Midnight Guardian

by Tamara White

  At that, his face pales and his gaze goes to Ellen beseechingly. “Please, Ellen, explain it to her.”

  My friend shakes her head, giving the Alpha her own glare. “Ah, yeah, no. Isobel has every right to be pissed. She told you no games, only truth. I even warned you that she deems truth higher than anything. You fucked this up, not me. You want to fix it, I’d speak and fast. Judging by my girl here, she won’t last long before she explodes and, well, people die when that happens.”

  Ellen’s gaze goes to me, but I’m no longer looking at her, instead, my gaze has fixed on the tiger. He’s an Alpha and a powerful one at that. Is it possible he’s Jesse and Marcus’s father? He doesn’t appear old enough, but physical age is not something to go by in this world.

  My skin vibrates with fury at the mere possibility of thinking this man could have been the same one who sent a team of supes to hurt Jesse.

  “Actually, Alpha, you may want to act fast because I don’t think she likes him,” Ellen mutters.

  The tiger is glaring at me, and the look is so similar to Jesse and Marcus that I’m moving before anyone can see me cross the room.

  The tiger is suddenly slammed against the wall, the wood cracking from the force behind my assault. “What’s your name?” I hiss angrily, my hand wrapped around his throat.

  The tiger looks shocked as hell by my speed and the force of my attack. People move behind me, and I pull my gun from the waistband of my pants. It’s loaded with plain bullets, because after the incident with Jes on the first day I met him, I didn’t want to risk making the same mistake again. This one is simply for wounding.

  I turn and fire off three shots at the other Alphas attempting to approach me. I hit their knees or legs, which should be warning enough to back the fuck off. Grunts of pain are muttered along with a few satisfying curses of anger.

  I bring the gun back and press the barrel to the tiger’s head. His eyes widen with fear, the scent so strong that my animals revel in it.

  “What. Is. Your. Name.”

  He gulps loudly, clearing his throat slightly around the hold on his windpipe. “Tyler. My name is Tyler James.”

  “Do you work for Austin?”

  His eyes widen and he shakes his head hastily. “No. That fucker is crazy,” he exclaims, offended. “No way me or anyone of my Streak would be seen near that crazy fucker.”

  After a moment of sensing his intentions, I only sense truth. I pull the gun away and slide it into the back of my pants. “Well, it’s your lucky day then. You get to live.”

  I back off and move over to Ellen who’s crouched by her Alpha as he clutches his knee in pain. I take a deep breath as I look down at him, my anger getting the best of me. “You’re lucky the bullets were nonlethal this time. Next time they won’t be.”

  I look around at each of the men in the room, making sure they all understand the seriousness of this situation. “I abhor liars more than anything in this world. You lie to me, you hide shit from me, you will die. I am not your regular supe or Supreme Alpha. Remember that the next time you guys decide to play games.”

  My skin is still glowing, and all four men are staring at me with fear deep in their eyes. Fucking good. Alpha Mat should have said there were others here. That he didn’t just shows me he truly doesn’t respect me. Maybe now they all will.

  “Explain and explain quickly. My patience has run out.”

  Alpha Mat growls but bites back what angry words are waiting to spill free. “I asked them here because they are the only three people in existence that have escaped Nochte alive. They are here because when you go in to save my daughter, they’ll be tagging along to make sure she comes out alive.”

  “And me? I take it you’ve hired them for your daughter’s safety but not mine?”

  The bear laughs. “Are you kidding me, lady? What the fuck could a crazy ass bitch like you need protecting from? Hell, I fucking fear for the prisoners if you’re this quick to shoot first and ask questions later.”

  “You’re right, I don’t need protection from anyone. But I won’t take people into a hostile place if I can’t trust them at my back, and not one of you has given me any reason to trust you.”

  “So you won’t help me get my daughter back then?” Alpha Mat inquires with defeat in his eyes and sorrow in his voice.

