Falling For Her Guardian (Yuletide Shifters #1)

Chapter 6

“So it was an elk?” Storm asked as he stared at the security footage. He and the others had raced to their stations when the perimeter breach alarms had sounded. He’d been tasked with checking the exterior of the buildings along with his brothers Hunter and Winter. They’d seen animal tracks, but nothing had been tampered with.

“Yeah,” Maverick said. The footage played once more. “It looks like it was spooked, but it’s too far outside the perimeter to see what it was by.”

The door to the security office opened and Santa strode in.

“All’s well?” he asked, voice booming.

Hunter stared at the screen for a moment, then said, “No one infiltrated the security building. The barracks were both checked, and the Well is untouched.”

“The Entrance?” Santa asked, scratching his jaw.

“Not a soul,” Maverick said. “Well, except for Storm’s mate.”

Santa’s white brow arched sharply. “What’s this then?”

Maverick made an oh shit face, and Storm let out a low grumble. He quickly explained what had occurred.

Saint Nicholas, the most powerful warlock in the world, had twinkling blue eyes and rosy cheeks. But underneath the jovial looks was powerful magic that could do just about anything. And right now, Storm felt like Santa was using that magic to see right through him.

“I see,” Santa said. “And where is this human mate of yours? I’d like to meet her.”

“She’s in the breakroom.”

“Uh,” Maverick said. “No, she’s not. She just walked out the door.”

Seren couldn’t stop shaking, and it wasn’t just because she was scared out of her mind. She’d woken up on a cot in a cell with walls that were carved out of rock. The rock walls were covered with a layer of frost, and the floor had icy patches from which water dripped through cracks. Iron bars gave her a view of a dim walkway and other cells that appeared to be empty.

The only memory she had was of feeling very calm and peaceful as she walked out of the security building and then very, very afraid.

Her fingers and toes ached from the cold. She hadn’t seen anyone since she’d woken up, and even though she’d called for help, no one had appeared.

Who the hell had taken her, and why had she thought leaving the security building was a good idea?

Yes, she’d wanted to go home, but she hadn’t wanted to get trapped by some loon and put in a cell.

She huddled into her coat, wishing she hadn’t left Storm’s coat behind.

Or that she hadn’t left Storm at all.

She’d been so freaked out to be heavily attracted to another shifter that she’d bolted at the first tingle in her lady bits, and now she was screwed.

“So,” a masculine voice said, startling her from her musings on whether she was ever going to get to go home again or not.

She jerked her head up and saw a man on the other side of the bars. She knew exactly who he was because she’d seen pictures of him on social media and the news. He was not a good guy.

“Jack Frost.”

His brow arched and he hummed. “Yes. And you are?”

“Seren.”

He stared at her, his blue eyes flecked with gold that seemed to pulse as he held her gaze. “Ah, star. How appropriate.”

“How do you know what my name means?” She’d literally never had anyone guess what her name meant.

“I know many, many things. What I don’t know, however, is what a human was doing in Northernmost, inside the security building. You smell of shifter, but you’re not, and you’re definitely not magical.”

“Would you believe that it was an accident?”

He grunted. “I doubt that very much, little star. Nothing happens in Northernmost by accident. I suspect you’re a shifter’s mate, and that makes you valuable. So you’re not going to die, you’re going to be useful to me. Until you’re not. Try to stay alive until I have need of you.”

He turned and strode off, his boots echoing on the stone floor.

She lurched for the bars. “Wait! Please! I’m not a shifter’s mate. I’m not anything! I fell through the portal, please! I just want to go home.”

She hadn’t cried yet because she’d been so confused and still a little groggy from whatever happened to her after she walked out of the building. But now she cried. Tears welled in her eyes and spilled over, chilling her already cold skin. She gripped the bars and rested her head on them, shivering as hope left her.

Storm, I’m sorry. Help me.

Storm had a hard time holding onto his rage as he followed Seren’s footsteps from the security building across the snowy field to the edge of the magically protected town. Her footsteps were barely visible with the snowfall and her scent was gone, but he didn’t need to see where she went to know that once her footsteps ended at the magical barrier, there was only one male who could have engineered her disappearance.

Jack Frost.

“He must have thought she was an elf,” Hunter said. “She was wearing her hat, which would have covered her ears.”

Storm glanced at Santa, who was staring into the darkness in the direction of Frost’s lair.

“He can’t steal magic from her, so why would he keep her?” Storm asked.

Santa shook his head. “She’s unique. There aren’t any humans in Northernmost, so he would most likely want to use her to try to trap someone to use for magic. It’s a few weeks from the solstice, so he would be trying to store up his magical reserves before he’s depleted.”

Storm hated everything about the situation. Not only that she’d left, but that she clearly hadn’t known what she was getting into. He was angry and frustrated but also scared to death.

What if Jack had simply killed her once he realized she was human? Or what if he’d let her go in the darkness outside of Northernmost? She wouldn’t last long out there with just her coat. She’d already been gone over an hour.

He rubbed the space over his heart, his bear pacing in his mind. They weren’t mated, but they were mates. He could feel some kind of pull in his heart, but it didn’t give him anything to go on.

“I think she’s alive,” he said, staring into the darkness but seeing nothing. “But she might not have much time.”

“I’d say that’s a safe bet,” Sebastian, one of the wolves, said. “She’s got to be at his lair. If he or his asshole right-hand Valeth haven’t reached out by now, they may still be planning what to do with her. So what should we do?”

Storm straightened his shoulders. “I’m going to his lair and getting my mate.”

Santa put his hand on Storm’s shoulder. “I can open the door to let you in, but I can’t risk going inside.”

“That’s all I need,” he said.

Santa nodded. He clapped his hands and a pale blue light glittered over them. He felt a tingling sensation for a brief moment, and then the light was gone. “That will keep us from being detected until you breach the building, then you’ll be visible. Let’s go. The sooner we get your mate back, the better.”

He looked at his brothers—Hunter and Winter—and his friends and fellow Guardians—Sebastian, Gabriel, and Declan.

“We’ve got your back,” Declan said with a growl as his eyes flashed to the amber of his wolf. “Let’s get your mate home safe.”

The group moved as one, racing into the darkness and heading right for Jack Frost’s underground lair, a literal fortress built underneath a mountain. There was only one way in—a guarded security door—and they were going to have to take out the guards and use Santa’s magic to unlock the door. Then he had to find her.

Hopefully being in the same building would help their connection strengthen enough he could find her.

He didn’t want to think about the alternative.