Guardian's Mate

by Jennifer Ashley

  “There’s a contingent of Goddess fanatics in our Shiftertown,” Rae said darkly. “My father leaves them alone as long as they don’t harass others, but they’re growing in popularity. Shifters are afraid of the Fae, and the Goddess fanatics are promising they have a solution, even if it’s only more chanting in circles.”

  Zander looked troubled. “Eoin’s letting this happen? Hmm. Probably smart of him, I guess—if he suppressed Goddess worship, that would backfire on him.” He rubbed the towel over his hair, the beads in it clinking softly. “Understand why I live alone now? What a pain in the ass.”

  “Shifters aren’t meant to be alone.” Rae watched him squeeze water from each braid, liquid dribbling to the clean floor. “I didn’t learn that by living in a Shiftertown. It’s the truth. We hang on to family and keep near our extended clans. Well, most Shifters do. I don’t know what my clan is—no one ever found out who my parents were,” she finished wistfully.

  “But you were lucky, Little Wolf.” Zander sounded sympathetic. “You were welcomed into Eoin’s clan. He has a lot of affection for you—I saw that.”

  Rae nodded, softening at the mention of her father and his kindness. “He’s taken good care of me. But no Lupine wants to mate-claim me, in case it turns out I’m from his clan, too closely related. That means if I want to mate, I have to take a Feline. Or a bear.” She gave Zander a dubious glance.

  Zander burst out laughing. “The look on your face when you said that . . .” He laughed for a while then let it die away. “If you don’t have a choice, Little Wolf, better get over it and accept a Feline mate.”

  “Huh. Felines and bears aren’t exactly falling all over themselves to mate-claim me either,” Rae said, tasting bitterness. “Shifters don’t like people they know nothing about. And now that I’m a Guardian . . .”

  “They’re avoiding you like the plague. I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

  Zander did sound sorry for her. Like he understood—the first person to ever since the fateful day of the Choosing.

  “Everyone needs the Guardian.” Rae folded her arms and leaned against the table. “They go on about how wonderful it is to have one, how sacred is the sword, how the Goddess touches her own. But a Guardian walks near them and they all but run away.”

  Rae had seen that happen to Daragh, and now it was happening to her. Daragh had taken it in his stride—nothing seemed to faze him. But then, Daragh had been a male and had been Chosen long before they’d been rounded up into Shiftertowns.

  Rae had received everything from outright hostility—rants to Eoin that Rae had to be sent out of Shiftertown for everyone’s sake—to Shifters crossing the road when they saw her coming.

  “They don’t want to be reminded of their own mortality,” Zander said, pulling the blanket closer around him. “We’re not vampires—we don’t live forever. Hell, even vampires don’t live forever—at least not the ones I’ve met. The same kind of thing happens to me. Shifters want to be healed but whenever a Shifter sees me coming, they know whoever I’m there for is a long way gone and might not make it even with my help. When I can’t save them, they blame me and run me off.” He let out a breath. “That doesn’t bug me so much as not being able to heal the Shifter. But I can’t save everyone.”

  The note of grief in his voice was raw. Zander had an incredible gift, so Eoin had told her. The fact that he’d lost people in spite of that gift obviously hurt him deeply.

  Rae wanted to comfort him. She didn’t know how Zander would take it if she tried to touch him or hug him, to soothe him in the Shifter way. Her brothers, when they were cubs, hadn’t always wanted her touch. Not because they didn’t like her, but when they were at their most distressed they wanted their true family, their pride and clan.

  It had stung to watch her brothers seek each other and Eoin, not her, but Rae had come to understand. There was magic in family bonds that Rae didn’t share. So, she’d learned how to comfort by distracting them.

  “Wait,” Rae said, deciding to go with distraction. “You’ve met vampires?”

  Zander absently rubbed his hair with the towel. “Sure. One was a good guy. The other, kind of a bastard.”

  “Vampires are real? You mean that seriously.”

