Page 40 of Stargazer

A full belly laugh until he truly was out of breath.

Griff’s own face lit up as he smiled a self-satisfied, shit-eating grin before he moved off the Beta and held out his hand to help him up.

Against all odds, Zander took it and Griff pulled him to his feet. Then they did something even weirder and shook hands.

My jaw was slack with shock, my mouth hanging open and my eyes wide.

I guess Zander did need to be taken down a notch in order to respect Griffin. And vice versa; Griff needed to see Zander as a worthy opponent. I did not understand men and their pride.

“Not bad, wolf. Not bad,” Griff admitted, nodding his head in approval.

“Not so bad yourself, hunter,” Zander replied.

“Please, I handed your ass to you,” Griffin smirked.

“You won’t be so lucky next time,” Zander casually threatened as he dusted off his hands. Griffin actually chuckled in response.

River clapped slowly from beside me before looking out to the rest of his gathered pack. “We clearly have a lot we can learn from the Knights. They’ll be valuable guests.” He turned to my fellow warrior. “Will you show us how to fight like that … Griffin?”

His name coming out of the Alpha’s mouth felt a bit forced and unnatural. It was clear that River was putting his own pride aside for the benefit of his pack and the town. He was trying. Making the first initial move for peace and diplomacy. And knowing Griff, he’d need them to make that first move. I just hoped it worked and would take some of the edge off.

Griff took a step towards the Alpha and once again gave him that wicked grin that meant trouble.

His next words, though they held his usual cocky arrogance, went against the devious look on his face.

“Since you asked so nicely, River.”

CHAPTER 14

VENUS

After the day I had—the last few days actually—I needed a bath. So I raided my stash of bath salts and oils, filled up a glass of wine and grabbed a book. I’d escape the stress of my own love life by jumping into someone else’s … of the fictional variety.

Training, after Zander and Griff went at each other, was less heated. The tension seeming to have dissipated with that release of male bravado. At least for the moment.

Who knew what tomorrow and the days after would bring.

River stayed by my side and remained the diplomat, keeping his distance from Griff and his words respectful—even if he did seem like he was occasionally biting his togue.

He continued to pay no heed to any other digs Griff threw his way and I was extremely grateful for it.

I’d basically ignored the hunter—who usually plagued my thoughts—for the rest of the day as he went through some combat techniques the pack could use.

I was pretty sure training them gave him this untapped joy that he usually didn’t find in training the cadets. Whether it was because of the possible danger, or the fact that he had wolves looking at him with respect, I wasn’t sure. But I knew his ego loved the attention. Talk about a god-complex.

I on the other hand looked at him with no such thing.

I knew this wouldn’t be easy, having him around the pack—let alone around River. And I understood that just because I forgave Riv, it didn’t mean everyone else would. I’d painted this false image of him to the Knights, on top of their natural aversion to the wolves. Considering how they felt about shifters, it still shocked me that Griff didn’t seem to care that wolf blood coursed through my veins too. Not that it was something I thought about often either; most of the time it slipped my mind. It’s not like I could shift anyway.

The two guys obviously felt like they had a rivalry going on between them. One that I clearly fuelled with this whole ‘needing to choose’ nonsense.

I knew Griffin felt tension between them even before coming here. Like he’d always been competing against the Alpha.

He showed me as much when he asked if I still loved and thought about the wolf that night at the club. The night we first slept together.

In fact, there were a few times he’d shown his hand.

So seeing River now, being in his presence, it must have been hard. Must have unlocked some swaggering alphahole part of him that made him even more cocky and condescending.

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