Page 66 of Stargazer

“I seem to recall my aim being pretty damn perfect when I pinned you to a tree. Besides, I really don’t hear much of a difference between what you just described and your own ugly mutt,” I teased, a glint in my eyes that I knew I got whenever I bickered with any of the wolves.

But particularly the Beta.

“You remember I’m technically half mutt too, yeah?” My Supernova cut in, glaring at me.

I chuckled. “Yeah. But you’re a cute one.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Maybe in all the craziness Vee won’t notice if I accidentally end up biting a chunk out of your ass and I can just blame it on the rogues,” Zander threatened, a mischievous grin gracing his face.

“I knew you had a thing for my ass,” I deadpanned.

“You two are ridiculous,” Venus grumbled. “We have bigger things to worry about. Griff, don’t throw daggers at Zander. Zan, don’t bite Griffin’s ass. Capish?”

“No promises,” I replied, loving seeing her all frustrated.

Zander pulled out one of the smaller silver knives I had lent him. Seeing it, I called out, “Oi, try not to drool all over that, okay? I want it back when this is done.”

“No promises,” Zander grinned. Venus failed to hold back her laugh this time, no doubt because I had met my match with this wolf that constantly winded me up.

I maybe liked him. As begrudging as that was to admit.

Zander dropped the knife to the ground and then shifted into his auburn wolf before picking it up again in his maw.

A wolf holding a silver dagger was not something I thought I’d see in my life, let alone condone.

But here we were.

It was well past 10pm and we’d been trudging through the forest looking for any signs of movement for over an hour.

The moon would reach its apex at midnight and that meant humans were free game for turning once the clock struck twelve.

The rogues would be looking for people that would make easy targets. Given that it was a weekday and the amount of people up and about at this time of the night would be minimal, they didn’t have a plethora of options. So they’d be targeting campers, sneaking out teenagers and if really desperate, I wouldn’t put it past them to target the roads and potential travellers. It wouldn’t be hard to cause a crash or bait passengers to leave their car by running in front of the moving vehicles. Especially while they were working in teams. Which still fucking shocked me.

But my best guess was the campers. They made the easiest targets. Almost hassle free. Those stupid outdoorsy types were practically sitting ducks.

Our goal was simple: stop the rogues from getting anywhere near them.

In order to get to their prey, they’d need to get through us. So that was where we stationed a large number of our resources tonight.

Zander, Venus and I were on the edge of the border patrolling the outer area closest to the mountain ranges.

Skylar, with Billie and Bleu, were surrounding the forests of the well-known campsites. The Alpha and Bear would be roaming the entire middle section of the woods from the pack house, ready to rush to the aid of whoever needed it. And the others were scattered around, either just outside the actual town or on the other end of the Saint Claire pack’s territory.

With Alpha Luca and Alpha Cara’s forces and patrols filling in the gaps along the borders, we were even able to send Carter, Kit and Blaze into the closer sections of the unclaimed No Man’s Land, where another popular campsite existed.

Santi, along with the sentinels, Dalton and Koda, were not far from us, at the northern point of the territory.

We left Sage and the elder, Tanner, stationed at the pack house, ready to leave on a moment's notice if anyone needed medical assistance. The old wolf had momentarily returned from his pack visits just for this.

For some reason, the rogues were really focusing their efforts on River’s dominion, based on the past activity we’d analysed. However, the Alpha seemed to have the closest land to the preservation and wild forest areas that drew in hikers galore. And given that, his territory was sprawled quite wide.

It was solely due to their sanctimonious and holier-than-thou ways that they’d kept off our radar for so long.

All in all, we had a good spread for this patrol.

And the wolves on our side would be able to cover a large area of ground quite quickly with their speed if we needed to reposition them.

---