Reagan is the youngest in this generation of Guardians. Because she is much younger than the others, she was never as close to the Guardians as her siblings. Thankfully, when her older brother found his mate, she had a younger sister, Meadow, who was Reagan’s age. The two have become best friends and they have the same close friendship that her siblings share with the other Guardians. Kieran is an Alpha who lives in the western part of the country. He has been waiting a long time to find his mate. He’s refused to take a chosen mate, but at twenty-six, he’s becoming feral, and time is running out. He must either find his fated mate, take a chosen mate, or be put down by his pack. Because she is the last of the Guardians, Reagan’s eighteenth birthday has been opened to all eligible males throughout the country. Her birthday is considered the event of the century, with Alpha werewolves, royal elves, royal vampires, and even warlocks attending. As Kieran's last chance, he attends. The moment he smells his mate, his wolf pushes forward, marking her without consent. Amid the fury of the Guardians and others in attendance, Reagan decides to give Kieran a chance to prove himself before marking him and completing their bond. She leaves the only home she’s ever known to travel across the country, with Meadow insisting that she come. When they arrive at Kieran's home, Reagan finds a pack in chaos. Bullying, manipulation, and subterfuge have been used to run the pack while Kieran has been fighting his demons. Can Reagan, with Meadow’s help, turn the pack around, or will she decide that Kieran isn’t worth the effort, rejecting him and returning home, leaving him to go feral?
View More**This book is the 8th in the Guardian's Next Generation series and 12th in the overall Guardian series. It can be read as a standalone novel, but scenes and historical incidents will be referenced without going into full detail of what happened. It is recommended that you begin the series at the beginning with The Broken Warrior's Daughter.**
Reagan
“Are you excited about your birthday?” my best friend Meadow asks me.
We’re sitting in my bedroom at my parents’ house. We alternate between my house and hers in the city where she lives with her sister, Maeve, and my brother, Xander. It’s a toss up as to which house is more uncomfortable to stay at; mine because you’d think my parents were rabbits instead of werewolves, and Meadow’s because Xander and Maeve just had twins, increasing the size of their family to seven. They’ve only been together three years, but that hasn’t stopped Maeve from pushing out pups as fast as Xander can give them to her. And that doesn’t even include Maeve’s and Meadow’s younger brother, Tate. It’s crowded and loud at her house.
We used to be able to spend time with my brother Cayd who also lives in the city, but now that he’s found his mate, it’s like he and Xander are in a contest to see who can give their mates pups faster.
“In some ways, yes. I mean, it will be nice to find him and share the love that we see with the others.”
“What’s the ‘no’ part of the sentence?” she asks. She’s currently spinning some of her witchy lights around in front of her. She’s been practicing using color and light and blending them together. She’s actually a pretty fantastic witch. Her family is descended from very powerful witches who were murdered because they refused to work for some terrible witch. Somehow, Maeve was able to hide the fact that she was underage, raising her sister and brother alone. That is, until Xander found her. He’d taken her under his protection and therefore the protection of the pack and that’s how I met my bestie. We clicked right away and we’ve never looked back.
I look at her until she focuses on me. “What in the Moon Goddess’ realm would have ever made my dad or Rich think that I would want all this pomp and circumstance for my birthday?” I ask her.
My brother, Rich, has been Alpha of our pack for nearly six years. He’s a great Alpha. It wasn’t a seamless transition into his role, and I know there was a time when my father was ready to take the pack back from him. But he got it together and since then, he and his mate, Emlyn, have run this pack in near perfection.
My father calls Rich and I his bookends, the only two children out of seven that take after him. My other brothers and sisters are very much like our mother, and I have a lot of her traits too, but like Rich, I prefer sparring to putting on fancy clothes.
Even though I’m young, I’m very strong. Part of that is because I am my father’s daughter. But the biggest part of that is because I’m the daughter of a Guardian. My mother’s wolf, Alessia, is blessed by the Moon Goddess with the Guardian spirit. That blessing has passed to all of her daughters and the daughters of the other Guardians, Aunt Grace and Aunt Cara. It makes us stronger than Alphas, including our Alpha brothers who are stronger than most.
“You’re the last available Guardian in this generation, Reagan. You know the history, how Alphas used to force the Guardians into mate bonds to make themselves stronger. And look at your sister and Lily, they’re both queens now, one the Queen of Vampires and the other the Queen of the Fae. Maybe your mate will be a prince or a king and you’ll become a queen too.”
