Page 21 of Found By Her Guardian

“Hi. How are you?”

He sighed. “As good as can be expected, considering my brother keeps dropping people into the vast space between his lair and Northernmost in what I can only assume is an attempt to see how our people respond.”

She looked past him to the picture window and the Well of Magic outside.

Something tickled in the back of her mind and it felt like a warning.

She moved closer to the window and saw the security team running away from the Well. As she watched, she could see them leave the safety of the magical perimeter.

And she just knew that Winter was among them.

Because he took his job very seriously.

Her heart pounded, her stomach bottoming out as worry for her mate filled her mind.

The phone on Santa’s desk buzzed. He pressed the speaker button and asked, “Yeah?”

“An elf was dropped outside the perimeter, the team’s bringing him in.”

“He’s alive?”

“It’s Baz.”

“What? No, he’s dead. He’s been gone for…months.”

True turned from the window. Her body went cold from the inside out, and a sharp pain lit up the side of her head. She winced and let out a gasp.

“Winter was taken,” the male on the other end of the line said.

“What?” she yelled.

“He got separated from the team when they found Baz. Frost threw up some kind of ice wall, and they couldn’t get to him.”

She took a step toward the door.

Santa grabbed her arm. “No,” he said.

“What? Let me go! I have to get him.”

“You can’t, it’s too dangerous. The team will regroup and I’ll help them get him out.”

“Regroup? He could be… oh gosh, what? You want me to wait? Let me go, damn it!”

His hand went hot and his eyes turned bright blue. “You will stay put, True. The Guardians are well trained. They will get your mate back.”

She could feel his warlock power pulsing at her, demanding she stay where she was, but she refused.

With every ounce of fury she could muster from her owl, she wrenched free of him and raced out of his office. She hit the outer offices and the hallway beyond while Santa bellowed for someone to stop her.

She opened the part of herself that was connected as mate to Winter, knowing that she’d be able to feel a pull to him, even faintly, and it would get her outside. She recognized the security office and knew a door leading outside was nearby. Toeing off her boots as a male behind her shouted for her to wait, she ran for the door, slamming her shoulder into it as her hands pressed the security bar. An alarm went off as she tumbled into the snowy walkway, but she popped up to her stocking feet and ran.

She shed her clothes along the way and called for her owl as soon as she was free of them. With a leap, she shifted and flapped her wings hard, taking to the sky and immediately hitting the storm whipping snow and sleet above the buildings. As her owl, she felt even more connected to Winter, and she soared in a circle, searching for his location through their bond until she found him.

In the darkness, beyond the safety of Northernmost.

Winter needed her, and she was one determined owl.

Calling loudly over the roar of the storm, she flew through the wind, using the currents to carry herself toward what she’d been told was Frost’s underground lair. She had nothing with her. No clothes to change into, no weapons or even a cell.