Page 75 of Stargazer

A throat cleared.

Then a gravelly voice filled the quiet. “Ready to go, Supernova?” Griff interrupted, leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed.

It seemed Carter had already headed off and the others were nowhere in sight.

Just Griffin.

Watching us with a hard, unreadable expression.

I swallowed.

“Oh, ah … yeah,” I said, breaking out of the moment.

River casually lifted himself up, his attention still wholly on me, not sparing a second to acknowledge the hunter watching us with unwavering intensity. Like the Alpha was caught up in the spell that had overcome us; the memory of what we used to be.

He deposited the instrument beside him on the couch and turned back to me. Then moved a familiar hand to the side of my cheek, cupping my face. His other hand found my waist, like it was instinct. Habit.

He hadn’t touched me like that in so long.

“Goodnight, Angel,” he finally said. His smooth, quiet timbre was a caress as he leaned in, planting his lips to my forehead ... where they lingered. His touch loitered on my hip. And I could feel Griffin’s gaze burning into us.

“Goodnight, Riv. Get some more rest.”

I knew I was flustered as I shied away, knowing Griff would be marking every single movement and touch between us.

As if the situation could get any more uncomfortable.

River just nodded at me with a sleepy smile as I got up.

I turned to the hunter who remained unmoved by the door, just long enough to throw an awkward “Let’s go,” in his direction, but not long enough to hold eye contact.

Out of all the people to have caught us like that, did it have to be him?

I didn’t wait for the warrior captain to follow as I made my way down the hall, out the front door and to his car, trying to contain my warring emotions and rapidly beating heart.

Griffin’s steps were unhurried, but I sent up a silent prayer of thanks to the starry night sky when the two of them didn’t exchange any unpleasant words.

In fact, they didn’t say a single word to each other as Griff passed and followed me outside.

Better than the alternative.

But the Knight’s body language was undeniably tense on the drive home, like all the pent-up energy and frustration he had burnt off during his training had once again returned … and multiplied.

And that was completely my fault.

CHAPTER 26

VENUS

Our message did not deter them. They came back.

For the two full moons we had in the month of August—a super moon and then a blue moon—they came back.

The rare occurrence meant two chances of turning people with a frustratingly quick turnaround that kept us on our toes.

There was no stopping the rogues on the super moon.

Amelia was in the early stages of being a rogue field agent, or whatever they wanted to call it, and was still finding her footing. She was being supervised, making it harder for her to get information out to us while she was training.

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