Page 110 of Stargazer

I wasn’t healed. Not by a long shot. But I let the feelings flow out of me into the tune that took all my emotions and left me feeling lighter and less burdened. It was one of the many things I loved about music—it’s superpower, if you will. One of nature’s many gifts to the world.

Maybe that full feeling I felt when we played would be what it felt like to have a fated mate?

I’d never wanted one before. Never cared for some predestined person to walk in and change everything I worked for and cared about.

Maybe she was right; that I needed to be open to it now.

But I’d deal with it when it came.

If it ever came.

I’d always thought somehow she was my fate. And finding out she was half wolf gave me false hope.

I waited for it. Wondered if it worked differently because she was only half wolf and had never actually shifted. But nothing came. But there was no tangible bond that snapped into place between us—beyond my undeniable love for her. Not like there was between them.

Or how it had been for the few wolves in my pack with their mates.

And that was okay.

It sucked. And I wished it was different. But it was okay.

With my loved ones around me, with the melody complete and out in the universe, I felt better. Even if the space beside me seemed to be missing one very important loved one.

I felt better.

So we moved on to a more hopeful tune, a song that our hearts seemed to know as we played it out and then moved onto another and another. Making music well into the night and going so far as to take the guitars outside to the bonfire that we lit after what felt like too long. A symbol of hope and harmony.

And I felt better.

CHAPTER 39

VENUS

It was a Friday. It was also the first day of the Harvest Moon Festival that would run all weekend long—a big deal in the region. Every year Woodstock held a beloved festival full of market stalls and mulled wine and live music and rides.

The celebration of the mid-Autumn event here was a cross between a massive farmers market and a carnival, and everyone in the locality found a way to celebrate.

Which was why our game plan had changed and the target that Amelia had told us about decided to sack off his plans of camping with his friends—at the campsite that we’d spent time and resources scouting—in lieu of booking a nearby hotel and attending the spectacle.

Brightside: Amelia would be here and I might actually get a chance to see her in the flesh.

Downside: So would a handful of her rogue and shifter colleagues.

While the event ran all weekend, tonight also happened to be the actual night of the full moon and therefore the day we’d be attending.

Needing the time to adjust our strategy and get as much rest as possible, we made it down an hour or so before sunset.

By the time we’d arrived, the market side of things had seemed to dull down and the carnival was in full flow: red tents and stalls of games and entertainment like psychics, tarot reading or stargazing; colourful rides, including a massive Ferris wheel; prizes and tables or wagons of food and drink. A carnival with an old-timey, fair-like spin to it, celebrating the local harvested crop.

Most of Saint Claire made it a point to come down for the event, meaning that we could focus on almost the whole town in just one place. However, the crowds of people and chaos of light and noise were going to make this hard to manage. Especially given the surrounding woods that encompassed the carnival on most sides.

Stupid location for a town event.

Perfect location for a pack of rogues hunting humans.

Location of nightmares for a unit hoping to protect those people.

But we would try our best.

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