  I think it over, looking around at each of the men in this room. There is no way I could ever trust them to protect me if shit got prickly.

  “I honestly don’t know. I need to think about it. I need all the facts before I can make a decision such as this.” I direct my gaze to Ellen. “I would love a tour if you’re up for it?”

  Ellen grins and leaves her Alpha on the floor to twine her arm through mine. She starts pulling me out of the room, only for the lion to speak up, his voice gravelly. “You’re just going to leave three Alpha shifters wounded without protection? What kind of Alpha are you?”

  I glance over my shoulder, a wicked grin on my face. “I’m the kind who doesn’t give a shit about people who try to manipulate me. Besides, you have the tiger. He can be your nurse.”

  Ellen guffaws and drags me out of the doorway with a massive grin on her face. “You’re a frigging amazing person, Isobel. I’m never letting you leave me, you hear me? I’m gonna attach myself to your ass like a fly in shit.”

  “Ah, thanks, I guess.” This chick seriously has some strange phrases. Is she saying I’m the shit and she’s the fly? Yeah, I don’t think I want to know. For now, I’ll just enjoy a nice tour of my friend’s possible home before I have to get back to the hard decisions. Do I try to save the girl and take three Alphas I don’t know into a hostile environment, or do I risk going by myself?

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Isobel

  Ellen and I have been exploring the property for the past couple of hours. She’s been showing me where her Panthera meets once a month to discuss the issues that have arisen between them, along with running together to build strong connections among the group.

  We saw many people as we walked, some too scared to even acknowledge I was there while others showed open curiosity despite their fear response to me. I offered nothing more than friendly waves to those who did come closer. I wanted to make them feel safer in my presence without spooking them.

  She’s been telling me about people she’s met since becoming a panther and just how welcoming they were. To be honest, despite what the Alpha has done to mar my perception of him, it sounds like this Panthera is a very good place to live.

  Ellen hits my ribs with her elbow, grabbing my attention. I’d been too absorbed in what a normal pack was like that I didn’t hear a word she just said.

  I give her a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I was lost in my own world. What did you say?”

  She chuckles softly. “It’s okay, I figured as much.” She guides me to a small grove of trees, just out of hearing distance of the people who are milling around the property. “I asked you who is the daddy?”

  My eyes pull down in confusion. “Daddy? Who’s the daddy of what?” Is she asking some dirty joke and I missed the first half of it?

  Ellen gives me a disbelieving look, her eyes wide. Her gaze moves to my stomach pointedly and then back up again. This time her eyes are filled with sympathy. “You can’t tell me with all that power you have brimming under your skin you really don’t know you’re pregnant? I thought maybe you just didn’t want to talk about it but…” She trails off, sighing sadly and muttering a curse under her breath.

  Bile rises in my throat at the mere possibility, and I’m sure my skin has gone deathly pale. My hands tremble as I shake my head in denial. “Ellen, I’m not pregnant. I made sure that they gave me the supernatural shot and I take pills daily just to be sure. It’s impossible for me to be pregnant.”

  Ellen frowns and then leans in close to me. Her nose brushes my neck as she inhales my scent. When she steps back, she gives me a somber look. “Well, I hate to break it to you, but whatever they gave you is defective
, because the pheromones I’m picking up are reeking of a pregnant supe.”

  I sway gently, my vision going hazy at the edges. It’s not possible. It can’t be. Ellen reaches out and grabs me firmly by the shoulders. Her concern is clear as she stares into my eyes. “Hey, don’t you faint on me, girlie. Here, sit down and breathe.”

  I practically drop to the ground at her words, unable to keep my legs steady. Ellen guides my head between my knees and rubs soothing circles on my back. “Shit, if I’d known you’d react like this, I wouldn’t have said anything. I thought that you knew and you were just trying to keep it secret. Hell, I thought that’s why you’d been so happy with those boys. No Supreme Alpha before you has ever been able to successfully conceive a child. This is good news, Isobel.”

