Filed to story: Cara Nelson The Guardian: Werewolf Book PDF Free
“Yep”, he answers as he follows me out.
The ride to school is short. It’s on the border between our pack lands and the Shadow Falls pack. It’s about a 15 minute drive from the packhouse where Chase and I live. He lives on the 3rd floor with his family, the Beta’s floor. I live on the 4th floor with my parents, the space allotted for the alpha family. Our Gamma family lives on the 2nd floor. The floors for the ranked wolves are all on the left side of the pack house. The right side also has rooms on the second through fourth floors for guests and unmated warriors that choose to live here rather than in a separate home. The first floor has a large kitchen and dining room along with a rec room, living room and conference rooms for when we have large gatherings in the pack. Omegas who choose to live in the pack house are provided housing on the first floor as well.
Our pack, the Canyon Ridge Pack, is the 2nd largest in the country with well over 500 pack members. And, even though we’re not the largest, we are by far, the strongest. My father is a powerful alpha, I am a strong and powerful alpha heir, and technically, we have two guardians, although I’ve never met the daughter of the man and woman that saved my family’s life. I’ve heard the stories my entire life. My mother created a memorial for Lily Nelson, the Guardian that gave her life to save both my mother and me. She visits the memorial at least once a week to leave fresh flowers and, as she says, to let Lily know that her sacrifice is not forgotten and was not in vain. I say my own silent thank you to Mrs. Nelson and I promise to look after Cara for her.
My father has dinner with Clint Nelson every week. I’ve attempted to join my father, but he says this is his time with Clint. Even my mother does not join them. Dad has been trying to get Clint to become more active in the pack for years, even offering him a position as lead trainer for our warriors, but he won’t budge. Somewhere along the line he was labeled as ‘The Broken Warrior’. While my father threatened to punish anyone that called Mr. Nelson by that name, it didn’t matter, the name stuck. I can understand why. He was the best warrior in our pack and now he’s a paraplegic. He’s been in a wheelchair for nearly 13 years. He and his daughter live right on the edge of our packlands and the entire pack has been ordered to give them space. The daughter is around my age, according to my mother. I guess she spends all her time taking care of her father.
We pull into the school parking lot and head into school. Chase and I are immediately surrounded by females. They are all hoping to be the next Luna or Beta female. Most would just be happy to say they slept with one or both of us and we’re happy to oblige. However, I would never take any of them as my Luna, unless she was my fated mate. But I’d be hard pressed to take a mate that had happily slept with me and/or my Beta and who knows how many other men.
Is it a double standard? Yep. Do I care? Nope.
“Hey Rik. Got any plans for the weekend,” a red-head asks. I think her name is Jessica and I’m pretty sure she has slept with both Chase and I. One look at Chase and I know I’m right. “Not yet, why?”
“Well, my friends and I are going to Dark Moon on Friday and we were hoping you and Chase would like to join us. It’ll be a lot of fun.” She tries to give me a seductive look and I know what kind of ‘fun’ she’s referencing. I look at Chase again and I can see we’re in sync. “Yeah, I think we can make it.”
Her face lights up like I just gave her the best present ever. “Excellent!” Her friend leans into me, “You won’t regret it” she whispers to me. I look at her friend, “I’m sure I won’t.”
They turn down one of the side hallways, Jessica walking backward, “See you later Alpha, Beta”. I wink at her, “Later”.
As Chase and I head to class, he looks over at me, “Well that sounds promising.” I smile at him, “Definitely”.
…….
After lunch, Chase and I are surrounded by a group of friends and even more females. The girls are all chatting away about going dancing tomorrow night. Now it looks like half of my pack and half of the Shadow Falls Pack, our neighboring pack, lead by Alpha Liam, are all going to the club tomorrow night.
I feel like someone is watching me and I look up and I’m locked in to the most beautiful green eyes. My breath catches and I forget how to breathe for a minute. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Beautiful brown hair with big thick curls, eyes like emeralds and a mouth made for kissing. My wolf, Kai, sits up and tries to push forward.
‘Kai, what’s going on?’
‘I don’t know, I like her,’ he responds, and I swear he’s wagging his damn tail. Since Kai has never shown an interest in ANY female, this is surprising.
I turn to my future Beta, “Chase, who’s that girl?”. A nod my head in her direction as I see a guy wrap his arm around her neck and the two of them walk off together. I have to clamp my mouth shut as Kai tries to growl.
‘Seriously Kai, what the fuck?’
‘I want to meet her, go introduce yourself. That boy is no match for us, we’re alphas.’
‘Dude, calm down! We’re in the middle of school.’ I push him into the back of my mind when Chase responds, “You mean the brunette? No idea but she’s definitely your type. She’s got that curly hair you go for.’ He’s right, I love it when a girl has their hair in those loose curls. And hers looks like silk.
He looks back at me. “Want me to find out?” he asks.
“Nah, I’ll just ask her myself when I see her again.” I give him a grin that says that I’ll have her eating out of my hand by the end of the day as the bell rings and we all head to our next class.
I finish out my school day and head for my locker. Jason is my ride today, as we take turns driving to school. This is his week. I’m rearranging my books to take home what I need for my homework when a shadow falls over my locker. I look up into the glacial blue eyes of Alpha Rik. Great! What does my future alpha want?
