Chapter 1: Reagan

**This book is the 8th in the Guardian's Next Generation series and 12th in the overall Guardian series. It can be read as a standalone novel, but scenes and historical incidents will be referenced without going into full detail of what happened. It is recommended that you begin the series at the beginning with The Broken Warrior's Daughter.**

Reagan

“Are you excited about your birthday?” my best friend Meadow asks me.

We’re sitting in my bedroom at my parents’ house. We alternate between my house and hers in the city where she lives with her sister, Maeve, and my brother, Xander. It’s a toss up as to which house is more uncomfortable to stay at; mine because you’d think my parents were rabbits instead of werewolves, and Meadow’s because Xander and Maeve just had twins, increasing the size of their family to seven. They’ve only been together three years, but that hasn’t stopped Maeve from pushing out pups as fast as Xander can give them to her. And that doesn’t even include Maeve’s and Meadow’s younger brother, Tate. It’s crowded and loud at her house.

We used to be able to spend time with my brother Cayd who also lives in the city, but now that he’s found his mate, it’s like he and Xander are in a contest to see who can give their mates pups faster.

“In some ways, yes. I mean, it will be nice to find him and share the love that we see with the others.”

“What’s the ‘no’ part of the sentence?” she asks. She’s currently spinning some of her witchy lights around in front of her. She’s been practicing using color and light and blending them together. She’s actually a pretty fantastic witch. Her family is descended from very powerful witches who were murdered because they refused to work for some terrible witch. Somehow, Maeve was able to hide the fact that she was underage, raising her sister and brother alone. That is, until Xander found her. He’d taken her under his protection and therefore the protection of the pack and that’s how I met my bestie. We clicked right away and we’ve never looked back.

I look at her until she focuses on me. “What in the Moon Goddess’ realm would have ever made my dad or Rich think that I would want all this pomp and circumstance for my birthday?” I ask her.

My brother, Rich, has been Alpha of our pack for nearly six years. He’s a great Alpha. It wasn’t a seamless transition into his role, and I know there was a time when my father was ready to take the pack back from him. But he got it together and since then, he and his mate, Emlyn, have run this pack in near perfection.

My father calls Rich and I his bookends, the only two children out of seven that take after him. My other brothers and sisters are very much like our mother, and I have a lot of her traits too, but like Rich, I prefer sparring to putting on fancy clothes.

Even though I’m young, I’m very strong. Part of that is because I am my father’s daughter. But the biggest part of that is because I’m the daughter of a Guardian. My mother’s wolf, Alessia, is blessed by the Moon Goddess with the Guardian spirit. That blessing has passed to all of her daughters and the daughters of the other Guardians, Aunt Grace and Aunt Cara. It makes us stronger than Alphas, including our Alpha brothers who are stronger than most.

“You’re the last available Guardian in this generation, Reagan. You know the history, how Alphas used to force the Guardians into mate bonds to make themselves stronger. And look at your sister and Lily, they’re both queens now, one the Queen of Vampires and the other the Queen of the Fae. Maybe your mate will be a prince or a king and you’ll become a queen too.”

I frown at my friend. “Do you even know me at all?”

She laughs, letting her balls of light spread all over the room. “So, what? You’d prefer a muscle-bound Alpha who is a fighter to some nearly immortal royal?”

The truth is, I don’t really know what I want besides having someone who loves me the way my father loves my mother. I already know that no matter who my mate is, I’ll be stronger than he is, so does it really matter if he’s wolf, vampire, fae, or warlock? Probably not. But for me, I feel drawn to the packs. I like living in the forest, letting my wolf, Alayla, run hard and fast, smelling the scents of the world around us.

“I think I’d prefer a wolf mate. I love forest. I don’t want to leave and I definitely don’t want to live in the city. That place is hideous.”

“So, an Alpha ...” she says, as if thinking. Her lights begin moving again and as I watch, they begin to form the figure of a man, a tall, very muscular man.

“Do you really think that anyone is going to be more muscular than the sons of the Guardians?” I ask her, watching as the muscles on the image continue to increase in size. “Big doesn’t always mean strong, you know,” I tell her.

“Hmmm, true,” she says and the muscles begin to decease into someone whose muscular body looks deceptively lean with ropey muscles along his arms and legs. I know from experience that these are the fighters who are lethal. The big ones rely on their brawn and because of that, they don't use their head in a fight, making them easy to take down. The ones who are underestimated are the ones you have to watch out for. They not only have strength, but they use their brain in a fight.

“And since we know that you like the tall, dark, and handsome look, let’s give our guy dark hair,” she says. She’s right. My entire family has either my mother’s white-blond hair or my father’s sandy-blond hair. For me, I prefer the opposite – dark and dangerous. She continues working on the image in front of us, giving his face the chiseled features of an Alpha, with a dangerous look to his eyes.

“There you go! That’s him. When we find the guy who looks like this, I’ll take him,” I say.

Meadow looks over her creation, tilting her head back and forth. “I don’t know, Rea, I might have to fight you for this one.”

One of the reasons that Meadow and I have remained friends is our mutual respect for the other’s strengths. Meadow may not be a fighter like I am, but she’s a very powerful witch. In a fight between the two of us, I’m not sure I would win. I do know it would be one hell of a battle. That equality of strength, along with an innate desire to help others, to protect the weak, is what has forged our unbreakable friendship.

“Rock, paper, scissors?” I ask, teasing. She and I do share a type. I like dark and dangerous, and she likes dark and broody.

I watch as she splits the image into two. “How about twins instead?” she asks.

“Who are they?” my father asks. I turn and see him standing in the doorway of my bedroom.

“Our fake mates,” I say, smiling at him. “Now you and Rich can cancel this stupid party.”

He gives me a pained look. “Are you going to break that news to your mother and sisters? Quinn just gave birth to Little Eli and Malin is pregnant again. If you think I’M telling them to call this off, you can think again. Even Emlyn seems to be getting excited about all of this fanfare. AND, they all start arriving tonight.

I sigh. It was worth a try.

My father frowns at Meadow’s images of the men standing in my room. “So, if I see anyone who looks like this, I need to take him out before you see him?”

Now I chuckle. “You can’t kill my mate, Dad.”

“Are you sure about that?” he asks arrogantly.

“Okay, you probably COULD kill him, but you can’t because he’s my mate. Unless he’s a terrible person and I reject him, then you can kill him,” I shrug.

“Deal,” he says, glaring at Meadow’s images again.

“Did you need something, Dad?” I ask him.

“Yeah, I wanted to know if you wanted to spar before everyone starts arriving.”

I hop up excitedly. “I absolutely do!”