Alpha Guardians Series - The Complete Collection: 650+ Pages Of Sizzling, Fast-Paced Bear and Dragon Shifter Romance

by Vivian Wood

  She slowed to a walk near Cafe du Monde, entering the line for a small cafe au lait and a beignet. As she sipped her coffee and nibbled at the powered doughnut, she sat on a concrete ledge to watch people walk by. Every color, race, creed, size, style, and age walked right by on their way to various places in the French Quarter.

  She was so absorbed in her doughnut that it took her a minute to feel the gaze on her back. When she turned a little to her left, she found a wizened-looking older gentleman sitting only a few feet away, staring at her. Magic poured from his aura, conflicting with his unassuming looks, but he merely smiled at her and kept staring.

  “Um, hello,” she said, wiping at the powdered sugar on her lips.

  “It’s been a lifetime since I’ve seen one of your kind,” was his odd response. “Never thought to see one again, either. Thought y’all were extinct, if you don’t mind me saying.”

  “I’m sorry?” Sera asked. For a horrifying moment, she thought maybe he was talking about her Middle Eastern looks.

  “A phoenix, dear. You’re the first I’ve seen since the rise of Christianity.” His lips curved into a happy smile.

  “I— what?” Sera was beyond confused.

  “I thought you’d look different,” he said, his tone perfectly conversational. “The other one, he was a big warrior. I saw him burn, even. It was magnificent!”

  “I think you have me confused,” Sera said, standing up and brushing herself off. “Have a nice day, okay?”

  “Be careful, little bird. You don’t believe me, but there are dark creatures who will recognize you. They will see what I see, and they will want to use you. Powerful, you phoenixes.”

  “Sir—”

  “You ever have one of those… what do they call it… deja vu moments?” he asked, tilting his head as he examined her. “But more. You live another life, another century, another everything?”

  Sera’s mouth opened to say no, then closed.

  “Maybe,” she managed.

  “That’s because of what you are, little bird. You burn and rise, and burn again. And now… well, I should think you’re a little long in the tooth for a phoenix. Any day now, my dear. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,” he said, waving a hand.

  “Well… thanks?” she said with a strangled laugh.

  “Anytime,” he said with a conspiratorial wink. Then he turned his face up, as if scenting the wind. “You ought to get moving, little bird. Someone’s coming, someone looking for you.”

  “Have a nice day,” Sera said, already moving.

  His words chilled her to the bone. As interesting as the idea of her lineage was, his warnings had put her on edge. Every inch of her skin tingled with some kind of premonition as she broke into a jog, turning around and heading through the French Market. Just as she picked up her pace, she passed a strange man in a dark trench coat. He made direct and blatant eye contact with Sera for a second. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him follow when she started moving faster.

  “Shit.”

  Sera broke into a flat run, raising her hand to flag down a taxi that was moving in the same direction. Typical New Orleans taxi driver, he screeched to a halt and let Sera climb in without question. Sera struggled to catch her breath all the way back to the Manor, shoving a handful of bills at the driver as she raced into the now-welcoming wards that protected the house.

  She didn’t stop running until she was all the way up the stairs. She burst into her bedroom, heart pounding, and came to a grinding halt.

  Kieran and Kellan stood right there, arms crossed… and they looked pissed.

  “Uh… hey,” she said, leaning down, trying to catch her breath. “Went for… a run…”

  “Duverjay saw you get out of a cab,” Kellan said, his words accusatory.

  Sera’s gaze narrowed. Just because they had this thing between them didn’t mean he could just go around making decisions for her, accusing her of things. Making ultimatums, especially. Sera was her own woman.

  “I got a cramp,” she lied, glad she was already flushed from her run. She was a terrible liar, but her breathlessness covered it up this time.

  “Are you okay?” Kieran asked, moving to her side. As if he was going to… what, sweep her up and carry her to bed? Over a cramp? Kira had been right about the Guardians, they were overbearing alpha males.

  “I’m fine,” she said, dropping onto the chair beside her bed. “I just needed a little exercise, needed to clear my head. It helped.”