  Yeah, good news for the rest of supernatural kind maybe, but all that’s going through my mind is the past. When I escaped the council, I was surprised by the news I was pregnant only to find out the same day I had lost my child. I don’t know if I can go through such a loss again.

  Shit, does anyone else know? Surely if Tristan or Jesse picked up on the same thing Ellen has they would have said something, wouldn’t they?

  “It’s not that it’s not good news exactly, it’s the fact it may not stick. If I lost a baby before, what is the chance this one will be okay? I’ve already experienced one loss and I don’t want to go through it again. I don’t want to be happy because it might jinx it and I could lose a baby all over again. What if there’s some higher power who thinks I’m just simply not worthy of being a mother?”

  Ellen wraps her arm around me tightly and rests her head on my shoulder. “Oh, honey, that’s no way to think of this blessing. Shit happens in life, and sometimes we can’t stop bad things from happening to us, but it’s not because we aren’t worthy or deserving of it. You would be one hell of a mother, and while I understand just how scared you are, you can’t let that fear rule you. Maybe because of losing that child, fate or whatever higher power that exists gave you this one because it knows you will be the most amazing mother you can be.”

  Her words lighten my heart, and while I want to be happy, I just can’t understand how this happened. I’ve been just fucking whoever I want whenever I want because I thought it couldn’t happen again. That I was protected from getting pregnant, but yet here I am.

  Before Drake and Jordan, I didn’t even think this could happen. They told me of the Supreme Alpha’s inability to have children. It was shocking and heartbreaking for a while, but it was something I had come to accept.

  When I left that night and everything happened, it felt the same as it does now. Unbelievable. Like it’s not really me it’s happening to. I mean, how can I handle this when I barely handled the loss last time? What if it happens again? Will I be able to cope? Then there’s the fact I don’t even know who could be the father. Could I be a single mother?

  “Ellen, I don’t know who the father could be,” I mutter disbelievingly. “What kind of whore am I?”

  “Hey now! I don’t use that language, so I don’t want to hear you using it either!”

  My lips twitch. I don’t believe for one second that Ellen hasn’t thrown the word whore around. She doesn’t exactly strike me as the conservative type.

  “It’s true though. I’ve slept with three people in the last two weeks. Just how far along do you think I am?” I shudder at the thought it could be a random hookup from after I left the council. There were only a couple of them, purely because they couldn’t handle a woman like me being the dominant one, but it’s still a possibility.

  “Well, I can help you with that. You were newly pregnant when you came to class on the first day. So who did you sleep with the week leading up to then?”

  “Wait, the week leading up to class? Don’t you mean like a month or something? Isn’t that how long it takes to get pregnant?” I try to think back to what my parents used to say about my cycles. Mom wasn’t really the one to explain those things, mainly because she was busy ninety percent of the time. But Dad, well, he used to sit me in front of the computer and pull up these random diagrams and try to explain in vivid detail what a woman’s monthly cycle was, when she was fertile, how the whole process worked. From memory, it’s supposed to be something like mid-cycle that you can get pregnant, which I’ve only just hit. So that can’t be right.

  She tuts and plops on the ground next to me rather than crouching. Even though she’s a supe, her legs must hurt from being in that position for so long. “Supes are different, Isobel. It can take twenty-four hours after your cycle has finished to get pregnant. Like our healing is accelerated, so is our fertility. Granted, you aren’t exactly normal, but some things don’t change. How long into your cycle you conceive and how long you actually carry the child for depends on your species of supe.”

  Twenty-four hours. That quick?

  “So sex the morning of my first class wouldn’t have resulted in me getting pregnant then?”

  She thinks it over before shaking her head decisively. “No, you would have conceived the day before, at least. Maybe two days. You had definitely implanted when I scented you. Why? Do you have an idea who it could be?”

  I don’t answer, because I do. And it’s Jordan. As much as I feel horrible by being happy with the news since I love him, it makes shit even more complicated, not just for me, but for him too.

