Page 17 of Falling for her Guardian

He stared at her, his blue eyes flecked with gold that seemed to pulse as he held her gaze. “Ah, star. How appropriate.”

“How do you know what my name means?” She’d literally never had anyone guess what her name meant.

“I know many, many things. What I don’t know, however, is what a human was doing in Northernmost,insidethe security building. You smell of shifter, but you’re not, and you’re definitely not magical.”

“Would you believe that it was an accident?”

He grunted. “I doubt that very much, little star. Nothing happens in Northernmost by accident. I suspect you’re a shifter’s mate, and that makes you valuable. So you’re not going to die, you’re going to be useful to me. Until you’re not. Try to stay alive until I have need of you.”

He turned and strode off, his boots echoing on the stone floor.

She lurched for the bars. “Wait! Please! I’m not a shifter’s mate. I’m not anything! I fell through the portal, please! I just want to go home.”

She hadn’t cried yet because she’d been so confused and still a little groggy from whatever happened to her after she walked out of the building. But now she cried. Tears welled in her eyes and spilled over, chilling her already cold skin. She gripped the bars and rested her head on them, shivering as hope left her.

Storm, I’m sorry. Help me.

Storm had a hard time holding onto his rage as he followed Seren’s footsteps from the security building across the snowy field to the edge of the magically protected town. Her footsteps were barely visible with the snowfall and her scent was gone, but he didn’t need to see where she went to know that once her footsteps ended at the magical barrier, there was only one male who could have engineered her disappearance.

Jack Frost.

“He must have thought she was an elf,” Hunter said. “She was wearing her hat, which would have covered her ears.”

Storm glanced at Santa, who was staring into the darkness in the direction of Frost’s lair.

“He can’t steal magic from her, so why would he keep her?” Storm asked.

Santa shook his head. “She’s unique. There aren’t any humans in Northernmost, so he would most likely want to use her to try to trap someone to use for magic. It’s a few weeks from the solstice, so he would be trying to store up his magical reserves before he’s depleted.”

Storm hated everything about the situation. Not only that she’d left, but that she clearly hadn’t known what she was getting into. He was angry and frustrated but also scared to death.

What if Jack had simply killed her once he realized she was human? Or what if he’d let her go in the darkness outside of Northernmost? She wouldn’t last long out there with just her coat. She’d already been gone over an hour.

He rubbed the space over his heart, his bear pacing in his mind. They weren’t mated, but they were mates. He could feelsome kind of pull in his heart, but it didn’t give him anything to go on.

“I think she’s alive,” he said, staring into the darkness but seeing nothing. “But she might not have much time.”

“I’d say that’s a safe bet,” Sebastian, one of the wolves, said. “She’s got to be at his lair. If he or his asshole right-hand Valeth haven’t reached out by now, they may still be planning what to do with her. So what should we do?”

Storm straightened his shoulders. “I’m going to his lair and getting my mate.”

Santa put his hand on Storm’s shoulder. “I can open the door to let you in, but I can’t risk going inside.”

“That’s all I need,” he said.

Santa nodded. He clapped his hands and a pale blue light glittered over them. He felt a tingling sensation for a brief moment, and then the light was gone. “That will keep us from being detected until you breach the building, then you’ll be visible. Let’s go. The sooner we get your mate back, the better.”

He looked at his brothers—Hunter and Winter—and his friends and fellow Guardians—Sebastian, Gabriel, and Declan.

“We’ve got your back,” Declan said with a growl as his eyes flashed to the amber of his wolf. “Let’s get your mate home safe.”

The group moved as one, racing into the darkness and heading right for Jack Frost’s underground lair, a literal fortress built underneath a mountain. There was only one way in—a guarded security door—and they were going to have to take out the guards and use Santa’s magic to unlock the door. Then he had to find her.

Hopefully being in the same building would help their connection strengthen enough he could find her.

He didn’t want to think about the alternative.

They reached the lair and hunkered down behind a snow drift a few yards away. There were guards everywhere, more than they’d expected.

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