I frown at my friend. “Do you even know me at all?”
She laughs, letting her balls of light spread all over the room. “So, what? You’d prefer a muscle-bound Alpha who is a fighter to some nearly immortal royal?”
The truth is, I don’t really know what I want besides having someone who loves me the way my father loves my mother. I already know that no matter who my mate is, I’ll be stronger than he is, so does it really matter if he’s wolf, vampire, fae, or warlock? Probably not. But for me, I feel drawn to the packs. I like living in the forest, letting my wolf, Alayla, run hard and fast, smelling the scents of the world around us.
“I think I’d prefer a wolf mate. I love forest. I don’t want to leave and I definitely don’t want to live in the city. That place is hideous.”
“So, an Alpha ...” she says, as if thinking. Her lights begin moving again and as I watch, they begin to form the figure of a man, a tall, very muscular man.
“Do you really think that anyone is going to be more muscular than the sons of the Guardians?” I ask her, watching as the muscles on the image continue to increase in size. “Big doesn’t always mean strong, you know,” I tell her.
“Hmmm, true,” she says and the muscles begin to decease into someone whose muscular body looks deceptively lean with ropey muscles along his arms and legs. I know from experience that these are the fighters who are lethal. The big ones rely on their brawn and because of that, they don't use their head in a fight, making them easy to take down. The ones who are underestimated are the ones you have to watch out for. They not only have strength, but they use their brain in a fight.
“And since we know that you like the tall, dark, and handsome look, let’s give our guy dark hair,” she says. She’s right. My entire family has either my mother’s white-blond hair or my father’s sandy-blond hair. For me, I prefer the opposite – dark and dangerous. She continues working on the image in front of us, giving his face the chiseled features of an Alpha, with a dangerous look to his eyes.
“There you go! That’s him. When we find the guy who looks like this, I’ll take him,” I say.
Meadow looks over her creation, tilting her head back and forth. “I don’t know, Rea, I might have to fight you for this one.”
One of the reasons that Meadow and I have remained friends is our mutual respect for the other’s strengths. Meadow may not be a fighter like I am, but she’s a very powerful witch. In a fight between the two of us, I’m not sure I would win. I do know it would be one hell of a battle. That equality of strength, along with an innate desire to help others, to protect the weak, is what has forged our unbreakable friendship.
“Rock, paper, scissors?” I ask, teasing. She and I do share a type. I like dark and dangerous, and she likes dark and broody.
I watch as she splits the image into two. “How about twins instead?” she asks.
“Who are they?” my father asks. I turn and see him standing in the doorway of my bedroom.
“Our fake mates,” I say, smiling at him. “Now you and Rich can cancel this stupid party.”
He gives me a pained look. “Are you going to break that news to your mother and sisters? Quinn just gave birth to Little Eli and Malin is pregnant again. If you think I’M telling them to call this off, you can think again. Even Emlyn seems to be getting excited about all of this fanfare. AND, they all start arriving tonight.
I sigh. It was worth a try.
My father frowns at Meadow’s images of the men standing in my room. “So, if I see anyone who looks like this, I need to take him out before you see him?”
Now I chuckle. “You can’t kill my mate, Dad.”
“Are you sure about that?” he asks arrogantly.
“Okay, you probably COULD kill him, but you can’t because he’s my mate. Unless he’s a terrible person and I reject him, then you can kill him,” I shrug.
“Deal,” he says, glaring at Meadow’s images again.
“Did you need something, Dad?” I ask him.
“Yeah, I wanted to know if you wanted to spar before everyone starts arriving.”
I hop up excitedly. “I absolutely do!”
