Page 25 of Falling for her Guardian

“Thanks,” he said.

They parted ways, Sebastian heading back the way they’d come.

“What is he?” Seren whispered.

“Wolf.”

She made a disgruntled sound, a snort of derision, and he saw her jaw flex.

Ah. The male who hurt her was a wolf.

He was intrigued, because there were wolf packs that only allowed wolves to mate with other wolves, but that was true of most shifter groups. Some were fine with their people mating humans, other animal shifters, or magical people, and some that forbid it, going so far as to exile those who broke the rule.

His polar bear clan didn’t care about that in the least.

It wouldn’t matter to him if they did, because he was going to take Seren as his mate no matter that she couldn’t turn into an animal.

After a few more minutes of walking in silence, they reached the Guardians’ barracks, which contained nine apartments. There were three sections with three apartments in each section that were connected to an open area that served as a gathering room for the occupants. In the polar bear section, their gathering room had a pool table, a large fridge stocked with drinks and snacks, and a huge, comfy sectional sofa in front of a large flat-screen TV and electric fireplace.

After their shift, he and his brothers often hung out in the gathering room to unwind.

“We each have our own apartment,” he said, opening the door to his place. “There’s a cafeteria in this building aboveground and we can also order groceries from the elves, who travel through the portals to get what we need.”

She stood in the center of the great room in his two-bedroom apartment and looked quietly around.

She hadn’t said two words since they’d passed Sebastian. He knew she wasn’t afraid because she didn’t smell like it to his beast, and while she did smell aroused, it was a mild scent and mostly faded by this point.

“Do you want anything to eat?”

She looked at him for the first time in twenty minutes. Really looked at him.

“No thanks.”

“Have a seat, Seren.”

She shivered and pulled his jacket a little tighter around herself. She sat in the center of his leather couch, her knees together and her shoulders hunched.

He grabbed the remote off the coffee table and turned on the electric fireplace, adjusting the temperature of the heating element and setting the fan to low.

He wanted to sit with her but was a little wary of pushing her when she seemed so fragile. He knew she was tired; he should just put her to bed in his room and bunk in one of the spare bedrooms.

His polar bear didnotlike that idea in the least.

Scrubbing his hand over his face, he turned to her. “Tell me about this male that made you want to swear off shifters.”

She chewed on her bottom lip for a long moment while staring at the floor, then leaned back against the couch and sighed.

“Finn is the future alpha of the Columbus Pack, near where I live,” she said. She told him about meeting a wolf and datinghim for four months, then finding out he’d been cheating on her the whole time with she-wolves. As the tale ended, she didn’t look sad so much as resigned. “When I confronted him, he first said it was out of his control, that his wolfhadto be with she-wolves on the full moon. But I knew he was fucking around with them at other times. I heard the gossip whenever I was around the pack, and I knew they didn’t like that I was dating the next-in-line alpha. So when I called him on his bull shit, he said it wasmyfault.”

“What? He blamed his cheating on you? How the hell did he do that?”

She lifted her gaze to him and she looked relieved to have him on her side. Which, of course, he was. He didn’t know the wolves of the Columbus Pack, but he sure as hell wanted to go kill this Finn character, or at least make it super difficult for him to enjoy the rest of his life. “He said that because I was human, I didn’t satisfy him.” She averted her gaze, but he wasn’t going to have that. He sat on the coffee table and cupped her face, lifting her chin until she looked at him again.

She was embarrassed.

Anyone would be, with someone who was supposed to protect them fucking up so badly.

“What a fucking asshole.”

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