  “Helped?” Kellan still watched her like a hawk. A skeptical hawk, that was.

  “Decide,” she said, giving them both a placid look. “You told me to decide, remember?”

  The way they glanced at each other, throats working nervously, made her wish she hadn’t taken such a rude tone with them. She softened her tone for the next part, the part where she would give them both what they wanted… sort of.

  “I don’t want to choose between you. I want you both. I think that’s what is supposed to happen, otherwise we wouldn’t feel this way.” She paused and let that sink in for a moment before continuing, “Both, or neither. No more fighting, no more competition. You didn’t think I missed that, did you?”

  The incredulous look that passed between them made her want to laugh, but she held it in. This was a serious moment.

  “I feel the same draw for both of you. Maybe it’s not what I always pictured, having two men in my life. But more than anything, I always wanted a big family, lots of faces around the dinner table or fireplace or what have you. Maybe this is just… part of what I need. And since we’re fated, maybe it’s what you both need, too.”

  “Sera—” Kieran started. One glance at the hard lines of his facial expression, and Sera stopped him.

  “Nope,” she said, standing and shooing them toward the door. “Both of you out, please. Take some time to think about what I said. I need a nice long shower.”

  The second they were in the hallway, she gently closed the door to their surprised faces.

  Yep, I just did that.

  All Sera could do now was hope that they’d do the right thing, for all their sakes.

  10

  Chapter Ten

  Kellan sat at the far end of The John, his favorite utterly shitty dive bar, knocking back shots of tequila. The fact that he was drinking tequila was a bad, bad sign. Kellan plus tequila never went well, without exception. It was the gateway to his angry, lonely place, the place he went when life was just pissing in his eye.

  And the hangover from the tequila? Salt in the wound. Still he drank and brooded, even smoking half a cigar before growing disgusted with it and stubbing it out on the ground. The John was all cement floors and metal chairs, the kind of scuzzy place that they likely cleaned with a firehose at the end of the night. It had a certain atmosphere, which suited Kellan’s mood.

  I’m not going to choose, she’d said.

  Fuuuuuuck. Her words had completely floored him. Worse, he understood her side of things even as jealousy raged within his chest, ripping and tearing at his ego and his heart. So he drank and moped, needing some time away from Sera and Kieran. He especially didn’t need Sera to see this side of him, this childish competitiveness and selfishness that he couldn’t seem to ever get over.

  He knew better, damn it. He knew what he needed to do, the words he needed to say. But he kept imagining the grin that Kieran would give him, the same one Kieran had every single time he stole one of Kellan’s bed partners or somehow got one over on him. That cocky, shit-eating, unrepentant grin that made Kellan see fucking red. Every. Single. Time.

  Since their childhood, the twins had been pitted against each other. Once their individual brands of magic had been discovered, Kieran had been the instant black sheep, the Dark Prince. It was unfair, and Kellan had been the first to stick up for him, but then Kieran did what he did best: he turned it to a kind of advantage.

  He’d taunted Kellan, saying that the Dark Prince was much stronger than the Light, that Kellan w
as a coddled little baby, all the stuff that would give a young boy a stiff upper lip. Then they fought, beating the crap out of each other, and eventually the whole argument was forgotten.

  Until the next time someone brought up the Light and the Dark. Always, Kieran internalized the whole thing. Always, he turned it into a fight between the brothers, rather than a hurtful comment from an outsider. It should have been the two Princes against the world, the Gray brothers versus everyone else.

  Instead, Kieran chose to fight Kellan. Using his reputation as the faster, looser, and more dangerous brother, Kieran plucked women, cars, and jobs out of Kellan’s hands. Anything Kellan was given, anything he worked for… it didn’t matter. Kieran wanted it, and he took it.

  Worse, women often wanted to leave Kellan for Kieran. Kellan was safe, boring, emotional, messy… Kieran was exciting, dashing, heart-stopping. It drove Kellan mad. It also drove the brothers apart again and again, fighting and separating before eventually drifting back together.

