Falling For Her Guardian (Yuletide Shifters #1)

Chapter 4

Seren couldn’t believe her luck.

She had an opportunity to be in Northernmost and see the Well up close, and she happened to be rescued by a shifter of all people.

Too bad.

He was definitely the sexiest guy she’d ever seen in her entire life.

Tall and broad shouldered, and even though he was wearing a thick coat, she could feel how strong he was when he pulled her to her feet and held her when she’d nearly face-planted into him.

It was dark, but she could still see him in the Northern Lights, which made everything glow, and it was easy to tell he was handsome.

Gorgeous.

He seemed to care about her right away, and she didn’t know what to do with that. In the beginning, her ex had seemed to care too, and she’d fallen headfirst for it.

He made her heart clench in a weird and funny way that she’d never experienced before.

And that was just too damn bad, because she didn’t mess around with shifters.

Even panty-dropping sexy ones that made her skin tingle and her fingers ache to touch him.

Their bodies bumped as they walked through a packed-down snowy path toward what looked like a big rectangular shadow in the distance. She looked over her shoulder at the portal. She’d never seen anything like it.

The witch’s portal in the woods had just been a bright oval, but the one here in Northernmost looked like a big archway.

“Are those bones?” she asked.

“At the Entrance? Yes. From some creature that’s not around anymore.”

She shivered.

“Do you want my coat?” he asked, already unbuttoning it.

She protested but the protest died on her lips when he put the coat over her shoulders and gave them a squeeze.

She was enveloped in his scent, which reminded her of starlit nights and the first snow of winter. She nearly swooned on her feet like a damsel from a romance novel.

Get a hold of yourself, Seren!

“Thanks.”

She nearly swallowed her tongue his coat smelled so good.

Could a person come just by how good a guy smelled? Because that would be embarrassing, but also pretty dang cool.

She gripped the coat around herself and walked by his side. The snow crunched under their feet and her nose felt like it was going to freeze right off her face.

They reached the building a few moments later. He pulled off one glove and pressed his thumb to a small pad beside a security door. There was a red flash from the pad and then the door clicked as it unlocked. He pulled the door open and said, “After you.”

She hesitated.

“Am I in trouble?”

“For what?” he asked.

“I’m human.”

“I’m aware,” he said. “You’re not in trouble. Now the witch that wasn’t paying attention? She’s in trouble. But not you.” He lowered his voice. “Never you.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. He was close to her. She could feel the heat from his body through the two coats. She wanted to bury her face in his neck and burrow close to him. Instead, she gripped his coat tighter around herself and nodded.

She walked into the building. It was dark inside. She could only see little lights on the floor that reminded her of the lights down the aisle of an airplane.

When the door shut behind them, the low lights hummed to life, illuminating a long hallway.

“Welcome to Northernmost, Seren,” he said. “Let’s get you something hot to drink and then we’ll see about getting you back to safety in Ohio.”

She was speechless.

The last time she’d been speechless was when she’d been confronted with the truth of her ex’s philandering and the harsh blame he’d placed on her being human and having curves.

But this was not the same kind of speechless that she’d had when humiliation had burned her cheeks and she’d wanted to shrink into a ball or run away.

This was the sort of speechless brought on by finally seeing Storm. Really seeing him.

Dark hair cut short and swept across his brow.

Icy blue eyes that were ringed with gold.

The most kissable lips of any guy she’d ever seen.

Holy crap did she want to kiss him.

Her mouth actually watered at how good he smelled.

He was wearing tight jeans and a black thermal shirt that hugged every single muscle on his upper body.

Every freaking feminine urge in her body demanded she reach out and touch, but she wasn’t about to do that. He was a shifter, and shifters stuck to their own kind. Humans couldn’t trust them, and no matter how good-looking Storm was, she needed to just get the hell out of Northernmost and make it back home so she could put the night far behind her.

He made a gesture down the hall and she fell into step beside him. They turned left at the end of the hall and hung an immediate right before walking down a set of steps that spilled out into another hall. This one had thick red and gold carpeting. The wood-paneled walls made the whole space feel homey and warm. Portraits of elves with their pointed ears hung on the walls between flickering sconces. At the end of the hall was a large portrait of Santa himself.

She stopped and looked at the painting.

She’d seen him on TV and social media over the years.

He was nearly seven feet tall by all accounts, with a head of white-blond hair and a neatly trimmed beard. Santa was the job position title. His name was Saint of the Nicholas family line.

The Nicholas family, whom she’d studied in one of her paranormal history classes in high school, were the guardians of the Well of Magic. The eldest child of the current Santa took over the mantle, bringing toys for good children across the world, and leading the elves and shifter Guardians who protected the Well of Magic.

“He’s an impressive male,” Storm said quietly. “It’s a dangerous time of year for him.”

“Because of his brother?” she asked.

“Yep. And his brother’s followers.”

The history she’d learned said that Jack Frost, the younger brother, wanted to be Santa and control the Well of Magic. He’d attacked his brother and had been kicked out of Northernmost. In another battle, Jack’s wife had been killed and he blamed Santa, even though, from all accounts, she’d been killed accidentally by one of his own followers.

