Page 72 of Supernova

He smiled softly down at me, like he was in awe of my understanding. His warm eyes caressed my face. “I am the alpha though, Vee. I need to stop them. I am responsible for everything that happens in my territory,” he said sombrely.

“I wish you had confided in me—that part did hurt. You shouldn’t have kept it all from me,” I whispered.

“I know, Vee. I was stupid. I thought I could fix it on my own. I thought I was protecting you.” His eyes were sad. “All I wanted to do was protect you. Protect everyone.”

“I know. But I don’t need protection anymore. Maybe I did then, but not anymore. I can help now.” My lips tilted in a smile. He looked at me with his eyebrow raised. “You better sit for this Riv, it’s a long one,” I added.

He grabbed my hand and led me inside and up to his room. Surprisingly, no one else was around right now so we had the place to ourselves. He’d probably mind linked them and told them to make themselves scarce before we entered. So we spoke freely. I was done with secrets.

I didn’t make a move on him, apart from that one kiss—which he initiated.

I was extra aware of the ache and guilt in my heart that I felt after leaving Griffin. But equally, things felt like they could almost fall back into place with River, now that I was back and he was innocent. I wanted to make sure I understood it before even thinking about possibly picking things back up with him. Based on the way Griff and I left things, I could only assume we were done. We were casual, there were no promises. Plus, I doubted he’d want me back after I hurt him like that. But right now, I hated the Griffin-sized hole in my chest. I had gotten attached. More than attached. That wouldn’t just go away.

I had a lot to work through.

Nevertheless, I tried to give my undivided attention to River.

We spent the rest of the evening and night cuddling in his bed, enjoying the familiar comfort of each other’s company as I told him everything that had happened to me over the last several months. Minus the severity of the relationship between myself and the gorgeous six-foot two hunter—River’s literal mortal enemy.

???

Once Riv had dozed off, I lay staring up at the ceiling above my head. The one I’d seen a billion nights in a row; a white roof, wooden fan and a shit load of glow in the dark stars. Familiar.

As my head rested on light linen sheets that I’d slept on night after night in a past life, the overpowering aromatic scent of oud, vanilla and roasted chestnut filling my nostrils and big arms wrapping around me, I felt weirdly at home once again. I’d told myself I’d never call this place home again. But here I was. Only home felt slightly different.

EPILOGUE

GRIFFIN GRAY

I lay staring up at the industrial style ceiling above my head from the day bed in the Chill. One I’d seen too fucking often. All the ceilings looked the same here—fans, air vents and a fuck tonne of concrete or tin. But tonight, something felt off. In fact, it had been off for a few days.

Since she’d left.

Training was over for the day and my mind was somewhere else the whole time.

I fiddled with my knives, calming myself as I mentally replayed my failures in sparring. I was lazy, off my game. I missed key tells of my opponents. That was not okay, I had a reputation to uphold and Thea was going to fucking kill me if the newer recruits schooled me.

“You can always play with me if you want to keep your hands busy, Griff.”

I swear every time Sienna opened her mouth these days it seemed extra whiney. I was not a fan of her right now. She needed to leave me the fuck alone.

“No,” I spat back.

She cringed a bit at the harshness of my tone but I honestly couldn’t care less if I’d hurt her feelings. I was not in the mood. I didn’t have time for her to throw herself at me today. I was so fucking sick of the shit she’d pulled.

“You know Griff, you were a lot more fun before that wannabe came along,” she called out as she spun herself away and walked towards the stairs.

Fuck. I hated that she was right. I had been different ever since Venus had arrived. And her leaving affected me more than I ever thought possible. It hurt. Really fucken bad.

I wouldn’t say that I had been a bad type of different since Venus walked into our lives—even if Sienna saw it differently. It had shown me how meaningless life felt before, which led to me cutting things off with her. With Venus, I felt a sense of joy I hadn’t previously known.

But she was gone now.

The thought of her choosing him was so painful that I walked out on her before she could walk out on me. I couldn’t handle someone else leaving me. Especially not her. So I left. Not even saying goodbye. Like a fucking idiot.

And now I felt different once again. Empty almost? Hollow? Like some part of me was missing. That girl had gotten to my head and not just my dick. She’d gotten to my heart. I knew I felt things for her I never had before but I didn’t really understand it. I just knew I always wanted to be around her.

Thinking back to the last few days, I’d not been hungry since she left. I felt numb. I wasn’t performing well and truth be told I just didn’t care about anything.

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