  Kellan turned the past over and over in his mind, trying to grasp the slippery part… did the past actually matter? Were they doomed to repeat it, or could they break the cycle? Would Sera be the thing that changed them, saved them, or would she be just another tragedy that left Kellan raw inside?

  At that, Kellan paused and eyed the bottle of tequila before him. That last bit sounded more like the booze talking than him, and the half-empty bottle backed up his theory. Tequila gave him melodramatic tendencies.

  “You seem like a man with a lot of troubles.”

  Kellan turned to find a thin, balding man sitting two stools down the bar, sipping a can of cheap beer. The guy was Kith, but not very powerful. Maybe some low-level mage or something.

  “You seem like a stranger with a lot of opinions,” Kellan told him, expecting his harsh words to shut down the conversation before it could really start. But no, the guy was a chatty drunk.

  “No offense, no offense,” he said, staring straight ahead instead of looking at Kellan. “Just, you know, we all have problems. There are always more solutions than we know, you know?”

  Kellan merely grunted, finishing the last of the shot he’d poured and then pushing the shot glass away. He pulled out his wallet, ready to pay and leave.

  “Listen,” the stranger started up again. “I think I can help you, friend.”

  Kellan paused, a wad of cash in his hand, and turned the full force of his glare on the guy. The other guy cringed before Kellan even spoke.

  “We are not friends,” Kellan spat. “And I am not someone you want to fuck with, I assure you.”

  “I can solve your problem, though,” the guy insisted, though he grew paler with each word. “The problem with your, uh, mate. I can clear the path for you to have her, alone.”

  A fission of red sizzled through Kellan’s veins.

  “Are you threatening my brother?” he asked, keeping his tone calm. “Are you with Papa Aguiel?”

  “No no,” the guy said, raising his hands and turning to Kellan at last. “Call me a… concerned third party. Or my boss is, anyway. My boss recruits big guys like you, mercenary style. Rewards his soldiers beyond their wildest dreams.”

  “And what the fuck does this have to do with me?” Kellan asked, letting his teeth show on the last. “Quickly, you are starting to annoy me.”

  He raised a hand, powering a spell. White mist began to seep into the darkened bar, creeping across the floor and climbing up itself like ivy to create a little cage around the stranger. The guy broke into a sweat, but to his credit he kept going. It made Kellan very curious about who this guy’s boss might be.

  “Look, we just got a tip that the Light and Dark Princes were here, and that they were in such a circumstance that one of them might be looking for a way out. We pay well, the work’s hard and fun, and the members are tight as brothers. It’s just an offer. Voluntary, 100%. But if you were to whisper it in your brother’s ear, say…”

  “Don’t approach me again. And if you come anywhere near me or my family, it’ll be the last thing you ever do.” Kellan stood and tossed his money on the bar.

  “If you change your mind,” the guy said, thrusting a business card at Kellan. “Get tired of sharing… we have big plans, and your brother would fit in well with our organization. Hell, so would you, for that matter. One of you bows out, the other gets the pretty doctor all to himself…”

  Kellan snarled and bucked at the guy, who turned tail and fled without another word, beer can abandoned on the bar. Kellan looked down at the card in his hand.

  les mercenaires

  t. 504.000.0000

  “The Mercenaries,” he read, then grunted. The phone number didn’t even look real. And why the hell was it in French, anyway?

  For half a moment, he let himself imagine what would happen if Kieran bowed out, as the guy had suggested. Kellan and Sera, walking hand in hand. A marriage ceremony, like some humans liked to have. Sera holding a child, their child, and gazing up at Kellan lovingly…

  Kellan forced the fantasy away, guilt flooding him instantly. There had to be some solution, like the stranger had said, but this wasn’t it.

  What else was left, though?

  Kellan sat up in his bed, a chill crawling down his spine.

  Wrong. It couldn’t be…

  He’d gone to bed drunk, embarrassingly so. Then he’d dreamt. Of Sera, of kissing and touching her. Of her waving goodbye to him as she walked away, hand in hand with Kieran. And then he dreamt of his brother, alone.

