Page 28 of Rescued By Her Guardian

“There’s something stopping us. I don’t know.”

The hairs on the back of her neck rose and she looked over her shoulder in time to see a bright flash of red light.

And then nothing.

Knox wasn’t the sort of male who wanted to kill his own people, but Julius was a danger to everyone and had to be put down. Being an alpha wasn’t pretty.

As he surveyed the damage to the meeting room, Calix came up to him.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said. He looked down at his bleeding knuckles, knowing his accelerated healing would take care of the damage soon enough. Julius wasn’t a strong fighter, but he was running on adrenaline, making him dangerous. Knox had tried to get him to surrender and accept punishment for his behavior, but the male wanted blood.

That want had cost him his life in the end.

Two other males who’d stood by him—cousins on his mother’s side—had died in the fight, and the rest had surrendered, knowing they would be punished with exile.

“Such a fucking waste,” Knox said, shaking his head. He didn’t begrudge the male his anger at the situation. Knox had been an asshole, but he’d been alpha and it was his right to behave that way. Julius had made his choice to stay in the leap and not pursue a relationship with the human; Knox had only asked him to abide by the laws.

That felt sanctimonious as hell, but truth was truth, and he wasn’t alpha because he was a nice guy.

He was only a nice guy to Ivy.

Speaking of his beautiful mate…

He left the cleanup to several leap members and headed outside. From his home computer, he could call the securityteam at Northernmost and let Ivy know he’d be gone for a few more hours. He could also make arrangements for someone to open a portal so he could join her there when things were finished.

“Knox!”

He spun and found Maverick and Chase racing toward him. Chase was carrying someone in his arms as they ran, and Knox’s heart leaped into his throat.

But he knew it wasn’t Ivy, because she had a bright red coat. Chase was carrying Zara.

Knox grabbed the doors and Chase carried Zara into the meeting hall and one of the smaller rooms that had a couch inside. She was unconscious with burn marks on her and dried blood around her nose and mouth.

“What the hell happened?” Knox demanded. “Where’s Ivy?”

“Ooowww,” Ivy moaned as her brain came back online and every square inch of her hurt. Her skin felt tight, like a bad sunburn, and her head hurt the worst.

She opened her eyes, peeling them back and squinting into the flickering light of an oil lamp hanging just outside of the bars of a cell. The stone walls and ceiling were roughhewn and covered with icy crystals and her breath puffed out of her mouth in a cloud.

Tinsel. This was not good news to wake up to.

She managed to sit upright on what appeared to be a wooden cot.

“She wakes.”

She’d heard his voice once when she’d been with her father and the other Guardians, and he’d managed to hack the intercom system to taunt his brother. She’d been chilled to the core by the angry, murderous tone back then.

It was worse now. Hardened by the many years of dark magic use.

Fear speared through her. There was only one reason that Frost would take an elf—he was going to steal her magic.

“Please let me go.”

He arched a brow at her. His skin was pale, his hair a blue-white like the frost he laid down in the winter. His eyes were like diamonds, and she didn’t think there was a compassionate bone in his body. He only cared about control of the Well.

“I don’t think so. It’s getting more difficult to take enough magic to sustain myself because my own people use my magic to recharge themselves. The solstice is coming, and you know what that means.”

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