Guardian's Mate

by Jennifer Ashley

  Rae opened her arms to take Ezra’s attack. When the wolf leapt on her, she closed herself around him and held on tight.

  Ezra’s leap sent both of them to the deck. Zander reached down to drag Ezra off Rae but Rae frantically shook her head.

  “No. Leave him alone. Let me.”

  She had to gasp the words, barely able to breathe with a massive wolf crushing her. Zander’s growls escalated but he took a step back. He understood what she was trying to do.

  Rae warmed despite the situation. No one in her life had read her intentions and understood them as quickly as Zander had just now.

  She held tightly to Ezra, keeping her face from his snarling muzzle while she smoothed his fur. Rae stroked firmly, making him feel her touch, attempting with her hands to mimic how a mother or father wolf might lick a frightened cub. At the same time, Rae relaxed her body under him, letting Ezra know she wasn’t trying to trap him.

  Ezra snarled, his claws digging into the deck, but he shuddered, his frenzy easing. Zander stood by, his strong bare feet next to Rae somehow comforting.

  Rae continued to stroke Ezra’s fur, feeling him shiver. The man had lost his only family today, the highest member of his pack. Ezra would now have to be alpha; leader, but leader of no one. He was alone, which was a horrible state for a wolf Shifter. Bears had a little easier time in solitude but wolves and Felines needed the presence of others to survive. Even being bottom of the pack, as Rae was considered in her foster family, was better than being alone. Hence Ezra had stared into the waves and decided a watery grave might be a better fate.

  “You’re not alone, you know,” Rae said to him. The engine, wind, and water made plenty of noise, but Rae could murmur right into his sensitive wolf ears. “Not packless. You have us. We’re your pack. We fought together, didn’t we? Now we’re on the run. Together.”

  Ezra gave another growl at Rae’s announcement that she, Zander, and Piotr were now Ezra’s pack, but it was a growl of annoyance. His despair had ebbed.

  He wriggled, trying to loosen Rae’s hold but Rae, even then, refused to let Ezra go. She ran both hands down his back, continuing to emulate mama wolf. She jerked her chin at Zander, indicating that he should get down here and pet Ezra too.

  Zander sent her a look of irritation but he took the hint. He folded down next to Rae, his sweatpants tightening over his thighs as he put his large hand on Ezra’s shoulder.

  “There, there,” Zander rumbled. “Good dog.”

  Ezra’s ears flattened. He turned his head and put his teeth on Zander’s arm.

  “Not helping,” Rae said. “Ignore him, Ezra. He’s a shit.”

  Zander chuckled. “Easy, wolf. I’m teasing you. Rae is right. You’re in our pack now. A weird pack, but a pack all the same.”

  Piotr, who had slowed the boat to let it drift, leaned on the doorframe of the wheelhouse. “We do drinking game together,” he said to Ezra. “That means we are family.”

  Ezra growled again. He’d relaxed a long way though and didn’t bite down on Zander. Finally, he withdrew his mouth from Zander’s arm and climbed stiffly to his feet.

  Rae let him go. Ezra shook himself, moved about six inches away from Rae, and then lay down again, still wolf, right against Rae’s side.

  Zander’s hand on Rae’s shoulder was comforting. “You all right?” he asked her.

  “Perfectly fine.” Rae let him help her sit up. Zander’s fingers held strength that warmed Rae all the way through. “He wasn’t going to hurt me.”

  “Didn’t look like it from where I was standing.” Zander’s frown was fierce, made more so by the scratches all over his torso. “Don’t ever do that again.”

  Rae opened her mouth to argue with him, then she closed it. The look in Zander’s eyes was odd, a mixture of fear and anger, of possessiveness and self-deprecation. He looked away when Rae caught his gaze, as though he didn’t want her to read him.

  Ezra was gazing out to sea again, his wolf face wearing a resigned expression. Sure he needed a pack, the expression said, but look at the one he’d been stuck with.

  Rae stroked Ezra’s head, resisting scratching behind his ears. There was only so much a wolf would put up with. “Anyway, Ezra, if you’d jumped into the sea, I might not have been able to find you to dust you.”

