1 supernova the gray k.., p.1
1 - Supernova: The Gray Knights, page 1
part #1 of The Gray Knights Series
Copyright © 2023 J.A. JUDE
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Cover design by: J.A. Jude
Dedicated to the stargazers and the dreamers. The ones that want more from life but fear going after it.
Here's to finding the courage.
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Playlist
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
EPILOGUE
Afterword
About The Author
Stay connected
Acknowledgements
Playlist
For the Wolves
Golden Hour - JVKE
This is What Falling in Love Feels Like - JVKE
Big Bad Wolf - Roses & Revolutions
Monsters - Ruelle
Fall in Love with You - Montell Fish
Moonlight - Dhruv
Heather - Conan Gray
Riptide - Vance Joy
Left Hand Free - Alt-J
Full Moon - The Black Ghosts
For the Hunters
Comatose - Jxdn
Castle - Halsey
I’m Yours - Isabel LaRosa
Drinking with Cupid - VOILA
Figure You Out - VOILA
Eager - Britton
Too Hot to Cry - Nessa Barrett
Supernova - Ansel Elgort
Dangerous State of Mind - Chri$tian Gate$
Stay - Ari Abdul
CHAPTER 1
River Lupin a.k.a an angel on earth.
River was the boy the whole town loved. His skin was a beautiful sun-kissed bronze. His hair was brown and wavy but shone with golden undertones in the sunlight. He kept it long so it fell around his ears but he’d always push it back when he was laughing or deep in thought—actually, come to think about it, he pushed it back all the damn time. It was one of those signature gestures you’d see in a movie that had you weak at the knees falling in love with the main character.
The funny thing was, he didn’t even know the effect he had on people, especially the girls. He was oblivious to his perfectly-made good looks, ‘nice guy’ personality and charming mannerisms—a lethal combination. He was just being himself and that was enough for everyone to love him.
He really did have that whole sexy Twilight wolf thing going on. Stephanie Meyer was not too far off when she wrote those books. Of course, these days not all of them looked like him—only the lucky ones. And by them, I meant wolf shifters—no, River wasn’t actually an angel, he was a wolf. You know the kind; the ones in paranormal romances that turned into actual wolves once they hit some predetermined age and shifted for the very first time.
For him, it was when he turned eighteen. He was an alpha though, so he was always in tune with his powers in some way—a little stronger than your normal teenage boy and a little faster than the average jock. This made him the perfect athlete and was part of the reason he was so popular in our little town of Saint Claire.
Being an alpha, he was also thoughtful, caring and empathetic as well as tough and powerful—making him the ideal leader. He was honestly too good to be true and due to some twist in the fates, he was mine.
The six foot tall golden boy was my best friend growing up, my crush at fifteen and then somehow—miraculously—my boyfriend from the age of eighteen.
And as I lay there in his bed, sun setting outside, his arms draped lazily around me, I couldn’t help but stare up at him in awe as he intently watched the TV that had become background noise to my daydreaming. I couldn’t tell you what was on, but I could tell you how his honey coloured eyes sparkled with laughter or how his dimples got larger when he scrunched his face and furrowed his brow in annoyance. He was a beautiful sight to behold.
I always felt so tiny huddled up against his large, muscular body.
He looked down at me now, interrupting me as I catalogued his perfect features for the millionth time. I always had this underlying gut feeling that things would just end. That this life that we had, the life that I had, was too good to be true.
Not to mention I was human. A measly mortal among the magical and the mystical.
I was mundane and he was anything but.
Nevertheless, he loved me.
“Vee, stop staring at me.” His tone was smooth and soft with a hint of amusement in his voice. He looked at me so intently yet tenderly—lovingly. I continued to stare, tracing his jawline with my finger and smiling up at him.
He chuckled. “I love you, angel.” The words were gentle and as always, melted my heart into a pool of liquid.
I grabbed his face and pressed my lips to his as he pulled me impossibly closer. I wrapped my legs around his body, wanting to get more of him. He held my thigh, the other hand cupping my face as he kissed me gingerly.
We heard a throat clear and pulled apart quickly as Zander walked through the doorway, looking smug and way too excited to have caught us in this incriminating position. I pulled away from River, embarrassed and annoyed as Zander jumped on the bed beside me, a shameless smirk on his face as he eyed me before giving River a knowing wink. River growled softly in frustration and then shoved his Beta off the bed. Zander landed on the floor with a thunderous thud—understandable given his monstrous size.
He laughed anyway. "What are we watching?”
I gave him a dirty look and threw a pillow at his face.
Sadly, he caught it with his quick reflexes and placed it on the floor beneath him, looking way too comfortable as he folded his arms under his head, smiling like a cheshire cat.
