The Old Guard Novels & Stories

“Even if we were nobodies, they would just have to deal with it.” How could I forget I was speaking to Mr. Big Ego? An hour later we pulled up to this huge estate on the edge of pack territory. Definitely looked like the place old people would stay. "This is the old royal guard's headquarters," Dad explained as we got out of the car. "They've maintained it since my father's time." The front doors opened before we even got there, and this older guy stepped out. He had gray hair but moved like someone way younger, and his eyes went straight to Dad.

So began my reign. “That’s terrible,” Alpha Ledger said softly, pulling me from the memory. “Who are the old timers?” “They are a group of wolves in my pack,” I said. “I call them the old timers because they’re the stereotypical old school macho bullies. The ringleaders are older wolves. They think things should be a certain way. Most of my pack members are good people, but the old timers are power hungry.” “Old timers,” Alpha Ledger said thoughtfully. I could tell things were clicking for him. I wanted him to read between the lines so I wouldn’t have to say it out loud. Why I couldn’t be with him.

She was about to voice her decline when someone interrupted her. "No." A frigid, deep voice cut through the silence as the door swung open, ushering in a wave of frostiness. Walter stood there, tall and foreboding, his face a stormy shadow. His words were icy, each cutting deep, "The old guard of the board would never let the Gordon family's legacy fall into the hands of an outsider." Walter's piercing gaze fixed on Evangeline, his words sharp as needles, "Thought you couldn't squeeze a dime out of me? So you went after Grandpa?"

"Now you are thinking like an Arden." "Many of the old guards are here at the summit," I noted, my mind racing through the faces I had seen in the courtyard. "Caomh brought his elite vanguard to project strength. The men who guarded the armory five years ago are likely sleeping in the guest wing right now."

“May the Old Wolf guide your hand, because our patience has run dry." Without another word, the seven elders turned together, their dark gray robes sweeping against the stone floor as they marched out of the great hall, leaving the massive iron doors to creak shut behind them.

" Sterling's mind raced. The Old Guard. The ancient wolves who had refused the Council's corruption. They had been hiding for a thousand years. And they'd taken her. Thorne stepped forward. "Alpha, if the Old Guard has her, they'll protect her. Train her. Turn her into—" "A weapon," Sterling finished. "Against us." Thorne's face went pale. "What do we do?" Sterling turned to the oldest wolf in the room—a hunched figure in grey robes who hadn't spoken in years. The pack's historian. The keeper of forgotten things. "The Old Guard," Sterling said. "How do we reach them?" The old wolf's eyes gleamed.

The tires groaned as they hit a patch of black ice, but the weight of the armor kept us pinned to the pavement. "They didn't guess," Enzo said, his eyes flicking to the rearview mirror. "They’ve been planning the 'Audit' for six months. Silas wasn't the only one they turned. They’ve been buying off the 'Old Guard'—the men who served my father. Men who remember the smell of that book. They want to return to the days of cash in envelopes and blood on the sidewalk. They think my way—your way—is too clean. Too fragile."

The Council’s army stood at our border. Hundreds of wolves. All shifted. All waiting. And at the front, seven figures in human form. Ancient. Powerful. Radiating authority that made even my cursed form want to submit. The Old Blood Council. Finally showing themselves. I stood at the gate with my pack behind me. Kade was at my right. Sera is at my left. The thirty Shadowguards formed a line between the enemy and us. Silent. Deadly. Ready.