Guardian by Shannon Mayer Read Free Book Online Page B

stronghold, or fucking condo unit where they were staying and take them out one by one.
    Peter led us to a thick part of the forest that looked as though humans hadn’t come through in about a thousand years. The trees were huge and the undergrowth was a fucking nightmare to push through. Then, of course, was the attempt at hiding our back trail. I watched the women brush tree branches through the snow and tug the undergrowth back into place. But they didn’t notice the tiny pieces of cloth caught on twigs, nor the bits of people’s lives they dropped that fell into the snow.
    With a sigh, I went along behind with Liam, cleaning up after the pack’s miserable attempt at a cleanup.
    “What a fucking gong show this is.” I bent to grab a thin white ribbon that had fallen out of someone’s hair.
    “No wonder the hunters find them so easily.” He took the ribbon from me and shook his head. “They leave a trail as wide as a highway and as easily found.”
    Within the undergrowth, the pack made camp. Like refugees from a war, they hunkered down wherever they could, some of them shifting into wolf form to sleep in the snow.
    Peter found us at the edge of the ‘camp’ near where the undergrowth thickened again. “I am sorry this has happened, that you have had to see such horrors.” He was genuine and I knew whatever grievance he had against me for tormenting Dimitri had been forgiven. He was just that kind of guy. “Liam, there are still things you need to learn. Are you willing to do so?”
    Liam nodded. “Of course. But not until this hunter situation is cleared up. I won’t put Rylee at risk.”
    My eyebrows shot up. Since when was I at risk from a bunch of half-assed magic users I could take out with my bare hands?
    Yet, Peter nodded gravely. “Of course, you would not want her to be hurt. I understand. But we cannot condone violence within our pack boundaries.”
    I couldn’t hold back the laugh. “Oh, so the violence that the hunters bring you is acceptable, but Liam and I protecting you is not?”
    Peter’s eyes were sad. “Many of those here cannot control themselves. That is why they ran from the other packs they were a part of. There is no other pack like this in the world. One that centers around peace and harmony.”
    Gods, he was so fucking blind. Peace and harmony did not include regular raids where your people were blown to bits and pieces in front of you.
    Liam, though, didn’t seem perturbed by this. “Then we will go and come back.”
    “Where will you go?” Peter frowned. “In all of Russia, how will you find the hunters? They hide their scent with magic.”
    Ahh. So the pack had people who went after the hunters at one point. Maybe Elena had been one of them. I wanted to believe that, wanted to believe a mother would fight for her children. A distant pang in my heart reminded me that my own mother had given up on me, but I pushed that thought away. Or tried to. No need to rehash old wounds, certainly not right at that moment. I touched Liam’s arm and we started toward the northeast, where I sensed Dimitri. He wasn’t really all that far, maybe a hundred miles.
    “Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine,” Liam said with the confidence I knew he’d earned. He was right. A few supposed badass hunters were nothing compared to the monsters we’d faced down together.
    Peter let out a heavy breath. “I do not wish ill on anyone, but if you can stop them from hunting us ….” I suspected he trailed off to avoid telling us to wipe the hunters out. That would go against his whole peacekeeping shit.
    Without another word, Peter walked away, going to each member of his pack and speaking softly to them before moving onto the next.
    We watched for a moment, silence stretching between us.
    “If we sleep for a bit, I think we could make it to them by tomorrow night.” I stared at the canopy above us. “Faster if Blaz were here.”
    “You going to call him? It wouldn’t be a bad idea to