Guardian by Shannon Mayer Read Free Book Online

shooing motion at him. “Go. I will not allow them to harm you anymore.”
    “Aren’t you going to give him food and water for his journey? Turn the other cheek and all that shit?” I batted my eyelashes at Peter, saw again that spill of gold through the brown of his eyes. Yeah, I had a knack for pissing off those who could kill me.
    Let’s call it a talent. One I employed with relish.
    Without another word, Peter strode away from us, pushing Dimitri ahead of him. Twenty feet away from us, they stopped, or at least, Peter pulled Dimitri to a stop. I couldn’t hear them, but I doubted they were speaking English anyway. Not that it mattered; I didn’t need to know what they were talking about.
    Liam wrapped his arms around my waist and tugged my back tight to his chest. Dropping his head, he placed a kiss just below my earlobe. A shiver ran the length of my body and my hands found his, lacing our fingers together.
    “You Tracking him?” Liam asked, his voice not even a whisper, it was so quiet.
    “You bet.”
    “Smart lady.”
    The threads Dimitri gave off were complex, like all adults. Hatred for the werewolves—and me, no doubt—relief, fear, and a healthy dose of confusion. As he and Peter wrapped up whatever they had to say in their heated tones, Dimitri glanced back at me.
    I smiled and wiggled my fingers at him, calling out, “See you later.”
    Peter whipped around and glared at me. “You will not.”
    Oh, Peter didn’t know me that well. Not that it mattered. Dimitri ran off, and I held onto his threads tightly so I wouldn’t lose Track of him, not even for a moment.
    Without saying anything else to me or Liam, Peter headed back to his people. I hoped that Elena gave him hell, hoped she tore him a new asshole. Or two.
    “Who’s Elena?” Liam asked as we slowly followed Peter’s footsteps.
    I let out a breath and leaned deeper into his arms, letting him take my weight. “Sorry, didn’t realize I was talking out loud. She’s the one whose daughter was killed.” Gods, the image of the little girl flopping in her mother’s arms, her eyes forever closed, pigtails dragging in the wind. I had to grit my teeth against the tears that threatened. Not tears of grief, but of pure, righteous anger. She should never have been killed; her mother should have fought for her.
    Should have at least tried.
    “He’s trained them all too well to be submissive.” Liam’s voice was thoughtful and I knew he was going through the ramifications as well as I was. A whole pack of werewolves just primed to be killed and wiped out by these hunters.
    Did they deserve it? No, but it would happen either way.
    Unless we stopped the hunters.
    “Killing them all won’t work.” Liam let go of me, the heat of his body gone. I touched the opal through my shirt. It would keep me warm until I took it off, but I still preferred Liam’s arms when it came to generating heat.
    “It will work.” I headed toward the river.
    “Temporarily. And then someone else will decide that Peter and his pack are easy targets and they will all be in danger again. There needs to be a more permanent solution.”
    “I’m all ears.”
    Except Liam didn’t have an answer. Neither did I. The first step was finding the hunters, something I could do now through Dimitri. He was heading northeast at a steady pace, and the speed with which he was moving meant he had either found a ride or was somehow using magic to move faster than his body should have allowed him.
    At the edge of the riverbank, Peter’s pack was putting their gear together, their bodies mostly healed from the attack now that they’d had a chance to rest. But they moved as if they were half dead, their spirits broken, their hearts aching for their lost loved ones. I sought out Elena with my eyes, found her at the back of the camp, sitting against the icy rock. Her head was down, long blonde hair in two braids just like her little girl’s had been. She looked like she was sleeping,