CHAPTER 21

VENUS

Today was the day. Or rather, tonight was the night.

Every night since I'd been back, I'd looked to the moon as a countdown, watching the shadows cross the bright white rock like my life depended on it.

I had spent more than half of last night sitting on the roof with Griffin, watching the moon arc across the star-littered sky, its bright glow—only a day away from being full—a foreboding symbol that had been haunting my dreams.

The hunter that always seemed to be by my side had tried his hardest to distract me.

It mostly worked.

We spoke for hours about everything and nothing. And when talking didn't feel right, we sat in silence, watching the stars glisten and glitter before our eyes until my own fluttered closed with exhaustion.

Griff had attempted to carry me off the roof and to my bed when I'd fallen asleep, but I stirred in his arms, awaking enough to get myself down with his arm slung supportively around my waist until we safely entered through the window of his room. Then he ignored my incoherent babbling and half-hearted objections and picked me up anyway.

I was asleep again in his strong, capable arms before he even crossed the threshold of my room and tucked me into bed.

When I awoke this morning with bleary eyes, a cup of coffee graced my bedside table, and I could have cried at the beautiful sight.

We had our plans in place. Everything had been discussed, torn apart and then discussed some more.

There was nothing to worry about. In an ideal world.

But I had faced a rogue once before and I had choked. And the weight of that still burdened me. I was lucky to leave that situation alive.

Thanks to Griffin, I had.

Which was exactly why my nerves wouldn't settle until this night was over and every one of us came back alive and mostly unharmed. I wouldn"t accept any lives lost tonight. I just wouldn't.

Needing to finalise our weaponry, Griffin drove us to the Saint Claire HQ—which was what I'd been calling the Airbnb.

Given how much we spoke last night, the ride over was quiet and I knew it was because Griff was giving me space to internally cope in whatever way I needed. When that was silence, he respected that. Most of the time.

Plus, I knew he'd be going through the plans, step by step, in his head too.

Given that Celeste was still new to the whole training thing, she would stay home. Safe but also armed to protect herself if necessary. For now, that seemed like the best plan for her.

Entering HQ, my first move was to make more coffee. Stat.

Billie and Kit joined me around the stone kitchen bench.

"Are you ready?" Kit asked, leaning forward on the table and playing with her septum ring.

"No," I replied truthfully. The whir of the coffee machine was unnecessarily loud, draining out the chatter of the other Knights across the living area.

"You'll be fine. We all will be. We're well prepared," Billie said, her voice soothing and consoling like always.

My weapon of choice for tonight was not my twin sai or even the silver bullets, but a fine powdered dust like the Omitters—although the sais would be sheathed across my back for ease of access in case my first choice failed me. The powdery herbal mixture used to wipe memory probably wasn't going to be the most useful in this situation, but the new formula that Carter helped create with Major Harper that tranquillised the wolves meant we could stop the creatures without killing them.

It would give me and the other warriors time to decide what to do with the unconscious bodies.

That was my goal: no killing unless absolutely necessary. Our focus would be on stopping the rogues from successfully turning more humans.

We had a whole arsenal of coloured powders lined up on the dining table. Ready for us to pack and arm ourselves with. We'd been prepping for days, filling pouches or dissolvable bullet casings with the multi-coloured creations:

Omitters—the blue dust for wiping away the memory of any potential targets or witnesses.

Deviators—a serum, also turned into a yellow-coloured powder,in case we needed to stop a wolf's ability to shift. Assuming they were not yet rogues and were able to revert back into a human form.

And Tranquilisers—the new and finely ground purple blend for putting our enemy to sleep.

The Knights back at the New York compound were also working on a final concoction:

Restorers—a last minute anti-venom solution to combat the initial shifter transformation. If used quick enough, it would reverse the poison secreted through the fangs and prevent the human from becoming a wolf shifter to begin with.

This proposed remedy wasn't ready yet, and after tonight Carter would head back and forth between us and the compound to provide his assistance. Hopefully by the next full moon, this would be our secret weapon.

At least that was the plan.

We'd practised using talcum powder on the wolves in training, allowing us to get a feel for using the real dusts in battle situations, with no consequences on our furry friends—other than some slightly irritating sneezing. But they were good sports about it and understood why it was helpful for us.

So we practised again and again.

And I made sure that Celeste was armed with the stuff herself and had decent exposure training with it.

For people like us that were new to this, blowing some dust in the face of a scary wolf seemed a lot less intimidating than stabbing them with something pointy and sharp without getting impaled by their fangs … that were equally as pointy and sharp.