“Get out, Zan.” River’s voice came out as more of a calm statement than a command. He surprisingly had a lot of patience when it came to his loud, obnoxious, goofball of a Beta.
As if he remembered the reason for his unannounced and somewhat annoying visit, Zander suddenly turned serious.
“I’m sorry to disturb you Alpha, but we’ve heard from the patrol and there’s been an update.” Serious except for the way he said ‘alpha’, which was more mocking than anything else. I sometimes wondered how it was possible Zander was ever able to be serious.
River stiffened. With his arm still wrapped around me, I felt his mood change and his body language become protective. I had no idea what that statement was about, but I was aware that there'd been a lot going on in the pack recently.
No matter how much I begged, he never liked to give me the details of their pack business in an attempt to keep me as safe as possible. I knew that whatever threats they might be facing, he’d keep me safe—he’d keep the whole town safe. But a part of me couldn’t help but feel a little left out. Even though I was basically a member of the pack in every other way, this was the one thing no one thought I could handle as a human.
The beautiful protector beside me looked down at me again. The apologetic look on his face told me our plans for the evening would be cut short and surely enough his next words confirmed it. “I’m so sorry, Vee. I’ll get Axel to drive you home.”
I pouted in response and he pressed his lips to mine softly. And then harder.
“Or you can stay here and I’ll be back in bed as soon as I’m done”, he whispered against my lips.
“I’ll wait.” I kissed him back, reiterating my decision.
Zander snickered again, watching us with a cheeky grin as he left, giving us a few precious minutes to ourselves to say our goodbyes for the moment.
CHAPTER 2
After River basically pulled himself away from me and left, I thought I’d better message mum to let her know I was staying the night. Surprisingly, she never made too much of a fuss. To be fair, I was twenty-two and her sway over me had slowly deteriorated in the last couple of years. But I guess she too knew that River would keep me safe while relishing in the fact that I’d know how to take care of myself if anything ever happened.
My mother was in the army when I was growing up. So she was big on self defence and protecting ourselves. My sister and I stayed with mum’s younger sister, Aunt Xari, while she would be on a tour.
‘Bad ass bitch’ ran in our family genes because Xari was also a
Between the two of them, Celeste and I learned how to fight from a young age. We had training three times a week after school with my aunt and although I mastered the basics, it was clear the natural instinct had skipped a generation. I was good, but I didn’t have the drive or passion that seemed to come alive in them. When they fought, there was a glint in their eyes that truly showed their ardour. It was pretty magical to behold, especially as a young girl with such strong female role models in my life.
It wasn’t princesses like Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella I dreamed of being, it was Pocahontas and Mulan—the warriors.
We moved around a lot because of mum’s work and Xari followed to ensure we always had someone familiar in our life. That was until mum got injured one year and was suddenly discharged. Her leg was almost severed off in an ambush. Luckily she walked out of there with just a scar and a bit of a limp. I was twelve and our whole life changed after that. We moved one final time and settled in upstate New York. And no, not the well-known, extravagant city you see on TV. The suburbs. Basically the forest. But I loved it—if not just because it was stable for the first time.
The forest became my home. The perfect little town on the edge of a perfect forest, dating the perfect guy. A life of bliss.
Xari kind of disappeared after that. I guess she finally had the freedom to live her life without two little girls basically hanging off her leg at all times. Mum still trained us for a bit, as well as she could given her ailment, but eventually I lost interest. You know, in those teen angst years where you despise anything your parents want for you. I took up a boxing class at the local gym instead to keep my fitness levels up—and to give myself that outlet I had become accustomed to.
My dad passed away when I was really young, like four or five, a couple of years after Celeste was born. I didn’t remember much of him, and it hurt mum too much to ever delve into it with us. She had a secret box of pictures though, which I often snuck into. He was handsome, with soft, kind eyes—the same hazel shade as mine. I was one of those weird mixes with so many different ethnicities in my bloodline that no one could pinpoint what I was just from looking at me. But I kinda loved the mystery.
All in all, I looked more like mum, although the height probably played into that; standing at a whopping five foot one with light caramel coloured skin and long ebony hair that was somewhere between being wavy and straight. Dissimilarly, mum's skin was definitely more of a golden brown and her eyes were a dark chocolate. I loved the fact that I had something of my dad's—even though I was most definitely a mama's girl.
I couldn’t imagine what life would be like if I still had a dad. The thought seemed so foreign to me. My existence was based on females and after we finally settled, I cherished the attention and time we got from mum.
Weirdly enough, I still didn’t have many female friends except for Skylar, one of River’s wolf soldiers.
