My Guardian

Declan eyed Gavriel up and down. "What'd you look like before?"

Gavriel thought for a moment. "About Adriel's size, though leaner. After my transition, none of my clothes fit. Some of my original tailors are not even alive anymore. It has been a struggle to find quality garments."

"I will add you to the list," Sebastian offered.

The relief on Gavriel's face was almost comical. "I was going to ask later in private. Beth has sung your praises for months."

Sebastian looked down at Bethy with a look of adoration on his face. "Just for that you get extra dessert."

Bethy clapped her hands together excitedly. "I can't wait!"

Magnus chuckled. "As if you would not give her as many seconds as she wanted anyway. You have always spoiled her rotten."

Caspian, Broderick, Sebastian, and Adriel turned as one to stare at Magnus. Adriel spoke first. "Sire, I believe the saying is, pot meet kettle."

Caspian laughed. "Well said."

Magnus looked offended. "I am her uncle, it is my gods given right to spoil my niece."

"Because she is beautiful, like you," Caspian teased. Magnus nodded.

"Because she's a genius, like you," Broderick continued wryly. Magnus nodded again.

"Because she was the most adorable thing you had ever seen, and she stole your heart and wits the second you laid eyes on her," Adriel concluded.

Magnus looked at his brothers and the warriors around the table. "As if she did not toddle around the Unit Level and collect your hearts when she was a baby."

Adriel, Declan, Etain, Grant, and Micah all grinned. Adriel admitted to himself wryly that Magnus was right.

"She was all white blonde hair and huge blue eyes," Declan recalled, smiling.

Etain winked at Bethy who was blushing furiously. "She was so tiny I couldn't believe anything that small could be real. The first time I saw her fall and break her arm, I wanted to destroy the innocent item that broke it."

Micah laughed. "It was the floor."

Etain nodded. "Exactly. I remembered at the last moment that we needed the floor."

Grant rubbed a hand over his mouth, smiling. "I did not think she knew how to walk. Tarak or Kuruk carried her everywhere."

Tarak shrugged. "It was easier on our nerves."

Magnus took another sip of wine. "After the meeting today, I had my secretary send out the area-wide paranormal newsletter. A small town in Texas contacted me. They were already in the process of packing up when they heard we were opening the city. They have arrived in Albuquerque and are staying the night at our estate there. They should be arriving tomorrow morning."

"Maybe there will be some little ones coming to stay with us from that group," Caspian suggested.

"Hmmm, cowboys," Meryn said dreamily.

Aiden growled at her before lifting her hand up to his lips for a kiss.

Meryn shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, y'all in your spiffy uniforms are great, but there's something about a man in a tight pair of jeans and cowboy boots." She turned to Bethy. "Do you think they'll be in cowboy boots?"

Bethy grinned. "We can live in hope."

Gavriel leaned down and nipped her neck, causing her to giggle.

Meryn tapped her lips with her finger. "We'll need a new ranking system."

Aiden shook his head. "Meryn," he growled her name.

Meryn ignored her mate. "I'll have to take pictures and add them to my database so my minion and Anne can vote. Hot damn! Cowboys! Wait until I tell Amelia, I bet she'll want to vote then."

Caspian winked at his mate. "Count me in."

Broderick kissed Caspian's neck. "You can look, but don't touch."

Caspian blew air kisses to his mate. "Of course, darlin'," he said in a perfect Texas drawl.

One human woman.

Adriel was beginning to think that six units would not be enough to handle both her and Bethy's notoriously bad luck.

*****

The next morning

Eva Mae Miller ambled next to Josie McLauren as they made their way to the edge of the canyon where the entrance to Noctem Falls was hidden within the very rock. The two of them were the stragglers of the large wolf pack that was walking from the temporary fae portal toward the city. The pack had chosen to stay at the Noctem Falls estate instead of going through at night. It was now early morning, and from the growls around her, most of the pack hadn't had a chance to grab coffee.

The fae that had opened the portal had taken one look at their group and decided a temporary portal a couple miles from the city was safer than using the traditional one so close to the edge. It meant they had to walk, but this way, no one was accidentally falling over.

"I'm so sorry you have to walk with me Eva," the young pregnant woman huffed.

Eva wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Don't you worry about me one bit. In fact, I like this slower pace, it's really relaxing."

Josie ducked her face, smiling. "And you get to avoid Stefan back here."

Eva heaved an exasperated sigh. "That's a perk, too." Stefan Bolivar was the current pack Alpha, her best friend, and pain in her ass all in one.

After losing her family to human hunters in eastern Russia, she'd decided to leave the country. She was intrigued by the stories she heard about the Wild West in America, and before she knew it, she had paid for passage and begun her journey west.

Stefan had only been one hundred and fifty years old in eighteen-fifty, when she finally ended up in Wolftown, Texas, a small town run by a pack of Mexican Gray wolves. When she approached the pack alphas, Demetrio and Adora Bolivar, she had been warmly welcomed despite being a tiger.