As I walk on the sidewalks in the human city where I have an apartment, I think about the last week. It’s been a whirlwind of birthdays, my twin sisters both turned eighteen and then less than a week later, they both had their Luna ceremonies one night apart. They’re mated to the two Alphas that are in an alliance with my oldest brother, Rich.
All of the males in my generation are strong Alphas, stronger than most because our mothers are Guardians. The Guardian line travels through the females in the bloodline, and besides my younger sister who is still underage, all of the female Guardians in our generation have found their mates. All the sons of the Guardians in this generation have found their mates as well. Except me.
I’m not sure why I haven’t found her. Cohen, one of my best friends, says she’s probably underage. Since I’m not yet twenty, it’s possible. He’s my age and he’s mated to my sister who just turned eighteen. If she wasn’t a Guardian, they may not have known until her birthday that they were mated, but Cohen and even Emerson, who is mated to the other twin, seemed to realize that their mates were my sisters. Emlyn, another one of my best friends is mated to my oldest brother. Her sister, Riley, is mated to Cohen’s younger brother, Clint, and Lily is mated to an elf king. So, no Guardian for me. Which is fine. My brother Xander is mated to a witch and he’s perfectly happy.
I even went to our offices, under the guise of checking out the new apartments we’ve purchased for the witches we’ve brought into the family business, hoping to smell my mate’s scent. But, I didn’t smell anything other than the herbal/medicinal scent of multiple witches.
I make a mental note to have a game night with Tate soon. Now that Maeve and Xander have a pup and another on the way, a fifteen-year-old budding witch needs friends that aren’t his sister’s mate. I know Xander means well, but sometimes a young man needs a friend who isn’t in love with his sister.
As I walk, trying to burn off the frustrated energy inside me, I realize my jealousy isn’t just about them finding their mates. All of my siblings either have pups or are expecting pups. Even my twin sisters, who just turned eighteen, announced at their Luna ceremonies that they are expecting pups. They have families, they’re settled, and I’m not. I want what my family has always had, love, compassion, and craziness. Yeah, we’ve fought. Goddess knows I went against my brother Rich when things were bad between him and Emlyn. We’re Alpha males, it happens, but we’ve always known we loved each other. We’ve always known that we’re there for each other. And, at the end of the day, they have the woman or man that they love to go to sleep with, while I go to my cold bed, alone.
I’ve decided not to return to the university. I thought it would be more fun than it was. Yeah, women were throwing themselves at me, but it was superficial, it was temporary. They were looking for a good time, not a long time. And while it was fun at first, it got old fast. Since it was a human university, I had to hide who I was, barely able to let Baron, my wolf, out to shift. Both of us became miserable and so I’ve decided to leave the university life behind and come back to my roots, taking on-line classes so I can still take my role in the company’s business alongside my brother Xander.
It worked out well that of the seven children my parents had, three of us were males and we not only had a pack that my father handed over to Rich, but a thriving company. It was always too much for my father to handle on his own, so the expectation was that Xander, my older brother, would become CEO, and I would become the company’s CFO. He’s a year ahead of me in school, having returned after a semester much as I am now. He’s been taking online courses and of course, he’s managed to find his mate, bond with her and her two siblings who she was raising, and now he has a pup, one on the way, he still goes to school and is working part-time at the company. I’m not sure how he does it, but I’m sure if I found my mate and she was willing to give me a pup right away, I’d figure it out too.
I talked to my father over the last couple of days, wanting to buy an apartment at the office building. Xander bought both of the penthouse condos in the building, making it into a large family home. Now that Maeve is working in the building as well and they’ve instituted a nursery, everything is all right there for them.
So, when I talked to my father, I told him I wanted an apartment with an option to stretch out when I found my mate and we started a family. We talked a lot about placement within the building and where I want to be located. I think he’s basically planning to buy out the entire building eventually. At this point, we own the top half of the building, but we continue to grow with lone wolves and now witches working for us and needing a place to live outside of the packs or the covens.