  “Yep. They aren’t Fae made, not High-Fae made anyway. They don’t have Goddess magic. They’re the creations of ancient demons, beings defeated by the High Fae a long time ago. We were made as the Fae’s battle beasts—you could say the vampires were the demons’ battle beasts. Vamps propagate like we do—you know, sex and offspring—so they stuck around even when their masters died off. Except it’s much harder for vampires to survive in this world. They need to feed on human blood, while Shifters just need burgers and beer.”

  Rae stared at him in surprise. “Are you making this up?”

  “Nope.” He gave her a fleeting grin. “I really have met vamps, two of them, each when they tried to take a chomp out of me. I hang out alone, so I’m a good target. I might be big, but to a strong vampire, that’s nothing. Surprised the hell out of them when I turned out to be Shifter.”

  Rae’s curiosity flared. “What happened? Did you kill them? Is that why you said they didn’t live forever?”

  “The one who’s the good guy is living in Canada. Toronto, last time I checked. He goes to butchers and drinks cow blood. The other—yeah, I had to kill him. I didn’t mind so much that he wanted to suck on my blood, but when he got away from me, he went after a human woman and her kiddies, so I offed him.”

  Zander explained this calmly, as though he’d shrugged, said oh, well, and had broken the vampire’s neck.

  Rae squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. “How is it that I’ve only ever heard of vampires in stories but you walk around bumping into them?”

  Zander moved to towel off his back and the blanket slipped down to hug his hips. “The biggest reason is that vamps avoid Shiftertowns. No vamp is stupid enough to walk into a town full of Fae-bred Shifters who would smell them coming ten miles away. Another reason . . .” He shrugged his large shoulders. “I get around. See the world, meet people.”

  “I’ve never been anywhere but Montana.” Again the wistfulness. Rae loved her life in Montana, hiking with her brothers, Logan and Colin, arguing with them and making up, hanging out with her friends, sleeping in her own bed knowing she was well protected by her father. Safe. Never alone.

  “You’re not in Montana anymore,” Zander pointed out. “How do you like the world?”

  Rae glanced out the open cabin door behind him. “Bigger than I thought it would be.”

  Zander chuckled. “Tell you what, Little Wolf. While we’re training, I’ll take you around, show you some of this world you want to see. Give you a taste of life before you bury yourself back in your Shiftertown.”

  “I like my Shiftertown,” Rae said quickly.

  “I know you do. But you can get tunnel vision if you never go anywhere. You stop thinking.”

  “You mean you don’t have tunnel vision sitting out here in a boat all by yourself?” Rae returned. “What about your family? Your clan? Where are they? Or are you an orphan like me?”

  “Oh, I have a clan.” Zander let the blanket drop all the way. “I stay the hell away from them, and we’re all happy.”

  Rae’s gaze followed the blanket to the floor, her mouth going dry. Zander took up a large part of the cabin, his muscles playing under wet skin as he calmly dropped the damp towel and caught up another dry one.

  He was large but not ungainly, moving with a grace that belied his size. The tats on his biceps and lower back were part of him—the ink had been etched into his skin but didn’t look artificial.

  Rae realized he was watching her, waiting for her response. She snapped her gaze from his flat abdomen and the arrow of dark hair below it to his face, which held amusement.

  “How can you live apart from your clan?” she asked, her voice a croak. “Don’t you miss them?”

  Zander’s eyes flickered and his humo
r died. “Let’s just say I don’t fit in. I think they’re close-minded pains in the ass and they think I’m effing crazy. They tell me I should find some way to get rid of my healing ability and stay in hiding with them. Do nothing all day but fish—eat, fish—eat. We get along much better when we don’t live near each other.”

  Rae wouldn’t have understood that a few weeks ago but she did now. Zander’s clan obviously couldn’t handle the fact that he had Goddess magic. It tingled through him and made him nuts, like the magic was making her. His people probably regarded him in grave suspicion, not understanding why he couldn’t be “normal” like them. Just like the Montana Shifters now did to her.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  Zander stilled, the towel around his neck. He looked down at her, really looked at her, his dark eyes filled with something she couldn’t read.

  “You’re sweet, Little Wolf.”

