Page 38 of Rescued By Her Guardian

“I’ll make sure everyone knows,” Maverick said.

Santa looked at Knox. “I’ll go to the security office and remove the tracker from Ivy. Do you need to go back to Kentucky?”

“On the full moon for the night, and then not again until after Christmas.”

“We’ll make sure your shift is covered. We can’t have any weak spots since Frost is getting trickier.”

Santa performed a spell that removed the magical tracker from the Entrance, and then they headed back inside. They found Ivy with her brother and dad, and Santa removed the tracker from her skin.

“Ew, he was tracking me?” she asked, looking at her hands. “That’s so weird and gross.”

“It’s gone now,” Santa said. “I need to replenish my magic at the Well.”

“We’ll go with you,” Alder said. “See you for dinner, sis?”

“Sure thing, at the cafeteria.”

“We need to talk,” Knox said to his mate.

“Good things?” she asked.

“Leap things, and yes, for the most part.”

“Oh gosh, with waking up after being unconscious for a day and worrying about Zara and then Bruce, I totally forgot.”

“Let’s go chat, sweetheart.” He put his arm around her. “Then we’ll see where the day takes us.”

“I have some good ideas for that.”

His leopard purred. “I bet you do.”

Ivy listened with rapt attention as Knox told her about the fight that erupted after Julius pulled a gun on Knox. He’d had a few people on his side, but they’d been outnumbered by the higher ranked males in the leap who fought by Knox’s side.

“Were you hurt at all?” she asked, scanning his handsome face, even though it was unlikely he’d still be injured after a day with his advanced healing.

He shook his head. “No, Julius had the gun but didn’t know how to shoot. He managed to get a few shots off but they were wild and didn’t hit anyone. I disarmed him and gave him a chance to surrender, but he attacked so I had no choice but to put him down. Two of his cousins faced the same fate, unwilling to give up and take their punishment. Others were on his side, but they surrendered and faced punishment.”

“What kind of punishment?” she asked.

“If we had a jail, I could imprison them, but we don’t, so I exiled them.” Knox had slashed their upper arms with his claws, and Calix wrapped a rag soaked in a chemical to prevent the claw marks from disappearing. They would scar over and be permanent, a reminder to anyone who saw them that the males weren’t to be trusted.

“Can they join up with another leap?”

“If they could find one to take them, but I wouldn’t take a new member who’d been exiled unless their story was one that led me to believe they’d been treated wrongfully by their alpha. Those males don’t have a good story to tell so I doubt they’ll end up in another leap. But I don’t care, so long as I never see them again.” He’d told her that if they stepped foot in Wildwood Crossing again, they’d be killed, so they’d left town while she’d been unconscious.

“And Zara is okay, you said?”

“Yep.”

“I still want her to be my personal guard,” she said.

“I figured you would,” he said. “She’s waiting to hear from you whenever you want to talk to her. We’ll head down for the full moon for our joining ceremony, but we’ll only be gone one night from Northernmost.”

“Good,” she said. “I don’t mind moving down with the leap, but I’d like to spend as much time as possible with my dad and Alder.”

“Of course.”

“Now,” she said, with a low purr in her throat, “I think we both had some good ideas?”

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