Guardian by Shannon Mayer Read Free Book Online Page A

her body hunched against the cold. Fucking hell, why hadn’t she gone after Peter? Why hadn’t she demanded to go after those who had killed her child?
    I made a beeline for her, not caring when I got in the way of those who were packing. “Elena.” I called to her softly as I drew close, but she didn’t lift her head, her hands remained clutched to her chest. She just sat there, unmoving.
    Some part of my brain tried to tell me what I was seeing. That I didn’t want to get any closer. But I couldn’t listen to that part; I had to know. I crouched beside her and brushed a hand against her ice-cold cheek. I touched her hands and they slid off the hilt of a dagger.
    “What the fuck is going on here?” The words slipped out of me and for the first time, a wolf other than Peter or Elena answered me in English.
    “They are afraid to become the monsters they once were. So they run away. And when they can’t run, they end it themselves.”
    In my squat, I turned on my heel to stare up into the eyes of a very old woman. She had silvery white hair braided up into a crown on her head and light green eyes full of intelligence. And anger, lots and lots of anger.
    “They can’t control themselves?”
    The old woman, I scrambled to remember her name, crouched beside me. “They can. But at one point, they couldn’t. So now they believe Peter when he tells them they should not fight. That it will bring back the monster in them all and doom them to always walk in darkness.”
    I snorted. “That’s bullshit … Gizla.” Ha, I knew I could pull that out.
    She tipped her head to one side. “Yes, it is. But they have made a vow to not fight, to never fight again.”
    “Tell me you didn’t do that.”
    Gizla shrugged and gave a half-smile. “To be a part of this pack, you must vow no violence, only empathy and kindness. Do you not see how few men are here?”
    I put distance between myself and Elena’s body, then slid to my butt on the hard, cold rocks. “I just assumed they were always out hunting. Doing other stuff.”
    “Thirty-seven pack members, only seven are men. Six now, after this last fight.”
    “That wasn’t a fight,” I snapped.
    Again, she shrugged. “You call it what you want. Men do not like this pack. They are made to fight, made to keep packs safe. And here, Peter hamstrings them for his belief that peace will come.”
    I waved a hand at Elena’s body. “At the cost of what? Do you not know how many will die? Because I do.” Her green eyes flicked to mine and I stared her down, knowing the colors in my eyes would be swirling with my emotions.
    Liam stepped between us and said what I had been about to. “All of them. They will all die.”
    Gizla stood slowly, her eyes never leaving mine. “You are strong, and your mate is stronger yet. The two of you, you are what we need. Find us a way to be safe, Rylee. We cannot go back on our vows. Not, and stay within this pack.”
    Around us, the packing had ceased and even Peter had stopped what he was doing to watch and listen to my conversation with the old lady.
    Liam held his hand out to me and helped me to my feet. I brushed off my pants. “Just how the hell are we supposed to keep them all safe?”
    “I guess we’re going to have to find out.”
    “You think this is a part of your training?”
    He looked past me to Peter, who was still watching us. “No, I don’t. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good thing. These hunters, they have to be stopped.”
    On that I agreed; there would be no way either of us could walk away from this pack knowing we were essentially leaving them to die. To be wiped out.
    So much for a vacation.

Chapter Six
    We went with the pack for the first day after the attack. I easily Tracked Dimitri, and as much as I wanted to call Blaz and have him blast the shit out of the hunters, I knew that wasn’t right. We needed to make sure we stopped them all, and the only way to do that would be to go into their fortress, or