CHAPTER 25

VENUS

Amelia's voice rang through the strategy room from the speaker of River's phone. She was calling for one of her routine check-ins and apparently had big news to share with us.

In the few weeks since the last full moon, not much had progressed. Patrols continued as normal with the pack and our Knights rotating through a roster. Apart from that, we took some time to recoup, using the lull to continue attempting to plot the rogues' future movements.

Most of the Gray Knight task forces sent out the last full moon were successful. Most … but not all.

Which meant the rogues were still growing their army.

Knights across the state were working on observing their movements, figuring out where the rogues were doing the most of their hunting and trying to predict who their targets were. Or at the very least, what areas might be targeted.

Other task forces weren't as lucky as ours to have direct help from the wolves or a smaller region to narrow it down to. Especially in the city—it was anyone's guess where the next attack would occur, particularly as the rogues weren't just sticking to the outskirts anymore.

Meanwhile, Carter had been heading back to the compound for a few days at a time to work on the Restorer amalgamation, with Kit joining him every so often. So far, it was proving harder to successfully alter the Deviator formula than they had initially expected. But they weren't planning on giving up any time soon and were getting closer and closer to cracking it with every passing day.

Testing it was a whole other issue. We wouldn't know for sure if it would work until it was tested in the field—it's not like we had any newly shifted wolves to try it out on.

It was risky, but hopefully, if we were lucky, the drug would be ready to go out to each task force in small amounts on the next full moon. That was the only way to see if it would work. Although, a lot of factors needed to play out in our favour for it to prove effective.

Ideally, we'd stop the rogues before it got to the point of an actual attack. But if not, the Restorer should do the trick. The theory was sound, there was no reason it should fail once the chemical compound was right.

Personally, it was something I didn't totally understand and was absolutely leaving to the alchemy geniuses like Car and Major Harper.

Deep in my thoughts, I had fully blanked out on the conversation that the others were having with our secret weapon.

"It turns out that our plan might work for a little longer," Amelia admitted, sounding relieved and nervous all at the same time. Yet a hint of determination still coated her voice.

Those words pulled me out of my daze.

"Why's that?" Griff gruffly demanded, so used to being the leader.

It earned him more than a few glares, particularly from Raven, who had swapped out with Blaze on emissary duty. Bear didn't look too happy either, but that had been his go-to mood since his mate left over a week ago.

River levelled Griff with a warning look but then cleared his throat and addressed her in a friendlier tone. "What's going on, Amelia?"

"Well," she started, "they have another plan for a number of the newly turned. Me included." She paused for dramatic effect. "They're going to use us as spies."

Griffin snorted, leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head. Carter was also trying to suppress a laugh. The two Knights sitting side by side looking stupidly amused.

A snarl or two sounded at their frequent interruptions, but the hunters paid them no heed.

The strategy room was getting cramped, with the remaining wolves and our task force filling the space. But it was a weirdly nice feeling having everyone together.

"So that makes you what, a Triple Agent?" Zander thought out loud, picking up on what I assumed was also Griffin's train of thought. Somehow, they seemed to be slowly getting on the same wavelength. And there was not even a single sarcastic comment made at each other today … so far.

Progress.

"Basically," she answered. "We'll be sent to various locations; bars, cafes, clubs—you name it—all in an attempt to gather intel on humans. We're to help the ‘weaning' process." She said the word with disgust. "They're hoping we'll be able to target the stronger humans this way, the ones less likely to die in transformation and therefore streamline the process."

River's look was contemplative. "I can't tell if that's civil of them?"

"No," Griff interrupted. "It's efficient. The fuckers are being efficient. Not thoughtful or humane. They're trying to quicken the process and make the most use of their resources."

"The less trial and error, the less potentials that die on them, the more rogues they make," Kit added."And quicker."

"Fucking clever," Carter drawled.

"Shit," Zander swore.

"Well," Riv breathed out a sigh, "that still means less deaths. Less impulsive attacks." He deflated in his seat.

