Page 9 of Saved By Her Guardian
After spending the night patrolling the grounds and exploring the old church, Aralyn had fallen into a restless sleep during the day.The bed in the abbey was old and lumpy, and even though she’d lit a fire in the potbelly stove in the room, she hadn’t been able to chase the chill out of the air.She’d have given her left arm for an electric blanket, but then again, she didn’t have access to electricity anyway.In order to charge her cell phone, she’d had to walk into town and find the library, where she’d sat at a table and read while her phone charged.
After she’d stopped for food and supplies, she returned before sundown and changed into pink sweats and her favorite puffy coat.She’d decided to start by weeding around the church and abbey and had located a shed with tools and gardening supplies.
Church had kept her company, following her as she made her way around the buildings, pulling weeds and trimming back shrubs and plants that hadn’t been tended to in a long time.Everything was overgrown, and she knew it would take a while for her to get through this part.
As she’d settled back on her heels and her stomach had growled, letting her know it was dinner time, she’d heard the front gate squeak.
Someone had opened the gate!
Fear shot through her for a moment, but as quickly as it appeared it faded, replaced by curiosity and something else she couldn’t quite place.
Gathering her courage, she left her tools by the wheelbarrow and walked toward the front of the church, calling out awho goes theregreeting and hoping it wasn’t grave robbers.
Because goodness knew she didn’t have the wherewithal to actually fight someone.Church would have to do that.
And then she’d stepped onto the gravel path and seenhim.
Holy crap, they made hot males in Kentucky.
He was tall and broad shouldered, and she could tell by the way his leather jacket hugged his upper body that he was stacked with muscles.There was something feral about him, somethingotherworldly, and her brain thought it would be a good idea to snuggle right up to him.
So she put the kibosh on those entirely strange, sexy thoughts and focused on figuring out who he was.He sure didn’t look like a grave robber.He looked good enough to eat.
Focus!
Maverick the snow leopard.
She’d never met a snow leopard.Aside from growing up in a reaper-only town and going to a reaper-only school, she’d only had chance opportunities to cross paths with shifters here and there over the years, and the few she’d met had been wolves.
Something was intriguing about this Maverick guy.
As a certain word surged in her head and every feminine instinct in her wanted to figure out how to get naked with him, she pushed away the word and stared up at him.He was so close to her she could feel the heat from his body and she thought she might drown in the intoxicating scent rolling off him, all leather and male and dark nights filled with promises.
She was going to spontaneously combust.
Or melt.
Mate.
Damn it!She tried to push the thought away, but it was there, like a neon sign on the roadside.He was her truemate and she did not have time for this!She’d just gotten the worst assignment in the history of reapers, and she had to figure out how to get back in her uncle’s good graces so she could not onlynotbe assigned a literal dead-end job and alsonothave to reap the souls of children.
So this mate thing?
Not exactly in line with her plans.
She told him she was a reaper and his gaze had grown more intense, his eyes glowing amber and the mind-boggling scent of him deepening.
What would he think about her now that he knew she reaped souls?
“Are you okay?”he asked as he stared down at her with his yummy scruffy chin and plump lips.
Yeah, she was fine.She was just having a mental crisis and couldn’t stop picturing him naked.
“I’m good.You?”
Okay, she sounded like an idiot.Shaking her head, she said, “Sorry.I’m out of my element here.It’s just me and Church, and this cemetery is full, so no one should be here except for maybe the ancestors of any of these witches and warlocks who come to pay their respects.”She waved her hand absently toward the gravestones.
“How long have you been here?”he asked, and she was aware that he’d already asked that, and she hadn’t answered.
