Filed to story: Cara Nelson The Guardian: Werewolf Book PDF Free
Chase and several of my warriors finally get me outside and Kai continues to snarl and fight against them.
Chase gets up in my face, “ALPHA! Think about what you are doing. Get out of here and go for a run. There is no other way that this does not end in a battle of two packs with many students dead.” He stresses the word students, trying to get through to Kai. “We’ll stay and make sure nothing happens here. Go get yourself under control.”
I’m able to get just enough control of Kai to turn and run toward the forest. As soon as I hit the tree line, I shift. We run for hours before I finally feel able to return to the packhouse. I’ve missed training and as I walk in, Chase is waiting for me. I shift and walk over to him. He holds out a pair of shorts.
“How are you?”
‘Better. Thank you for earlier. Was there any backlash?”
“Nah. Cara calmed Liam down, he left with his bear, and everyone went back to normal. Although the betting odds have definitely ramped up in your favor, and for some ridiculous reason, mine. I guess everyone thinks you fight my battles for me.”
I scoff. “As if you need me fighting your battles for you.” He slaps me on the shoulder. Then his look turns serious. “That was awfully close today.”
“Yeah. Too close.” I look at my Beta scrubbing my face with my hands. “I think she might be my mate.”
His eyes go wide and he whistles low. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. Kai has never acted like this. Never been this…” I search for the right word. “Territorial. Possessive.”
“I’ve watched girls I’ve hooked up with the night before practically going at it with another guy the next night and Kai wasn’t phased at all. But with her, and her, talking to her and I sure as shit don’t want him touching her. Kai was. snarling the minute he walked in with that bear, but when she accepted his offering, Kai lost it. He wants her and he sees Liam and Cyran as a threat to getting what he wants.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Yeah.”
“I mean this with the utmost respect, so please, know that I am asking as your friend.”
I give him an ‘out with it’ gesture when he pauses.
“Do you think it might be because she is a Guardian, not because she’s your mate? She’s a powerful she-wolf. Any male wolf would want her. Hell, even Nash recognizes that she would be one hell of a mate.”
A low growl rumbles in my chest and Chase puts his hands up in a surrendering gesture. “I’m not staking any kind of claim, I’m just saying, our wolves respect strength and power and she has both. As an Alpha wolf, it would make sense that Kai would want her for those reasons.”
I reach out to Kai, but he doesn’t have an answer for me. He probably won’t until after my birthday, or maybe not until her birthday in a couple of months.
“I honestly don’t know Chase. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.” With that, I head up to my room. For the first time ever, I will not be joining my mother at Lily’s memorial site. I need to go see Cara. I need to make sure that she is ok and that I didn’t ruin everything with her today.
Cooper Author
Liam and Rik can’t both be her mate- so who wants her as a mate and who wants her as a Guardian? Or maybe, they heels himself into the living room.
“Hey sweetheart, what’s today’s offering?” He says with a grin.
I sigh. “I’ll tell you, but we need to talk. It’s really important. You know I wouldn’t interrupt training if it wasn’t, but we need to have this conversation before Alpha Anders comes by tonight.”
“Of course. Let’s go sit in the living room and you can tell me what’s going on.
I sit, and dad wheels himself in front of me to give me his undivided attention. I start at the beginning, telling him about the gift basket. I tell him how the cards. have gotten more bold each day, starting with Monday’s guessing game to today’s professing his desire to be the one who takes care of me.
‘Sweetheart, it’s not uncommon for Guardians to have males attempting to claim their love or favor. Your mother had many men trying to gain her favor in her day and your birthday is in a couple of months. I’m not sure I understand what the concern is.”
“Dad, almost immediately after I opened my gift, Alpha Liam walked into the cafeteria with a huge black bear on his shoulders. He looked like he’d just come from fighting and killing the creature. He even still smelled of blood and fighting. Cyran announced to the cafeteria that he brought the bear as an offering for Artemis.”
My dad whistles appreciatively and starts to speak, but I cut him off.
“That’s not all dad. When Artemis accepted Cyran’s offering, Kai snarled a challenge. I’m not sure why he did it, maybe he felt that Liam and Cyran were being disrespectful to his packmate that is sending me the offerings, but either way, if Chase hadn’t pulled him out of the building and I hadn’t distracted Cyran, they would have fought. Over ME! It was bad.”
My dad looks at me thoughtfully for a minute. “And you don’t know why Kai issued the challenge to Cyran?’ He asks.
“No idea. But Liam is serious in his desire to have me as his Luna. We talked about it last week. He knows I’m waiting for my mate, but he also thinks HE is my mate, so he’s perfectly happy to wait. That is, until someone else started putting a claim on Artemis and L.”
“Cara, have you considered that Rik is your mystery man? Maybe he is the one that is staking his claim and Alpha Liam recognized it as real competition.”
“Dad, I hate to break it to you, but Rik doesn’t even know who I am.”
“Why would you say that Cara?”
“Because, he had the nerve to walk up to me in school and ask me my name and what pack I was from.”
My father looks dumbfounded for a minute before regaining his composure.
“So, who else is in the running?”
“I had Jason check the betting pool, since you know there was one.”
Dad smirks, “Of course.”
“So the short list was Rik, Chase, Liam, Trevor and Jason.” I scrunch up my nose when I say Jason’s name.
My dad just raises a brow in question.
“It’s not Jason Dad. He’s my best friend and even he thought it was sort of gross and stupid to be in the top 5.” I sat thoughtfully for a minute. “We can remove Liam, and Rik, so that leaves Chase and Trevor as the biggest possibilities. I’ve never gotten any vibes from Chase, so I honestly don’t see it. That leaves Trevor.”
I look at my dad. His gaze is far away as he looks out into our backyard.
Turning back, he voice is thoughtful when he responds, “Trevor is a good bet. He’s a strong warrior and would want a strong mate. But I don’t see Alpha Rik challenging Alpha Liam because of a perceived slight. It’s common enough for males to fight over Alpha females that it doesn’t make sense for him to act that way.” His focus returns to me. “So, how did it end?”
“Well….” I drag the word out into as many syllables as possible while my father’s face becomes even more inquisitive. “I had to distract Cyran from fighting Kai while Chase and some of the Canyon Ridge warriors pulled Rik out of the cafeteria, so….” I take a deep breath and say it all as fast as I can. “I sort of invited Liam to train with you and I tomorrow and then stay for dinner to have bear steaks or whatever you make with bear meat.”
I make a face, waiting for my father’s backlash. But instead of him being angry he bursts out laughing.
“You’re telling me I’m going to be training one of the strongest Alphas tomorrow along with the strongest warrior on the planet?” I open my eyes and nod. He rubs his hands together in anticipation. “I can’t WAIT!”