He told me we’d meet later this week to talk about it and we’ll also be talking with Xander about buying out the entire building. Personally, I think it’s a good idea. As the CFO, I’ll have to crunch the numbers and see how it comes together, but I’ve done some rough numbers in my head, and I think it will actually be mor profitable if we do buy out the building, rather than paying rent to someone else for the apartments that our wolves and witches need. I’m sure there are others, not just the witches, who need our help. We, the mates and children of the Guardians, are just as responsible for helping those in need as our mothers and sisters are. Both of my parents have drilled that into me, and all of us, since we were young. It’s not only what good Alphas do, but also what Guardians do. I may not have the special gifts that my sisters do, but I’m still an Alpha and the son of a Guardian.
I sigh, turning around, ready to head back to my empty apartment. It’s late, very late. You’d never know it by the street that is still crowded with people, milling about drinking, dining, and dancing. None of that interests me at all. Not until I’ve found her, my mate.
As I turn back to our office building, I think about my current apartment. It’s not bad, it’s just not what I want for a family. Maybe it’s premature of me to think about getting a larger place. What if my mate doesn’t want to live in the city? My father didn’t. He commuted so that my mother could live in the pack.
I’ve just started re-evaluating my decision when Baron sits up in my head.
‘Baron?’ I ask him, a moment before the wind blows and I smell it, smell her. The men in my family, all of them, love fruity scents. My mother smells like raspberries, Rich’s mate smells like peaches and Xander’s mate smells like strawberries. I always new that my mate would smell like fruit, I just wasn’t sure which one. But now I know, my mate smells like the sweetest, juiciest pear I’ve ever smelled.
I lift my nose in the air, drinking in her scent. She’s heading my way. She smelled me. My mate is coming to me so I stand still, waiting for her.
I open my eyes, ready to accept her, no matter what, when she literally slams into me.
“Mmmm, hello beautiful,” I murmur, wrapping my arms around her.
It takes a moment for me to realize that overlaying her scent of juicy pear is the scent of fear. My mate is terrified.
I pull back, looking down into her big aquamarine eyes.
“Please. Please, help me!” she says. I look over her head and see several wolves hunting my mate. My human mate.
I snarl, pushing her behind me.
How did I ever get myself into his mess? Oh right, I fell for the wrong man. He was so attractive, so charming, until he wasn’t. He was a prince, until he became a nightmare. All those things you worry about as a kid, all the things that go bump in the night, they’re real. Werewolves are real. I know because I’ve been forced to live with them now for several months.Alec was everything a young woman dreams of when she finds ‘the one’. He’s smart, charismatic, and he seemed to really be into me. We dated for a short time, but it was intense. He wanted to be around me all the time and I loved the attention. After a life in foster care, never having anyone who truly cared about me, I fell for it; hook, line, and sinker. In hindsight, he didn’t even have to give me that much attention. I thought he was being gentlemanly not wanting to sleep with me, but it turns out, he never wanted me for sex. He wanted a slave.When he’d ‘confessed’ to being a werewolf, he said he wanted me to know ever
Did he say Guardians? Isn’t that what Alec and his friends were saying before? Something about twins finding their mates?When the man, Cayden, crouches into a fighting stance, I don’t even have to duck to stay hidden behind him. Whether that was intentional on his part or he’s just that tall, I don’t know, but I stay behind him, my hands looping into the back of his pants. If Alec tries to tear me away, at least I have something to hold onto.“We just want the girl, Alpha Cayden. She’s part of our pack and she’s distraught. We need to get her home and take care of her.”Alpha? Oh no!“Distraught…” he says as if he’s rolling the word around in his head but it’s not making sense. “Yeah, I might go with terrified, not distraught, based on her scent. So, I’m guessing that whatever you boys did, she didn’t like it. She’s run from you and now she’s asked for my help. If you know who I am, then you know I won’t say no to helping her or anyone that asks for my assistance,” he growls.I’m not
