Midnight Guardian

by Tamara White

  She’s huddled on the floor, her long dark hair shielding her face. It’s torn and unkempt, most likely from weeks of abuse at the hands of the council, or maybe because she’s that good of an actress. I’d like to think she’s innocent, but the council is sneaky, and I wouldn’t put it past them to bring in some kind of performer to try and get us to speak.

  Once the guards are long gone and there are no sounds to indicate they’re listening in, I move over to the edge of my cell bordering on hers.

  I look over her, trying to discern an age or something that could give me a clue if she’s nothing but a trap. She’s still lying on the cold, hard floor, her body shaking with sobs. Rather than say anything, I leave her and move to the side closest to Drake. If the girl wants to talk, she will.

  Drake still seems to be unconscious, which just drives me insane. I need him to wake up, to talk about a way to get out of here. It’s going to be near impossible for us both to escape, but if one of us can get out of here, it’s Drake most likely, then he can find Isobel and convince her to take her place as our Supreme Alpha and overrule the council. She needs to know what she is. To know where she comes from. If all my theories are true, then Isobel is the last of her kind and the beginning of a whole new world for us all.

  Suddenly, Drake shoots up into a sitting position, gasping loudly as he tries to get air into his lungs. The girl in the next cell screams and huddles herself into a tighter ball than before. Not that she matters right in this moment. I squeeze myself against the bars as close to Drake as I can get.

  “Drake, fuck, man, are you okay?” I call, waiting for him to catch his breath.

  His eyes dart around wildly before landing on me in panic. He stumbles to his feet, rushing to me and grabbing the bars. “Please tell me we’re not in the council prison,” he rasps, almost losing his footing.

  His body is weak and it’s not giving me much faith he could survive if he was to escape. He drops to the ground, out of breath, a hacking cough overtaking him. I crouch down and pat him on the back, unsure what to do.

  It’s not like there’s water lying around for him to drink, and I doubt he’d accept an offer to drink the piss in the bucket by the corner of my cell.

  “Ugh, fuck, how long have I been out?” He groans, leaning his head against the cell bars. “My head feels like someone has taken a sledgehammer to it then pounded the remnants into mush with their feet.”

  A chuckle is drawn from my lips because that’s how I felt when I awoke. “Yeah, that’s because of whatever they had in the bullets. I think they may be experimenting with some new drugs, since I’ve never been taken down that fast before.” I let out a sigh and close my eyes. “We need to talk, Drake, quick. They have cameras on us and now that you’re awake, I have no doubt the council will make their presence known.”

  He groans and tries to stand up again. When he’s against the bars, he notices the girl in the other cell, his eyes widening slightly. “Who’s she?”

  I shrug, not glancing back. “Don’t know. They brought her down mere seconds before you woke up. My guess is an actor for the council, but I can’t be sure. Forget about her, Drake. If she isn’t a player, then she’s here for some other reason and that doesn’t concern us right now. What does concern us is you getting the hell out of here before they transfer us to the prison. We need to get you to Isobel.”

  His eyes widen as I speak. His voice lowers as he glances to the girl behind me but there’s no point whispering. If she’s a supe, she’d hear us regardless of how low we spoke.

  “What do you mean me? If we’re getting out, it’s both of us, not just me.”

  “No, I can’t. It’s one of us. The guards only come down one at a time, and they only ever have one key. The time for both would have been when they brought the girl down, but you were still out. We won’t get another chance like that, so the first chance we have, you need to run. I can survive the prison system, you can’t.”

  Drake growls lowly, not liking it one bit. But at the end of the day, he knows as well as I do that he won’t survive among the most hardened people of our society. It’s why they are put away to begin with. To keep from being a threat to all supes.

  “Fuck, fine, what do we do?”

  “I have no fucking clue.”