  Ezra’s scowl returned, wrinkling his brow. He obviously hadn’t thought of that. He let out a sad huff and lowered his head between his paws.

  Zander cupped Rae’s shoulder again and cranked to his feet. “Now that the drama’s over, let’s eat. I’m starving.”

  * * *

  Sandwiches again. Zander handed around the last of them as they sat out on deck, enjoying the Alaskan summer night, the sun barely below the horizon. Stars pricked out, only the brightest ones against dusky blue. Zander had stopped the boat, saving the fuel, but there were no other crafts on the horizon. For now, they were alone again.

  Rae had never seen the sky like this. They had deep, dark skies in Montana, but they also had trees, hills, and mountains. The entire bowl of the heavens spreading from horizon to horizon was a new experience for her.

  Ezra had gone to the bow to shift to human in privacy, and dressed in the clothes Zander had laid there for him. Since Zander was so much bigger than Ezra, the sweatpants and T-shirt were baggy on him, but Ezra didn’t complain. Now he sat with his back to the pilot house, his bare feet on the deck as he silently chewed through a roast beef sandwich.

  “Marny’s,” Piotr said, looking at the wrapper. “He does a mean sandwich.”

  “I’ll never be able to go back there,” Zander said, mournful. He’d pulled on a black T-shirt, hiding the gouges Ezra had left in his chest, most of which, Rae had seen, had already started to heal. Even in his despair, Ezra had mitigated his attack. “I think I’ve burned Homer and surrounding towns for me.”

  Piotr shrugged. “Who knows? When I go home, I put in a good word for you.”

  Unworried, the human man continued to eat, the fact that he was surrounded by two wolves and a bear not bothering him at all.

  Rae watched him. “You don’t seem concerned that we’re Shifters,” she said.

  Piotr shrugged. “We are all God’s creatures. Not your fault that evil demons decided to make you.”

  Ezra grunted a laugh but didn’t speak.

  “We’re the Goddess’s creatures,” Rae corrected him, deciding that what Zander had told her as they’d argued about this made sense. “Even if evil people like the Fae made us for evil reasons.”

  Piotr wiped his mouth with a paper napkin. “You pagans one day will see the error of your ways and return to the fold.”

  Zander growled. “Rae, do not get him started on religion. He can argue all night and on through the next day. Just let him win.”

  “Speaking of that,” Rae said, glancing at Ezra. “We need to send Ezra’s dad off.”

  “I don’t have anything to burn,” Ezra said. “I got into a bar fight and lost everything in my pockets.”

  “Not everything,” Piotr said. “I saw your wallet fall and I picked it up.”

  Ezra gave him a stunned look. “You did?”

  “Indeed. You might be a pagan creature made by demons, but you need what’s important to you. Besides, the police would have traced you if they found your ID.” Eyes twinkling, Piotr went back to his sandwich.

  “He’s not bad,” Ezra said to Zander. “For a human.”

  Piotr snorted behind the wrapper as he took another big bite.

  “What we need to do,” Zander said, crumpling his empty paper and wiping his mouth, “is find Ezra a mate.”

  He studied Rae thoughtfully and she looked back at him in alarm. “Hey, don’t look at me.”

  Ezra glared at Zander. “She’s a Guardian,” he said, then he looked abashed. “No offense, Rae.”

  “None taken,” Rae said quickly. “Don’t worry; I’m not ready for a mate. I’m only a few years past my Transition.”

  Zander’s attention was entirel
y on Rae, something in his dark eyes she couldn’t decipher. “You plan on sowing your wild oats, do you?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never had the chance.” Rae met his gaze without worry. “I’d been thinking about starting my wild life when I was picked up and dumped here.”

  “Yeah, well, I was perfectly happy fishing on my own before you were dumped on me,” Zander returned. “I was thinking more of taking Ezra back to your Shiftertown. There are larger numbers of females inside Shiftertowns than out in the wild.”

  Ezra gave him an incredulous look. “Collared females. You want to slap a Collar on me, bear?”

  “Don’t worry, they’ll give you a fake one,” Zander said. “Admit it. You need a mate. Someone to look after you.”

  Ezra huffed. “Speak for yourself. You live like a feral.”

  Zander rose. The breeze molded his T-shirt to his torso. “I do not live like a feral.” He pointed to his mouth. “See? No foam.”

