Page 37 of Stargazer

We could train and train as much as we wanted in a fancy academy full of equipment, weapons and extravagant agility courses, but fighting a wolf was a whole different thing. Something that the Saint Claire task force would benefit immensely from, seeing as we’d get to practise with them in the flesh.

For now, it would just be Griffin and me training with the wolves. I’d asked Celeste if she’d wanted to come along to observe and learn but she not-so-politely refused to step foot on the pack property.

Before Griffin’s surprise arrival, we had all of two Stone family training sessions in our back garden. Mum pulled out all the old equipment from the shed that we used when we were younger—from before I had given up on training. She’d created a few small stations that she made us work through.

We already had a boxing bag hanging under the porch that I still used occasionally, but she added gloves, skipping ropes, targets and a few practice swords; wooden ones that Celeste and I would play with when Xari would look after us as kids. I always thought they were so we could pretend to be warrior princesses, but seeing all these items again was unlocking some memories in my brain that I had clearly chosen to forget, or had seen in a completely different light as a child. It all made sense now.

Mum, like Thea, had access to the hunter gifts.

Celeste’s mouth quite literally dropped to the floor when she witnessed mum do these crazy advanced-rotation kicks against the punching bag and then move into some high-powered ones that let her Knight strength shine through. She moved with such precision and skill that neither my sister nor I could keep our eyes off her. Seeing her in everyday life, I would never have expected someone of her age to move like that, using a beautiful and lethal combination of Karate and Taekwondo, heightened with her extra speed and strength.

“Teach me,” Celeste had said in awe. And while it might take her longer to learn the magical side to the techniques, she could definitely learn the mortal versions.

An added bonus: the together time seemed like the best way to mend the relationship between my mum and younger sister.

Mum broke down the moves as much as possible and we practised what we could.

Once again, it did not come naturally to us. Celeste or myself. I at least had the advantage of all the training I’d done with the Knights. But we stuck to it for hours and it was a bonding session that I never expected, nor never thought we’d need.

“Do we have any signature powers?” I’d asked mum, recounting the gift of the Sight that Griffin’s family had. Celeste looked at me like I was batshit crazy.

“Not that I know of, Cookie. I always seemed to have a natural forte for not getting hurt or avoiding attacks, until the one on my leg that caught me off-guard,” she'd admitted. “But who knows what power your generation could have inherited as one of the original family bloodlines.”

Luckily the properties around us were decently sized, enough that our neighbours—while directly next door—weren’t too close. I wondered what odd things they’d pick up from our conversations or if they’d heard and wondered about the strange booming sounds coming from our backyard. If they did, they hadn’t bothered to investigate or complain.

Following our conversations at the strategy meeting yesterday, Griff and I headed over to the pack house to train at the crack of dawn, the warm summer morning helping me get out of bed and be somewhat okay with the early start. These days, my body did seem to naturally wake up earlier than ever, given the routine it had gotten used to at the compound. My internal body clock was so different now, although I still enjoyed a sleep in whenever I got the chance.

As soon as we’d returned from the meeting, I’d raided mum’s shed with Griffin’s help, gathering all the equipment we thought would be helpful to bring to the pack house. The wolves obviously didn’t need much to train with, usually utilising their wolf forms, but that didn’t mean the human side to them didn’t need to stay fit too. The fitter the human, the fitter the wolf. The extra endurance seemed to translate to both forms and aided their naturally heightened abilities.

I’d checked out their collection before heading home yesterday too and Sky showed me what they already had at the house. Mostly just some boxing equipment and a punching bag. No weapons. Their wolves were their weapons.

Once I’d raided both homes and made a list of everything we had, I'd dragged Griff to the nearest store and we picked up a few other bits and pieces, letting Kit know to bring anything else that we would not be able to buy from anywhere in Saint Claire when she arrived in a few days. Particularly the daggers, swords and speciality weapons that would raise more than a few questions from the townsfolk if we enquired about purchasing some.

Arriving at the pack house clearing now, I was surprised to find it already full. The whole wolf strategy team had clearly decided to get in on the action before they were scattered off on their respective missions and separated for God knows how long.

The large number of them didn’t go unnoticed by Griff.

“Oh yay, all the reindeer are here. Let me just go get my sleigh. Be right back,” he called out sarcastically to no one in particular as we walked up. I pulled his arm, keeping him moving towards them.

Seeing us arrive, River strolled towards us, embracing me in a hug.

“If it isn’t Rudolf himself,” Griff quipped, watching us closely and marking every placement of River’s hands on my body.

Riv looked to me as if to translate. “Huh?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” I answered, shaking my head.

Zander muttered under his breath—likely not something very friendly. Meanwhile Axel looked like he was trying very hard to hold back his amusement and the Maddox brothers actually laughed at Griffin’s implication.

Weird things were happening.

Skylar stopped the combo she was doing, resting her hands on her hips while she caught her breath. She grinned, clearly amused, and called out, “Santa has nine reindeer. There’s twelve of us.”

“Snow dogs then?” Griffin inquired with a quirked brow.

“Usually eight,” she said pointedly.

“You know, you’re still proving my point by knowing the exact numbers of all the sleigh pulling animals,” he drawled.

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