  He laughs loudly. “Great, we’re fucking doomed.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Isobel

  Tristan is still sleeping when I leave him to meet Ellen outside my dorm room. She raises her eyes when she catches a glimpse of him sleeping in my bed, but she doesn’t say a thing. At least until we’re facing each other in the gymnasium, which is thankfully a place for working out, not just an open area for sports like I’d assumed. There are many different forms of workout machines around the walls of the room, and the middle is empty aside from large, red padded mats made for people to spar on.

  “So, what happened with you and the boy?” she probes, as we start to circle each other predatorily.

  “He’s not a child, Ellen.”

  “Ohhhhhh, a bit defensive there, aren’t you, ducky?” She grins wildly, lunging at me. I dodge her quickly and she aims a kick to my ribs but misses. Barely. The talk about Tristan is distracting me and she knows it.

  “I bet you and the boy were at it like wild animals all night, weren’t you?” she teases, a glint of amusement in her eyes. “The whole dorm was probably listening to the sounds of animals mating and getting off on it, right?”

  I dive at her, taking her to the ground. She easily flips me so I end up on my back, staring up at her smug old face. “Wow, you are really out of sorts over this boy.”

  My animals are all raging at her disrespectful tone toward Tristan and it flips a switch within me. One moment I’m on the ground with Ellen above me, taunting me with her eyes and words, and the next Ellen is against the wall of the gym with blood dribbling from her mouth. Her eyes are filled with pain, but there’s also an edge of amusement, like she’s glad she found the right button to push.

  I back away from her, panting and a little worried by my lack of control. I could have killed her, and she thinks this is nothing more than a game. I should have better control, but to black out in the middle of sparring is not a good thing.

  I shake my head to clear it of the confusing emotions running through me. I don’t know what it is about Tristan, but the need to protect him from harm is so overwhelming. It angers me a lot, but underneath the anger I’m feeling, is fear. Fear for someone hurting him, or hurting him to get to me.

  “Ellen, I don’t know what you were hoping to achieve, but you could have been severely hurt.” I warn, unable to stop my heart from racing.

  “Oh please, I’m fifty-six and a panther. I can handle more than little old you.”

  I step into her, letting the wall between me, my animals, and all the power that lies within me drop just for a second so she understands the true danger. “I may not look like much,” I mutter, the power echoing in my voice, “but you would do well to remember that I’m not like everyone else. You push the wrong buttons, and I’ll kill you. Possibly by accident, but maybe not. I like you Ellen, but in the future, you should watch your words. I don’t take kindly to people who push me. So are you going to stop the questions about Tristan or am I going to have to make you?”

  Fear coats the room, but she doesn’t shrink under my gaze. “I get it, you’re top bitch round here. But you shouldn’t threaten people, Isobel. You said I don’t know who you are yesterday, but you would be stupid to underestimate me, dear girl.”

  The threat from her is very clear and it has me backing up a step. Something tells me she knows more about me than she’s letting on. Which is cause for alarm.

  “Tell me, Ellen, why are you here?”

  She chuckles softly as she moves across the room to grab her water bottle, taking a large drink before turning to me with a grin. “I know who you are, Isobel.”

  I fight not to show any sign of emotion at her words, but m
y body tightens imperceptibly.

  “Oh? And just who do you think I am?”

  She throws her water bottle on her bag and saunters toward me. “You’re Isobel Walker, daughter of John and Madeline Walker. You’re the vigilante that’s been roaming the states for the past six months and has been named Midnight Guardian by those who fear their death by your hands.”

  By now my heart is beating erratically, demanding that I flee. To run from this woman who knows way more than she should. Or kill her to silence the secrets she could share.

  “But that’s not all you are, dear Isobel. You’re my Supreme Alpha, even if you haven’t announced it to our kind yet, though you really should get on that,” she adds as an afterthought.

  “So you’re not a new shifter then, are you?” I sigh in defeat. “What do you want?”

  If she knows all of this, she could have already sent the council after me, but she chose to linger here and get to know me. To ask me to train her of all things. Which means there must be something she wants.