ReaganI was having the best time catching up with my family on the ride back to our pack. It feels like I've been away from them for years, not weeks. I can tell that the noise in the van is overwhelming Kieran, but I hold his hand, using the mate bond to help keep him calm and ease the headache I can feel trying to take hold in his mind.I didn’t realize how much I missed the noise and chaos of my family until I was away from it. I’ve been busy. I’ve had a lot to do. But this? This beautiful chaos feels so right to me. I glance at Kieran. I wonder if this is going to totally turn him off from having pups, because I’m ready. I’m beyond ready. Our packhouse needs more beautiful chaos.These are the thoughts rolling through my head when I feel Kieran stiffen under my touch.My head snaps to him and I realize we’re close to the pack. “Kieran?”My family, even the pups, know when something is serious and the chaotic conversation stops instantly, leaving the van in silence.“Something is
PetalIt’s a little intimidating living in a werewolf pack, but my mate makes me feel so special and loved that it’s worth it. Plus having a Guardian in the pack is wonderful. So, even though I’m around all of these wolves who don’t know what I am, I still feel safe.Of course, now, I'm nervous for a completely different reason. I will finally get to meet our king and queen, Sir King Aolis and Lady Queen Lily. He is arriving tomorrow and I want to make sure everything if perfect for him. Elias and I went out to the Enchanted Forest to tell the other sprites, and everyone there is very excited about getting to see out king. Although, Elias thinks that they are more excited about having so many Guardians and several witches here. There was definitely a lot of activity when we told them that they are planning to make witchy lights for the Luna ceremony. I asked Elias if we could invite the Enchanted Forest sprites to the ceremony, but he said it would be up to Sir Alpha Kieran. Everyone
KieranI’m not exactly sure what to expect from Reagan’s family. The last time they saw me, they wanted to kill me. Obviously, things have changed since then and now that we’re marked and mated, I know they won’t do anything to hurt Reagan, but beating the shit out of me won’t hurt her, it will just hurt me.The trip to the airport takes a couple of hours and I use that time to just enjoy the quiet with my mate.“Remind me who is coming on this first trip,” I say.“Mom and Dad, obviously. Xander, Maeve and their six pups, Leana, Drake, and their three children, Rich, Emlyn, and their four pups,” she says. “Wait is that right?” she asks herself and begins counting people. “Yes, we’re expecting twenty-one today. Thankfully the private jet can hold that many.”I look at her. “Private jet?”She looks at me. “Didn’t I mention they were coming on the private jet? Holstin Enterprises has a private jet, but after the birth of so many grandpups, Dad decided that it was necessary to have a priv
ReaganThe next week and a half becomes organized chaos. I spent quite a bit of time with the omegas assuring them that while my family is very powerful and have strong auras, they are careful with them and rather than being overwhelming, my family will make them all feel safe and loved. I know this because the omegas in all our packs are all very happy.Silas’ ‘challenge’ was more of a training session than a challenge. Warriors took advantage of the opportunity to get some one-on-one instruction from their future Gamma, asking him to show them specific moves that he has used to defeat them in the past.Once Silas’ position became official, Kieran, Elias and I talked to him about the sprites, explaining what Petal is, introducing him to the sprites in the Enchanted Forest, and explaining our concern about needing to keep eyes on the omegas and Petal in case Nathan, Aaron, or even Olivia try to move against us. Knowing how busy we’re all going to be, I wanted as many eyes as possible
KieranI told Reagan about the silver I found in Olivia's room and showed her the bottle. She wanted to test it, but I didn’t want her getting burned. Samson has already healed me and I know Alayla is strong, but I don’t like my mate getting hurt if she doesn’t have to.When I told her that, she’d just smiled at me like I’d said something sweet and silly.At dinner, I stand to make the announcement about Silas. Rather than excitement, I feel trepidation from the pack. Perhaps they are worried that I’m about to announce another traitor, but hopefully, this will help everyone relax.“First, some bad news. Olivia renounced me and this pack. I assumed that she left because she was the one who was poisoning mine and your Luna’s drinks. She’s lived in this pack her entire life, and would have no where else to go. She was also known to be friends with Camile and Penelope. Therefore, I took Silas with me earlier today and searched her room. We found this,” I say lifting up the flask.“Inside
KieranAfter Reagan went looking for Meadow, I found Silas.“I need your assistance.”“Of course, Alpha.”I lead him to Olivia’s room. “Olivia renounced herself as a pack member. I want to see if we can find anything in her room to implicate her as the person who was putting liquid silver into my drinks and those of Luna Reagan.”“Yes, Alpha.”We enter the room and while we search, I ask him about Nathan and Aaron.“They’re bullies, I would definitely say that. But I’m not sure I’d say that they are manipulative enough to try to kill you, Alpha,” he says.“No, I think Markus was the leader of that idea. But do you think they would have gone along with it?” I ask.He stops searching and looks thoughtful for a moment. “If they were promised something, yes. But what would he have promised them? It would have to be worth risking their lives over. If you or Beta Elias had figured it out ... well, you did and Markus is dead because of his betrayal,” he says.I think about Markus sending Elia
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