Falling For Her Guardian (Yuletide Shifters #1)

Chapter 9

Storm was having trouble keeping his bear in check. He was so thankful that Seren was awake and safely with him, but also pissed as hell that she’d gotten hurt in the first place and also seemed to think he was like whatever asshole shifter she’d dated in the past.

He wanted to find that male and give him a beating on principal.

The underground passageway to the barracks was chilly despite the heating elements that ran along the floor. She shivered, and he paused for a moment and took off his coat to lay it over her shoulders. Then he continued their trek to the barracks, keeping a hand on her upper arm.

It was partly because he was worried she might pass out again, even though she seemed fine, but also because he wondered if she might try to bolt.

A door opened ahead of them and Sebastian appeared. The male’s eyes widened when he saw them together, his gaze pinging between them as they approached.

Storm paused when they reached him, and Sebastian stopped too.

“Seren, this is Sebastian. He was with me and a few others when we went to Frost’s lair to get you.”

“Thank you for helping get me to safety,” she said.

Sebastian nodded. “I’m glad I could help.” He glanced at Storm and said, “You off for the night?”

He nodded.

“All right, I’m on my way to check in at the office. I’ll finish your shift if they need help.”

“Thanks,” he said.

They parted ways, Sebastian heading back the way they’d come.

“What is he?” Seren whispered.

“Wolf.”

She made a disgruntled sound, a snort of derision, and he saw her jaw flex.

Ah. The male who hurt her was a wolf.

He was intrigued, because there were wolf packs that only allowed wolves to mate with other wolves, but that was true of most shifter groups. Some were fine with their people mating humans, other animal shifters, or magical people, and some that forbid it, going so far as to exile those who broke the rule.

His polar bear clan didn’t care about that in the least.

It wouldn’t matter to him if they did, because he was going to take Seren as his mate no matter that she couldn’t turn into an animal.

After a few more minutes of walking in silence, they reached the Guardians’ barracks, which contained nine apartments. There were three sections with three apartments in each section that were connected to an open area that served as a gathering room for the occupants. In the polar bear section, their gathering room had a pool table, a large fridge stocked with drinks and snacks, and a huge, comfy sectional sofa in front of a large flat-screen TV and electric fireplace.

After their shift, he and his brothers often hung out in the gathering room to unwind.

“We each have our own apartment,” he said, opening the door to his place. “There’s a cafeteria in this building aboveground and we can also order groceries from the elves, who travel through the portals to get what we need.”

She stood in the center of the great room in his two-bedroom apartment and looked quietly around.

She hadn’t said two words since they’d passed Sebastian. He knew she wasn’t afraid because she didn’t smell like it to his beast, and while she did smell aroused, it was a mild scent and mostly faded by this point.

“Do you want anything to eat?”

She looked at him for the first time in twenty minutes. Really looked at him.

“No thanks.”

“Have a seat, Seren.”

She shivered and pulled his jacket a little tighter around herself. She sat in the center of his leather couch, her knees together and her shoulders hunched.

He grabbed the remote off the coffee table and turned on the electric fireplace, adjusting the temperature of the heating element and setting the fan to low.

He wanted to sit with her but was a little wary of pushing her when she seemed so fragile. He knew she was tired; he should just put her to bed in his room and bunk in one of the spare bedrooms.

His polar bear did not like that idea in the least.

Scrubbing his hand over his face, he turned to her. “Tell me about this male that made you want to swear off shifters.”

She chewed on her bottom lip for a long moment while staring at the floor, then leaned back against the couch and sighed.

“Finn is the future alpha of the Columbus Pack, near where I live,” she said. She told him about meeting a wolf and dating him for four months, then finding out he’d been cheating on her the whole time with she-wolves. As the tale ended, she didn’t look sad so much as resigned. “When I confronted him, he first said it was out of his control, that his wolf had to be with she-wolves on the full moon. But I knew he was fucking around with them at other times. I heard the gossip whenever I was around the pack, and I knew they didn’t like that I was dating the next-in-line alpha. So when I called him on his bull shit, he said it was my fault.”

“What? He blamed his cheating on you? How the hell did he do that?”

She lifted her gaze to him and she looked relieved to have him on her side. Which, of course, he was. He didn’t know the wolves of the Columbus Pack, but he sure as hell wanted to go kill this Finn character, or at least make it super difficult for him to enjoy the rest of his life. “He said that because I was human, I didn’t satisfy him.” She averted her gaze, but he wasn’t going to have that. He sat on the coffee table and cupped her face, lifting her chin until she looked at him again.

She was embarrassed.

Anyone would be, with someone who was supposed to protect them fucking up so badly.

“What a fucking asshole.”

Her brows lifted, but she pressed her lips together and didn’t say anything.

“I’m serious, Seren,” he said earnestly, hoping she could hear the truth in his words. “He’s just a bad male, one of those guys who want to use people without consequences. He’s most likely done it to other females, not just humans but she-wolves too. Sometimes, the next-in-line alpha gets away with everything because no one wants to get on their bad side when they take over. It’s shitty on a hundred different levels, and I totally understand why it would make you want to swear off dating shifters.”

He stroked his thumbs down her jaw and then her throat, resting them along her collarbone.

“I think it was worse because my sister is the one who figured out what he was doing and let me know, and she told my parents. My mom wanted to call his dad and tell him to rein in his son. She’s a momma bear at heart,” she said with a smile.

“The best moms always are. Did she call?”

“No, I forbade her from getting involved. It ended up that once I called him on his bullshit and told him it was over, a few of the she-wolves messed with me on social media, tagging my friends and family and suggesting I was a defective human and couldn’t handle being with a male like him. I deleted everything and my family went private and blocked them, and that was the end of it. It’s been a year, and I haven’t really wanted to date anyone at all, let alone a shifter.”

