the early stages. So far it hasn’t seemed to cross their minds that their pledges could have a second phone—or they haven’t acted on it. But we’re not taking risks with their company phones in case they are monitored. They seem to have developed a whole process to this turning and shifting. She’s been told that there are many other little packs like hers scattered around.”

Griff looked contemplative. “Makes sense given the spread we’ve seen in attacks.”

River nodded at the hunter’s statement. “Her little crew has met up with a few others before, no more than thirty at a time on special occasions. Though it seemed more like a bonding experience than anything else. There was some talk of the bigger things to come, but they were super vague according to her. More like our version of a pack-run to make them feel like they’re all in this together or some crap.”

“A way to boost morale,” Axel provided. “They’re really trying to sell the lifestyle.”

Zander added with an annoyed growl, “So very un-rogue like. Fuckers are meant to be lone wolves.”

“How did Amelia even get back to them? After you guys bought her here?” I asked River, wondering how on earth they’d played this and found a way to communicate with her.

“Well, we killed the rogues that turned her. She stayed with us for no more than a day before Dalton and Koda sniffed out the other wolves that were scoping the area. We knew they were looking for her and their fallen friends. So we went over our plan and planted Amelia in the woods where they hadn’t yet checked, making it look like she ran and hid. There's an abandoned park ranger shed we know of, so we set her up there and when they found her, she played the part well.”

Amelia had been into theatre at school, so it made sense she was able to act, at least enough to save her life and play the terrified and confused victim.

Riv went on, “She’d pretended that after she was attacked, she took off fuelled by adrenaline as soon as more wolves had come, using the distraction to her advantage and slipping away unnoticed by any of us. She claimed she didn’t know what had come to be of the rogues that turned her but that she found the shelter and had been too injured and afraid to leave, slipping in and out of consciousness due to the transition, until they found her. They explained what had happened to her and promised they’d look after her. Gave her this whole spiel about being part of a bigger picture and reaping the benefits of being supernatural, which she went along with. We didn’t give her a phone or anything, only a few of the pack mobile numbers and some cash, and she promised she’d get in contact as soon as she could. Technically, she couldn’t officially take the step to tie herself to my pack. They’d know. So I couldn’t mind-link her.” He looked pained. “After an agonising week of not knowing if she was even still alive, she finally reached out on a burner phone.”

“Wait, so there are many of these normal shifters in their ranks? Enough to send them out?” I voiced. “And they’re like you lot?”

I saw Blaze nod from the corner of my eye. “Essentially just the ones they’ve turned recently. They turn them and once they’re truly mind-controlled into believing in their kooky mission statement, they get them to do all the groundwork with the fresh transitions that come in, to hone in that sense of loyalty and get them comfortable with their wolf forms before they meet the rogues.”

“We assume they are expected to remain wolves after a certain point and become rogues like the others. Eventually all becoming wild and untamed,” Axel tagged on.

“The world's craziest pyramid scheme,” Griff grumbled beside me.

The Maddox brothers chuckled but it was Koda that said, “Pretty much, bro.”

“And we don’t know who’s in charge?” I asked, trying to make sense of everything.

River held my gaze as he filled me in. “From what Amelia has told us, they have a sort of Alpha who isn’t actually a rogue. As far as we know, he’s the only other shifter apart from the newly turned ones that still holds his humanity—if you can even call it that. But he doesn’t come across as new at all. He seems to be a wolf that has left his pack only to go straight into this, gathering a following of rogues and clearly promising them something in return for them making him their Alpha. Or they just decided they were sick of being on their own and he offered them leadership and structure that they were happy with. We don’t really know.”

“And do you know what he looks like? Who he is?” Griff questioned, sitting up with his elbows resting on the table and his chin lowered to his steepled hands. He was definitely a captain and his brain worked like one. It was kind of hot seeing him in action. Honestly between the two of them being all leader-like, I was feeling a little flustered. But now was not the time for thoughts like that.

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