Even so, for once in my life I had stability. Upstate New York and our tiny town of Saint Claire gave me the perfect little community existence that I craved as a child.
That was when I met him—the gorgeous specimen I got to call my boyfriend.
He wouldn’t be back for another few hours. That was usually what would happen when he had pack business to tend to. A part of me always felt a bit sad that for some reason they didn’t share more of it with me—like they didn’t trust me enough, even after all we had been through and the years I’d spent exposed to it all. I knew he was a wolf before he even turned; when he was only sixteen and afraid of what it all meant for him. I kept his secret close to my heart and guarded it like it was my own.
Actually, I guarded it better than my own because let’s be honest, if it was mine I’d want to share it with mum and Celeste at the very least.
But for him, I didn’t tell a soul. I took comfort in the fact that his pack had accepted me as their own, meaning I didn’t have to pretend like I didn’t know wolf shifters existed. It was all out in the open amongst the people I spent the most time with, making not telling my family a whole lot easier. Although, I did somewhat live two lives because of it.
River’s dad was not in the picture either. Something that bonded us growing up. He was killed by another pack a few months before Riv turned nineteen. The poor boy, who wore his heart on his sleeve, had to take over the position of alpha when he’d only ever shifted for the first time just months before. Once again, I didn’t know the specifics of his dad’s death—only that it shook the pack. But Riv stepped up and he’d been the most caring, thoughtful and selfless leader ever since, one that his pack absolutely adored.
I wondered what the pack would be doing now. Usually one of them would stay behind to watch over me, so I thought I’d better head downstairs to see which lucky one would have to stay behind tonight to babysit the fragile human.
The expanse of the cabin lounge was empty when I descended the large maple staircase. It was dark outside now and through the floor to ceiling windows it was clear the sun had set. Often, when things were quiet in the pack, we’d hang out with Zander, Axel and Sky in here. Usually watching movies, playing games or cooking—the wolves loved to eat. So I wandered to the kitchen and sure enough I was welcomed by Skylar who threw her hands around me tightly. “VEEEEE!!!” she exclaimed. “It’s just me and you tonight, girly.”
Chuckling, I hugged her back. I was glad it was her and not Zander tonight, I couldn’t be bothered braving the lovable oaf. Axel, on the other hand, was always so chill to be around. But Skylar—’Sky’—was my favourite. She was always so bubbly and had the most contagious gummy smile that was so large it showed off all her sparkling teeth. She was one of those effortlessly breathtaking females with her lusciously tousled, naturally highlighted mousy brown hair and soft sky blue eyes—just like her namesake. She hardly wore any makeup and preferred to be ‘au naturel’ like the free spirited wolf she was.
It was hard to ever catch her not smiling, and she definitely brought the energy to the group. But in the rare instances she was serious, like when she was talking pack strategy, her strong bushy eyebrows and defined features made her intimidating and you knew not to fuck with her.
She looked the complete opposite now in a white tee, grey track pants and a red flannel chucked on top. Her wild hair was in a messy bun as she plated up some dishes of pasta. Her eyes shone at the food in her hand and as she walked back to me she handed me a bowl before proceeding to plonk herself on the couch.
“What are we watching tonight?” she asked excitedly while spooning a large amount of spaghetti into her mouth.
“Vampire Diaries?” I suggested.
She swallowed and let out a loud laugh. “I’m going to pretend it’s not offensive that you love the vampire shows more than any werewolf show, only because I’m just as obsessed.” This was our fourth time watching it through. It was safe to say we were a little obsessed. I just loved anything supernatural though, especially after I found out I could relate to them more than I ever imagined. The powerless, feeble, insubstantial human who fell in love with the mysterious, charming supernatural. Just call me Elena Gilbert. Even though she annoyed the fuck out of me most of the time.
CHAPTER 3
I went to bed before River got home. As perfect as our relationship was, the one thing that always got to me was going to bed alone—especially when it was a massive king sized one. But he always made it up to me when he’d get in; showering and then climbing into his sheets to cuddle me. And tonight was no different.
The strong smell of oud wood and roasted chestnut overwhelmed my senses, like a toasty fireplace. He smelt warm, comforting and capable.
“You’re back.” I happily mumbled in my sleepy state. I cosied up to him, basking in his body heat.
“I’m back, Vee.” He nuzzled his face into my neck, holding me tight against him.
“Everything okay with the pack?”
He squeezed me tighter. “Nothing you have to worry about, sweetheart.” He placed gentle kisses all along my neck and down my shoulder.
Everything was easy with River. We’d been inseparable from the moment I walked into Saint Claire Middle School and he gave me that lovable smile when I bumped into him at lunch. He invited me to his table like the caring soul he was and we became fast friends.