  The growl had left his voice. For the first time, Zander seemed aware that he was alone with her, truly alone. They were Shifters, unmated, not related, their only tie having been chosen by the Goddess while they’d been standing around minding their own business.

  Shifters had no taboo against an unmated male and female sharing a bed for comfort and sex. It tainted neither of their reputations nor hurt their chances for a permanent mating down the line. As long as Rae wasn’t mate-claimed by another Shifter, both she and Zander were considered fair game.

  The only taboo, apart from stealing someone else’s mate-claimed mate, was having sex with a member of one’s own clan. Shifters had an instinct to not weaken their genetic code by breeding too close to the line, which was why the Lupines in Rae’s Shiftertown avoided her.

  Zander was a bear, purely so, from what Eoin had said, so there was no chance that he was related to her. He was lonely, as was Rae, and she was a long way out of her comfort zone. It would only be natural for them to turn to each other.

  Rae realized in a flash that this was another reason Eoin had sent her out here. If she formed a relationship with Zander, that would solve the problem of finding Rae a mate. Guardians had difficulty as it was—as Zander had said, while Shifters revered Guardians, they didn’t want to be reminded of death every second.

  If Rae mated with Zander, she’d be under his protection, and Eoin could exhale in relief.

  In the moment Rae formed these conclusions, Zander brushed one finger down her cheek.

  Knowing she and Zander were being coerced didn’t change the fire in his touch, didn’t change the heat that ran through Rae.

  She looked up into eyes that weren’t entirely black, as she’d thought, but a very, very dark brown that blended into his pupils. One of his white-colored braids fell forward and touched her shoulder.

  Slowly Rae lifted her hand and placed it on his. A flicker lit Zander’s eyes. He understood.

  He bent to her, drawing closer, his wet lashes sweeping down as he shifted his gaze to her lips. Rae’s heartbeat sped as fire flowed along her spine to fix her in place.

  They moved closer. Zander’s breath touched her, tangling with hers. A droplet of water from his hair trickled across her shoulder, dampening the strap of her tank top. His face was an inch from hers, mouth so close that Rae would only have to lift the tiniest bit for their lips to meet.

  There was strength in his face, in his mouth, and she imagined his kiss would hold as much force, as much deftness, as he’d shown wielding the sword, a weapon that was a work of art.

  Zander closed his hand around hers, bringing it to the space between them to press it to his lips. The light kiss seared her fingers and sent Rae’s heartbeat into numbing swiftness. She needed his touch, his nearness, and she knew she craved it for more than a basic need for comfort.

  A glance into Zander’s eyes told her that he needed the closeness too. They’d hold each other and make everything bad go away, if only for a little while.

  A shrill, buzzing tinkle split the air. Rae jumped. Zander, unmoving, slowly closed his eyes.

  “Fucking cell phones,” he muttered.

  He opened his eyes again, silver glittering in the black, and carefully released Rae’s hand. The chain tatt on the small of his back stretched as he reached to the bench where he’d left his phone.

  He swiped it on and lifted it to his ear. “Go for Zander,” he growled.

  Rae was about to make a quip about lame people who said Go for when they answered their phone but it died when she saw his face.

  All impatience, interest, or teasing drained from him, leaving Zander’s expression absolutely blank. His gaze rested on the wall in front of him, his face unmoving, no warmth in his eyes.

  Rae couldn’t hear the words on the other end, even with her Shifter hearing, as much as she strained to listen. A man, was all she could tell. He was pitching his voice low, likely deliberately, which meant he knew Zander had a Shifter with him.

  One emotion crept back into Zander’s eyes—anger. “Why don’t you use your own?” he snapped. “What’s the point?”

  He listened to the answer and then said, “Yeah, yeah, all right. We’ll be there.”

  Zander ended the call and threw the phone to the bench. When he turned to Rae, she took an involuntary step back. The rage in his eyes burned through him in white-hot heat.

  Rae saw in that moment that while Zander might play the half-insane recluse who only lived to fish, he was in truth a huge, fearsome polar bear, stronger and more ferocious than any bear Shifter she’d ever met. He could have stopped Eoin and Rae coming on board, if he’d decided, with one swat of his giant paw. He’d let them on because he’d chosen to.

