Page 23 of Falling for her Guardian

His brows drew down. “Why are you so intent on leaving? Am I so bad?”

She sighed. “It’s not that, Storm. I just… I had a really bad experience dating a shifter and I swore off of them. I didn’t want to get tangled up with you because I was sure you’d hurt me in the end. I thought it was best to just get home and not see you.”

“Even if you’d managed to safely make it back to your home, I would have found you again. You’re my mate, Seren. And I know you’re human and you might not fully understand what that means, but I’m not about to let you go. I’ve been waiting my whole life for you.”

She wasn’t sure what to say about that, because part of her really liked it a lot. A small part of her thought it was too good to be true, that he was just telling her what he thought she wanted to hear so he could get what he wanted from her before dropping her like yesterday’s leftovers.

But something in her heart assured her that he was telling the truth.

That theyweremates, meant to be together.

“Jack said nothing happens by accident in Northernmost,” she said. “I told him I came here accidentally, and he didn’t believe me.”

“Magical people believe a lot in destiny and fate, and so do shifters. I think you came here when you did so we could meet, so I’d say it wasn’t an accident either. It might feel like something thatjust happened, but to me, it was fate.”

She hummed and let that roll around in her head while she thought about it.

“We’re going to the barracks. There’s an underground passageway to get to them so we don’t have to go out into the elements. Santa wants to meet with you, but you and I have some things to discuss first.”

“I need to call my parents,” she said.

“Oh, right. Hold on.” He moved to the wall by the door and opened a yellow box attached to the wall, removing what looked like a bulky cell phone. He flipped a button and it whirred to life. “It will show up as a private number.”

“I don’t even know what time it is,” she said.

“It’s after midnight.”

“Oh crap, really? How long was I out for?”

“Four hours.”

“Shit, they must be worried. I wonder where my phone is.”

“It wasn’t in your pockets. You might have dropped it outside.”

She entered her mom’s number. It went to voicemail, so she tried her dad’s, and that went to voicemail.

“They’re either asleep or suspicious of a private number,” she said. Then she tried her sister, who picked up on the first ring. “Hey, Noelle.”

“Oh my gosh, are you okay? Mom! Dad! It’s Seren. I told you to answer the phone. We’ve been worried sick, holy crap! Are you okay?”

Seren’s eyes stung with tears. “I am, I promise. It’s been a crazy night.” She quickly relayed how she got to the North Pole and skipped the part about being abducted by Jack Frost, instead explaining that she’d tried to leave the security building to get to the portal and got caught up in the cold, and it took a few hours for her to regain consciousness.

“You could have died!” her mom screeched, listening on speaker.

“I know, I’m sorry I scared you guys and made some bad choices,” she said, glancing at Storm, who made an agreeing grunt. “But I’ll be back sometime tomorrow. Did you call the police?”

“Yes,” her dad answered. “They found your car but didn’t find you. It was towed to our house.”

“Okay, you can let them know I’m safe.”

“We will,” her dad said. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, I promise.”

“Good.”

After exchanging I love yous, she ended the call and handed the phone to Storm.

---