Chapter 1: Cayden

**This is the seventh book in the Guardian's Next Generation series (eleven in the overall Guardian series). References will be made to events that occurred in the other books without specific detail provided here.*

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.