Page 9 of Saved By Her Guardian (Yuletide Shifters #4)

Maverick didn’t mind the night shift, although he would have preferred to be in bed with Aralyn.

He hated that they were separated by so much distance, but she was safe at the cemetery while they sorted things out.

They’d made plans to see each other in a week, which was not nearly soon enough in his opinion, but he’d take it over the longer delay he thought they’d have to deal with.

He rubbed the place on his neck where she’d bitten him. The bruise had disappeared quickly due to his natural healing abilities, but he could still feel it, and he loved it.

He didn’t think he could fall for someone so quickly, but that seemed to be the way it was with truemates. The feelings hit hard and fast. Humans, he’d heard, tended to feel that insta love wasn’t real, but tell that to his damn heart that felt like it was tethered to Aralyn already.

He walked into the security office and saw Gabriel, one of the wolves, sitting at the desk with the monitors and several elves milling around.

Gabriel looked up and nodded. “Welcome to the night shift.”

“Thanks, it wasn’t at all difficult to convince someone to trade with me.”

“I bet,” Gabriel said with a chuckle. “I’ve got you patrolling the perimeter for the first half of your shift. After your meal break, you’ll be keeping an eye on some maintenance workers at the reindeer barn.”

“Sure thing,” he said. He grabbed a walkie from the charging station and hooked it onto his belt, then pulled his stocking cap down over his ears and tugged on his thick gloves. “Who’s with me?”

“Me,” Heath, one of the elves, said.

They fist-bumped and headed out of the office, following the hall to the outer door. The cold night air was like a punch in the face, a harsh reminder that it was far, far warmer down in the States, especially where Aralyn was.

“I heard you found your truemate,” Heath said.

They walked out of the main building and headed to the magical perimeter that surrounded the entire town of Northernmost, beginning the first of many treks around it.

“Yeah, it was pretty wild,” he said. He told Heath how he and Aralyn had met and how she’d shown up that morning unannounced, freaking everyone out.

“That’s damn cool, congrats.”

“Any romance on your horizon?”

“Nah. Well, I mean, I hope so, but nothing so far. I definitely want to wait for my truemate, even if it is fun to play the field.”

He understood that feeling. He’d had those same thoughts himself once upon a time, but after a while, the one-nighters lost their appeal and he just didn’t bother with them.

While they walked along the line of the magical perimeter, which made everything on the other side look oddly hazy, they kept their eyes and ears tuned for anything out of the ordinary.

Frost had done some crazy shit over the years trying to get through their defenses, including sending a stampeding group of moose through the perimeter, throwing a bomb through the Portal, and magically tagging the Portal itself so he could track those who used it.

He usually didn’t bother trying to get to the Well outside of December, because December was when Santa used the majority of his magic and was most vulnerable.

Knowing that he’d been actively abducting witches and warlocks to steal their magic and turn them into mindless minions who followed him without question made Maverick think about Aralyn.

But Frost didn’t mess with reapers because their magic was too neutral and didn’t replenish his dark magic the way good magic users did.

He and Heath talked occasionally about the mundane goings-on in Northernmost, but mostly they were silent as they trekked around the town. His thoughts drifted frequently to Aralyn, and the more that the night dragged on, the more his thoughts stayed on her.

Was she okay?

He took out his phone as they reached the Portal and sent a text.

Hi, sweetheart, just thinking of you. How is your night going?

He waited, staring at the screen.

“What are you going to do?” Heath asked.

Maverick looked up at him. “About?”

“When we’re through the holidays and you can leave Northernmost. Are you going to drop out of the Guardians? Would Aralyn move up here?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “She has to reap souls, so she needs to be assigned somewhere. Right now she’s in a cemetery as punishment because she didn’t want to take her assignment, but she can’t stay there forever.”

“Damn,” Heath said. “But couldn’t she just use the Portal to go reap souls? Does she have to live in the area where she reaps?”

Maverick looked up from the screen. “I don’t know, actually.”

“Just a thought.”

She hadn’t answered his text and concern poked at him, but he couldn’t do anything about it right now. They’d agreed to talk in the morning, and she might not have her phone on her.

Tucking his phone into his pocket, he walked away from the Well with Heath, his thoughts on his mate.

* * *

An hour later, Maverick’s walkie squawked.

“Maverick.”