Every year, Jack attacked the Well when Santa was the weakest—Christmas Day.

“I thought he only attacked on Christmas Day?”

Storm hummed. “He tries throughout the month, so we have to be careful.”

“Did you think I was a bad guy?” she asked.

“Nah.”

She peeked at him and could see he was smiling.

Damn he was sexy.

Too bad.

He led her down the hall to the left, opening the door to what looked like a small lunchroom. There were several round tables and chairs in the space and a long, L-shaped counter that ran along two walls, with a commercial refrigerator and sink on one end of the counter and three microwaves on the other.

Along the counters were drink machines, food in glass cases with heat lamps, and baskets with packaged snacks like chips and cookies.

He stopped in front of a drink machine and said, “Hot chocolate or coffee?”

“You can’t just have someone take me home?”

“This first. You look like you’re about to shiver out of my coat and yours.”

She tightened her grip on his jacket. It was warm in the room, but she was still chilled to the bone.

“Hot chocolate.”

He gestured toward one of the tables and she plunked down into a chair with a groan. She took off her gloves and hat, smoothing her hair back. She touched her cold nose, glad to find it was actually still attached.

There was a sputtering sound from the machine. While his back was turned to her, she ogled her fill.

The man could wear a pair of jeans.

As if he knew she was staring at him, he glanced over his shoulder at her.

Her cheeks heated and that made her skin prickle because she was still cold.

She took her phone out of her pocket and realized there was no service. “Is there a way I can contact my parents or sister and let them know I’m okay?” she asked, trying to distract herself from the sexy guy who she absolutely, positively was not going to ogle a second longer.

Starting…now.

Now.

Damn it.

“Yeah, of course.” He turned from the counter with two mugs and set one in front of her as he took the next seat. Tiny marshmallows shaped like snowflakes were floating in the sweet smelling brew, and her stomach growled. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until she smelled the chocolate.

“Hungry?” he asked with amusement as he took a slow drink.

“My lunch was at eleven, and I had soup.”

He wrinkled his nose. “That doesn’t sound like enough to eat. Was it at least a hearty soup with dumplings?”

“No dumplings. It was a simple homemade chicken noodle.”

“At least there was meat in it.”

“Yeah,” she said. “But it for sure wasn’t as filling as I would have liked, and I hadn’t had any change for the vending machine for an afternoon snack.” She took a tentative drink of the hot chocolate, worried she’d burn her tongue. But it wasn’t too hot, just hot enough to warm her from the inside out. It was possibly the very best hot chocolate she’d ever had.

“Dang,” she said. “This is really good, thank you.”

“You bet. When we’re done, I’ll take you to the security office and you can call whoever you need to, and we’ll arrange for someone to escort us back through the Entrance and to your car.”

“Us?”

“You and me.”

The way he said you and me had a possessive tone rolling underneath it, like the way you knew a shark was under the surface of the water even though you couldn’t see it’s fin because it was his territory.

She actually liked the way Storm sounded possessive.

Which was weird because she’d already declared that she wasn’t going to think about Storm in any sort of way other than thankful he’d come to her rescue.

“Did I thank you?” she asked.

“For what?”

“Rescuing me.”

He nodded. He was leaning back casually in the chair, but there wasn’t anything casual about the heated look in his icy-blue eyes. She could feel his gaze on her even when she wasn’t looking directly at him, smoldering hot and oh-so-dangerous to her self-control.

Hard pass, Seren. He’s a shifter and they don’t stay with humans.

“You can stop that anytime,” she said.

His brows rose slightly. “Stop what?”

“You know.” She took a drink, barely stifling the happy groan in her throat. But she could tell by the flare of his nostrils and the way his eyes darkened that he’d heard it. “You’re looking at me like there’s the possibility of something happening between us.”

“You don’t like shifters.” It was a statement, not a question. But it hung between them like a laundry line laden with wet clothes.

“I was burned in the past.”

“I’m not just any shifter, Seren,” he said. His voice pitched lower, more growly. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, but she wasn’t afraid, just…curious.

“What do you mean by that?”

He opened his mouth when an alarm sounded. Standing so fast the chair clattered behind him, he said, “Shit, that’s the perimeter alarm. Stay right here, you’ll be safe. I’ll be right back, I promise.”

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but that sound means someone is trying to get into Northernmost who doesn’t belong.”

He stared at her for a long moment, and her heart started to pound.

Then he raced from the room, the door shutting swiftly behind him.

With a groan, she put her head on the table.

She needed to get home and put the whole night behind her. Storm was sexy and compelling, and they hadn’t spent that much time together. If she stayed too long, she was going to want to do something stupid, like kiss him or find out just what the muscles he had under his shirt looked like.

Since she had no idea how to get home, and needed a magical person anyway, she was stuck until he came back.

But was she? What if he was just playing some kind of keep-her-close shifter game and she was being led on. Surely there were magical people around who could send her back through the portal.

Finishing the hot chocolate in two big gulps, she put her gloves and hat in her pocket and draped Storm’s jacket over the chair.

Then she stepped out of the breakroom and looked both ways down the hall.

Left or right?

Storm had gone left, so she was going to go right and hopefully she’d find someone who could help.