My little mate is about as skittish as she can be. I’m not sure how she’ll feel about staying in my apartment, but it’s the safest place for her. As much as I want to know about her and what happened to her, I also feel the need to take care of her.‘WE feel the need to take care of her,’ Baron says.Baron has been thrashing in my head ever since that Alpha, his Beta, and the other warriors came charging after our mate. I don’t know why they want her or what they did to her, but I’ll be contacting Rich to find out everything he knows about Alpha Alec.Her stomach hasn’t stopped rumbling and it makes me wonder how long it’s been since she’s eaten. As we wait for the food, I casually look over her body, noticing the bruises, the scrapes, the dried and cracked skin on her fingers and the cracked fingernails with dried blood that look like she’s chewed them down to the quick. All of that is making it harder for me to keep Baron under control and to remain calm. But she’s a human. I need t
I’m not sure why this guy takes me asking him for help so seriously. I asked because I needed to get away from Alec. But he seems to be taking it to mean I need food, clothing, and a place to sleep. I do, but I don’t understand why this guy is making it his problem. He could have let me go after Alpha Alec walked away, but he didn’t.Since I learned my lesson, that trusting werewolves is dangerous to my well-being, I follow the guy, Cayden, when he goes to make a phone call. I hear him talking to others about coming here. I’m already outmatched with this guy, but if he has someone coming to get me, who knows where I’ll end up. It could be worse than what happened with Alpha Alec.I think quickly, rushing into the kitchen as quietly as I can. When I hear him call my name, I lift the pan over my head that was thankfully sitting on the stove. If I can just knock him out, even for a few minutes, I can get away. Once the others arrive, there will be no escape for me. As soon as I see his h
I grind my teeth as my mate breaks down into the most gut-wrenching sobs I’ve ever heard.‘Cayden, who is she?’ my brother asks in the mind link.‘My mate.’He nods, watching his mate and mine.“Come on. Why don’t we go into the other room and relax for a moment. Sometimes Alphas forget what a strong presence they have,” Emlyn says to Madelyn, gently scolding her mate. She turns and gives him a look before leading Madelyn into my bedroom and a moment later, I hear the water turn on.Rich gives her a contrite look before turning to me as they walk into the other room.“What pack?” Rich asks, gesturing for me to sit. “Oh, pizza. I’m starving.”“Help yourself. They’re wings, too,” I say as we sit. “Alpha Alec. Do you know him?”“Hmm,” he says, taking a bite of food as his eyes stare off while he thinks.‘Cayd, did you get her some clothes?’ Emlyn asks in the mind link.I hop up, grabbing the bag and a bottle of water and taking it into the bedroom.I see Madelyn sitting on the side of th
Emlyn’s story is remarkable. Everything she says sounds like it comes out of a fairy tale, well, except the part where Alpha Rich and Cayd’s mother was held by a vampire prince for years, and Emlyn’s mother was ejected from the pack by her father because he didn’t think she had a wolf, or that human hunters came to kill them. None of that sounds like a fairy tale, but the rest of it does.I learned that elves really do exist and one of their friends is the Queen of the Fae. Seriously, all the things that you grow up reading about, the fairy tales and the things that go bump in the night…every one of them really does exist.What I find the most interesting is the history of the Guardians and how, throughout time, they weren’t allowed to be with their fated mates because the Alphas wanted them for power. It wasn’t until their parents’ generation that Guardians were able to be with their fated mates and now, the Guardian line is being passed down genetically through the females. I guess
I could kiss my brother. While I feel nearly incapacitated with my desire to help my mate but fearing that I would scare her, Xander swoops in to save the day.Since we’re all standing, I look at my mate. “I’m guessing horror movies aren’t your thing?”She shakes her head, no.“Maeve wouldn’t allow that in our house anyway. We’ll be lucky if we don’t have to watch some children’s witchy movie like Sleeping Beauty.”“Sleeping Beauty didn’t have witches,” Madelyn says, frowning.“Tell that to my mate. Those sprite things…what are they called, Cayd?”“Fairy godmothers,” I say, watching Madelyn. Her heart rate has gone down since Rich left. I’ll need to warn my father to monitor his Alpha aura around her. Maybe if I tell him to act like she’s one of the twins, he’ll get the picture. Of all of us, the twins, who look and act the most like our mother, have always been treated more gently than the rest of us.“My mate says the fairy godmothers aren’t fairies at all, they’re witches,” he says