I reign in my impatience and aggravation. No use pissing off the one I’ll most likely be bound to for my entire life.
I take a deep breath, “Alpha, how can I help you?” Personally, I think I did a great job of acting uninterested while still being polite.
“Hey there beautiful, I don’t believe I’ve seen you around before.” Seriously? This is his opening line? Like we haven’t gone to the same schools our ENTIRE lives?
I put on my best fake smile, “I guess you haven’t. It’s a bit hard to see past all of your adoring fans.” I close my locker and lean my shoulder against it, facing him. I decide to have a little fun and bat my eyes. “You ARE an alpha right?” I ask, making sure to give him my best wide-eyed, star-struck look.
“I am sweetheart, but don’t let my aura intimidate you. I hear it can be a bit overwhelming.” Wow! This guy certainly thinks highly of himself. Even Artemis snorts in my head. The joke’s on him. Guardians are completely immune to the Alpha aura or command. My father says it’s because, in the past, alphas started to care too much for their guardians so they would command them to stand down in a fight allowing their Alpha to be injured or even killed. Over time, the Alpha command no longer worked on us. I guess I won’t ever have to worry about that with this alpha, not like he even knows who I am or appreciates my family’s sacrifice.
And while I can feel Rik’s aura, it washes right over me. But I have no intention of letting this douchebag know who or what I am.
“Oh wow”, I bring my hand up to my heart as if I’m trying to hold my palpitations at bay, “It’s really nice to meet you.”
Artemis snickers in my head, ‘Laying it on a bit thick aren’t you?’
Maybe I am but, honestly, an alpha should know his pack members. It would be insulting that he doesn’t recognize me under normal circumstances, but the fact that my family has given so much for his and he doesn’t even know who I am? Well, it just grinds my gears.
He puts his hand out to shake mine, “I’m Rik, Alpha heir of the Canyon Ridge Pack, maybe you’ve heard of me?” I move my mouth into the most convincing ‘Oh’ I can muster and attempt to look even more flustered. “Oh, oh wow, nice to meet you”, and I shake his hand.
What I didn’t expect was to feel a jolt, like an electric current going through my hand, making the hair raise up and down my arms. It wasn’t unpleasant, but very much unexpected. Rik looks startled for a moment and I wonder if he felt it too. Weird. Maybe it’s static electricity from the locker.
He’s holding my hand and looking at me expectantly. I’m wondering what he’s waiting for and why he’s not letting go of my hand when he finally speaks. “It’s customary where I’m from to introduce yourself after someone introduces themselves to you”. He gives me a charming smile, as if making females speechless is an everyday occurrence for him. And possibly it is. He is surrounded by dimwit followers all day every day, it can’t be that hard to make them speechless. However, I am not one of his merry menagerie, so I’m about to introduce myself when I’m saved by Jason.
“Hey Ca-“, I cut him off before he can say my name. “Hey Jason, do you know Alpha Rik?” I ask and give him a glare that I hope he interprets correctly. Jason gives me a ‘what the hell?’ look before turning to Rik. “Of course. Alpha Rik is from my pack and is my future alpha.” I’m SO thankful for Jason right now. He may not know why I am acting stupid, but he’s going along for the ride. “Alpha” he acknowledges Rik as he inclines his head showing his neck in submission.
“Jason”, Rik nods his head to Jason. “I was just introducing myself to your friend here.” He turns back to me. “So, sweetheart, what’s your name and what pack are you from?”
Ok, so now I’m getting pissed. He really doesn’t have a clue as to who I am. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jason flinch. Time for me to move this along. “What makes you think I’m not from your pack?” I raise an eyebrow at him, moving past innocent toward snarky.
He looks at me with a typical condescending alpha air, arching his own eyebrow in return. “Well sweetheart, I know every member of my pack, and I don’t know you.” And now it’s time for me to knock that arrogant asshole down a peg or two.
I lean into him, putting my hand on his chest. His very chisled and warm chest. Geez, are alphas made of granite? I force myself not to slide my hand over more of his body to see if it’s all this hard and sculpted. Head in the game Car.
I get up on my tip toes and bring my mouth up toward his ear. Luckily, he takes the hint and leans into me as well so I can whisper in his ear, “Well, obviously you don’t know EVERY member. And my name isn’t Sweetheart.”
I’m pretty sure I heard his quick intake of breath as I turn on my heel and start to walk away. “Let’s go Jay, I need to get home”.
…………..
Once we’re in the car, Jason looks at me, “Ok, so you want to tell me what that was all about? Why are you letting Alpha Rik think you’re from some other pack?”
“I’m not”, I insist. I mean really, Rik started that conversation. He obviously has no idea who I am and then he’s going to stand there and try to tell me he knows every member of his pack? “I’m not just going to let that go Jay. Why should I? He’s the future Alpha of our pack. If he’s going to be arrogant, he should at least be able to back it up. You heard him. He didn’t even know I was from his pack.”
“So why not just tell him?”
I look at my bestie with my mouth hanging on the floor. “Are you kidding me right now?”