  If I am indeed pregnant, the father of my child works for the council. How the hell am I supposed to make that kind of parenting relationship work? Will Jordan be excited? Or will he be just as confused as I am? Will he leave the council to be a father to our child? Ugh, I’m getting a headache just thinking of all this when the only thing I’ve got to go on is Ellen’s super smell.

  “I’m pretty sure I know who the father is, but it’s complicated. I’m not sure he could leave the council for me or our child.” Sadness envelops me at the thought of what the council could do if they found out about this. Jordan is bound to them by whatever it is they did to him, and if he knew, they would use me as a way to manipulate him even more. I can’t let that happen.

  “Ellen?”

  She smiles warmly at me, her arm still wrapped around my shoulders. “What is it, sweetie?”

  “I need you to promise me that you won’t tell anyone. No one can know about this baby. I won’t let this child be used as a pawn in the council’s games.”

  “Do you really think that’s wise? You should tell people who can protect you. That can keep you safe. Like Tristan and Jesse. They would do anything for you.”

  I’m shaking my head even before she finishes speaking. “No, I can’t tell them either. They will become too protective. And I have to help the Alpha and his daughter. If I don’t, she will be hurt or worse, killed. If they knew I was pregnant and I wanted to break into a prison that supposedly houses some of the worst supernaturals to exist in this world, then they would refuse to let me leave their sights. They would monitor me around the clock, and I have other shit to be doing like building a following of people to help me bring down the council before they cause a shit storm of epic proportions.”

  Ellen sighs and lays back on the grass to look up at the blue sky. After a moment, I do the same. We lie there in silence for a while before she speaks again. “You know, I admire you. You have so much going on in your life, yet you’re still looking out for others in this world. It’s things like that which will make you one of the best Alphas to rule us.”

  I scoff, not sure that’s entirely true. I want to be everything she says, but my worst fear is that I will never be that. I can only hope I could be half the woman she thinks I am.

  “So I should head back to the house, shouldn’t I?” I sigh softly, not sure I’m ready for this next step. My hand goes to cradle my stomach, uncertain how to accept that it’s not just me going into this. I now have a little passenger on board I have to be wary of.

  “Well, if you are definitely going to help, then yeah, we should head back.” Ellen sits up
and climbs to her feet with a smile and holds out a hand to help me up. “Oh, and before I forget, dibs on godmother,” she winks at me.

  She lets go of me once I’m standing and I just stare at her. “You can’t just call dibs on godmother. It’s supposed to be a position reserved for someone I trust to raise my child if shit were to ever happen to me. And since I don’t see that happening anytime soon, there’s no need for me to choose a godmother at all.”

  She pouts playfully. “Oh, come on, Isobel. I’m done having children. I need to have a cute baby in my life. And what better way to do that than weaseling my way into your child’s life before it’s born? Just like how I wormed my way into yours,” she gloats, her eyes twinkling mischievously. “I see something I want and bam, you’re mine. No takebacks, no refunds, no way out. You’re mine.” She waggles her eyebrows playfully and whispers ominously, “Forever.”

  I roll my eyes, sensing she’s just being lighthearted rather than creepy. Then again, with Ellen, one never knows.

  She’s such a fun character, though, that I’m glad I met her. Sure, she may have been trying to manipulate me at the start, but in such a short time she’s become a rock for me. Being around her makes my days seem brighter. And in this world, we need all the damn light we can get.

  Chapter Forty

  Isobel

  I’m back in the sitting room and Alpha Mat was kind enough to offer me a seat at the only desk in the room. He and the other Alphas rearranged seats so they were sitting directly across from me, which made all this seem that much more real.

  Each of the Alphas have been bandaged up and looked no worse for wear when they first walked in this room. At least now, though, I have names. The bear shifter introduced himself as Flynn Stevens and the lion as Vincent Mills.