  In the last bit of his dream, Kellan had waded through an icy lake, the water up to his waist. Kieran was in his arms, as cold and placid as the lake water. On and on Kellan went, looking for help, for somewhere to lay down his burden. Kieran grew heavier by the moment, the water colder, threatening to freeze Kellan’s heart.

  Still on and on he went, no light, no dark, just… endlessness. Numbness.

  Finally he saw a dark figure, standing on the shore of the lake. Waiting. Kellan stopped and squinted, trying to make out the figure’s face. Though he didn’t know Papa Aguiel on sight, for some reason Kellan knew that this figure was his enemy. In that way of dreams, knowing without knowing. Time without comprehension. Fear without stimulus.

  Kellan knew he could not take Kieran ashore, because Papa Aguiel wanted him to do just that. But then, as he watched, too afraid to move, he saw Sera. She stood, expression blank, looking out at Kellan without recognition. As if he meant nothing, as if they’d never met.

  Papa Aguiel tossed back his head and laughed, his teeth flashing white in the blurry darkness of his shape. He held out his hand to Sera without speaking. She took it, docile, and let Papa Aguiel lead her away from the lake.

  “Sera!”

  Her name was on his lips as he woke. The chill of the dream, of Kieran’s cold and lifeless skin against his own, clung to him even after he pulled the covers up over his body.

  It had been surreal, nothing like life.

  And yet… too real. The feeling of it, of losing his twin, of losing his mate…

  That had been unimaginable, though brief.

  It could not happen.

  Kellan wouldn’t let it.

  11

  Chapter Eleven

  “This is chaos,” Kieran said. He braced as Gabriel took the SUV around a tight turn at top speed, turning around in the passenger seat to see what was happening behind him in the back seat. Sera was on one side, Kellan on the other, and Cassie was in the middle looking white as a sheet.

  “Shut the fuck up,” Gabriel snarled as he rocketed the car toward the entrance to Sloane General. “When it’s your baby, we can have this conversation again.”

  Kieran shut his mouth, glancing back again. Sera held one of Cassie’s hands, Kellan the other as the SUV squealed to a stop near the ER’s entrance. The second the car was no longer in motion, Kieran and Gabriel opened the back doors, Gabriel shouldering Kellan out of the way in order to scoop his mate up and carry her through the bolt
-hole portal himself.

  “She’s so nervous,” Sera said as Kieran ushered her through into the cool white hallway of the Kith hospital. “First babies are always scary.”

  That was the last exchange he had with Sera for a good long while. From then forward, she was in full doctor mode, bustling around and getting Cassie set up in a delivery room. While Gabriel was allowed to stay with Cassie, the other Guardians and their mates were relegated to a nearby waiting room. After that, Kieran only got glances of Sera from time to time. Once, she popped her head in just to update everyone.

  “Everything’s going swimmingly!” she said brightly. “No baby yet, but soon.”

  And then she was gone. Her demeanor was cheerful but professional, calm but enthusiastic. She was in her element, that much was utterly certain. Sera was meant to be a doctor, it was plain as day. Mostly it was a lot of hurry up and wait, it seemed.

  After the rush to get to the hospital, the baby took its sweet time entering the world. Everyone sipped crappy hospital coffee and watched late night TV, and waited. Kieran kept catching Echo giving Rhys weird, excited smiles. Something was happening there, he was pretty sure of it.

  Was Echo anticipating that she and Rhys would be in that very delivery room in the not-so-distant future? The furtive glances and happy blushing said maybe.

  “We’ve got a baby!” Gabriel bellowed, rushing into the room.

  Everyone jumped to their feet and cheered. There was a lot of hugging, even Kieran and Kellan. The mood was contagious, irresistible. Gabriel announced that it was a girl and then disappeared again, and everyone milled around excitedly.

  Soon enough, Sera reappeared, beaming from ear to ear.

  “You guys want to come meet the new addition?” she asked, radiating happiness.