Page 35 of Stargazer

I grimaced. “How old?”

“Seventeen.” Sage answered, walking up to us with her beautiful face uncharacteristically somber.

“I’m sorry,” I directed to her.

She gave me a weak smile. “Nothing you need to be sorry for, Vee. Thankfully he’s alright.”

“They went right under our noses, targeting essentially one of our own while our forces were elsewhere. Luckily Dalton and Koda caught their scent before it was too late, so we were able to re-route our patrol,” Riv added.

Sure enough, the brothers, seated on two separate lounge chairs, looked proud at the small feat. Although, I could see the hint of grief that lined their faces—at the people they weren’t able to save. All of the wolves scattered around the decking wore similar faces at the topic of our conversation.

“How many came to attack?” Griff inquired, putting all the pieces together in that intelligent brain of his. That brain seemed to work as non-stop as mine, but in a whole different way. His was full of strategy and thought and gathering intelligence, where mine was just useless overthinking. Maybe one day mine would also come in handy. A girl could only hope.

“Three this time: one a shifter, the other two rogues. Prior to that they seemed to work in pairs,” River responded. The two of them engaging with each other with surprising civility.

“If they’re sending two to each territory they have a lot of wolves to spare,” Griff observed.

“Yes,” the Alpha confirmed.

Griff contemplated, rubbing his jaw. “What about other packs? Have you been in contact?”

“We’ve spoken to the few surrounding us. But between trying to predict the next attacks and meeting with other packs, on top of trying to cover up the deaths …” Riv briefly glanced in Griff’s direction with what looked like unease at the admission. “It’s been tough.”

Axel cut in while on his way to the cooler, pulling out a few beers and proceeding to hand one to his Alpha and Beta. “We’ve managed to get an arrangement going with Alpha Luca’s pack, as well as Alpha Cara’s. Those are the two bordering territories. At the moment, it’s just covering each other’s tracks and blind spots by knowing where scouts and patrols will be around the full moon. It helped the last time, allowing Dal and Koda to ease up on those sides, which essentially led them to sniffing out the scents. Bear was able to hunt them down after.”

With an extra drink in his hand, he stopped in front of Griff, offering it to him with a welcoming close-mouthed smile.

The hunter didn’t exactly smile back, watching the drink a second too long with apprehension before eventually accepting with a nod and then replying.

“That’s good. Keep trying to contact as many packs as you can. The more that are aware, the better odds we’ll have at stopping this thing.”

Axel furrowed his brows as he took a seat. “There’s only so much we can do with our numbers spread on holding down the fort. We’d need to send most of our pack out to scope and liaise with the others to reach as many as possible.”

“We just don’t have the numbers to do that and keep our own territory safe,” Sky added from her spot at the table where she casually poured herself a drink from a pitcher of iced tea, her long legs crossed and her foot tapping mindlessly.

I leaned on the railing near Griffin now, my own glass in my hand, grateful for the refreshing cold to combat the warmer weather.

“Too bad you don’t have an army of Knights on your side,” Griffin replied sarcastically.

“Griff,” I warned, nudging him in the side.

“What?” He glared at the spot where my elbow met his ribs.

I ignored him, turning to the others gathered around.

“What Griffin means to say is that we’re here now and we’ll help with that side of things so you can send out whoever you need. In a few days, the planned task force should arrive from the city. We’ll station them around the town and at any border bases you might have to help with protection and patrols.”

Raven gave me an incredulous look from where she lounged on a deck chair, leaning forward now with purpose. “You’re telling me that a bunch of wolf hunters are going to help protect us?”

Everyone else kept silent. Zander in particular was unusually quiet, especially considering he was around food. But he clearly wasn’t comfortable with Griffin’s presence yet and after yesterday, I didn’t blame him. That didn’t mean it wasn’t weird seeing my loud, obnoxious friend so docile and broody.

He came up to River’s side and took over the cooking, allowing Riv to give his undivided attention to us.

“Yes,” I said, attempting to keep my voice firm so she knew how serious I was. “I don’t know how often this has happened in the past, if ever, but the only way to get through this and keep as many people as possible safe is to work together. I know it might be a bit foreign to everyone, but we’ll find our footing and make this work. You guys have done nothing wrong, and the Knights have no reason to turn on you when we have a larger enemy on our hands. Thea has already said as much. So yes, the ‘wolf hunters’ will help you and hunt the wolves that actually need hunting.”

I hoped I sounded confident enough. This was all so unnatural to me, but I’d do my best to be helpful. I couldn’t let my shifter friends deal with this on their own. And I definitely couldn’t let innocent people die.

The dark-haired wolf turned her wary pale blue eyes on Griffin, as if she questioned his ability to protect them.

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