Page 21 of The Guardian's True-Mate

“I didn’t see him,” I informed the Alphas.

“You wouldn’t. Cardian probably won’t either.”

“He’s a ghost?” Cardian asked.

“Spirit would probably be a better term for him. He’s just wandering around looking for food or his mother. He’s not here to haunt anyone.”

Terrick patted the floorboard, and the thumping grew close to us again. A second later, Terrick reached down and grunted as if pulling up a heavy invisible weight into the room.

“What do we do with him?” Cardian asked from the doorway.

“I’ll have to go wake up Liam and see what he feeds animal spirits,” Terrick said, standing up.

He looked as if he cradled an incredibly large baby to his chest.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Cardian asked.

“Well, if we want to get any sleep tonight, I think it’s the only idea. With animals usually you have to feed them and then they can find where they’re supposed to go.”

“How many times have you done this?” I asked him.

“I don’t know,” Terrick shrugged. “I didn’t keep count. The animals are the easy ones. They’re usually not aggressive and don’t curse you out either.”

“What did you feed them back home?”

“Stuff from the altar of the ancestors,” Terrick shrugged and Cardian tried and failed not to laugh.

“Mom would kill you.”

“Well, then they could eat my food, huh?” Terrick laughed and carried his new invisible friend out of the room.

Chapter Fourteen

Cardian

As soon as the front door closed behind Terrick, I hammered the floorboards back into place. I wasn’t sure a living bear cub could fit under the house, but I wasn’t taking any chances of one trying to eat my mate if it followed the scent of the dead bear cub. Once the floor was resecured, I crawled back into bed with Dakota and let out a long, slow breath. He curled into my side, resting his head on my chest. I hugged him close, trying not to think too hard about why both he and Scott heard the spirit too. Scott was easier to explain. He and Terrick had long exchanged the claiming vows, but that didn’t explain how Dakota had heard it.

“Have you heard the dead before?” I asked, but my mate had already dozed off.

There would be time to talk about it in the morning. It wasn’t too surprising that a bear cub had died somewhere in the woods surrounding Heartville at some point. Nature was a harsh mistress. She took the young and the old without nuance. I hoped the mother bear didn’t sniff out her dead cub at our house, though.

Terrick was gone for an hour before the front door swung open. I listened for both clicks as he locked the knob and the deadbolt. Only then did I give into the exhaustion tugging at the back of my eyes. That night I dreamt of bear cubs and baby lions popping up from under the floorboards. Whenever we grabbed one up another would bust through under our feet. Laurni watched us from out the window. Whenever I glanced at him for help, he merely mouthed ‘it’s okay.’

I woke with a start alone in the bed. Dakota’s side of the bed was still warm from where his sleeping form had laid against me. His scent still lingered in the bedroom. He hadn’t been gone long. Coffee dripped into the pot further into the house.

Tuning into my guardian training, I sniffed the air again, trying to ignore Dakota’s alluring scent. Coffee. Eggs. Bacon. Some sort of fruit – probably from a bloodshake. Breakfast. It was breakfast time for the day livers. Only I was one too now. No one dead went bump in or under the house as I swung my feet out of bed and went to join the others in the kitchen.

Terrick was at the blender and Dakota tended the stove. This far into the house I could hear Scott’s light snores.

“Morning,” Dakota said to me over his shoulder. “Breakfast is almost done.”

I glanced at Terrick as I hugged my mate from behind. Worry creased my brother’s brow, but that wasn’t an unusual look for him to wear. A dozen glasses sat lined up along the counter and he filled the last of them with the bloodshake after he turned off the blender.

“How’s he doing?” I asked Terrick.

“Tired. Thirsty. Amused.”

“About the cub?” I asked.

---