As the sun began its descent and the sky became streaked with hues of pinks and purples, the rag-tag group of individuals that made up this cadre assembled in the clearing at the back of the pack house—wolves and hunters in tow—ready to go through a final briefing before splitting up and heading to our designated locations. Each one tactically chosen to ensure no encroaching rogues made it far without running into at least one of us.

Even though deterring the rogues rather than killing them was our plan, Billie's quiver still had a handful of silver tipped arrows and Griff still carried his silver sword, that moonstone centre glowing in the luminance of the setting sun like it was speaking to him.

Bleu and Santi were loaded with daggers and knives of the silver variety, strapped across their black bandoliers and leg holsters. I wasn't a hundred percent sure which type of bullets their black Glocks were currently loaded with, but within every unit, there would be warriors armed with both.

A safety precaution.

We'd be ready for either option. Ready to make those split decisions on the spot, depending on the circumstances.

If the rogues attacked, so would we. If the rogues killed, so would we.

I was praying it didn't come to that.

Taking in the assembled squad before us, everyone's faces were serious and drawn. We had a lot riding on tonight.

Thea had checked in earlier and informed us that most of the Knights back in the city, as well as across the state, would be on watch this full moon too, trying their hardest to use whatever information we had managed to gather from Amelia to stay ahead of the rogues. Any warriors that could be spared, had already been dispatched to various state forest regions where other informants like my mother had been located.

For whatever reason, the rogue threat didn't seem to spread much further than New York, except for a few states in the New England region. It was mostly a localised problem. Odd. But we hoped to keep it that way.

Noticing the apprehension on the Alpha's face, I approached him.

"How you feeling?"

He smiled down at me. It didn't quite reach those honey eyes. "Fine."

"Okay, but how are you really feeling?" I tried again, elbowing him playfully in the gut.

He gave me a once-over, eyes full of concern. Then let out the breath he seemed to be holding.

"I'd be better if you were coming with me," he admitted, scrubbing a large hand over his face and then through his hair. He was more fidgety than usual, and I knew this was not how he normally liked to spend the full moon. His wolf seemed all but ready to explode out of him, not handling the threat to his territory well, and his eyes flickered a glowing amber with the strain.

The tension bunching his shoulders wouldn't be alleviated until this night was over, and it made me sad to think that an occasion that usually brought him buckets of happiness, freedom and camaraderie, was instead bringing him such stress.

He looked uncharacteristically tired and overall a bit haggard. I hoped that even just being out tonight in his canine form would help in some capacity. I'm sure all his wolf wanted was to run in the trees and feel the dirt in his paws—and not for the reasons he was about to.

I wanted to make it go away.

Wanted to see the old River again.

Bright side: it only further fuelled my drive to stop the rogues.

"I'm not here to be your distraction, Riv," I softly declared, "I'm here to be your ally." I willed myself to sound firmer so I could force him to acknowledge my words as I comfortingly squeezed his arm. "I'm going to be fine. You focus on looking after your pack and I'll be right back here when this is done. We'll celebrate with a beer after for old times' sake. It's going to be okay."

He nodded, and I got the feeling he was trying to convince himself with each movement of his head.

The others started to split off into their groups.

River's attention snapped to them, watching attentively as the Knights and shifters got into their vehicles or prepared to shift. His gaze scanned them all, mentally ticking them off.

When he was satisfied everything was going smoothly, his focus returned to me and he spun me around, cutting me off from the others and giving us a moment of privacy as his large build shielded us from watching eyes.

"Please be careful. For me," he said in a hushed tone.

His warm palm cupped my face and then he lowered his head down to mine, pressing his lips to my cheek. When he pulled away, his eyes were pleading.

I placed my hand over his, holding it to my face for a moment longer as I looked him in the eyes.

"You be careful, too."

A lightness danced across his features at that.

"I'll see you soon. If you need me at all, just tell Zan and I'll be there in a heartbeat."

"I will," I promised.

He looked like he wanted to say more. Do more. But he shook it off.

His thumb gently rubbed the top of my cheek in a loving way instead, like I was a delicate flower he needed to keep in one piece, and then he let go and stepped around me.

By the time I turned back to look, a beautiful dark wolf with tender amber eyes met my gaze from the tree line.

A fluffy black and white wolf flanked his side—Bear. His piercing light-blue eyes held mine for a moment and he gave me a gruff nod.

Then they shot off into the trees in a dark blur.