  “Zander isn’t wrong,” Rae said. The forlorn look in Ezra’s eyes tugged at her heart. “We need pack to survive. Even if the pack isn’t blood family, we need others. That’s why we agreed to live in Shiftertowns.”

  “Sure,” Ezra returned with scorn. “You do know that if Zander lived in a Shiftertown, he wouldn’t be allowed to have this boat. He couldn’t travel and heal other Shifters—he’d be confined and cut off. Doesn’t matter how many ‘pack’ are around him—he’d die like that.”

  “Yeah, but I’m a bear.” Zander folded his arms and peered off the stern. “We hate the indoors. Lupines, now, like a crowd.”

  Rae looked up the length of his body, taking her time to enjoy every inch. “You can’t hate the indoors—you hibernate in a den all winter.”

  “With carpets and satellite TV.” Zander flashed her a grin. “Actually I hang out in a town all winter and enjoy myself. But I know another place you can go, Ezra, that’s not a Shiftertown. Well, it’s sort of a Shiftertown. It’s a Shifter community for un-Collared Shifters. A secret one.”

  Rae glanced at Piotr, but he was staring up at the stars, seemingly uncaring. Zander obviously trusted him with Shifter secrets. That must either make Piotr an extraordinary human being or Zander a great fool. Zander acted the fool sometimes, Rae had seen, but he wasn’t one. His carelessness hid something thoughtful and watchful. Therefore, she concluded, Piotr must be trustworthy.

  Ezra, not so certain, lowered his voice. “If you mean Kendrick’s crew, I refused to join him twenty years ago. What makes you think he’d welcome me now?”

  “Because he’s a good guy, underneath it all,” Zander said. “He’s got a mate now, and already expecting another cub. We’ll head that way. Piotr? You in or out?”

  Piotr heaved a regretful sigh. “Out. I would love to go on adventures with you, my friend, but my wife would hunt me down. I have a boat to run, a family to feed . . .”

  Zander looked amused. “You can’t wait to get home and warm yourself with your pretty wife, and you know it. You can admit it here. Shifters know exactly how wonderful it is to be with a female. We can go on and on about it.”

  “And on,” Rae confided to Piotr. “And on.”

  Piotr grinned at Rae and nodded. “You say the truth, bear. My wife is like no other. I will radio a friend to rendezvous with us and pick me up.”

  He went into the pilot house to the radio, as they were out of cell range by now. Zander gathered up the sandwich wrappings and disappeared into the cabin belowdecks. Rae lifted the Sword of the Guardian that had sat next to her and followed him down.

  “I need to talk to you,” she said.

  Zander swung around from where he’d dumped the sandwich trash into the garbage. Under the low ceiling, his bulk seemed larger, filling Rae’s personal space. He put his hand on the ceiling, which tightened every sinew on his arm.

  “About what?” he asked.

  His voice was quiet, unlike the loud rumble he’d used outside. He and Rae had been utterly alone on this boat last night and this morning but for some reason she felt more alone with him now, inside the cabin with Piotr and Ezra on deck.

  “Something happened to the sword,” Rae said in a rush. Her heart pounded as his gaze sharpened. “I think I broke it.”

  Zander’s frown deepened. “You can’t break the Sword of the Guardian.”

  “I’m pretty sure I did anyway.”

  Rae gingerly pulled it from its sheath and laid the sword and sheath on the cushioned bench beside her. The crack was visible, a sharp serrated line across the silver blade.

  “It’s stopped humming too,” Rae said, her nervousness growing. “I haven’t heard it singing—whatever it does—since it split.”

  “Hmm.” Zander’s eyes narrowed as he leaned to study the sword. “Nope, I don’t hear it either.”

  “What am I going to do?” Rae put her hands to her cheeks. “How do I go back and tell my dad that I broke the Sword of the Guardian?”

  “It isn’t broken.” Zander reached a broad finger to touch the split. “Just cracked.” Slowly he closed his hand around the hilt and lifted the sword.

  The sword shuddered, gave a sound like tink, and the bottom half of the blade dropped to the bench.

  Both of them stared in horror at the silver pieces, the hilt and top half of the blade still in Zander’s hand.

