Page 10 of The Guardian's True-Mate

Terrick glanced at his mate who flashed him a sad smile. I wanted to ask Terrick what exactly I had done to him, but was old enough to know that whatever Terrick’s problems were they had little to do with me.

“No, you came here to help,” Terrick said, his voice softer than when he spoke to me. “We appreciate that.”

“And if you need time alone at a mating moon house or something we’ll understand,” Scott added on.

“I’d be checking in on the fours either way,” I reminded everyone.

“On the fours?” Dakota asked.

“Every fourth hour.”

“Even at night?” Scott asked.

“I’ll be quiet,” I nodded.

“You guys take guardianship very seriously, huh?” Scott chuckled. “I hope you get some sleep.”

“He will once he’s settled in and realizes that the baddies aren’t thinking about us and we’re not the haunted ones. That’s Liam,” Dakota shrugged.

“Have you seen any spirits since that night?” Scott asked Terrick.

“No,” he shook his head and he smelled like he was telling the truth.

“Let me know if you do,” I said.

“What? You gonna run the dead through with your sword?” Terrick chuckled.

“Brother, you’re only as alone as you choose to be,” I said and held out my hand for Dakota.

“I’ll be okay,” Scott said when Dakota glanced in his direction. “Congratulations you two! I’d offer to host the mating feast, but they’ve yet to make an over the bed oven.”

Dakota hugged Scott and whispered something too fast for me to catch and then after too many agonizing seconds he took my hand.

Chapter Seven

Dakota

When I imagined meeting my true-mate no two scenarios were the same. A lot of people have their favorite idea of how it would happen. I never really did. Perhaps, I spent too much time studying magic to try to get too attached to any one path. Magic always took the path of least resistance. Apparently, this time that was Scott growing four pups inside his belly at once.

On the porch, Cardian dropped my hand and inspected the knob and the lock.

“Do you have a key?” he asked me.

“Yep,” I patted my pocket and fought off the urge to snatch his hand back.

“Good,” he locked the door and took my hand again.

We circled the house twice for him to check and double check all the windows and the back door. Inside his inner sanctum, my wolf wagged his tail. This wasn’t really our idea of a good walk, but it was impossible not to be happy while touching our new mate.

Cardian glanced skywards before giving my hand a squeeze and heading off toward the woods. The sun sank low in the sky and a few minutes onto the paved path the woods were under the cover of darkness. My eyes shifted to that of my wolf to take in the view. I stepped closer to Cardian, not out of fear, but out of some primal need to be as close to him as humanly possible while still walking.

“Are you just doing another sort of sweep?” I teased him.

“Not exactly. I need to understand the normal sounds and scents of the woods, though. Any guardian worth his red blood platelets would be staying on top of the normal comings and goings.”

I squeezed his hand and tried to imagine what we might’ve been like in the Other World before everything on Earthside started up. I’d chosen him and he’d chosen me. We decided to spend our lives together – all of them.

“You came from somewhere else,” Cardian said.

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