“Hey, it’s Sebastian. Can you meet Drea and Eira and escort them to the Well to replenish their magic?”

“Sure, where are they?”

“They’re opening the door of the cafeteria now.”

He and Heath turned to see the light as the door swung open and two figures appeared. “We see them,” Maverick said.

They strode over to the door and greeted the two elves.

“Sorry about this,” Drea said. “I was working in the office and Santa said he’d make sure I had coal in my stocking this year if I didn’t get my magic replenished tonight.”

Maverick chuckled. “You office workers always seem to want to hold off for the longest time when it comes to replenishing your magic.” His alpha female Ivy said she’d been the same way.

They always got too busy this time of year to deal with it, but their magic had to be replenished or it would fade to nothing.

Eira hugged her arms around herself. “Tinsel, it’s cold. Let’s get this done. There’s a mug of hot cocoa calling my name in my apartment.”

He and Heath walked the females to the Well.

The Well was useless for shifters since they weren’t magical, but he could feel the pulse of magic in the air as they neared the bottomless pit where the world’s magic was housed.

Above them, the Northern Lights danced, painting streaks of bright yellows and greens against the dark sky.

When the females were finished replenishing their magic, they walked them back to the building and said goodnight, and then continued on their rounds. They were at the very back of the perimeter near the perpetually frozen lake when Maverick had the strangest feeling.

He stopped and looked around.

Were they being watched?

He didn’t see anything, but he felt like something was out of place.

“You all right?” Heath asked when he noticed that Maverick hadn’t moved along with him.

He hummed and looked around again. When he opened his mouth to tell Heath that he wasn’t sure, he saw an odd, purple glow just barely visible over the buildings. It seemed to come from the direction of the Portal.

“Something’s wrong,” he said. “I can…shit, I can feel Aralyn, but she shouldn’t be here.”

Without a word, he raced toward the Portal, calling on his leopard for strength and speed. Heath was running alongside him, calling on his walkie for backup at the Portal.

At first, he didn’t see anything. The Portal wasn’t glowing as if someone had used it to come to Northernmost.

But that feeling persisted.

Then, as he heard the pounding feet of other security members joining them, he saw movement on the other side of the Portal, outside of the magical perimeter.

“Aralyn!” He charged through the perimeter. His mate was standing in front of the Portal, her hand inches from touching it, and something dark between her finger and thumb.

She slowly looked at him, and he almost took a step back. Her eyes were glowing an unnatural blue, and there was a strange purple aura around her.

He moved toward her and there was static in the air, like an electric barrier.

“What are you doing? What is that?”

She blinked a few times and then said, “The Portal is damaged and I have to fix it. It’s what I need to do to get a new assignment from the ancient reaper. This is the way we can be together, and I don’t have to cry while I work.”

“What are you talking about? The Portal isn’t damaged.” He moved toward her, pushing through the strange static field, his leopard snarling in his head. She didn’t sound right, and she didn’t look right. Something was very wrong with her, but he didn’t know what.

“What’s going on out there?” Sebastian’s voice came across someone’s walkie.

“Aralyn? What are you doing?” Maverick said. He reached for her, wrapping his hand around her wrist. The moment he touched her, the strange purple glow faded and her eyes stopped glowing.

“Maverick?” she asked, blinking wide eyes at him.

“Aralyn, where did you get this thing?” he looked at the strange black stone poised just inches from the Portal.

“A reaper.”

“You don’t need to do this to change your assignment. I’ll be there with you for all of it. This isn’t the way. Something is off about this whole thing. Dangerous. Evil.”

Her brows furrowed and her knuckles turned white as she squeezed the stone tighter.

“I…I’m worthy of a better assignment.” Her tone was off, like she didn’t trust her own words.

“Give it to me, sweetheart.” He let go of her wrist and held out his hand.

She met his gaze and he could see that she was struggling, but he didn’t know what was going on. Something seemed to have a hold on her mentally. Was it a spell?

She turned her hand over like she was going to drop the stone into his upturned hand when a portal appeared behind her so fast that he wasn’t sure what he was seeing.

And then Azure lunged out, wrapped his arms around Aralyn, and stepped back into the portal.

Maverick roared in alarm and reached for her, but she was gone, the portal crackling into oblivion as Azure smirked at him.

“Fuck!” Maverick yelled. He picked up the stone and turned for the buildings. “Someone get me Santa, right the hell now!”