  Rae watched Zander suppress his fury and the power that went with it. When he spoke, his voice was level though tinged with sorrow.

  “A Shifter is asking for a Guardian, Little Wolf. We’re the only ones who can get there in time and so that Guardian is going to have to be you.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Zander watched Rae go through a rapid succession of emotions—surprise, disbelief, dismay, anger, terror.

  “Why?” she asked, her gray eyes enormous. “I’m not ready. There are plenty of Guardians who know what they’re doing. Why do they want me?”

  Zander kept his voice as gentle as possible, knowing she could spook any second. “It’s an elderly Shifter, a wolf, out in the country on the Alaskan peninsula, not far from here. He’s un-Collared and doesn’t live in a Shiftertown. All members of their clan have either gone to dust or have been taken to a Shiftertown in the lower forty-eight. He wants a Lupine Guardian, and the son was determined to find one even if it has to be a woman. The lesser of two evils, his son says.” The son had said many more choice words, expressing his fury that he had little alternative. “His dad’s old and highly respected and gets what he wants.”

  Rae shook her head, wisps of hair moving about her face. “There are other Lupine Guardians. The Guardian in the Las Vegas Shiftertown—Neal, I think his name is—is Lupine.”

  “Too far away. We’re close and can get there in time. The Las Vegas Guardian can’t, even if he arranged to fly.”

  Shifters weren’t allowed to fly on commercial airlines—they weren’t allowed to even leave their state without special permission. That said, Shifters were excellent at getting around the rules. There were people out there who would fly Shifters where they needed to go, in secret—like the one who’d flown Eoin and Rae to the sparsely populated, cold island where another human who didn’t mind helping Shifters kept his boat, but it took time and money to set it up. Plus, it was a huge risk. If Neal was caught, he’d be arrested and probably killed.

  “You said we were two hours from Alaska,” Rae pointed out.

  “Probably a bit closer now.” Zander knew she was arguing from fear, willing him to tell her she didn’t have to go. He opened a cupboard and pulled out dry jeans and underwear—the clothes he’d worn to train had shredded and drifted away when he’d turned bear underwater. “We can get to the Lupine before he dies.�
��

  “Can’t you heal him?” Rae asked in rising alarm.

  Zander dropped the towel to slide into the clothes. While a few minutes ago, Rae had gazed at him in hunger, now she only watched, frozen.

  “I plan to try,” Zander said as he zipped and buttoned. “But he’s nearly four hundred years old, which is the upper limit for a Shifter. At this point, keeping him alive might not be the kindest thing to do.”

  “But you’ll at least try,” Rae pleaded, clamping her arms over her chest.

  “I can’t know until I walk into the situation. I promise you, Little Wolf, if he can be healed, I’ll do it.”

  Zander pulled on a dark gray sweatshirt and buckled his belt around his jeans. Rae remained in place, every line of her body tight, as though she’d fall to pieces if she unclenched.

  Zander held out a hand to her. “I’ll be right beside you the whole time. I won’t leave you alone, sweetheart. Promise.”

  Rae regarded his outstretched hand in panic. “Zander, I can’t do this. I’m not ready.”

  “I know you’re scared. But you don’t have to worry. The sword will do the work.” Zander opened the door, still holding out his hand. “Think of it this way—if I can’t heal him with my gift, you can ease his pain with yours. This Shifter will either live today or go cleanly into the Summerland.”

  Rae’s eyes never left his hand. Her chest rose and fell under the ribbed tank, then finally she lifted her head and gave him a tight nod.

  “All right,” she said, without taking his hand. “We’ll go.”

  She snatched up her bulky sweater, not looking at him. Zander curled his fingers to a fist, then led the way out of the cabin and topside.

  * * *

  The boat started to Zander’s touch. It didn’t always—sometimes he had to coax it, swear at it, even go below to the engine and kick it. Today the engine roared to life and the readouts came up without a problem.

  Rae plopped onto a bench as the vessel leapt forward, dropping the sheathed sword next to her.