"It also means that Amelia will no longer look suspicious. And explains why they haven't caught on so far. They were probably waiting to see which newbies remained the most civil for the longest and decided they could use it to their advantage," I added.

"Exactly," Amelia confirmed. "That's essentially what they were doing."

Griff rubbed his jaw, gaze focused on the wall of forest outside the window. "We can use this to our advantage. We'll know the targets beforehand."

After another hour or so of strategizing, we split up, most of the Knights heading back to the HQ or out to patrol.

The rest of us made our way to the giant and open space of the pack house lounge where we threw on a movie; a nice light-hearted comedy, since that's all any of us could stand right now.

Between patrols and meetings and training, we'd all been running ourselves ragged and needed all the downtime we could muster up.The dark circles under my eyes were a testament to that.

Bear had gone to relieve the brothers of sentry duty for the night and Zander would be joining him shortly, but in the meantime the Beta and Skylar were whipping up some dinner in the kitchen, the enticing aroma wafting into the lounge. It was quite late in the evening now and my unconscious salivating and painfully empty stomach reminded me that we had not eaten in a while.

Kit and Billie were currently on Knight patrol, and Axel, Aubrey, Blaze and Tanner were out liaising with the other packs. That left River, Griffin, Carter, Sage, Raven and myself at the house. Though Riv had dozed off where he sat on the far edge of the couch into what seemed like an extremely restful and much-needed sleep. Knowing him, he likely felt more comforted and relaxed having people around—such was the life of a wolf.

We were joined soon after by Dalton and Koda.

The boys bounded into the house with an alarming amount of energy considering they'd just come from a shift and basically threw themselves onto the couches among us. Somehow, they didn't wake up the Alpha.

We paused the movie to update them on what we'd learnt from Amelia, trying to keep our voices down even though it seemed River's sleep was thriving on the noise and chaos of his pack.

Beside me, I felt Griffin's unease grow once again at the topic of our conversation and it took only a few minutes before he seized the opportunity to blow off some steam with a late-night training session, forcing Carter to be a not-so-willing participant.

The Maddox brothers, always so full of life and constantly struggling to sit still, were more than happy to join them, leading Griff out to the already dark backyard.

"But it's pitch-black outside?" Carter protested from where he refused to get off the sofa.

Griff, pausing at the sliding door, levelled his friend with a withering glare. "Well then, it's a good thing you have better eyesight than an average human. And that you'll be with a Knight who has the Sight, as well as not one, but two, wolves. I doubt you'll have much trouble. You could use the extra practice in the dark anyway."

"Always such an ass," Car grumbled as he forced himself up and ambled towards the door, his movements tired and lazy.

Raven let out a huff of agreement at Carter's diss, still not the captain's number one fan even after weeks of working together.

I felt for Carter. With how comfortable I was on the couch, there was no way I would be joining. And I was relieved Griff didn't push that I do.

Not long later, Skylar and Zander migrated from the kitchen with a few bowls of what looked and smelt like a Spanish rice dish, which they proceeded to hand out, placing River's bowl on the coffee table in front of us when they saw his sleeping form. Sky plonked herself beside me, taking Griff's previous spot, and we resumed the last half of the movie.

When the ending credits came on, Zander decided he better head out to join Bear before the brooding male made it his mission to hunt Zander down for leaving him alone. Sage mentioned something about needing to get up early to receive a delivery for her store in the morning, so she and Raven said their goodbyes too and left to their respective homes.

Sky and I used the opportunity to discuss some of our favourite shows and current reads. Not that either of us had much free time for hobbies these days, but we'd been watching an animated fantasy TV show based on a book series we'd both read about twin wolf shifters whenever we got the chance.

Deep in conversation about it, our attention caught on River when he stirred in his corner.

He stretched his arms wide as his eyes fully adjusted to being awake with slow blinks. The gesture made me smile to myself. He looked so at peace, so serene and carefree.

"Good morning, sleepy head," I cooed with a quiet chuckle.