  “It was decided I was to be sent here over any of the big brutes in my Panthera. As for wanting something, it’s not me that wants something. My Panthera Alpha though, well, he wanted me to blackmail you to help him, but I have a feeling you would help us without the blackmail, which is why I’m being honest with you.”

  “Honest? You joined a shifter school for the turned just to get close to me. Doesn’t seem very honest to me.”

  “Technically, I am a new shifter. This mission was a test on my abilities as a shifter of such a late age and a freshly turned. He wanted to see whether I could follow orders as well as a young turned panther, which I guess I don’t, since it hasn’t even been two days since I’ve met you and I told you everything. But I had a feeling if I lied to you, it would break your trust more, and all my Alpha wants is help. I’m trusting my instincts that being truthful and upfront is more likely to win your favor. So, Isobel, was I right? Does being honest make you more likely to help my Alpha and me?”

  Ugh, damn that old woman’s instincts. She was completely right about the fact that I’m more likely to help her for being honest and up front rather than lying. Not that I’m not still pissed about the lying part, but when I have my own secrets to hide, who am I to really complain?

  If she knows about me, and so does her Alpha, then they could still blackmail me into helping regardless. How the hell did her Alpha even found out about me? I’ve tried my best to remain off the grid since leaving the council, but if he’s found out, then who else knows about me?

  “Alright, I’ll meet with your Alpha to discuss helping him. But I make no promises.” Maybe if I meet with him, I can find out just who he has told about my true identity. It could also be the first step I need to take in making sure my plan to take the council down is effective.

  She smiles with relief, her shoulders visibly relaxing. “That’s great. I’ll set it up, but I think he’ll want to meet on the weekend. Possibly sooner if he’s free.”

  I wave her off. “Fine, whatever. Now are we going to spar properly, or can I go back to bed?”

  “Oh, I still want to spar, ducky. That was never a ruse. I just wanted to see if you would explode if I pushed hard enough.”

  Fucking crazy old woman. Who pisses off someone powerful just to piss them off? Doesn’t she have a fear response at all?

  “You’re a crazy old hag, you know that, Ellen?” I gesture to the mat. “Alright, let’s keep this going then. Show me what your panther is made of,” I goad her, cracking my neck side to side.

  She raises her fists in a defensive stance. I do the same and spread my feet apart to keep my balance. “Attack, Ellen. Attempt to break through my defenses.”

  She strikes, her right fist coming for my face, but I easily block her with my forearm. She tries with the left, but quickly follows it with a roundhouse kick aiming for my ribs, only for me to push her foot back and send her stumbling a little.

  “Come on, Ellen. You need to make contact.”

  She growls and comes back at me. She tries the same moves, switching them up occasionally to break through my defenses to get one hit. She even goes so far as dropping to the ground to try and sweep a leg out from under me, but I’m too fast for her. Soon we’re both panting, and Ellen has yet to land a hit.

  Suddenly, she straightens, her eyes brightening as she smiles over my shoulder. “Hey, Tristan. What are you doing here?”

  Son of a bitch. What is he doing here and why didn’t I sense him? I turn to tell him to go back to my room, only to get kicked in the side and punched in the jaw quickly after. My legs come out from under me and I’m so surprised that I land flat on my back, out of breath.

  Ellen comes to hover over me with a triumphant grin. “Tricked ya!”

  I groan at the smugness in her voice and roll to my feet. “Okay, I’ll let you have that round, but only because if you can get an attacker distracted, you would most likely win the fight anyway.”

  “Damn right I would. Though if you were a guy, I would have just titty flashed you. Nothing is more distracting to a male attacker than tits, and even though mine hang lower than my damn belly button, I’m sure they would cause quite the distraction.”

  “Oh my God, Ellen! You have literally just scarred me! Please don’t flash me in an attempt to distract me. Oh dear God, the horror,” I yell dramatically, pretending to shield my innocent eyes all while laughing.

