Page 81 of Stargazer

When everything was secure, we armed up—at least Griff and I did—and headed back out into the dimly lit forest.

“Cookie?” I awkwardly offered as we walked along the beaten path.

“Sure,” Riv smiled, and I threw one at him which he expertly caught in his mouth; a move we’d perfected over the years.

“Griff?” I waved the box at him.

Stalking up to me, still silent, I assumed he was going for the box. Instead, he grabbed my other hand, which held my own bitten cookie, and pulled it towards his mouth, taking a large bite.

He didn’t break eye contact the whole time.

“Delicious.” His husky words rang out a moment later, the first he’d said in a while.

I stepped away from him, putting space between us and then cleared my throat.

“Happy to head this way first?” I asked River, motioning to the direction I’d already started walking in.

Riv followed. “Yep, lead the way.”

After a few quiet moments he asked, “Were there any updates from the Knights in your meeting today?”

Griffin, who took up a guarding position at the back, responded. “We ran some checks on the rogue Alpha. Had his face run through our systems. He doesn’t match any of the Alpha’s we have in our records of around that age.” I turned, walking backwards to face them as I relied on my hunter senses to keep me upright and stable on the uneven ground. “Past or present,” he added with a scowl.

It was a small piece of information that we’d learned, but it felt massive. It was finally something.

I was a girl who loved mysteries. It’s what made me read and devour TV shows the way I did. I loved trying to piece together the plot and figure out the ending before anyone else. Made sense that I was so drawn to Griff right from the start; he was one giant, beautifully packaged mystery that I so badly wanted to solve.

Now I hoped to use those wannabe detective skills to deduce why on earth the rogues were doing what they were doing. And this brought us one tiny step closer.

Riv turned to face Griffin, his eyes slightly glowing amber as he accessed his wolf’s eyesight to see in the poorly lit forest. “So likely a wolf without any status then, looking to find a way up,” he said. It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

“Yep,” Griff nodded, answering anyway. “Doubtful he was an Omega. Given what he’s accomplished so far. He’d have to be someone still high enough. But unlikely a Beta or Delta either. We have pretty extensive data on most of the packs. Whoever he was, he clearly saw an opportunity with the rogues and didn’t hesitate to pounce on it.” Griffin’s eyes narrowed again. “Of course, our information isn’t a hundred percent accurate, since we weren’t aware of your pack living under the radar.” His words held a bite to them—the hit to their pride from not knowing about the Saint Claire pack still fresh.

The cogs in my brain were working and I tried to defuse the tension. “What about an Eta warrior? They would have all the strategic thinking required to pull off something like this.”

“Yeah.” River looked like he was mulling it over, no longer focused on the hunter. “That could definitely be it.”

“The fact that he’s actually gotten the rogues to follow him means he must be a damn good salesman. Or he’s offered them something. But who the fuck knows what.” Griff’s jaw tightened and he looked off into the distance as if he could see the beasts wherever they were hiding.

“So that’s your next focus then?” Riv asked, hands digging into his hair.

“Pretty much,” the hunter offered with little emotion.

With that, we all went silent again for a while, searching and watching the perimeter. Griff guarded my back, keeping his distance but always watching, while River stayed mostly at my side, occasionally going ahead to pave a safe path.

“Do you guys want to play a game or something? Eye spy?” I tentatively asked. I knew it was stupid, but I was bored and the awkward silences were killing my soul.

River looked between Griffin and I, seeming to weigh up an answer but before he had a chance, Griff’s gravelly tenor cut through the swollen silence. “I spy with my sexy eye, something beginning with T.”

Riv scanned our surroundings. “Tree?”

“No.” Griffin gave him a hard look.

“T-shirt?” I tried.

“No.”

“Trunk?” I tried again.

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