"Mmm hello, beautiful." His soft, sleepy smile made my stomach flip.

"Nice nap?" Sky asked.

"The best."

"There's some food for you. It's probably cold now, though," she gestured to his waiting bowl. "Zan and I didn't realise you'd fallen asleep."

"Thanks, Sky." He shuffled on the couch, grabbing his bowl, and then nestled in beside me. He didn't bother heating it up before digging in. "How long have I been out?" He asked groggily.

"About an hour and a half. Maybe longer," I answered.

"Geez."

"You needed the rest," I stated, giving him a no-nonsense look.

"Yeah, you're right. You're always right." He chuckled, nudging me with his shoulder. I nudged back with a soft smile.

Sky and I continued with our previous discussion while River quietly ate by my side, enjoying just being in our company.

When he was finished with his food, he got up and strolled over to the guitar stand in the corner of the room, casually picking up the instrument before finding his spot beside me again and quietly strumming in the background. The sound was a soothing comfort and familiarity to me.

Eventually, Sky couldn't contain her yawns and excused herself, leaving me alone with her Alpha. The boys were still out training, or whatever it was they were doing out there, the occasional laughs travelling through to us from outside.

I rested on Riv's shoulders, curling myself against him, and he repositioned himself so the guitar lay casually on his lap as he picked at the strings. I watched, fascinated by the seamless and expert way his fingers moved.

After a few songs, River shifted down the couch so his head was laying on my lap, and I mindlessly ran my fingers through his silky, tousled locks as he played a quiet, sombre tune. The notes seemed to tell a story. And it felt a lot like ours.

His gaze was no longer on the guitar, but fully focused on me.

I indulged in the way the sounds and his beautiful honey eyes entranced me, making me feel light and airy and warm inside, despite the melancholy melody.

We stayed like that for some time. Neither of us saying a word, just letting the music do the talking.

His fingers paused their deft movements, moving from the guitar strings and snaking their way into the ends of my hair where they played with the strands instead.

Impassioned eyes—so full of emotion and unsaid words—continued to hold mine.

A throat cleared.

Then a gravelly voice filled the quiet. "Ready to go, Supernova?" Griff interrupted, leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed.

It seemed Carter had already headed off and the others were nowhere in sight.

Just Griffin.

Watching us with a hard, unreadable expression.

I swallowed.

"Oh, ah … yeah," I said, breaking out of the moment.

River casually lifted himself up, his attention still wholly on me, not sparing a second to acknowledge the hunter watching us with unwavering intensity. Like the Alpha was caught up in the spell that had overcome us; the memory of what we used to be.

He deposited the instrument beside him on the couch and turned back to me. Then moved a familiar hand to the side of my cheek, cupping my face. His other hand found my waist, like it was instinct. Habit.

He hadn't touched me like that in so long.

"Goodnight, Angel," he finally said. His smooth, quiet timbre was a caress as he leaned in, planting his lips to my forehead ... where they lingered. His touch loitered on my hip. And I could feel Griffin's gaze burning into us.

"Goodnight, Riv. Get some more rest."

I knew I was flustered as I shied away, knowing Griff would be marking every single movement and touch between us.

As if the situation could get any more uncomfortable.

River just nodded at me with a sleepy smile as I got up.

I turned to the hunter who remained unmoved by the door, just long enough to throw an awkward "Let's go," in his direction, but not long enough to hold eye contact.

Out of all the people to have caught us like that, did it have to be him?

I didn't wait for the warrior captain to follow as I made my way down the hall, out the front door and to his car, trying to contain my warring emotions and rapidly beating heart.

Griffin's steps were unhurried, but I sent up a silent prayer of thanks to the starry night sky when the two of them didn't exchange any unpleasant words.

In fact, they didn't say a single word to each other as Griff passed and followed me outside.

Better than the alternative.

But the Knight's body language was undeniably tense on the drive home, like all the pent-up energy and frustration he had burnt off during his training had once again returned … and multiplied.

And that was completely my fault.