“So when you felt attracted to me, it freaked you out?”

She leaned away from his touch. “What makes you think I’m attracted to you?

He leaned into her, planting his fists on the couch on either side of her hips and inhaling softly. “Because I can smell your arousal.”

Seren had never heard such a thing. He could smell when she was turned on?

Before she could stop herself, she blurted out, “What does it smell like to you?”

He growled softly, the sound almost a purr but deeper. He closed his eyes and inhaled, then leaned closer, barely touching her neck with his nose. She shivered as her skin prickled. “You smell like a fucking dream, Seren,” he said, his voice low and rough. “Like warm spices and honey.” He leaned back and his eyes bled from gold to ice blue. “You smell good to me all the time, but when you’re turned on? It’s amplified and it makes my bear go crazy.”

She rolled her lips together. No one had ever said something like that to her before.

Was she still thinking about being possibly betrayed and heartbroken by the sexy guy before her?

Yes.

But it wasn’t as strong as it was in the beginning. She could feel his honesty in some strange way in her heart, and she could tell he was speaking truthfully when it came to her.

He was close. She could feel his warmth and she wanted to snuggle up with him. He smelled so good, like leather and fresh snow.

“Are we done talking?” she whispered as her body tingled at his nearness.

“We can be,” he said. “Why?”

Instead of answering, because she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t say something wildly inappropriate for having just met him hours earlier and nearly dying, she kissed him.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and planted her lips against his.

His lips were warm and soft and he was so strong she could feel his muscles flexing as he lowered himself to his knees in the V of her legs and pushed his hands under her bottom. He drew her closer and she slid off the couch onto his lap, feeling the ridge of his erection press against her most sensitive place.

She couldn’t stop the moan that rolled up her throat as their lips parted and their tongues touched, everything inside her demanding she strip herself—and him—and find out just how warm his skin was and just how the hell big the bat he was swinging was. Because it felt damn big.

He cradled her close and rocked his hips up, grinding himself lightly against her.

A flush crept up her spine. She dug her nails into his neck and met his hips with a soft rock of her own.

Holy hell, she could come just dry humping him.

She broke from the kiss and leaned back against the couch, panting for breath. His eyes were a beautiful mixture of blue and gold, and she could feel the rumble of his bear in his chest.

She wanted to do a hundred things with him, mainly ask him to take her to bed immediately. But she’d rushed into physical things in the past and didn’t want to make that same mistake. She wasn’t even sure she really believed in this whole mate thing. Even if something very deep in her heart told her that he was right and they were meant to be together.

“I think,” she said, her voice cracking. She cleared her throat and planted her feet on the carpet, pushing off his lap and rising to her feet. “I think that I’d like to go to sleep, I’m exhausted.”

He stared at her for a long moment, like he knew exactly how close she was to playing a quick round of strip poker without the poker, and she thought he might call her bluff.

Which wouldn’t have been much of a bluff. She was practically drooling over him and she wanted very much to find out what it meant to be a shifter’s mate. But instead of doing any of that, she was going to run away like a little scared mouse and hide in the bedroom until the lust tingling through her veins was under control.

However the hell she managed that.

He rose to his feet slowly, towering over her, and then he said softly, “If that’s what you’d like, you can have my room.”

“Wh-where will you sleep?” Curious, yes, but she also wanted him to know that she wanted to sleep alone, because she did.

Definitely.

Almost one hundred percent.

“I’ll bunk in the other bedroom. Come on, it’s late.”

He took her down a hall and turned on the overhead light in a large bedroom with a mahogany sleigh bed covered with a navy blue and cream quilt. He went to the nightstand and clicked the button to turn on a lamp that looked like a flickering candle, then he strode into the attached bathroom and came out a few moments later.

“I put out a towel for you if you’d like to clean up.” He pulled a shirt out of a drawer and tossed it to the bed. “You can sleep in that. I’ll see you when you wake up.”

He headed for the door. She was so tempted to ask him to stay with her, even if it was just for sleeping, that she had to grit her teeth to stop from asking him.

Hell, at this point, she was feeling pretty damn needy and would probably beg him just to stay in the same room.

“Good night, Storm.”

“Good night, Seren. Sweet dreams.” He smiled at her and then pulled the door shut.

She sank onto the bed and groaned.

Her body was humming. How had she been so affected by a kiss?

She wished she had a phone so she could call Noelle and talk to her about everything. She’d tell her how she couldn’t stop imaging Storm running his fingers, and more, over her skin and how she’d never felt so crazy-attracted to a guy in her life, even the dreaded ex who she’d thought was really handsome.

But he didn’t hold a candle to Storm.

Sexy ice blue eyes, dark hair that had that just rolled out of bed tousle to it, and damn was he strong. Broad shouldered and stacked with muscles, she wanted…to very much open the door and find him and do…stuff to him. With him.

She needed time to think.

This wasn’t rational, right? She couldn’t just meet a guy and fall in love with him, because that was the stuff of cheesy holiday romance movies or the novels her mom liked to read with the ripply-muscled shirtless men on the covers.

Not real life.

Certainly not her life.

She stared at the ceiling and wondered if everything really had happened for a reason, that her car broke down where it did, when it did, and the witch had opened a portal right at the same time that Seren happened to slip on ice and fall into Northernmost, where Storm just happened to be patrolling.

He wasn’t from the North Pole originally. His family was in Pennsylvania. She never would have met him if she hadn’t stumbled into Northernmost.

So…fate.

It had to be.

But what did that even mean for her?

She lifted her head and looked at the closed door. He’d turned off the bright overhead light, leaving the room bathed in amber from the flickering faux candle lamp.

Dropping her head back to the bed, she stared at the light moving on the ceiling and wondered what she should do next.