  “Oh, laugh it up, girlie. But when you’ve breastfed a few babies and age decides to be a dick to you, you’ll have tits dragging on the ground too.”

  I chuckle, shaking my head. I don’t know what’s worse, tits dragging on the ground or Ellen flashing me hers.

  “Yeah, well, titty flashing aside, distraction is always the best offense when it comes to a fight where you may be at a disadvantage. Personally, I would just do the old wide-eyed, scared girl look, like there’s a monster behind my attacker. They always get worried there’s a bigger threat behind them.”

  She nods with respect. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. I think I’m done for the day though. I should go and contact my Alpha too. He’ll be pleased to know you’ll at least hear him out.” Her expression turns from serious to mischievous. “And I bet you have a man waiting in your bed for his girl to return.”

  “I’m no one’s girl, Ellen,” I drawl, as I grab my bag and water bottle.

  “Oh, you may think that, dearie, but I saw the way that boy looked at you. You’re his sun, moon, and everything between. Whether you accept it now or not doesn’t mean shit. When you find that in life, you don’t throw it away.”

  I open my mouth to refute her words, not wanting her to get the wrong idea about Tristan and me, but she holds up a hand, stopping me.

  “No, don’t lie and say he means nothing. I can see it a mile away that you’ve been hurt in the past, but if I’ve learned anything in life it’s that if we hold on to that hurt and pain, we’ll never let another in. You need to learn how to let go or you’ll end up alone, and no one deserves such a fate.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Isobel

  It’s been three days since I last saw Ellen. She came to me late in the afternoon after we sparred together and told me she decided to go back home and tell her Alpha of her mistake. She was going to fess up that she laid it all on the line and asked for my help rather than lie to me, which could lead to her being in deep shit with her Alpha. I offered to go with her, but she said it would be best to let her handle it, and so I trusted her. But now I have to wonder if she was lying about being okay. Did her Alpha reprimand her for revealing the whole truth? I don’t even know where to start to find her.

  Then there are the guys. I’ve fucked up with them. Fucked up badly. I let my hormones take charge rather than my common sense.

  The day I returned back to my room and grabbed my stuff to shower, Tristan followed me. I should have told him not to, shut him down, but I didn’t. Only my guilty pleasure didn’t end there, bec
ause of course, Jesse walked in shortly after we did. Whether he followed us or whether he was coming for me only, I still don’t know. But it didn’t bother him one bit that Tristan and I were intent on showering together. He squeezed himself in with us and they both took care of my body like I was a goddess, and I returned the favor. Since then, it’s happened every morning.

  Every night I go to bed, telling myself I’m screwing myself over and messing with them when I don’t intend for this to go anywhere, but neither one of them has pressured me for a relationship. Thank God, because I don’t think I could handle that right now.

  Tristan has stayed with me each night, hunting before climbing into bed with me after. Last night Jesse joined us on the hunt, and then we all stayed on the floor of my room using blankets to soften it, but at least no one would be forced to stay on the floor alone.

  We all talked about inconsequential things, like why Jesse stayed in the dorm with Marcus. I found it strange that they all shared a house yet the two of them stayed here often. Jesse was quick to explain that as much as they loved the guys, for them, it worked better to have their own space too. Which I guess I could understand, but I still find it strange. The house is big enough that they should have their own space yet they prefer staying on campus? Maybe things get tense with all those males.

  This morning after our usual routine in the shower, Jesse and Tristan asked me to spend the night at their place tonight after we hunt, which I begrudgingly agreed to. I don’t know what it is about Quinn, but he clearly doesn’t want me around his family. Adrian has been kind enough, as has Marcus, but every time I find Quinn staring at me it’s with something akin to hatred. Like he detests me for my very existence.

  Now it’s time to go hunting with Jesse and Tristan again, then spend the night in a house with a shifter who seems to burn me with his gaze every time he locks eyes on me. It’s going to make for one hell of a slumber party, that’s for sure.