Page 20 of Caught By Her Guardian
“That’s good news,” Santa said.“But it’s also distressing.He used dark magic to coerce a good magic user to open the Portal so they could get inside Northernmost.He’s getting more clever, more destructive.”
“What more can we do than hasn’t already been done?”Declan asked.“We increased patrols and added extra magic to the perimeter, and now we’ve closed the Portal.”
“Last year, Frost’s old second-in-command, Valeth, tried to attack from outside the magical perimeter,” Winter said.“What if we station some of our security team outside during the toy run?”
“Frost doesn’t usually repeat himself when it comes to his tricks,” Santa said, “but it’s not a bad idea.We could also utilize the Guardians in their shifts outside the perimeter.The evil followers would be no match for any of you.”
Pixie sat back in the chair and listened as everyone discussed changing the patrol schedule and keeping Santa and the Well safe.She didn’t really have anything to add since she wasn’t part of the security team and while she could handle herself if she needed to, and she’d proven that by swooping in and helping out during the battle, she wasn’t keen to fight all the time.
And Frost was scary.
He wanted control of the Well at any cost.
He had no moral compass, he was like a shark with one objective and only one natural predator: his brother.If it weren’t for Santa, Frost would have turned the Well to darkness ages ago.
When the meeting was over, she and Hunter headed to the apartment.
“Well,” he said, “how was that for a first date?”
She laughed.“You know, up until the battle, it was spectacular, and then it turned out to be really epically memorable.What did you think?”
“Well, I’m really thankful you saved my life, even though I’m pretty sure I asked you to stay on the roof where it was safe.”He opened the door to the apartment and smirked.
“I’ve tangled with some crazy scenarios as a tooth fairy, but I’ve never had to fight to save someone before.”
He shut the door and stared down at her for a moment, and then he rested his hands on her waist and squeezed gently.“I would do anything to keep you safe, Pixie.It bugs the hell out of my beast that I can’t be with you when you’re collecting teeth, but I know you’ve got your shadow magic, and you can keep yourself safe.”
“I worry about you too.”
“We’ve only got a couple days before Frost will lose his opportunity.December is the worst month for magical people.”
“It turned out to be a pretty dang good month for me though,” she said, going onto her toes.
He lowered his head and kissed her, his bear rumbling in his chest.
As the kiss deepened and things got decidedly hotter between them, she knew she was falling for him.And why wouldn’t she?He wasn’t just sexy and protective and sweet, he was her truemate.
The one guy on the planet for her.
The Northern Lights danced across the sky in a dazzling display highlighted by the stars and the midnight blue sky over Northernmost.Santa’s sleigh stood gleaming beside the barn, the reindeer stamping their hooves in anticipation of the flight.Elves loaded the last gifts into the sleigh, the large sack shimmering with the magic that allowed it to hold so much but appeared nearly empty.
“Have you ever seen inside the gift sack?”Pixie asked as she stood next to Hunter, watching the flurry of activity around the sleigh.
All the Guardians and every single security team member, except for the ones monitoring from inside the security office, as well as many elves, watched the activity.
Hunter never really got tired of it because he knew that Santa would be moving around the world and delivering toys to deserving children, and how cool was that to be a part of?
“Once, when I first got here,” he said.
One of the elves looked up.“You can come peek.”
“For real?”Pixie let out an excited gasp.
Hunter walked her over to the sleigh and helped her so she could climb up and look inside.“That’s so freaking cool!”Pixie said.“You can see the toys, but the bag looks empty from the outside.”
She turned and hopped down into Hunter’s arms.
“Magic,” he said.“It’s pretty damn cool.”
