Page 7 of The Guardian's True-Mate

“You’re really chill for a dude who just found out his dead chosen mate spoke to me of him meeting his true-mate.”

“It was probably just a goodbye message,” I shrugged. “He used to always tell me that when he was alive too.”

“Okay,” Liam nodded. “If you need to talk about it later, I’m around. We have a therapist too.”

“I think I’ll be fine without a shrink,” I laughed. “I made it this long.”

“Still, let me know if you need anything. I know sometimes messages from the dead can bring up a lot of baggage,” Liam said as the trees started to thin out as we neared the village.

“Maybe,” I shrugged. “The thing is, Liam, he’s been gone a long time. I’ve accepted that. I became a better guardian because of that. He was my world, but as anyone who studies the universe knows, no world lives forever.”

Liam didn’t say anything else about Laurni until we were on a paved path leading out of the woods.

“He says to watch out for Terrick. Not all of the enemies are at peace.”

“Well, I’d damn well hope not,” I shook my head. “The enemies the coven slew do not deserve peace.”

“I’d rather they have what they don’t deserve than give your brother what he doesn’t deserve.”

I frowned. The seer was right.

“Terrick isn’t expecting me to show up on his doorstep tonight, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

“I thought as much,” Liam grinned. “Bobby or his second, Daniel, may have tried to dissuade you. Me on the other hand, I’d like to know if a spirit I can’t see is in Heartville.”

“We might just get along after all.”

“Can you see spirits too?” Liam asked.

“No, but I can hear them occasionally,” I said and tapped the point of one of my ears. “We all have our ways of getting on.”

Chapter Five

Dakota

Despite Terrick and Scott’s objections, I sat on the porch to give them some time alone inside their home. Terrick’s mood was low, and I knew enough about Alphas to know they didn’t always want some stranger hanging around to witness that. I wasn’t a stranger to Scott, but I was to Terrick. I came to help, but maybe to him I was just someone else he had to deal with and share his mate with.

Liam’s voice played through the trees. I bit my lip and prayed he wasn’t coming to say that Terrick’s carrier hadn’t moved on after all.

“He’s probably just going for a walk to check on everyone,” my wolf chimed into my thoughts. “Stop stressing out so much. We’re not here to stress out. We’re here to keep our friend from stressing out.”

The wind ruffled through my hair, and I closed my eyes, considering shifting and going for a run. I breathed in, taking in all the scents the breeze carried in from the woods. My fingers gripped the arms of the rocking chair, and I breathed in again. This time, my wolf sat up inside his inner sanctum and sniffed too. My eyes shifted to his. I drew in one more long breath before deciding anything. There was a new scent on the breeze, metallic and warm. A scent that demanded my attention at all costs.

“ALPHA!” I flinched as my wolf howled inside my brain.

The word echoed around my skull, and I tightened my grip on the rocking chair. Was I hallucinating? Was I making all this up to appease myself about coming to Heartville at a bad time for Terrick? Was the change of scenery playing with my mind?

No.

No, it wasn’t.

There on the breeze so close to Liam’s laughter was the scent of the most familiar stranger I’d ever smelled. My wolf stood up, tapping his front paws and then going low into a play bow. I wasn’t budging up from the chair. What if I went in the wrong direction and missed him? What if somehow despite my wolf, I ended up lost in the forest? What if I did that and something ate me before I ever met him?

“You worry too much. We’d be the scariest thing in the woods” my wolf said, his tail lifted high and wagging.

“Fucking Laurni!” Someone close by swore under his breath.

“What?” Liam’s voice followed a second later.

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