Page 28 of Caught By Her Guardian
“It’s over?”Solana asked.“At least for this holiday?”
“We’re safe for the foreseeable future,” Santa said, “but my brother isn’t finished.We won the battle, and we didn’t lose anyone, but the war is still coming.Every year he is more devious, more dangerous.”
“How did Azure even get into the sleigh?”Hunter asked after watching Pixie breathing deeply in sleep.
“He must have tracked me somehow,” Santa said.“I had no idea he was on the sleigh until Pixie pulled him out of it.I found a Frostfang knife on the floor of the sleigh.”
“What would that do?”Clover asked.
“Kill me.”
“Geez,” she said.
“He had to get inside the perimeter to kill me,” Santa said.“Because Emberlin and Mother Nature added their magic to the border, they couldn’t kill me outside of the perimeter since their magic would have kept it secure.I assume that Azure had something he was going to do to the Well to take down the magical barrier and let in my brother, but he had to get inside first.I found a cloak in the sleigh that allowed him to pass through the perimeter without being stopped by the magical protections.”
“Frost is getting smarter,” Sylas said, “and more dangerous.”
“Indeed,” Santa said.“He’ll come for me again, but I’m working on something to help me stop him for good.”
Hunter squeezed Pixie’s hand gently.
He could have lost her.He didn’t want to contemplate what his life would have been like if that had happened.What he would do was promise to keep her safe and protected and to take care of her the way a polar bear’s mate should be cared for.She was a fierce female, and he was damn lucky to have her in his life.
“We’ll be ready for him,” Hunter said.“Whatever his plans are.”
After Pixie woke up in the infirmary and made sure that Hunter was okay and they hadn’t lost anyone during the battle with Frost and his asshole followers, she was surprised to learn how her family had come to the aid of the Guardians and security team.They’d stayed until she woke up, and her entire family—siblings and mates included—had been instrumental in turning the tide of victory and driving Frost’s forces away.
The good news out of everything, aside from the fact that her wings were unfrozen and still worked, was that Azure, Frost’s number two, had died.That was a blow to his chain of command and a chink in his armor.
After getting dressed and eating lunch in the dining hall with Hunter, her family, all the Guardians and the mates of those who had them, they said goodbye to her family and made plans to head to Pennsylvania to spend Christmas Day with his family.While the Guardians got a week off from their duties at the North Pole to be with their families, she still had to work each night because kids didn’t take breaks from losing teeth and believing in the tooth fairy.
“So you’ve never had a vacation?”Hunter asked as he stuffed clothes into a backpack.
“Um, well, yeah, I have.There are fairies who can fill in when needed.Like, for example, if you and I were to go on a special sort of vacation, someone would cover for me while we were gone.”
He gave her a long, quiet look and then smiled.“The kind of special vacation where you might have some brand new jewelry and we might want to get away from everything for a bit?”
She nodded.
“Ah,” he said.“I’d say that it’s similar for the Guardians, too, because while there are security team members who can fill in, the only real, long vacation we get is right after Christmas.”
“It makes sense,” she said.She finished filling up her bag and zipped it closed.“It’s safest in Northernmost right after Christmas.Has Frost ever attacked during the year?”
“Sure,” he said.“He always seems to be testing the boundaries, looking for magical people to abduct.He doesn’t attack as frequently as he does in December, though.There’s always a ramp-up of his attacks heading into the holidays, but he does seem to enjoy messing with Northernmost and his brother unexpectedly.”
She shook her head.“I wish he wasn’t evil.My dad said that as far as he knows, he’s the first Jack Frost to turn evil.No others before him ever turned to dark magic and tried to take over.”
It must be hard for Santa to know that his brother was so twisted with dark magic that he wanted him dead and to turn everyone with magic to darkness too.Her siblings drove her nuts at times, but she couldn’t imagine hating them so much as to want to see them harmed.
“It’s rough,” he said.“They’ve both lost people they care about, but Santa’s determined to stop his brother.”
“Then there would be no Jack Frost though.What would happen to the balance in nature?”
“I’m not sure, but I know that Santa has a plan for every situation that might arise.”
She let that roll around in her head for a bit, but her attention quickly turned to her sexy mate.He was so precious to her.He not only rocked her world every time they tumbled into bed, but he was so protective.He’d saved her life and fought hard to get her to safety.
And he was pretty damn easy on the eyes too.