  “Okay, now it’s broken,” Zander said.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “What do we do?” Rae asked.

  She was looking at Zander as though he knew everything about Swords of the Guardians and how to make them magically heal. Maybe she did think that—he was a healer, and the sword was almost alive.

  Why had the sword jerked and broken apart when he touched it? Why had it broken at all? The things were supposed to be indestructible.

  “Goddess, I hate magic,” he growled.

  Rae’s fetching scowl returned. “You’re a healer full of magic from the Goddess.”

  “I know. Don’t think that isn’t a bitch to live with.” Zander studied the sword again. “I might know a guy who can fix it.”

  Rae’s expression turned to perplexity. “What do you mean you know a guy? It’s a Sword of the Guardian. Eight hundred years old. They don’t make them anymore.”

  “I know that, but he works with metal. A frigging genius with it.”

  Rae’s bafflement continued, then she looked morose. “Daragh would be so pissed off if he knew I broke his sword.”

  Her unhappiness poured from her. Zander had noticed that whenever she mentioned this dead Guardian, Rae’s tone held respect, even a touch of awe. She’d had a high estimation of Daragh . . . maybe even infatuation, as he’d thought when she’d first come aboard.

  “Were you in love with Daragh?” Zander asked abruptly.

  Rae blinked, then she turned a brilliant red. “No!” she said in a near yell. “What the hell are you asking me that for?”

  Zander shrugged, tightening inside. “You really admired the guy and you get mad whenever I bring him up . . .”

  Rae’s eyes sparkled, her glumness gone. “He was a friend. When I was a cub, Daragh was one of the few besides my dad who accepted me. He helped me fit in with the rest of Shiftertown. Of course I get upset when I think about him. He was killed by humans—shot dead. It was horrible . . .” She trailed to a halt, her breath coming fast. “All right, when I was younger, I admit I had a big crush on him. I thought that maybe when I was old enough he’d mate-claim me. It never happened.” She shook her head. “But I can’t help thinking that maybe if I’d convinced him to mate-claim me, I’d have been with him when the humans caught him. I could have fought beside him. The two of us could have defeated a couple humans, even ones with guns . . .”

  She broke off, her throat working. Her pain, guilt, and regret pushed at Zander, stirring the empathic part of his healing gift like static crackling a cat’s fur.

  “It’s not your fault,” Zander said quickly. “How can humans shooting him be your fault?”

  �
�I know I’m not to blame. I know that here.” Rae jammed her fingers to her temple. “But it doesn’t help. If I’d been with him . . .” She gave Zander a helpless look. “When the Goddess Chose me, I couldn’t help thinking it was a punishment for me not looking after him. Daragh was my best friend.” Tears trickled from her eyes and silently down her cheeks.

  “Rae. Sweetheart.”

  Zander put his arms around her and drew her close. Rae resisted at first, her fists on his chest, but gradually she stilled and leaned her cheek on his T-shirt.

  Zander recalled how she’d gone into near frenzy when they’d fought at the bar, how she’d rushed at the guy with the shotgun when common sense should have told her to run the other way. She’d swung the sword at the gun, for the Goddess’s sake, trying to keep the man from shooting Zander.

  To make up for not saving Daragh? Zander wondered. Or had she simply been reacting to the fight?

  Rae had smacked the shotgun in the man’s hands and broken the sword doing it. Zander remembered the clanking sound that had vibrated through his body, though he’d been too busy to pay attention to it at the time.

  She’d broken the sword trying to save him.

  “Little Wolf.” Zander gathered her close, his hand coming up under her loose braid. Her hair was warm, nice to caress.

  Rae lifted her head, and Zander gazed down into eyes like smoke. She rose to him at the same time he leaned down to her, and their mouths met in a soft kiss.

  Her lips were a place of warmth and incredible tenderness. Neither of them moved, their mouths fused in a silent stillness, their bodies flowing together as though they’d been waiting all their lives for this.

  Zander’s hand tightened on Rae’s neck, fingers splaying against her hair. The beads on one of his braids brushed his hand, a cool contrast to the heat of her.

  Rae’s fist balled on his chest, but not to push him away. She sought strength, comfort.