Page 7 of Falling for her Guardian

Chase was a snow leopard, and Gabriel was a wolf. Gabriel and Chase had been Guardians nearly as long as Storm.

“Got it. I’ll let you know what I find.”

Storm’s bear was prowling in his mind, claws pressing at his fingertips and gums aching as he came up on the Entrance, the bones still glowing and humming after it had been opened. In front of the portal, lying face up on the ground, was a figure in a dark coat with a stocking cap that looked like cat ears on her head, the soft points visible against the white snow.

“Uh, crap.”

The soft and feminine voice made his bear let out a happy chuff.

She rose onto her elbows, rubbed her nose with her gloved hand, and then sneezed.

“Frick on a stick.”

Storm chuckled.

She went still and turned her head to the side, then let it fall back until she was looking at him upside.

“Crap.”

He met her gaze and his whole body jolted with awareness.

Holy shit, she was his truemate.

He inhaled as he approached and picked up only a sweet scent like honeysuckle and not the scent of any shifter he knew of. She didn’t smell like sweet magic as the witches did or like sugar as the fairies did. She just smelled…like home.

His walkie squawked and he twisted the knob to silence it. Walking slowly around to her side, he squatted down, the snow fluffing up around him.

Her head dipped back in his direction and her mouth fell open. Her eyes were wide, and in the darkness—even with his excellent eyesight—he couldn’t tell if they were blue or green. He pretty much didn’t care.

The Entrance hummed and pulsed with golden light and then dimmed fully until they were bathed in darkness save for the Northern Lights that lent a blueish-green glow to the snow.

“Who are you?” she asked.

He arched a brow. “I’m a Guardian of the Well of Magic. Ibelonghere. The better question is who are you and what are you doing here? Humans aren’t allowed in Northernmost.”

His voice was gruff because his beast was pushing at him, but all he really wanted to do was scoop her up in his arms and carry her off to his room in the barracks.

“Dang it, I knew I was in Northernmost. I can’t see the Northern Lights from Columbus.” She pushed herself to a seated position with a grunt, then gave him a curious look. “Would you believe me if I said that my car broke down and I followed a light in the woods and then found a portal that I slipped through thanks to some ice I didn’t see?”

He heard the pounding footsteps of Chase and Gabriel, and his bear went into hyper-protective mode. He spun, his fangs and claws springing free as the males rushed toward them.

Gabriel stopped first and Chase nearly crashed into him.

The leopard’s dark gaze pinged between Storm and the female and back to Storm before he raised his brows.

“Everything okay here?” Chase asked, folding his arms.

“Yep,” Storm said, shaking his head and trying to push his bear back so he didn’t scare the female with his fangs and claws. “I’ll bring her to the security office in a few.”

Gabriel frowned. “You can just call for—oof,” he grunted as Chase elbowed him in the stomach and cut off his sentence.

Storm was well aware that he could call an elf to take the female right back through the Entrance to where she’d come from, but he wasn’t about to do that. Not until he figured out everything about her and was sure she understood that they were truemates.

Humans didn’t have truemates. They had…what was the word? Soulmates? Or love at first sight, maybe. Whatever she wanted to call it, he was going to call it destiny or fate.

“We’ll keep patrolling,” Chase said after clearing his throat. “Holler when you make a decision about the rest of your shift.”

“Got it.”

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